Faith in Jesus

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

FAITH IN JESUS

1 Cor 15:12-19

12 But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15 More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.  

NIV

There it is, we could not and will never be able to say it any better than Paul just did. There is absolutely no hope whatsoever if Christ was not resurrected. This life is meaningless unless there is eternal life to follow. What purpose does this life have if it was all there is? Why even bother to live at all, if when we die, we are lost forever? It is interesting the Greek word that is translated as lost here is the same word used for perishing, which means to be fully destroyed. If there is no resurrection then God has lied, and Paul has given false witness and we should throw all else that he has written out, cut it right out of the canon, and forget it completely. But that is not the case, for we have other eyewitnesses to the fact the God raised Jesus from the dead, He was resurrected and appeared to his disciples more than once, even cooked breakfast on the shore for them. Dead men cannot do that. Therefore, our faith is not useless. Our faith is real and founded on the truth of the gospel, that God sent His Son to earth, that Jesus was born of a virgin and lived and died on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins, as he paid the price we should have, death. He took our place and became the once and for all sacrifice for sin. He was buried and on the third day, he rose from the dead and appeared to many. Our faith is true and we can live with hope, which again, is not hoping as in wishing it is true, but hope as in having the confident expectation of what will happen to us when this body of ours finally fails us and it succumbs to death. That is not the end, we will not be lost, we will not perish or be fully destroyed, as we will be resurrected as Jesus was. He will come for us and take us to be where He is so that we may be there in that place He has prepared for us. What a grand place that will be, and what a wonderful time that will be when our Jesus we will see. When we see Him face to face, in all His glory and grace, what a wonderful day that will be. There is no faith worth anything unless it is faith in Christ Jesus However, faith in Jesus is everything.