Life and More Life

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

LIFE AND MORE LIFE

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

Here is the central theme of our faith, Jesus Christ resurrected. Of course, it was on the cross that he paid the price for our sins, and it is by His shed blood we have been cleansed, for there is no remission of sin without the shed blood of Jesus. But then if that is all there is, what is the purpose of our faith in Jesus? This is the point that Paul is making here. If Christ was not resurrected then our faith is in vain, for we would only have this life and only this life with death being the complete end, with the fact that we would have never ever known that we had lived. Nothing after this life is simply nothing, the end of everything and that would be an extremely futile way to live. It is interesting that if people who are not born-again believers in Christ or confess Jesus as their Lord and Savior are asked what happens when they die, they will say they go to heaven. It appears no one wants to come to terms with living but one life. Although, we do remember a slogan years ago by some brewing company that was, “You only go through life once, so grab all the gusto you can”, in order words why worry about death, just drink and be merry, this is the only life you are ever going to have. However, any of that kind of life is useless, for death comes to us all and it there is no resurrected then we are stuck in that box forever. But praise God from whom all blessings flow, including the blessing of the resurrection. God did raise Jesus from the dead, and so we too will be raised from the dead. We say that is our hope, and hope is the expectation of what is to come. Hope is not in something that does not exist as that would be like wishing for time to reverse, and we could go back to our youth and life all over again. Our hope is in the resurrection which is a fact and it will happen, so we live this life to the fullest, giving all the praise and honor to God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, knowing that there is more to come, in fact, all of eternity to come, as we are resurrected to live forever in the presence of our Lord and our  Savior Jesus Christ. Therefore, our faith is not to be pitied more than all men. The fact is that if someone does not believe in the resurrection they are to be pitied. If someone does not believe in Jesus Christ, crucified, buried, resurrected, and ascended back to heaven, they are to be pitied by all men for their fate is unspeakable. Our faith is real and true because Jesus is real and true, and our lives are blessed beyond measure. We have this life, and more life to come.