EVERYTHING CHANGED

APRIL 4, 2010
RESURRECTION OF THE LORD
1 CORINTHIANS 15:19-28

Focus: Upon the Resurrection of Jesus Christ rests the totality of Christian faith.

Introductory Comments

Easter is, in many ways, a double-party. After all, we actually celebrate the reality of the
resurrection each and every Lord’s Day, Sunday. We don’t have church on Saturday, or Friday,
or Tuesday, or any other day. We have church on Sunday because that was the day of the
resurrection, when Christ was raised bodily from the grave.

But on Easter Sunday we place a special emphasis on the resurrection, because the entirety of
Christian faith rests on the bedrock truth of the resurrection. In the resurrection of Jesus, all that
the scriptures promised were fulfilled. The resurrection is God’s vindication of the costly
sacrifice of Jesus Christ His Son on the cross. Without the resurrection, Jesus’ death on the cross
means nothing, and if Jesus simply died and wasted away, then we remain in our sin.

Why does Paul write this way about the resurrection to the Corinthians? He is writing to counter
some early heresies in the church. Based on his writings here, and from what we know from 2
Timothy, Paul is addressing what was then the common Greco-Roman cultural view of what
happens when someone dies, as well as the false claims by certain individuals that the general
resurrection had already occurred. The common view of the time Paul wrote this was that
resurrection was a ridiculous idea. The common view was that death totally extinguished
physical, bodily life, and that if there was any afterlife at all, it would consist of a frail, weak,
disembodied, wandering being. The idea that someone could be totally dead, and then totally
alive again, was considered a pathetic, backwater view by the educated class at that time, just as
it is considered ridiculous in many precincts in contemporary culture, including some corners
even in the contemporary church.

Exposition

And Paul confronts this ancient/modern error in the verses that immediately precedes today’s
reading, 1 Corinthians 15:12-18:

[12] Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that
there is no resurrection of the dead? [13] But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then
not even Christ has been raised. [14] And if Christ has not been raised, then our
preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. [15] We are even found to be
misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did
not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. [16] For if the dead are not raised, not
even Christ has been raised. [17] And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and
you are still in your sins. [18] Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have
perished.

Copyright © 2010 by Christopher Donald Drew

The basic gist of this part of Paul’s letter is this: If Christ has not risen from the dead, then
nothing has changed. This is the worst possible news, because it means that we are still subject
to God’s justified wrath for our detestable sin. Moreover, if the resurrection of Christ hasn’t
happened, it means we’ve borne false witness against God, thereby slandering God’s reputation
and character; that is, His glory. The slander of God’s reputation is not small matter. It’s huge.

Again, alluding to this false belief in a disembodied afterlife, Paul writes:

[19] If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Because the resurrection is bodily, then the hope for eternal life rests on what happened with
Christ’s bodily resurrection. If there isn’t a bodily resurrection, then there is no eternal life.
Nothing has changed. Death still has its sting, and we are a bitter people, subjects of tremendous
pity for having believed in Jesus. We’ve been had.

But then Paul rounds the bend.

[20] But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have
fallen asleep.

This is the best news in the universe, because it means that God has kept his promise to redeem
us from our sin and the entire creation from its present futility. This is the assurance that our
faith is not futile. It is rooted in the historical fact of Jesus’ resurrection.

Paul is able to say this if fact because, at the time he wrote this letter, he was able to testify in 1
Corinthians 15:6-8 that (1) appeared to Cephas (Peter) and the twelve, (2) that he had appeared
to over 500 brothers at one time, many of whom were still alive, (3) that he appeared to James,
the brother of Jesus, and (4) that he himself had a personal encounter with the Risen Lord.
Remember, this was a public letter, intended for public reading to the people of Corinth. Paul
would not have challenged them to test the veracity of his claim unless he knew that the claim
was verifiable, in this case verifiable by a large number of witnesses. Therefore, he speaks of the
risen Christ as fact.

He speaks of Christ as the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. At the harvest, the
firstfruits were a consecration of the production of the entire year. “It was the first sample of an
agricultural crop that indicates the nature and quality of the rest of the crop.”1 If Christ is the
firstfruits of the resurrection, that means all those who have died in the Lord are similarly
consecrated to the Lord, and will share the same characteristics of the Risen Lord when they also
are resurrected from the dead.

How often do you think of yourselves in this way? As a people who will be resurrected as He
was, meaning that you would have a body not dissimilar from the Risen Christ? Does this not
mean that you must be a new creation? If so, then what are you going to do?

1
ESV Study Bible. Note on 1 Corinthians 15:20.

Copyright © 2010 by Christopher Donald Drew

Paul then demonstrates how the resurrection will shape the future of the creation.

Verses 21-22

[21] For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.
[22] For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

Christ is the new Adam, the new humanity under whose authority the creation will be governed.
Before the fall, mankind acted as God’s vicegerent over all creation. Humanity was disqualified
from this responsibility when Adam rebelled. But in Christ, this authority is restored. Before the
fall there was no death. With the fall, death infected everything. In Christ, what happened with
death? Paul will address this in just a few verses.

Paul then reveals how what we have witnessed as the firstfruits, Christ’s resurrection of the dead,
will play out to the end of what we presently know as history.

Verses 23-25

[23] But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong
to Christ. [24] Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after
destroying every rule and every authority and power. [25] For he must reign until he has
put all his enemies under his feet. [26] The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

Christ has been raised first, he is the firstfruits of the new creation. Then, we he comes again in
glory to judge the living and the dead, those who are dead will be raised up in Christ.

The trials and travails and uncertainties of life will finally be set in order at the end, when Christ
will deliver the redeemed kingdom to the Father. This will happen after every rule and authority
and power has been destroyed. Every human, worldly institution that would separate us from
God’s loving reign will be dismantled. About this, Calvin writes (and I love this):

The world will have an end, so also will government, and magistracy, and laws, and
distinction of ranks, and different orders of dignities, and everything of that nature. There
will be no more distinction between servant and master, between king and peasant,
between magistrate and private citizen … bishops, teachers, and prophets will cease to
hold these distinctions, and will resign the office which they now discharge.”2

Yes, even your preacher will be pinkslipped!

And then there’s that last enemy. Death. For those here today, death is still a disturbing reality.
There is, in our experience a death, a tacit understanding that it is somehow unnatural. And in
this text, we get affirmation that it is indeed an unnatural separation of the body and the soul.
And we also have assurance that in Christ death is not the last chapter of our existence. This is
the reality of the good news, that in Jesus death really has lost it’s sting. It’s been pulled right
out of us by the glorious excellencies of Christ. The seed of incorruptible life is already living

2
Calvin, John. Commentary on 1 Corinthians.

Copyright © 2010 by Christopher Donald Drew

within as a result of your baptisms by water and the spirit. You have been born again into a new
creature with an eternal destiny, one that not even death can defeat, thanks be to our Lord Jesus
Christ! And when all have been raised up with Christ, death itself will be no more. No one will
die any longer. And those who are raised up will live forever, either with Jesus the king, or
mired in the hell of final separation from Jesus for those who refuse to accept him. When death
has been thus destroyed, then all will have finally been subjected to the rule and authority of
Jesus. Then what happens? Paul writes:

Verses 27-28

[27] For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all
things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection
under him. [28] When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be
subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.

Before dominion over the world is handed over to the Father, it must first be brought under the
total authority of the Son. And after that happens, the Son’s work is successfully completed, and
everything under his rule and authority is once and for all brought under the subjection of the
Triune God, such that it will never be threatened again by evil or sin.

Doctrine

Because the resurrection is true and Christ reigns and is now bringing all authorities under his
rule, how shall we live? What are the implications for us, given the certainty of what is to come?
How do we live as resurrection people, as those whose eternal destiny is worship and praise and
joy and peace? How does the reality of the resurrection and future glory of the people of God
intrude on our lives now?

First, because of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, we live as a people with a deep,
abiding, steadfast hope. We know what is coming, and what is coming is His glory, and for
those in Christ Jesus His glorification in us. It is a certain hope of knowing that our frail bodies,
bodies that are still subject to corruption, will be raised up in an unimaginable glory, shining like
the sun, as Jesus says in Matthew 13. It is the hope of knowing that loved ones aren’t destined to
be dust and ashes forever, but newly created, eternal begins in Jesus Christ. This is therefore a
hope that has the power to transcend any worldly difficulties, pains, even death, because death is
no longer the last word for those in Christ.

Second, because of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, which gives us this deep hope, we
live as a people filled with joy. How can sadness and grief have a final say for us when our
destiny is to be in glorious, full, no-hold-barred relationship with the Father who created us? The
“alleluias” of the worship liturgy are restored on Easter Sunday because of the reality of our joy
in God.

The strife is o’er, the battle done, the victory of life is won; the song of triumph has
begun. Alleluia!

Copyright © 2010 by Christopher Donald Drew

Third, because of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, we live as a people whose lives have
actual meaning in Jesus Christ. Because of the firstfruits resurrection of Jesus is the sure
promise of our own resurrection, that means our future resurrection life will bear fruit in the
present. We are not a people who are drifting along the tides of the time, running from one thing
the next in futility. Instead, our lives are shaped by the fact that we are reborn, eternally wrought
beings who are empowered to bear fruit now into the world. As J.R. Daniel Kirk writes, “Jesus’
resurrection leads Paul to use turns of phrase such as ‘walk in newness of life,’ and ‘present
yourselves to God as those alive from the dead.’” The present lives of those in Christ already
bear the signs of the future hope we have in Christ Jesus.

Fourth, because of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, we live as a people whose lives are
characterized by deep gratitude. The law says to us, “You constantly fall short of God’s
standard of holiness and are convicted and judged as wanting due to the condition of sin in which
you live.” The gospel says, “Nevertheless, God, out of his love for you, despite your
unworthiness, has claimed you as his own and made you joint heirs with his Son.” If we have
been saved from ourselves and it’s not our own doing, then, once we recognize this and come to
Jesus by faith alone in this grace, we will necessarily live in deep humility and gratitude, and that
will be seen by others who have not yet heard or accepted the gospel.

Fifth, because of the resurrection of Jesus, we live as a people who will never look at others the
same way again. The hope of the resurrection means that every person we encounter is a being
who will live forever. Everyone ever born is destined for one of two final destinations. One is to
live forever in the most deeply satisfying and joy-filled relationship possible with God. The
other is to, until the end, live in resistance and reject the Living God, thereby meriting eternal
separation from God, a situation and a place we call hell. How do we treat others, then, who
share the same eternal attributes? Can we write them off? What if they have nothing to eat, or
drink? What if they are still deeply mired in sin? Do we let them drown? Or do we proclaim to
them Jesus Christ and Him crucified and risen, in Word and Sacrament, and in deeds of true love
made possible by the power of the Holy Spirit? For those who are in Christ, it’s not longer
possible to play games of judgment when the stakes have eternal ramifications.

That’s the centrality of the gospel of the life, death, and resurrection of the Son of God, Jesus
Christ, our Lord and Savior. That’s how the resurrection intrudes upon your life now, both for
those who are already in Christ and those who have not yet decided. The resurrection is
everything.

Now to the One who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly that all we
can ask or imagine, to God be the glory in the church, and in Christ Jesus to all generations,
forever and ever. Alleluia! Amen!

Copyright © 2010 by Christopher Donald Drew