In a few short weeks Easter will arrive. It is my favorite Sunday of the year. The reason I love it is because it is the day we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus from the grave. That historical fact is the one thing that separates Christianity from all other religions. No other founder of any other religion has ever died and then rose from the dead. But ours did! Two thousand years later the empty tomb still speaks volumes.

But what if the resurrection didn’t happen? The Apostle Paul addressed this thought in I Corinthians 15. Stop reading right now and grab your Bible. Look at I Corinthians 15:12-19. Take a highlighter or a pen and mark the times the word “if” is used in those few verses. There are at least four things Paul says that are truths if Christ didn’t resurrect. Let’s look at those.

  1. 1. Preaching is Useless (v. 15:14). “And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.” What do I mean by useless? The word vain means several things. It means the preaching and our faith amounts to nothing, it is devoid of truth, empty, imaginary, and unfounded. That’s the way that the Amplified describes it. When I read of a minister that rejects the resurrection, my first thought is “What does he have to preach?” The whole Christian faith rests on this great truth and without it you have nothing. It is hard for me to fathom Christians who remain in a church where the resurrection is denied and mocked. It is my humble opinion that if you are clergy and deny this wonderful doctrine, you ought to be honest with the church by telling them the only reason you are there is the paycheck. The work these types of ministers do is useless. But remember this also if the resurrection isn’t true then our ministry is useless as well.
  2. 2. Forgiveness is a Fraud (v. 15:17). “And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.” Did you catch the last part? You and I are still in our sins. All the talk about having our sins cast into the deepest part of the sea or having them separated from us like the vastness of the east from the west is just a ruse. We are still lost because the sacrifice wasn’t accepted. It was rejected, so we have nothing that even resembles forgiveness.
  3. 3. The Dead have no Deliverance (v. 15:18). “Then they also which are fallen asleep (died) in Christ are perished.” Picture a boat on the ocean. Visualize that boat being caught in a storm. The vessel begins taking on water and is being tossed about with the violent winds. No help in sight, no one to come and assist, no one to pull the passengers from the deep, no life preservers, and no hope. That is the picture of the word perished in our verse. Our loved ones that have died have no hope! When we die we have no hope!
  4. 4. Serving is to be Pitied (v. 15:19). “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” If the resurrection isn’t true, then we are the people that are the lamest of anyone living. We serve something imaginary, wasting our lives when others are at least participating in eating, drinking, and having fun because tomorrow we all die.

BUT, BUT, BUT! That is the way that Paul begins the next section of our chapter. “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that sleep.” First-fruits is an agricultural term. It means just as the word reads; it is the first fruit of the harvest. It doesn’t matter what type of harvest. Wheat, Barley, Rye, Olives, Dates, etc. The first of any of these belonged to the Lord and these first fruits were the promise of a greater harvest soon. Think about that for a moment. Jesus did rise from the dead and because he was the first, the promise of a great resurrection, the main harvest, is sure to happen. Because of the resurrection the Preaching of the Cross isn’t useless, it is the proclamation that men and women can come to Jesus and be saved. Because of the resurrection, Forgiveness is a real truth that removes guilt from the life of the sinner. Because of the resurrection, Death no longer has the sting it once did. Check out v. 15:55. Our loved ones who died in Christ are with the Lord and one day will return with him. Because of the resurrection, Serving Christ is a great joy. Not one single day of serving Christ is miserable. Our lives have meaning and purpose. There is a reason to get up in the morning–we get to serve the King of kings and Lord of lords.