The assurance of Christ’s resurrection is likewise the assurance that believers will be raised with Him. This is the heart of Paul’s exhortation in 1 Corinthians 15. And this is no small matter, as Paul spends much time explaining the certainty and nature of believers’ resurrection in Christ.
There is great urgency and concern driving all that Paul expresses. Many of the Corinthian believers were intoxicated with the false idea that there was no resurrection. Such thinking destroys all motivation for godly living in an ungodly world – why worry about obedience if everything simply ends when you die? You can almost imagine Paul jumping out of his skin when he declares,
“If the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.’ Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company ruins good morals.’ Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.” (1 Cor. 15:32-34)
Beloved, God has made us and saved us to live eternally. We will live beyond the grave, as Christ has forever taken away the sting of death. May we be increasingly confident in this great eternal hope, and may we persevere in faith and submission to Him day by day.
“Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” (1 Cor. 15:58)
Because He lives, and is returning,
Greg