For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:
Paul's argument against those who denied the resurrection turns on an inseparable bond: the rising of the dead and the rising of Christ stand or fall together, so that if the dead do not rise then Christ was not raised. That reasoning is set against denial by the testimony of those who saw the risen Christ. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus was witnessed with great power by the apostles who saw Him, and it was seen and testified to by the Roman guard.
If Christ is not raised, preaching is empty and without effect. Without His resurrection faith is vain and useless. Those who testified that God raised Christ would then be found false witnesses of God. Without Christ's resurrection believers would still remain in their sins. Without a resurrection those who have fallen asleep in Christ and died trusting in Him would have perished and been lost.
The righteous do not receive full glory or enter heavenly life at death but sleep and remain in the grave until the resurrection, so their hope of life with God depends on Christ having risen. The resurrection is therefore essential to Christian hope rather than a needless doctrine displaced by the belief that glory comes at death. Sin is the sting of death, so that when sin is gone death loses its hold, and though the righteous may sleep in the grave for a time their deliverance is near. The rising taught is a literal resurrection of the dead, in which identity between the mortal and the immortal person does not require the same particles of matter but rests in their organization.
In a memorial setting the truth directs mourners toward hope beyond death. Christ's death, though His disciples thought His work had ended, was in reality the very life of the cause He had advocated. Faith is to have a resurrection that lifts Christians as they lift the cross of Calvary. That resurrection means standing in one's own lot and place, catching inspiration from Christ's work for souls on earth, having the ardor of a Christian hero who endures as seeing Him who is invisible, and exerting a positive influence for good, because indifference in the Christian life denies Christ.
Paul's argument against those who denied the resurrection turns on an inseparable bond: the rising of the dead and the rising of Christ stand or fall together, so that if the dead do not rise then Christ was not raised. That reasoning is set against denial by the testimony of those who saw the risen Christ. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus was witnessed with great power by the apostles who saw Him, and it was seen and testified to by the Roman guard.
If Christ is not raised, preaching is empty and without effect. Without His resurrection faith is vain and useless. Those who testified that God raised Christ would then be found false witnesses of God. Without Christ's resurrection believers would still remain in their sins. Without a resurrection those who have fallen asleep in Christ and died trusting in Him would have perished and been lost.
The righteous do not receive full glory or enter heavenly life at death but sleep and remain in the grave until the resurrection, so their hope of life with God depends on Christ having risen. The resurrection is therefore essential to Christian hope rather than a needless doctrine displaced by the belief that glory comes at death. Sin is the sting of death, so that when sin is gone death loses its hold, and though the righteous may sleep in the grave for a time their deliverance is near. The rising taught is a literal resurrection of the dead, in which identity between the mortal and the immortal person does not require the same particles of matter but rests in their organization.
In a memorial setting the truth directs mourners toward hope beyond death. Christ's death, though His disciples thought His work had ended, was in reality the very life of the cause He had advocated. Faith is to have a resurrection that lifts Christians as they lift the cross of Calvary. That resurrection means standing in one's own lot and place, catching inspiration from Christ's work for souls on earth, having the ardor of a Christian hero who endures as seeing Him who is invisible, and exerting a positive influence for good, because indifference in the Christian life denies Christ.