Daily Bread

If Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?

If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ — whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.

For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.

Okay, so Paul can get a little 'wordy' but the point he is making is that without the resurrection of Jesus, our faith is worthless. If the wages of sin is death and Jesus died without being raised, then the story ended right there because Jesus would have been no different from anyone else, however, if Jesus conquered death and was raised then it meant he also conquered sin! And because we are 'in' Christ, meaning we have a forever connection to Jesus, we are conquerors with Christ too — in other words we too will be raised from the dead. How cool is that?

I once wrote a song with the line, "... and death could not hold him, he is risen, he is risen, the one called Jesus." Without the resurrection there is no Christianity. Some people say they are not Christians but have a Christian 'ethic', well, you can have all the ethics you like, but if you are still dead in your sins, those ethics (important though they are) have no eternal significance.

We, my friends, are a resurrection people and it is why we, in the Christian tradition, retell the story on a weekly basis and celebrate the resurrection every Sunday — the first day of a new week.

Resurrection gives us hope — hope that we will not only see our loved ones again, but hug them, touch them, eat with them, and laugh with them. Resurrection changes everything.

Holy God
Thank you that Jesus was raised from the dead —
that he defeated sin and death
for all people and for all time.
Thank you that through Jesus
my sins are conquered
and that because I am in Christ,
I will be raised through Christ.
Thank you for the hope we have in Jesus,
my King, my Lord, and my Saviour,
now and forever.