1 Corinthians 15:1-34 - summary of study
Unlike my typical summaries, this time I want to simply highlight an important lesson that this passage offered to me personally. The lesson can be summarized as follows: Christ’s resurrection is an integral part of the gospel, just as the fact that he died as the sacrifice for our sins. I realized that in all of my gospel definitions and presentations I barely mention the resurrection part. And many Christians make the same mistake. We often think it is the Christ’s atonement for our sins that makes us right with God, and the resurrection is just there to prove that we will also be resurrected.
Of course, it is true that Christ’s resurrection is the firstfruits of all who has fallen asleep (1 Cor 15:20) and through him we will be resurrected on the last day (1 Cor 15:23). But according to v.17, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins”, it appears that the resurrection is important not only to our future life but also the present condition of our sins. And this is not the only place where this idea is conveyed; for example, Romans 4:25 says “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification“.
Now, there is no universal agreement on how to understand this statement. The most common interpretation is that by raising Jesus from the dead God confirmed that His sacrifice was acceptable. I am not really convinced; after all, there is no Biblical pattern that would confirm this practice. Others suggested a parallel between “in your sins” and “in Jesus”, meaning that we are saved from our sins not into nothingness but into the relationship with the living Christ. Unless we are brought into Jesus, we are still in our sins. Again, I do not find this interpretation very convincing.
For now, the best interpretation I can provide is that resurrection was the proof that Jesus is the Messiah and that we can believe every other word he said. The disciples of Jesus knew that his death was sacrifice for our sins yet were scattered in fear because of His execution. It is only after Jesus reappeared in the new bodily form, that they were ready to take courage and proclaim the gospel. So, the Old Testament scripture predicting Christ’s sacrifice, John the Baptist testimony, Jesus’ own teachings and miracles were not sufficient for them to believe. What had changed them was the proof that Jesus was raised to life.
No matter what interpretation you prefer, one thing should be clear - Jesus’ death for our sins and resurrection are two equally important parts of the gospel. Hence if we seek to live a gospel-centered life, resurrection should have equally strong impact on what we do.