Suppose for a moment you are in a desperate situation. Away at sea, your ship is beginning to break up and sink in a raging storm. No land or help is anywhere near – only the dark, threatening waters. Some of your friends are already slipping struggling but helpless into the cold depths.
Now, imagine you have about two minutes left before it will be your turn to die. How will you spend that two minutes?
Would it really matter, after all, if you were told you had double that amount of time left? Or even if you had another day – or perhaps a year? The question is, are you living now as you should – and would, if time were cut short?
Is there anything you need to do in order to make sure about eternity for you?
Open your Bible to First Corinthians, chapter 15, which is our text. You will discover that this important chapter first of all summarizes the Gospel message. Then we are shown how this all rests upon the resurrection of Jesus from the grave. Finally, we are shown how this touches us and our own hope of living beyond the grave.
The study of Jesus Christ’s resurrection answers our two most basic questions regarding death and eternity. Let us look at them in order.
- WILL I MYSELF BE RAISED AGAIN?
If we are left hanging without the answer to this question – what hope have we?
C.S. Lewis in his book Screwtape Letters pictures satan’s strategy against believers. The junior demon is instructed to stir up in men either “tortured fear” or else “stupid confidence.” And that is about the way it is with many when it comes to life beyond the grave.
Until a man can face eternity with some certainty, he will not live his best. No man can live effectively walking toward the precipice of the unknown. If your forever is dark, it will cast a shadow on today. Or, as Paul puts it in our text, “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied,” 19.
Now, study verses 20-23. It affirms that Christ Jesus is indeed risen personally and bodily from the grave. In turn, those who have truly believed in Jesus so as to become his own, will have their turn at rising from the dead when Jesus returns to earth again. See Job 19:27.
This will mean a wonderful reunion with all believing family members and friends. Leisure forever to praise our God, marvel at heavenly palaces and gardens, and move through all God’s new creation. If you have looked with awe at natural wonders in this world how will it be in that radiant age! Glory!
II. WHAT WILL I BE LIKE?
Our text at verse 35 asks this very question and answers it. Read the verses that follow and you will see that each Christian beyond the grave will be the same in person but different in nature. You will be you and I will be me, but there will be a difference, too.
Verses 36-38 illustrate this truth by using the garden seed. We plant a bare seed in the ground and it comes forth beyond its “grave” in an enlarged glory. So it will be with the believing dead. “The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power,” 42 and 43.
Then the Apostle proceeds to explain, “It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body,” 44. Our new bodies, then, will not be merely physical. They will have a spiritual character to them and be immune to disease, accident and suffering. I like that!
Consider the utter helplessness of a dead man to raise up himself, or help himself in any manner. The dead stay dead – unless God acts. Now, Jesus has risen from the grave. There is good hope for us if we put our trust in Him.
Let no one rely on his social prominence, his muscles or his money. What good are those things in the dark tomb? Can they translate you over into God’s kingdom of life?
Read verse 54 and let your mind picture that great moment when all graves are completely empty of each and every child of God. “Death is swallowed up in victory.” Amen! All are beyond its fierce clutches.
Now, look again and see old death with all the wicked in his grasp sinking into the vast sea of fire called in Revelation 20:14-15 the “second death.” How hopeless and helpless will be those whose religion was but a sham! See them struggle to reach the believing loved ones – that mother who taught them the Bible, that navy buddy who testified faithfully of his Savior. It is too late to believe!
One has illustrated our hope in Christ by a trial through which he passed. His wife had just been wheeled beyond the swinging doors marked “surgery.” Fear and anxiety are written on the faces of all who, like him, sit in the waiting area of the surgical section.
Occasionally a surgical team member appears and immediately the question is asked, “How is she, Doctor?”
Finally, the wife’s doctor appears – entering through those swinging doors, still in his green surgery uniform. He wears a smile of encouragement. “She is going to be all right! Everything is fine.” Hope springs alive in that husband’s heart.
That is the way it is with the believer. We have the word of the Lord Jesus who has passed within those swinging doors. He has brought us word that “It’s all right!” He personally promises to reunite us with all who believe:
“For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” John 6:40