Take your Bibles with me and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 tonight.
We're working through this chapter a little bit at a time. The passage that we've come to is one of the most theologically dense passages of Scripture in the entire Bible. I mean in like ten verses it gets into the federal headship of Adam and Christ, deep prophetic stuff, one of the most cryptic verses in the entire Bible, and of course, the resurrection.
Let me remind you of the problem. So in the church at Corinth there were people that essentially said, "We don't believe in the resurrection." To be very clear they believed that Christ rose from the dead but they didn't believe that anybody else was going to rise from the dead.
And the reason they didn't believe in the resurrection was not theological. It was just cultural pressure. It was not popular in Corinth, in the Greek world, in the Roman world to believe in a bodily resurrection. And so Paul has been dealing with this throughout this whole chapter.
And what we're going to see in our verses tonight. (By the way we're going to look at verses 20 to 34 in a second.) What we're going to see is:
A positive theological case for bodily resurrection.
Some practical questions if you don't believe the resurrection is true.
A pastoral charge that just sort of seals the whole thing.
So are you in 1st Corinthians chapter 15? Let's just go right ahead and read this whole section 20 to 34.
20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.
24 Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
25 For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
27 For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.
28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.
29 Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?
30 And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?
31 I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
32 If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die.
33 Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.
34 Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.
1 Corinthians 15:20-34 (KJV)
So a positive case, practical questions and a pastoral charge.
Let’s start with what is by far the most complicated piece of this:
The Positive Case
In verses 20-28 Paul is making a positive theological case for the resurrection. He starts by saying, "And now is Christ risen from the dead." It's like “this isn't a question anymore. Christ rose from the dead.”
But then he adds that Christ has become the first fruits of them that slept.
Let me explain what that means. The Jews had a mandated sacrifice, it was in the Old Testament, called the sacrifice of the first fruits. What they would do is at the very beginning of harvest they would bring and offer one sheath of their harvest. That one sheath was a representation and anticipation of the future harvest that would come. The priest would wave that sheaf around, thanking God for the harvest. There would be other sacrifices that went with it and this was something that Jews did every single year.
And so Paul is saying Christ did rise from the dead but he also rose from the dead as a representation and anticipation of all his people rising from the dead.
Then he makes what's called the federal point. “As in Adam, all die.” What does that mean? That means that technically we are not sinners because we, as individuals, sin. We are sinners because our representative, Adam, sinned for us.
Technically, none of us had the sin at all to still be guilty and be expecting death and hell. Adam took care of that for us. Now, none of us would do better. All of us have a sin nature, but we are all sinners in Adam. He is our representative and it's his sin that we will ultimately be judged for outside of Christ.
Now I can just hear you say, "Well that's not fair! Why should I be held responsible for Adam's sin?”
That's a fair point but do you know what else is not fair? It's not fair that you get Christ's righteousness. It's not your righteousness that's sending you to heaven. It is the righteousness of Christ. So if you reject the federal headship of Adam, you also must reject the federal headship of Christ. If you reject the federal headship of Christ, then that means you are getting to heaven on your own merits, which means you're not going to get to heaven.
Paul's point is that through Adam came death, through Christ comes everlasting life, and that includes our resurrection.
But then in verse 23, Paul switches from this theological point to a prophetic point. He goes from talking about soteriology to talking about eschatology and he shows us that our resurrection is part of God's plan for what's going to happen in the end times.
Here's the basic gist of it: Christ came and died and rose from the dead. That's step one.
Then step two is Christ reigning until everything is conquered.
The last part of Christ's reign is when He raises all the dead believers. This is Christ defeating the final enemy, the final boss, if you will, which is death.
When Christ comes back all of the dead will be risen with him. And then step three is Christ giving the whole submitted earth to God the Father so that God reigns all in all.
All of that is packed into verses 23 to 28 and it is really, really deep. We're not going to get into the depths of it there but that's what these verses are saying.
So we could summarize this positive case for the dead rising again as this: The dead rising again is part of God's salvation and it's part of God's plan for the end times.
That’s the positive case.
The second part of these verses is in verses 29-32 which we will call
Practical Questions
Look at verse 29 with me.
29 Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?
You're probably reading that you're thinking “baptized for the dead. What does that mean? Do people baptize other people in place of dead people? “
Can I just level with you? There are something like forty different interpretations of this verse. I am not going to go through all of those different interpretations because you would all be even more tired and sleepy than you already are.
But I want to point out what it's not saying. It cannot be saying that we can somehow baptize dead people into heaven by baptizing replacements for them.
That's what the Mormon church believes. Do you know that in Utah, probably right now, in some temple somewhere, there are people that are being baptized over and over and over again to bring more people into heaven that died hundreds of years ago? You know all of the Ancestry and 23andMe stuff; all of that is heavily tied to the Mormon Church. They are very concerned with Ancestry because they believe that they can baptize people vicariously for people that have already passed away. They can baptize in place of people that have already passed away.
That cannot be what this verse is talking about and you know why it can't be?
First because people are not baptized to get into heaven. People get into heaven because of putting their faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
Second, because nowhere else in all of the Bible does it talk about baptizing in the place of dead people. If this was something that Christ wanted us to do, it would be very clearly delineated in the scripture and it's not. All we get is this one cryptic verse.
Notice it doesn't say "what will we do who are baptized for the dead," but "what will they do who are baptized for the dead." “Why are they then baptized for the dead?”
What I think this means is Paul is referring to a pagan custom of vicarious baptism for the dead. Paul is simply mentioning this superstitious custom without approving it and using it to fortify his argument that there is a resurrection from the dead.
Paul doesn't approve of this practice. He's just saying, if there is no resurrection, why does this even exist?
Then in verses 30 and 31, Paul says, "Why do we stand in jeopardy every hour?" So he's moving on to another argument and this argument is: if there is no resurrection of the dead, why are we in a constant state of danger?
When Paul says in verse 31, "I die daily," what he is saying is every day I wake up and face the possibility of death because of my Christian witness. Why would I do that if there was no resurrection of the dead? Why would I do that if this life is all that we get?
In verse 32, Paul talks about fighting beasts in Ephesus. Now that could mean two things. That could mean that he actually fought against Beast in an arena. We know that some people did that but it's not recorded for us in the book of Acts. What it probably means is just the level of opposition that Paul faced against humans who acted like beasts in Ephesus. Paul was literally fighting for his life for the sake of the gospel in many places in his ministry and I think he's just referring to that.
And so the whole point of these practical questions is, if there's no resurrection from the dead, then what are we even doing? If we're just going to die, then why don't we just eat and drink and be merry?
Of course there is a resurrection from the dead. And these Corinthians needed to just get past this.
So we’ve looked at the positive theological case for Christians rising from the dead and practical questions about Christians rising from the dead.
Let’s look at one more thing:
Pastoral Charge
Look at verses 33-34.
These two verses are kind of like Paul laying down his professor hat and picking up his practical pastor hat. He's going to be very direct here.
You know sometimes it is okay for a pastor to be very direct. Teaching is good and important and it needs to be the foundation of everything that we do but sometimes it is appropriate to just say "knock it off". And that is what Paul is doing here in these verses.
In verse 33 he just gets to the heart of it. He says, "Don't be deceived. Evil communications corrupt good manners." That phrase, "Evil communications corrupt good manners," another way to say that would be "Evil companions corrupt good morals."
This is actually a well-known quote from Greek literature. Paul didn't make this up. It's like he's quoting something that was part of their pop culture. It was something that became part of their moral code.
But what's the point? The point is you guys are hanging around with and listening to people who are denying the resurrection, and it's obviously false. You need to cut it out because they are going to corrupt your behavior and your Christian witness.
You know you shouldn't listen to everybody. Not everybody should have your ear. You shouldn't try to please everybody. Some people are straight up wrong and listening to them is dangerous.
I'd be very careful about where you get your theological information from. Be very careful about some preacher that you hear on the radio or some preacher that you hear on TV. Be very careful listening to the arguments that come from friends or family members that you might really, really want to impress and be close to but you kind of know in your heart that what they're saying is off.
Evil communications corrupt good manners. You can't have those conversations with them. You've got to cut it off.
Then he says in verse 34, "Awake to righteousness and sin not." He's saying, "Wake up! Wake up and stop sinning." You guys are asleep at the wheel right now. You need to wake up. You need to realize what time it is. Because some people have not the knowledge of God.
Now that could refer to some people in the church who are not saved at this point, or it could refer to people outside the church that need to hear the gospel. Either way Paul's point is you are endangering people's eternal soul by messing around with this stuff. You should be ashamed.
Conclusion
Does Paul sound angry here? If he's angry, it's not because they broke some kind of theological rule. It's angry because they let something that's beautiful and amazing die for some kind of cultural clout and it was really, really hurting people.
Listen, Christians are going to rise from the dead. When we die, that's not it. We are going to be risen again and we are going to reign with Jesus. That is a key part of the Christian faith. It's not something we get to cut off to be culturally relevant.
There is a beautiful song I heard years ago called “It is not death to die.” Let me read you the words:
It is not death to die
To leave this weary road
And join the saints who dwell on high
Who've found their home with God
It is not death to close
The eyes long dimmed by tears
And wake in joy before Your throne
Delivered from our fears
Oh, Jesus, conquering the grave
Your precious blood has power to save
Those who trust in You will in Your mercy find
That it is not death to die
It is not death to fling
Aside this earthly dust
And rise with strong and noble wing
To live among the just
It is not death to hear
The key unlock the door
That sets us free from mortal years
To praise You evermore
Oh, Jesus, conquering the grave
Your precious blood has power to save
Those who trust in You will in Your mercy find
That it is not death to die
