24th April 2025

In the opening of what is often referred to as ‘the resurrection chapter’, the apostle Paul makes a surprising statement: ‘I declare unto you’ he announces to his audience, ‘…the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand’ (1 Corinthians 15:1 KJV). Whereas some translations convey this proclamation in the form of a ‘reminder‘ statement (e.g. NIV, ESV), the Authorised version retains the full force of Paul’s words. The apostle is at pains to ‘declare’ (Greek: gnōrizō  ‘to make known’) his gospel to the Corinthian brethren, as if they were hearing it for the first time (though he acknowledges that they have formerly heard, believed and trusted in it).

Nevertheless, it is clear, as we read through the opening 11 verses of 1 Corinthians 15, that those to whom he writes appear not to have grasped the central element of the gospel message. Although Paul had preached to them ‘Christ and him crucified’ (1 Corinthians 2:2), he must now point out that the power which lies behind that necessary confession, the very foundation for all Christian faith and hope, is the historical fact of the actual bodily resurrection of Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:4).

To the apostle’s plain astonishment, there were some in the church at Corinth who openly denied the reality of the future hope of bodily resurrection with their bold assertion that ‘dead men don’t rise’. For Paul, this was an intolerable position, and the consequences of such a denial, by any Christian believer, he deemed to be exceedingly dire (vv.12-19). Because, as he goes on to explain, if there is no bodily resurrection, then Jesus himself was not raised and all apostolic teaching and preaching is rendered useless, unprofitable and vain (vv.13-14).

However, Paul, like Peter and the rest of the twelve, not only preached that Christ was raised, that of itself was not sufficient – after all, the son of the widow from Nain was raised (Luke 7:11-17), as was the daughter of Jairus (Mark 5:35–43), and, most provocatively, Jesus’s friend Lazarus was spectacularly raised from the grave (John 11:1-44). But the apostles preached, not so much that Christ was raised, but that Christ is risen! We have confidence on earth precisely because he, who was crucified, was dead and was buried, is risen and now alive in Heaven, from whence he sent his Spirit (John 16:7), and from where he intercedes continually for us, on our behalf (Romans 8:34).

If Jesus is not risen, Paul goes on to argue, then faith and hope lie buried with him, and those who put their trust in Christ, along with all mankind, are lost and swallowed up in death under the engulfing tide of unassuaged and unremitted sin. Furthermore, such a miserable condition as that of the universal church robbed thus of its faith and hope would amount to a state of wretchedness the like of which even this sad, sorrowful world has never known (1 Corinthians 15:17-19).  

But such is not the case Paul concludes, since we are not deceived and Christ indeed is risen, justifying our faith, and confirming our hope in the one whose bodily resurrection is the guarantee of life everlasting, and the pledge that all who have died in faith will be raised again, bodily, just as he himself was raised (v.20).

Belief in the bodily resurrection of Jesus is not only essential, but is the central element of the gospel message, without which the gospel is rendered powerless, and amounts to no more than a cruel and callous mockery of pious words.  

When the women came to Jesus’ tomb that Sunday morning, finding it unsettlingly, fearfully, gloriously empty, their lives were changed forever, and that day became the guarantee of another glorious day to come, when ‘…in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.’ (1 Corinthians 15:52 NIV).

Local congregation:
Grace Communion Peterborough
Farcet Village Hall                                                    
Main Street
Farcet
Peterborough
PE7 3AN

Meeting time:
Sunday 11.00 am

Local congregational contact:
Richard Dempsey
Email:  richard.dempsey@btinternet.com
Local church website: GRACE COMMUNION CHURCH PETERBOROUGH – Landing Page

Word of Life contact:
wordoflife@gracecom.church