If Christ Rose From the Dead

Paul once confronted people in the church who were saying there is no resurrection of the dead, and he treated it as one of the most serious errors a person could hold. In his day it was often the teaching of those who claimed that death simply ends everything. We meet the same idea today in a different accent, the assumption that we are all here by accident and that when we pass, that is the end. But there is one stubborn fact that unravels the whole theory. Jesus rose from the dead.

And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.

1 Corinthians 15:14

How We Quietly Deny the Resurrection

Most of us would never say out loud that there is no resurrection. We are believers. We pray, we worship, we love God. And yet there is a way we can slip into the very same mindset without realizing it. It happens whenever we decide that a situation is beyond repair, past all hope, finished.

If you have concluded that your marriage is a lost cause, that you can never recover from a financial ruin, that your life is over because of a disaster that struck you, then in that moment you are functioning exactly like someone who says the dead cannot rise. Paul's question comes to us gently but firmly: how can you say that, when you know that Jesus rose from the dead? Or is it that, deep down, you are quietly doubting that He did?

Because Christ rose from the grave, the dead places in your life can live again. To see why that is true, and not just a comforting phrase, we have to understand what actually happened when He rose.

Why Christ Had to Rise

Consider first that Jesus did not die for Himself. Every other person who has ever lived has died and remained in death, because we all die on account of our own sin. But here was a man who never sinned. Four times Pilate declared, "I find no fault in him." The tempter came at Him again and again, on every point where we are tempted, and He never once gave in. If there was ever a person who was perfect the way God is perfect, it was Jesus.

Death was never meant to touch such a person. Yet the rulers of this age, evil working through the hands of men, took the sinless One and put Him to death on a cross. And that is the great injustice at the center of the story. Death is the wage of sin, not the wage of simply being human. Jesus had no sin. So when He offered His death, He could offer it not for Himself, but as a substitute for all of us who do.

Because that offering was accepted, He could not stay dead. Having paid a debt He did not owe, He was raised to die no more. That is why our text says that if Christ is not raised, your faith is worthless and you are still under the weight of your sins. But He is raised, which means the perfect One has died for the imperfect, so that the imperfect may live and not die.

Not Mercy Only, but Justice

I once heard a preacher say something that has stayed with me: when you come to God through the cross, you can do more than plead for mercy. In Christ, you can also stand on justice. God has already poured out His mercy and love. That is precisely why He sent His only Son to die for you. So now, because Jesus has already died, the perfect for the imperfect, certain things simply cannot have the last word in your life.

Your marriage cannot be required to die, even where it may have deserved to, because Someone already died in your place. Your work cannot simply be handed over to ruin, even where your own weakness invited it, because the just died for the unjust. Sickness and despair do not get to claim your body and mind as their permanent home, because the righteous One took the sentence that belonged to the sinner.

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.

Hebrews 9:27

Once. It is appointed to a person to die once. And Jesus has taken that upon Himself on your behalf. So when affliction threatens to strike a second time, faith can answer that the blow has already fallen, on Him. This is not presumption or a magic formula. It is simply taking seriously what the resurrection means. And how do we know it is real? He arose. He rose from the dead never to die again. Mortal became immortal, and what was corruptible put on incorruption.

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

1 Corinthians 15:55

Do you hear the taunt in those words? Paul is almost mocking the grave, because the grave has already been emptied of its power. The sting of death is sin, and Christ has drawn out that sting. So when the enemy whispers that a thing is finished, that a chapter of your life is sealed shut forever, you can answer him with a question of your own: where is your victory now? The tomb could not hold the Author of life, and no lesser grave in your life is stronger than the one He walked out of. This is not wishful thinking or a slogan to repeat until you feel better. It is the plain consequence of an empty tomb outside Jerusalem two thousand years ago. Because He lives, the account is settled, and hope has a foundation that cannot be moved.

When It Already Feels Too Late

Some of us are not bracing for something to die. Something has already died. You know it is lifeless. And so you might say, Pastor, it is too late. My business is already gone. My family is already broken. My health has already failed. But here is the good news that changes everything: Jesus did not only die. He rose.

That is exactly the situation Mary and Martha faced when their brother had been in the tomb four days. To their grief and their gentle rebuke that He had come too late, Jesus answered with words that still stand over every grave in our lives.

I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.

John 11:25

Notice, too, what the Bible promises is not merely resuscitation but resurrection. Resuscitation brings something back to life just as it was before. Resurrection raises it into a new and more glorious life altogether. Paul writes that what is sown in weakness is raised in power, what is sown in dishonor is raised in glory. So when God restores a dead place in your life, do not expect only the old thing patched up. Expect something raised higher than it ever stood before.

Because He Lives

There is one more comfort, and it may be the sweetest. Because Jesus rose and lives forever, He is not a distant memory but a living Savior who is on your side right now.

He ever liveth to make intercession for them.

Hebrews 7:25

He continues without end, an unchangeable priesthood, able to save completely all who come to God through Him, because He always lives to pray for you. Think of that. At this very moment there is Someone representing you before God, pleading your case, holding you fast. Every enemy that has set itself against Christ in your life, whether sickness, or fear, or lack, or despair, is on borrowed time, for He must reign until all of them are put under His feet.

So if you are experiencing death in some corner of your life, in any shape or form, do not resign yourself to it as final. Yes, some of it may trace back to your own mistakes and wrong turns. That is honest, and it is exactly the kind of debt the cross was made for. Lift your eyes to the risen Christ and rejoice, because the perfect died for the imperfect, and rose again. What has died in you, because of Him, can live again. Believe this, and you will find that your labor in Him is never wasted. He is the resurrection and the life.