March 31, 2024 (Easter)
1 Corinthians 15:1-22
“Made Alive”
Service Overview: The greatest day in history continues to be the day Jesus rose from the grave. In his resurrection, Jesus not only defeated sin and death, but secured the promise that all who are in him will one day have a resurrection of their own. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
Memory Verse for the Week:
“For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” 1 Corinthians 15:22 (NIV)
Background Insights:
- Without the belief in the Resurrection the Christian faith could not have come into being. The disciples would have remained crushed and defeated men. Even had they continued to remember Jesus as their beloved teacher, His crucifixion would have forever silenced any hopes of His being the Messiah. The cross would have remained the sad and shameful end of His career. The origin of Christianity therefore hinges on the belief of the early disciples that God had raised Jesus from the dead. (William Lane Craig, Knowing the Truth About the Resurrection, 116-117)
- Being a city that valued pleasure above learning, Corinth left the thinking to her Athenian neighbors, adopting without question their attitudes toward the resurrection of the body. The eagerness to appear “wise” by the world’s standards had been a constant objective among the Corinthians (1 Cor. 1:18-25). In 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, we discover that some felt tempted to succumb to the pressure of philosophical respectability by denying one of the make-or-break doctrines of the Christian faith: the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. (Charles R. Swindoll, Insights on 1 & 2 Corinthians, 220)
- By denying the resurrection, the Corinthians were almost certainly not denying life after death; virtually everyone in the ancient world believed in that. Rather, they would have been disputing the Jewish and Christian doctrine of bodily resurrection and endorsing one of the more Greek forms of belief that limited the afterlife to disembodied immortality of the soul (cf. 2 Tim. 2:17–18). (Craig L. Blomberg, 1 Corinthians, 395)
- The phrase “according to the Scriptures” refers to the Old Testament prophecies regarding this event, such as Psalm 16:8-11 and Isaiah 53:5-6. Christ’s death on the cross was no accident, no afterthought. It had been part of God’s plan from all eternity in order to bring about the salvation of all who believe. (Grant R. Osborne, 1 & 2 Corinthians, 217)
- The detail of burial is not only a necessary part of the story of the gospel, it was actually a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. Isaiah prophesied seven hundred fifty years before this event, saying, “He was assigned a grave with the wicked, but he was with a rich man at his death, because he had done no violence and had not spoken deceitfully” (Isa 53:9). (Daniel L. Akin, Exalting Jesus in 1 Corinthians, 276)
What truths should stand out to us in light of this text?
- The wages of sin is death. Only by death could the debt of sin be paid.
(vv. 3, 16-17, 21-22 | Psalm 51:5; Isaiah 53:5; Matthew 26:28; Romans 3:23; 6:23; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 9:12, 22; 1 Peter 3:18; 1 John 2:2; 4:10)
The debt was so great, that while man alone owed it, only God could pay it. (Anselm)
The [Christian] message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity – hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory – because at the Father’s will Jesus became poor, and was born in a stable so that thirty years later He might hang on a cross. (J.I. Packer, Knowing God, 63)
God must either inflict punishment or assume it. And He chose the latter course. (Erwin Lutzer, Cries from the Cross, 100)
No other religion has ever claimed that its historical founder is the one and only supreme deity. Nor has any other religion ever dared to suggest that the one true God loves us enough to die for us. This is the glory and the beauty of Christianity. Because God is just, there had to be a payment for sin. Because God is love, He was willing to make the payment in the Person of His own Son. (Philip Graham Ryken, Is Jesus the Only Way?, 44)
- The gift of God is life. Only by Christ being made alive do we have any hope of being made alive ourselves.
(vv. 4, 14-18, 20-22 | John 3:16; 14:6; Rom. 6:4, 23; 10:9; 1 Thess. 4:14; 1 Peter 1:3; 2:24)
We understand and acknowledge that the Resurrection has placed a glorious crown upon all of Christ’s sufferings! (A.W. Tozer, “Renewed Day by Day”, Christianity Today, v. 40, n. 4)
Christianity is a divine project of replacing inferior joys in inferior objects with superior joys in God Himself. (John Piper, Why I Love the Apostle Paul, 162)
Because Christ was raised from the dead, we know that the kingdom of heaven has broken into earth’s history. Our world is now headed for redemption, not disaster. God’s mighty power is at work destroying sin, creating new lives, and preparing us for Jesus’ second coming. Because of the Resurrection, we know that death has been conquered, and we too will be raised from the dead to live forever with Christ. (Grant R. Osborne, 1 & 2 Corinthians, 222)
There is only one way to know that his death for our sins was efficacious, and that is the resurrection. In modern-day financial terms, the resurrection is God’s receipt to us that our sins have been paid in full. Christ’s death is the payment. (Daniel L. Akin, Exalting Jesus in 1 Corinthians, 276)
Conclusion… What must we remember in light of Christ being made alive?
A. Being made alive happens only by God’s grace.
(v. 10 | John 1:16-17; Romans 3:20-24; 5:8; 11:6; Ephesians 2:8-9; 2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 4:16)
Grace is God’s free and unmerited favor shown to guilty sinners who deserve only judgment. It is the love of God shown to the unlovely. It is God reaching downward to people who are in rebellion against Him. (Jerry Bridges, Transforming Grace, 21-22)
Every other religion in the world is the religion of “do,” but …Christianity alone is the religion of “done.” (Mark Dever, It Is Well, 46)
Grace…expresses two complementary thoughts: God’s unmerited favor to us through Christ, and God’s divine assistance to us through the Holy Spirit. (Jerry Bridges, The Practice of Godliness, 98-99)
God’s grace does not mean that God benignly accepts humans in all their fallenness, forgives them, and then leaves them in that fallenness. God is in the business not of whitewashing sins but of transforming sinners. (David Garland, 1 Corinthians, 215)
B. The gospel is a call to die in order to truly be made alive.
(Proverbs 14:27; Mark 8:34; John 8:12; 10:10; 11:25-26; Romans 8:6; 12:2; Galatians 2:20; 1 Peter 2:24)
The gospel is a call for every one of us to die – to die to sin and to die to self – and to live with unshakable trust in Christ, choosing to follow His Word even when it brings us into clear confrontation with our culture. (David Platt, Counter Culture, 180)
Adam “gave” us all death; Christ offers life to all. In other words, real life can only be found in Christ. (Grant R. Osborne, 1 & 2 Corinthians, 226)
The gospel is about much more than how we get saved and go to heaven. The gospel is about the work of Christ saturating every aspect of our lives. (Voddie Baucham, What He Must Be, 59)
Repentance is one of the most positive words in the Christian vocabulary! It refers to turning from a destructive path and moving instead into God’s abundant life. (Richard Blackaby, Corporate Hindrances to Revival, Revival Commentary, v. 2, n. 2)
The big question…
Have you been, and how are you being made alive?
(John 3:3; 5:24; 10:10; 11:25-26; Romans 6:4; 10:9-10; 12:1; 1 Cor. 15:22; 2 Cor. 5:17)
Not only will we see his face and live, but we will likely wonder if we ever lived before we saw his face! (Randy Alcorn, Secret Church 2015)
For Christians, this present life is the closest they will come to Hell. For unbelievers it is the closest they will come to Heaven. (Randy Alcorn, Heaven, 28)
If our practical lives are not reflecting the truth of the gospel which we accepted, then we have believed in vain—that is, to no practical result. In other words, Paul exhorts the Corinthians to apply their orthodoxy so as to arrive at orthopraxy—right living conformed to right belief. (Charles R. Swindoll, Insights on 1 & 2 Corinthians, 222)
Spiritual Challenge Questions…
Reflect on these questions in your time with the Lord this week, or discuss with a Christian family member or Life Group.
- What happens to the most important message of the church, “the gospel,” if Jesus has not been raised from the dead?
- Why is the message of the gospel so vital and in fact of first importance?
- What is it about the gospel that makes it so different from every other message that every other religion in the world has to offer?
- How do you see the gospel being compromised in the churches today?
- How has (and is) Jesus’ resurrection impacting and transforming your life?
Quotes to note…
Once a man is united to God, how could he not live forever? (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 96)
Christianity does not hold the Resurrection to be one among many tenets of belief. Without faith in the Resurrection there would be no Christianity at all. The Christian church would never have begun; the Jesus-movement would have fizzled out like a damp squib with His execution. Christianity stands or falls with the truth of the Resurrection. (Michael Green, Man Alive, 61)
The Jesus who is worthy of our faith is a resurrected Jesus. The Jesus who makes it worthwhile to live a life of faith is a resurrected Jesus. The one who serves as the foundation of our faith, gives feet to our faith, and replaces fear with faith is only a resurrected Jesus. It is simply foolish to place your faith in anyone—regardless of the quality of his life, the brilliance of her teaching, or the quality of his or her example—if that person died only to stay dead. (Daniel L. Akin, Exalting Jesus in 1 Corinthians, 281)
Belief in the Resurrection is not an appendage to the Christian faith; it is the Christian faith. (John S. Whale, Christian Doctrine, 73)
Adam’s sin allowed death to claim every human’s life; Christ’s death challenged that claim and nullified it in the Resurrection. (Grant R. Osborne, 1 & 2 Corinthians, 226)
“Christ died for our sins” is the theological explanation of the historical facts. Many people were crucified by the Romans, but only one “victim” ever died for the sins of the world. (Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Wise,164)
We may not have persecuted Christ’s cause in the same way that Paul did, but we all denied the saving power of His death and the reality of His victorious resurrection in our own ways (Isa. 53:6). Just as He did with Paul, so Jesus has brought salvation even to us! As a result of His unmerited grace, God has not only given us eternal life through faith in the death and resurrection of His Son, but He has given us the presence of His Holy Spirit—the Lord and Life-giver—to put to death our sinful lifestyles and raise us in newness of life. (Charles R. Swindoll, Insights on 1 & 2 Corinthians, 227)
Death is the Chariot our heavenly Father sends to bring us to Himself. (Erwin Lutzer, One Minute After You Die, 60)
Think of how powerless death actually is! Rather than rid us of our health, it introduces us to “riches eternal.” In exchange for poor health, death gives us a right to the Tree of Life that is for “the healing of the nations” (Revelation 22:2). Death might temporarily take our friends from us, but only to introduce us to that land in which there are no good-byes. (Erwin Lutzer, One Minute After You Die, 45)
As a result of grace, we have been saved from sin’s penalty. One day we will be saved from sin’s presence. In the meantime we are being saved from sin’s power. (Alistair Begg, Made For His Pleasure, 39)