1 Corinthians 15:14–20 (ESV) — 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our
preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even
found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised
Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are
still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ
have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are
of all people most to be pitied.
20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of
those who have fallen asleep.
NOTE: Paul, an
eyewitness to the resurrected Christ and a man who lived during the time of
Jesus. A man who knew most of the other eyewitnesses, spells out the argument
quite forcibly. Why, if the gospel was not true, would Paul be preaching the
resurrected Jesus? Even a God-fearing man would be in danger of hell in so
misleading people. An atheist certainly wouldn't waste his life, his time, and
his body (to the beatings and deprivations) to preach something that he knew to
be untrue. There is no gain. There might be gain today for televangelists to
preach something they don't believe, but these first century eyewitnesses,
especially the apostles, all faced painful deaths for their message. Why?
Because it is a fact! Jesus has been risen from the dead, the firstfruits of
many others.
PRAYER: Father, the
historical accounts are such a strong argument. We don't need to defend it. But
we can plant the seeds in others. There were over 500 eyewitnesses, many who
gave their lives because of what they saw. Second generation martyrs are meaningless,
but first generation, now that is hard to dismiss. Give us the boldness to
respectfully share facts. It requires tremendous faith to ignore facts. Let us
be the ones planting the facts.
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