The Resurrection: A Foundation for Dying Well

Does the resurrection make a difference in your life?

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul famously writes that if there is no resurrection, his preaching of the gospel is in vain and that Christians are of all people most to be pitied. In other words, the resurrection is foundational to the gospel. Without it, we have no hope.

The inverse is also true, though. That is, if there is a resurrection, then Christians of all people have the greatest reason for hope. In other words, believing in the resurrection should make us live and die with conviction. Is that true for you? Are you living as though the resurrection has really happened?

As we prepare for Easter over the next four weeks, I'd like to show you from 1 Corinthians 15 four distinct ways the resurrection should make a difference in our daily lives. We'll look at the resurrection's implications for death (March 21), hope (March 28), life (April 4), and work (April 11).

In the first eight verses of this passage, Paul shows that the resurrection provides a foundation for dying well. This has implications for all people—young and old—because what you believe about life after death affects how you live now.

Paul boldly declares that the bodily resurrection of Christ and our anticipated resurrection are two halves to a whole. If one is absent the other is canceled. When Christ was raised from the dead, it guaranteed the resurrection of your body. You have an impregnable foundation upon which to build your life, and it should be demonstrated in your courage and confidence in facing every foe, even death.    

This means that there is a future vision and direction for God’s people. We get that from a word Paul uses in v. 17, mataia, which means “aimless.” Without the resurrection of Christ, which guarantees our resurrection, there is no meaningful future for Christians to look forward to. 

But the Gospel does give us reason to live into the future. The resurrection gives us at least three reasons.

In Peter’s great Pentecost sermon, he demonstrates that God bound himself by an oath to David that he would raise Jesus from the dead that he might be both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:24-36). If Jesus was not raised from the dead, then he was not the Christ, and God’s name would not be associated with him. But all of God’s eyewitnesses of the resurrection, the Apostles went to their graves never recanting their testimony that God raised him from the dead.  That means your resurrection is guaranteed by God himself, because when he raised Jesus, he as much as raised you (Ro. 6:1-4).

Secondly, Paul says that if Christ was not raised from the dead by God, then we are still in our sins, and there is no hope for those who have already died. There is no way for God to forgive us if Jesus only died. When Jesus took our sins upon himself on the cross he became subject to the wages of sin, which is death. Every human being’s death demonstrates the universal condemnation we are under for our sin. If Jesus had not taken our sin on himself, he would have never physically died. So his physical death proved that he became sin in our place. Consequently, if he remained dead, it would have proven that he remained condemned by our sins, and because everything he did was done for us, it would mean that we remained condemned, too. 

However, Christ did not remain dead. God raised him to life declaring that he had been justified. [1] Christ’s active keeping of the law and his passive receiving of sin’s judgment satisfied God’s requirements, so God raised him to show that Christ was no longer condemned. Christ’s resurrection was his justification, or the public demonstration of his righteousness. [2] It secured yours as well.

While you are presently declared righteous by God because of the substitution provided by Christ, you will not be publicly proven to be righteous until you are raised from the dead. Your physical death will show that you still sin, but your resurrection will show that you are no longer a sinner. And because Christ has been raised and proven righteous, your resurrection and righteousness are guaranteed. Likewise, there is the certainty that those of our loved ones who have died in Christ will be physically raised as well.

Paul now comes full circle to where he began. Some of these Corinthians believed that the only time we as human beings would derive benefit from believing in Christ would be in this life, and then our bodies would die and our spirits would somehow commune with him. However, what Paul has made clear is that just as physical death proves we are sinners, physical resurrection proves we are sinless. If the Corinthians did not believe in the resurrection of their bodies, then their faith was pathetic, empty, and aimless.

In short, Paul says there is no forgiveness, no righteousness, and no Christianity without the resurrection of our bodies. However, the Gospel assures us that because Christ was raised from the dead proving his righteousness, we will be raised from the dead proving our righteousness. This is the Christian’s unshakable hope. 

It is this unshakeable hope that provides the foundation for dying well. Though we will die, we do not have to die in fear, because we know that the Christian's death is more akin to a falling asleep (v. 6) from which we will be raised and declared righteous. With this in view, let us live with conviction now. In other words, let us live like the resurrection really happened.