Wednesday, April 19, 2006
1 Corinthians 15:17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!
IF CHRIST IS NOT RISEN -- PART 3
The denial of the resurrection of the dead is in essence a denial of the whole of Christianity. In verse seventeen Paul shows us why. He says, And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Already back in verse 14 Paul discussed the worthlessness of our faith if Christ's resurrection never happened.
This is a good reminder to us about what faith is. Faith in and of itself is not important. People have faith in all kinds of things. But our faith is only as good as the object we have faith in. For example, in our jobs many of us depend on others to get certain things done for us. We trust in those individuals to get the job done. If they don't complete their required task, our faith that they would get the job done means nothing. Many people have faith in Buddha, Krishna or many other "gods" but faith in those "gods" will not help them on judgment day.
The same is true for us. If Christ didn't rise again on the third day then His work for our redemption was not complete, and as a result, we are still in our sins. We remain guilty before God and will receive condemnation for our sins. If Christ did not rise from the dead, then we are still dead in our trespasses and sins. Rejecting the resurrection of Jesus is the same as rejecting the effectiveness of His sacrifice, and makes His death just as useless as the faith that we have in a dead Savior. Our faith is only as good as the object of our faith, and if we trust in Christ, who did not rise from the dead, then our faith is futile as well.
But now Christ is risen from the dead and His resurrection is the proof that His sacrifice on the cross was sufficient and was fully acceptable to God!
