The first part of this piece argued that we should want the resurrection to be true because it means freedom from sin and new life in Christ. (Read Part One here.)<
What’s the second reason?
Reason Two: If it’s true, Christ’s resurrection means we have hope.
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:17–19, “If Christ is not raised… Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. Christians have hope in this life only, we are the most to be pitied.”
Many of us assume the Christian hope is dying and going to heaven. That’s certainly Christian orthodoxy; dying and going to heaven is a good, glorious promise! But the ultimate Christian hope is what Paul addresses here. Paul describes the fate of those who have “fallen asleep.” This isn’t just a euphemism for death. What eventually happens every time you fall asleep? You wake back up.
Paul is saying that those who have fallen asleep in Christ—believers in Jesus—will one day wake back up. Not in heaven. No, the dead in Christ will rise from the dead. They will be resurrected like Jesus. Literally, Christians will one day walk out of the grave like Christ. They will trade the corruptible for the incorruptible, in new bodies, freed from sin, given pure desires, completely remade in Him. That’s the Christian hope!
The Death of Death
No question could be more pressing than the question of death. Is death the end? Are evil, suffering, and death inevitable? You die, as do all those you’ve ever loved. How are we to think about death apart from what the resurrection offers? Should we overcome it technologically? Bryan Johnson believes so. Are we to simply embrace it bravely, stoically?
These questions aren’t limited only to death. We must also ask what we are to make of the good of this world. Your love for your grandparents, or your love for a child: Is it real? Is your experience of a beautiful piece of music, the breathtaking sight of the Rocky Mountains, or the joy of the first, crisp fall morning just synapses and neurons? Accidents in time and space? Experiences that are, at best, opiates to a dying light soon to be merged with oblivion?
Or is there a better answer?
Paul, again, in 1 Corinthians 15:20-23:
“But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.”
Those in Christ will one day be resurrected with Him to a new kind of eternal existence, life on the other side of death. Paul says Jesus is the firstfruits—a harvest metaphor in which the first grain harvested functioned as a guarantee of the rest that is to come. Jesus is God’s guarantee that what happened to Christ will happen to His people. Jesus’s resurrection is God’s promise that He’ll do the same for His people and His whole world. One day, Jesus will return and make all sad things untrue!
Suffering and Evil Face an Expiration Date
If this is true, then all the evil, all the darkness, all the suffering has an expiration date. It also means all love, goodness, and joy we taste here isn’t an opiate; it’s a window into the world to come. Jesus’ resurrection means that death will die, the mortal will be swallowed up by life, and the world is destined for a happy ending—a weight of glory yet to be revealed, so good, so dense, so real, that it’s not ever worth comparing with our “light and momentary” present sufferings (See 2 Cor. 4:17).
You say, “Alright, all this sounds great. But why does it matter what I want?”
I want the Gamecocks to be bowl eligible.
I want to be fit and never run.
“Who cares what I want? What matters is reality!” I could not agree more.
So here’s what I’d say: Go see for yourself. Do you want what’s held out to us? Go see for yourself. You may be surprised.
If all this is true, the implications are huge. C.S. Lewis argued that all this may be bunk and pointless. But it also could be gloriously true. And if it’s true, it’s everything. The one thing Christianity cannot be is moderately important.
Now, What Will You Do with Christ?
This is all or nothing. What do you think?
Maybe you read this and think: “My interest is piqued. This all sounds incredible, I think I do want that to be true. But a resurrection? Are you sure? I mean, it seems so far-fetched… how can we know? I have so many other questions!”
I’d say to you: Dig! See! Check out a book like Reason for God by Tim Keller, or this little booklet by Rebecca McLaughlin. If you’re brave enough, I’d say ask God to make Himself plain to you, then read through the New Testament, beginning with the stories of Jesus.
Some may read this and think: “This is ridiculous.” But I’d submit to you, “Whose answers to these questions are more compelling?” Surely, there’s something unique about the Christian story.<
Others of us read this, and we believe. We’ve devoted our life to this story. To you, I’d say: Today is our day! Jesus is alive! We are no longer in sin! Guilt has been paid for, we walk in new life by the power of Christ’s Spirit within us. We have a bright hope for tomorrow! A promise of a world to come more sure than tomorrow’s morning sun.
What I’d say to you: Rejoice! Feast! Sing! For as Thomas Watson once said, “We are more sure to arise out of our graves than out of our beds!”
“Death is swallowed up in victory.<
“O death, where is your victory?
“O death, where is your sting?” (1 Cor. 15:54–55)
— Trevor Hoffman is a teaching pastor at Ridgewood Church in Greer.