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Saturday, March 15
Now if there is not a resurrection of the dead, neither has Christ been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, our proclamation is then meaningless, and your faith is also meaningless (1 Corinthians 15:13-14)
In my opinion, R. G. Lee was the most eloquent preacher Southern Baptists have ever known. In 1965, he was invited to preach in Fort Worth, Texas. He concluded his sermon with these words:
One day as a young child, I asked my mother, "What was the happiest day of your life?" I thought she might say something about the day one of her children was born, or the day my father asked her to marry him, or perhaps her wedding day. For a long moment she sat there and then looked across the room as if she could see for a great distance. And then she spoke.
"It was during the war between the North and South. The men were all away. My mother, your grandmother, had to do the work of a man in the fi elds. She eked out a living for us from the farm. One day a letter came saying that my father, your grandfather Bennett, had been killed. That letter contained a great many kind words about his bravery and sacrifice. Mother did not cry much that day, but at night we could hear her sob in the dark of our small house.
"About four months later, it was summer, we were all sitting on the porch shelling beans. A man came down the road, and mother watched him for a while and then said, 'Elizabeth, honey, don't think me strange, but that man coming yonder walks like your father.' The man kept coming along the road, but we children thought, 'It couldn't be him.' As he came to the break in the fence where the path ran, he turned in. Mother sprang from her chair scattering beans everywhere. She began to run, and she yelled over her shoulders, 'Children, it's your father.' She ran all the way across the field until they met. She kissed him and cried and held him for the longest. And that, Robert Lee, was the happiest hour I ever knew."
Then Dr. Lee concluded, "And that is but a small joy compared with the resurrection morning when we shall see the face of Jesus, when we shall see loved ones long gone."
Because of Easter, I will see my parents again in paradise. You will see loved ones who died in Christ. But we don't have to wait for eternity to meet our risen Lord. He is as close as our knees.
When last did time alone with Jesus change your life?
What God's word means
In refuting the Corinthians' cultural bias against bodily resurrection, Paul first appealed to the Easter doctrine his readers had accepted (v. 12). Now he appeals to syllogistic logic, a tool much valued by their Greek culture: major premise + minor premise = conclusion. For instance: major premise (it is raining outside) + minor premise (I am outside) = conclusion (I am getting wet).
Paul's major premise: If the philosophers are right about physical resurrection, neither has Christ been raised. What applies to our bodies must apply to his. Minor premise: then our proclamation ("preaching, message") is meaningless ("useless, empty, in vain, without merit"). Conclusion: your faith is also meaningless. The Corinthians had taken their "stand" on the gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1). However, if they reject Jesus' resurrection, by force of logic they must also reject the faith which has brought them such salvation and hope.
Why Easter matters
Thomas Je fferson was one of America's greatest leaders and scholars. However, he viewed Jesus as a great moral teacher but not as the Son of God. He cut from the Gospels every reference to the miraculous, creating the so-called Jeff erson Bible. It ends with this statement from John 19:41-42 and Matthew 27:60: "Now, in the place where he was crucifi ed, there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid. There laid they Jesus. And rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed."
If there is no bodily resurrection, Jesus' story ends at the tomb. So does ours. If the grave could defeat the sinless Son of God, it can certainly defeat us. By placing our hope for eternal life in a dead man, we have trusted a promise that cannot be kept, a source that will fail us.
But Je fferson was wrong and the angels at the tomb were right: "He is not here, for he has risen, as he said" (Matthew 28:6).
How to respond
In his classic The Power of Prayer, R. A. Torrey warns that many Christians pray on the basis of their own merits. We attend worship services, read Scripture, and give money and time, so we think we deserve God's answers to our prayers. In fact, God answers our prayers only on the merits of Jesus' atoning grace. We are to pray "in his name" (John 14:13, 14), as though Jesus signed his name to our check so that we can draw on his account. There alone are the funds necessary for our needs.
Because of Easter, you can have a personal relationship with your holy Father and meet him in his throne room every day. Is he waiting on you today?
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