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Saturday, March 22
For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruit, afterward the ones who belong to Christ at his coming ... (1 Corinthians 15:22-23)
My favorite story concerns a young man on his way home, late one dark, cloudy, moonless night. The hour was so late that he decided to take a shortcut through the local cemetery. He picked his way carefully from gravestone to gravestone, groping along in the dark. Suddenly he came upon a recently dug, open grave. He didn't see it in the night, and so he fell in, head over heels.
Instantly he sprang to his feet and tried to climb out, but the sides were too steep and slippery. He yelled for help, but the hour was too late and no one heard. Finally he decided to curl up in the corner and go to sleep until morning, when surely help would arrive.
He had no sooner done so than a second man took the same shortcut through the same cemetery, and fell into the same open grave. As he began yelling and thrashing about in the darkness, the noise awakened the first fellow. From the corner of this grave on this dark, cloudy, gloomy night the first man said to the second, "You can't get out of here." But he did.
Unfortunately, the story makes a relevant point. You and I are living in a graveyard today. Some are crying for help, some are trying to climb out on their own, some are sleeping, but all around us people are living in graves of sin and lostness and spiritual death.
Missions experts calculate that as many as two hundred million Americans are spiritually lost today. How many hundreds of lost and unchurched people will you pass on your drive to church next Sunday morning? How many lost people could you name right now?
When last did you pray for a lost person to find Christ? Who will be in heaven because of you?
What God's word means
When doctors in the 1800's began using chloroform to aid in childbirth, some theologians opposed the practice on the grounds that it conflicted with God's intention that women bear children "in pain" (Genesis 3:16). When oil was discovered in Pennsylvania, some ministers there warned that drilling would remove fuel left by God for the predestined burning of the world (2 Peter 3:10).
These are examples of "proof texting," taking a quote out of context to establish a proposition or doctrine. 1 Corinthians 15:22 is a prime candidate. Taken in isolation, it seems clearly to teach that everyone goes to heaven. All die ("everyone is in the process of dying") because we are in Adam, inheriting his sinful condition (cf. Romans 3:23, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"). So ("in the same way") all will be made alive ("all will be given life") in Christ as a result of his atoning grace. Every human is in Adam, so everyone must be in Christ.
This is an example of "Christian universalism," the assertion that everyone goes to heaven on the basis of Jesus' death and resurrection whether they have trusted in him or not. Just as millions of people who haven't heard of Jonas Salk have bene ted from the polio vaccine he developed, so billions of people who haven't heard of Jesus have bene ted from his death on their behalf—or so we're told.
However, verse 23 gives the lie to such a claim. Christ the fi rstfruit began the process of redemptive resurrection, then the ones who belong to Christ ("those who are of Christ") at his coming ("when he comes"; the Greek word was used for the arrival of a king). As Jesus is their head (Colossians 1:18), so they are his body (1 Corinthians 12:27). If the head is raised, the body must follow (cf. 1 Thessalonians 3:13; 4:16). But there is a crucial quali cation: only those who have made Jesus their Lord belong to him: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish" (John 10:27-28). Scripture clearly teaches that "whoever does not believe is condemned already" (John 3:18) and "will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power" (2 Thessalonians 1:9).
Both Adam and Jesus were progenitors of a new race. Those of the former are born into sin and death—those of the latter are born into salvation and eternal life. You were born naturally into the first race—you must be "born again" spiritually into the second (John 3:3). Your rst birth was the decision of your parents; your second birth is your decision alone.
Why Easter matters
Without the resurrection, we would all be in Adam but none could be in Christ. Jesus would be like Buddha, Zoroaster, the Prophet Muhammad and a host of other deceased religious leaders, none of whom had the power to forgive our sins and grant us salvation.
Today Muslims visit the remains of Muhammad in Medina. Baha'i visit their founder's body at the Shrine of the Bab in Haifa, Israel. Buddhists go to the Temple of the Tooth in Sri Lanka, where a tooth of the Buddha is kept. Confucianists visit the remains of Confucius in his hometown of Qufu, Shandong Province, China. But no one can visit the corpse of Jesus, because it has never been found.
If you are in Christ, your resurrection is as certain as his.
How to respond
Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish priest imprisoned by the Nazis in 1941 and sent to Auschwitz. When a man escaped from Barracks 14, ten prisoners were chosen to die in the starvation bunker. One of the ten began to grieve loudly for his wife and children, so Father Kolbe volunteered to take his place. He ministered to those alongside whom he suff ered, leading them in singing as their tortured days passed.
Finally a German doctor entered the bunker with lethal injections for the four who were still alive. He found Father Kolbe a living skeleton, propped against a wall. He had a smile on his face, his eyes wide open and fixed on a faraway vision. The doctor injected the priest, and in a moment he was dead.
Today visitors to the starvation bunker fi nd a large spray of fresh fl owers on its floor, next to a steady fl ame. It is burning today. It will burn forever. If Father Kolbe had died for you, would you ever doubt his love? If he had risen from the dead, what would you do to serve him today?
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