15:12 ¶ Now if Christ be preached
that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no
resurrection of the dead? 13 But if
there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: 14 And if Christ be not risen, then is
our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. 15 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God;
because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not
up, if so be that the dead rise not. 16
For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: 17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is
vain; ye are yet in your sins. 18 Then
they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ,
we are of all men most miserable.
If you remember the Sadducees sect of Judaism did not believe in
the world of the spirit or in the resurrection of the dead.
Acts 23:8 For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor
spirit: but the Pharisees confess both.
For a Christian not to believe in a physical resurrection was an
absurdity. Without the risen Christ there could be no promise of the
resurrection for us all. The Cross where the man who was also fully God offered
Himself up as a sacrifice for our sins against God and a propitiation to
Himself as God the Father to satisfy His own wrath for those sins would have
lacked any meaning if death was the end for mankind. The empty tomb, not a
philosophy of doing good, is the foundation on which Christianity rests. Those
who call themselves Christians merely because they believe that Christ was a
great teacher and the Golden Rule is a great thing to live by are not really
Christians, but simply follow a philosophy for living that justifies their
behavior in their own minds.
In addition, a key element of the Christian faith is a belief in a
physical, not merely a spiritual, resurrection. If Christ did not rise from the
dead then our faith is in vain and we are all lost forever.
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