Monday, November 22, 2010

November 22

Today's reading from the One Year Bible Chronological Reading Plan is 1 Corinthians 14-15

In chapter 15 Paul deals with the Corinthians lack of understanding of the resurrection and how utterly crucial it is to the Christian faith.

Whether they actually refused to believe it, or simply wanted to reinterpret it (it was symbolic, blah blah blah) - something about their belief was wrong and Paul needed to correct it.

In his sermon Pity Not Them That Rise With Christ, John Piper points out 5 consequences listed by Paul if Christ is not raised from the dead.

First, if Christ did not rise from the dead than our preaching of the gospel is in vain and our witness is false.

Secondly, not only is our preaching in vain, but so is our faith. Without the resurrection our faith is worthless.

Third, if Christ did not rise, then His death accomplished nothing and we are still lost in our sins and under the wrath of God.

Fourth, which naturally follows the third, is that then the dead have perished and are eternally lost.

Fifth, if the resurrection did not happen, if we have simply fallen for a lie, then we are to be most pitied.

the great obstacle to a life of sacrificial, risk-taking love for other people is found in 1 Corinthians 15:32b: "If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die." In other words, without a hope for resurrection and everlasting joy with Christ we all tend to treat this life as a place where we have to squeeze out as much pleasure as we can and take as few risks as we can. Because there is nothing else.

But if Christ is raised, and if trusting him means that I will be raised with him, then this life is just a brief prelude to eternal life with Christ and ever-increasing joy with him. And if that is true, then Paul is no fool. His life of radical, risk-taking, sacrificial love is not to be pitied. Pity not them that rise with Christ......

Do you see the effect of believing in the resurrection – really believing, not just saying you believe it? Without the resurrection we tend to want our pleasures here and now, and so we avoid risk and danger and difficulty and pain and discomfort and frustration; and so our love is tame and bland and weak and cautious and timid.

But, Jesus says, if you believe that your joy in the resurrection will make up for a thousand losses and self-denials and sacrifices and dangers and risks here for the sake of love, then you will love people without a view to what you can get out of it here. It will be sustained by the joy set before you (see Hebrews 12:2). And that will be the kind of love that we all dream about from time to time.

We were made for it. Christ died and rose again to make it possible. Come to him. Trust him. The Bible says, "If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved" Romans 10:9 Saved from sin. Saved from judgment. Saved from a life of mere self-serving indulgence.

"If in this life only we have hoped in Christ we are of all men most to be pitied." But since Christ has been raised, and since by trusting in him we will be raised with him, then this life of radical, sacrificial love is not to be pitied. Pity not them who rise with Christ. (emphasis mine)

Obviously, belief in the resurrection is absolutely foundational to the Christian faith. But I love how Piper takes it further than that. When we truly believe in the resurrection of Christ, and, therefore, in our future resurrection - then self-denial, sacrifice and risk done in the name of Love is put into perspective and found to be worth it!

Tomorrow's passage: 1 Corinthians 16, Acts 19:21-20:6, Romans 1

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