Two
weeks ago today our fifth child was born.
Two days before that, the school year began for my husband, a teacher,
and our two oldest children. My days are
full of baby-feeding, diaper changing, book reading, memory verse reciting,
lunch packing, dishwashing, laundry folding, and homework helping. Though I’m busy and my blessings are many, and
even though I know that motherhood is a high calling from the Lord, there are
still days when I crawl into bed exhausted and wondering if all my efforts
amount to anything. No doubt that
whatever your work is, you feel that way sometimes, too. Even wise, wealthy Solomon felt this way:
though he ruled an entire kingdom, he wrote the book of Ecclesiastes about the
vanity of man’s toil and of this earthly life.
So
today I’m thankful for the opportunity to reflect for a few moments on 1
Corinthians 15, a chapter with profound encouragement for the believer who is weary
in well doing. Your work and mine, no
matter how mundane it may seem, is not done in vain on account of the gospel of
our Lord Jesus Christ. The Corinthians
were saved by that same gospel, which Paul had preached unto them. The word “gospel” means “good news.” The gospel is the good news that you and I,
sinners who deserve eternal hell, have been forgiven the debt that we owe God. How? On
account of Jesus’ death on the cross. And
how can we be sure that Jesus’ death has merited salvation for us? God raised Him from the dead! Furthermore, writes Paul, He is the “first
fruits” of all who will rise again. In
other words, Paul asserts that Christ’s bodily resurrection ensures our bodily
resurrection.
And yet,
there were some in Corinth who denied the truth of the resurrection. To them Paul points out the foolishness of
living the Christian life without the hope of the resurrection. “Why,” he asks, “stand we in jeopardy every
hour?” Paul had repeatedly risked his
life for the sake of the gospel. For
many, even in our day, professing Jesus Christ means poverty and persecution. And for those of us who do not know profound poverty
or persecution, our Christian confession means we must deny ourselves the
sinful, self-absorbed lifestyles that appeal to our human natures. Essentially Paul asks, what would be the
point of sacrificing for the sake of the gospel, of living the Christian life,
if there were no resurrection? If we did
not believe that after we die we will be judged according to our work and
rewarded in glorious, eternal life, this life would indeed be meaningless. We see such hopelessness in those who have
the attitude to which Paul refers in verse 31 of this chapter: “Let us eat and
drink, for tomorrow we die.” In an
attempt to satisfy their longing for purpose, many turn to drugs, alcohol,
money, sex, sports, fame... And if we
are honest, we will confess that we are prone to such foolishness
ourselves.
“But
some will say, ‘How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?’” How can it be that a body that is buried in
the ground to decay will rise again? Our
bodies, writes Paul, are like a seed that is planted into the ground, only to
live again in a new, more glorious form.
“So also is the resurrection of the
dead. The body is sown in corruption, it
is raised in incorruption. It
is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is
raised in power. It
is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.”
When
I read verses 51-58 of this chapter, I am transported the hilltop cemetery that
overlooks the place where I grew up.
There my grandparents and infant sister are buried. I can hear the voices of former pastors
officiating at their gravesides, “O death, where is thy sting?” Death stings.
The apostle Paul does not deny this.
But though it stings, the believer has hope that is greater than that
sting, for we have the victory – the
promise of the resurrection of the body - through our Lord Jesus Christ.
“Therefore,
my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of
the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”
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