The Resurrection and the Life to Come

What is the Christian hope? Would you say that the main Christian hope is that God forgives sin? What about that God loves sinners? Or maybe you’d say that the main Christian hope is that Christ will return.

Today we are concluding our year-long series and study through the Apostles’ Creed, and we’ve arrived at those final two phrases: We believe in… the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.

I’m going to argue today that the main Christian hope is summarized in these two phrases… that these phrases encompass – they draw together – all the promises that God has made in Christ for those who repent and believe.

I’m going to start by reading a lengthy passage from Scripture, 58 verses. 1 Corinthians 15 is not only a long chapter, its also the place in the Bible where we get the most comprehensive teaching on the resurrection. Of course, I will draw from other texts of the Bible as we go, but my aim today is to give an introductory explanation of what Christians believe about the resurrection and everlasting life.

At the conclusion of my sermon, I’ll lead us in observing the Lord’s Supper, which is itself a marvelous picture of the very Christian hope we’re focusing on today. Let’s all stand together as I read from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth. I’ll start with chapter 15, verse 1, and I’ll read all the way down to verse 58.

Scripture Reading

1 Corinthians 15:1–58 (ESV)

1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.

8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.

15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. 24 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.

25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. 28 When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.

29 Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf? 30 Why are we in danger every hour? 31 I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day! 32 What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” 33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” 34 Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.

35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” 36 You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.

39 For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 40 There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. 41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.

42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.

54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Main Idea:

We believe in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting for those who repent and believe in Jesus Christ.

Sermon

1. The Christian Hope

Resurrection from the dead is the defining Christian hope. Christianity is not fundamentally a religion that seeks to reform society, to redeem the culture, or to recover some lost golden age. Rather, the fundamental Christian hope, and that hope which separates Christianity from all other religions and philosophies, is the belief that God in Christ has reversed the curse of sin and that the same Jesus who conquered death will one day resurrect all those who repent and believe in Him. Resurrection from the dead is the sort of climactic and central feature of an entire renewal of all creation, which Christ will bring to full completion in the end.

Paul says in v13-14, “if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” And v17, “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.” And v19, “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.”

John Gill (a prominent English Baptist pastor and theologian from the 1700s) commented on this passage, saying, “The object of a believer’s hope is not any creature, man, or angel; nor any creature-enjoyment, as gold and silver; nor any creature-righteousness, moral, legal, and civil; nor any external privilege… but Christ alone as a surety, Saviour, and Redeemer; his person, blood, righteousness, sacrifice, and fullness: and what [Christians] hope for in him are, all grace, and the supplies of it; the forgiveness of their sins, the justification of their persons, eternal life and salvation; grace here, and glory hereafter… but if their hope in him was only in this life… if they had not hope in death, that they should live again… we are of all men the most miserable…”

Gill went on, “[This is] true of all… that hope in Christ, and believe in him; for these not only deny themselves the pleasures, honours, and profits of this world, but are exposed continually to the hatred, reproach, and persecution of it… they are harassed and distressed by Satan, who follows them with his temptations and suggestions, which are so many fiery darts, which give them great pain and uneasiness… they groan under a body of sin they carry about with them, and desire… to be unclothed [from this body of death], that they might be clothed upon with glory and immortality; and yet these very desires and earnest longings after a blessed eternity do but add to their misery…”[i] if their hope is only in this life.

Friends, the Christian’s basic posture toward this world and this life and the pleasures of it is not as an ambitious-resident but as a suspicious-pilgrim. Christians live in a world that is not our home, and all that we observe and experience is likely to deceive us, since we are prone to value the temporal over the eternal, the convenient over the costly, the luxurious over the virtuous.

This is not to say that there is nothing of the good, the true, or the beautiful in our world, but it is to say that the post-Genesis-3 effects are so pervasive (both in us and in the world around us) that we are more likely to be corrupted and afflicted by the stuff of this world than we are to gain great benefits from it.

The Christian hope, the Christian longing, then, is not that we will be able to make a safe and comfortable and virtuous home in this world. Christians are never instructed in the Bible to expect a reformation of society or a renewal of the culture, nor are Christians ever taught to expect that this present world will grant us circumstances that will make it easy to resist sin or to pursue personal holiness.

Rather, the Christian hope is that Jesus Christ now reigns over this sinful world, and He Himself is working out God’s plan to renew it, which He will bring to full completion on the last day, when He will resurrect all those who repent and believe, and He will remake the heavens and the earth in such a way that there will be no more sin, but only righteousness and glory and joy forevermore.

Christianity is not a religion of escapism (caring nothing for the present world), but neither is is a religion of activism (a political or social effort to establish a utopia). Rather, Christianity is a religion grounded in the hope that God will resurrect dead sinners and bring them into a new world where they will be with God (as humans were created to be) and God will forever be with His people.

And this future expectation is based upon an historic and present reality…

2. The Historic Reality

The Christian hope of resurrection in the future is entirely dependent upon the reality that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead in real history. Christians are not just wishful thinkers, hoping for a future resurrection that may or may not come. And Christians are not defeatist in their present outlook, because we live in a time when God has already begun to renew all things in Christ.

Let’s look again at v19. Paul said, “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. 20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (v19-20)! Here is the profound and central claim of Christianity… and note that it is a claim about real history. Indeed, the historical reality of the resurrection of Christ is the central feature of Paul’s summary of the gospel at the opening of this chapter.

Paul says, in v1, “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you… 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve” (v1-5).

The gospel message is an announcement that God – in real history – has made good on His promise to save sinners by way of a resurrected Redeemer! Notice too the repeated phrase, “in accordance with the Scriptures” (v3, 4). This means that Christ’s resurrection is not only an historic event that occurred at that pivotal moment which divides our calendar between B.C. and A.D., but Christ’s death and resurrection are the culmination of what God had been doing in real history since Adam in the Garden and throughout the Old Testament age.

Before the creation of the world, God had already planned the fall of Genesis 3, the establishment of a nation under the Mosaic covenant, the repeated failures of ancient Israel, the incarnation of the God-man (Jesus Christ), and the salvation of sinners through His person and work! And this plan does not end with the personal forgiveness of sins, its terminal point is the full recovery of all that was lost in Genesis 3, only better! Since the life that repenting and believing sinners have in Christ is abundant and everlasting… it will never be lost!

Friends, Christians believe in the resurrection of the body because God has already demonstrated that death has been defeated in the person and work of Christ! Jesus died and was raised to life again, and He stands as the brilliant light of God’s entrance into human history, God’s glorious display of His intention to justify, to sanctify, and to glorify a people for His great name (Rom. 8:28-30).

Furthermore, Christians believe that Christ is reigning now, over this present sinful world, because He has personally conquered that “last enemy” of sinful humans, “death” itself (v26). Indeed, as v25 says, “he [Christ] must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” This is both the historic and the present reality.

This means that the Christian hope is not only for a future resurrection, but also that Jesus Christ (our gracious and victorious Savior and Lord) is the one who rules and reigns over all creation now. Christians may live as pilgrims in this world, and we are in one sense foreigners in a strange land; but Christians also live as citizens of the true King, among a rebellious people who are now and will forever be under His sovereign authority. All that we experience, all that we endure, all that we suffer unjustly, it is all according to God’s divine plan in Christ to bring about His good ends… for our joy and for His glory.

Because Christ has been raised, Christians can endure whatever circumstances this world may throw at us, because we know that there is coming a day when Christ Himself will raise us up from the worst enemy of all and bring us into the glory we were made to enjoy. Because Christ has been raised, sinners can know that God will welcome them into His presence through the sacrifice Christ has offered upon the cross. Because Christ has been raised, Christians can boldly invite other sinners to turn from their sin and believe the message of the gospel, so that they too might be resurrected to everlasting life in Christ.

But, of course, there is an implied warning in this announcement as well. All shall be resurrected in the end, but some to eternal death and others to eternal life.

3. Resurrection to Death

In the end, all the dead shall be raised, and some will enter into everlasting death. This is a hard truth; it is a heartbreaking and an offensive truth. But it is necessary that we believe this doctrine, and it is beneficial for us to think about it more often than many of us probably do.

On a quick side note, I do not have time this morning to address several important matters which all fall under the heading of the Bible’s teaching on the final resurrection of both the wicked and the righteous. Will all the dead and the living be resurrected at the same time? What is the state of those who have died already? How does one’s eschatology (the doctrine of last things) affect answers to such questions?

All of this is important, and it all deserves more time and effort to discover biblical answers. I can say briefly that all Christians, whatever their eschatological view, agree that there is a final resurrection of all the living and the dead. I can also say that those who have already died are now tasting of what they shall experience to the full on that last day, some tasting of horror and others tasting of glory.

Those who are apart from Christ are tormented now, but what we usually think of as “hell” is what the book of Revelation calls “the lake that burns with fire and sulfur” (Rev. 21:8). This is, the Bible says, “the second death” (Rev. 21:8).

Paul doesn’t mention “hell” or “the second death” in his letter to the church of Corinth, but that’s because he was writing to Christians about the gospel and the Christian hope of resurrection. However, the Bible does speak a good bit about “hell” and about the eternal conscious torment of those who continue in sin and remain in unbelief. In fact, as has been noted many times before, Jesus preached more about “hell” than He did about “heaven” during His earthly ministry.

Jesus taught that “hell” is where sinners of all sorts go as a punishment for breaking God’s law (Matt. 5:22, 5:29, 5:30). Jesus taught that physical death is a far less fearful thing than the “destruction” or “loss” of the “soul” in “hell” (Matt. 10:28). And Jesus also taught that those who do not know or do not believe the gospel are already judged as deserving “hell” (Matt. 23:33).

The simple and unavoidable fact is that God is infinitely glorious, infinitely holy, and infinitely deserving of our worship, our honor, and our obedience; and yet, we (like all sinners) worship creation, not the Creator… we think and speak and act in ways that dishonor God… and we not only fail to obey Him, but we also regularly set our minds on disobedience against His good and right commands.

Friends, what is a just and holy God to do with guilt-ridden and defiant sinners? He must deliver justice; and, therefore, as the Scripture says, “the Lord Jesus [will be] revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel… They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might…” (2 Thess. 1:7-10). In other words, on the last day, Christ Himself will deliver the judgment of God, and those who “do not know God” and who “do not obey the gospel” will be raised with a body that will be able to experience “eternal destruction” and “suffer” punishment “away from the presence of the Lord” forever.

I regularly revisit Jonathan Edwards’s sermon, called Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, wherein he summarizes the situation like this: “So… it is that natural men are held in the hand of God over the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it; and God is dreadfully provoked… and they have done nothing in the least to appease or abate [His] anger, neither is God in the least bound by any promise to hold them up for one moment: the devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up; the fire pent up in their own hearts is struggling to break out; and they have no interest in any Mediator, there are no means within reach that can be any security to them. In short, they have no refuge, nothing to take hold of; all that preserves them every moment is the mere arbitrary will, and… [the unobligated restraint] of an incensed God.”[ii]

Such is the present situation and the future resurrection unto death for all those apart from Christ… but not so for those who repent and believe.

4. Resurrection to Life

Anytime we might give to thinking about or meditating on the resurrection unto life that is promised for those in Christ, it would be a joyful exercise. But I hope it will be all the more joyful and hopeful for us now, since we have such a dark and horrifying backdrop spread out behind this glorious doctrine. All sinners deserve the resurrection unto death that we’ve just been talking about… but praise God (!) that He does not give every sinner what he or she deserves!

As we read in 1 Corinthians 15:56-57, “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Death is what we deserve, and not just physical but spiritual death (i.e., eternal death), because we are sinners. Sin’s power and curse upon us is just and right because the law of God speaks a condemning word over us – sinner, unrighteous, unholy, guilty. BUT thanks be to God! There is another word – a word of victory and of life – spoken through our Lord Jesus Christ over all who look to Him with repentance and faith!

Let’s look back now at v20, where we saw Christ’s own resurrection as the touchstone for the resurrection unto life that is to come for all Christians, and let’s see how Paul explains it. I’m simply going to follow the high-points of Paul’s argument, avoiding entirely that stuff he says about “being baptized on behalf of the dead” (v29), because I don’t know what in the world that means.

v20, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead” (v20-21). These two men are Adam and Christ. One was the first to sin and brought death to all who follow him; this, of course, is Adam. But Christ is the second man, and all “those who belong” to Him shall “be made alive” at “his coming,” just as He Himself was resurrected from the dead (v22-23).

As I briefly said earlier, those who have already died are now presently tasting of the experience that is theirs yet to come in full. For those who have “died in Christ” (1 Thess. 4:16), those repenting and believing sinners, those who have loved the Lord Jesus in this life and are with Him now at the Father’s side, they will one day soon be raised along with all other Christians who live between this day and that final one.

“But,” Paul anticipates the question in v35, “someone will ask, ‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?’” And he explains, God grants to various created things different kinds of bodies with different kinds of glory. “So is it with the resurrection of the dead,” Paul says, in v42. Our mortal bodies are “perishable,” “dishonorable,” “weak,” and “natural” (v42-44). But the resurrected bodies of believers will be “imperishable,” “glorious,” “powerful,” and “spiritual” (v42-44).

We need to point out here, however, that “spiritual” in this case does not mean non-physical. The way Paul is using the term here is more like contrasting “earthly” and “heavenly,” which is the way he says it in v49. “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust [i.e., Adam, who was earthly], we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven [i.e., Christ, who was bodily raised from the dead]” (v49).

And this bodily resurrection to life everlasting will happen “at the last trumpet” (v52). Paul says, “for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed” (v52). And it is on that last day, v54, “When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’” (v54-55).

Friends, this is the Christian hope! This is the eager anticipation for all those who believe the gospel and live as Christ-followers today! We are looking forward to that day when Christ shall come with a shout of victory, when He shall give us the ability to speak to all the effects of sin and even to death itself and say, “O death, where is your sting?”

Conclusion

Since the very beginning of Christianity, Christians have believed in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting for those who repent and believe in Jesus Christ. Christians have believed this because the author and finisher of our faith was Himself raised from the dead, and because He promised that He would raise to life everlasting all who turn from their sin and trust Him.

But, as I’ve briefly said already, this hope-filled expectation of resurrection does not mean that Christians ought to live as escapists in this world. Look down at v58 with me. Paul says, “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”

Brothers and sisters, believing in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting gives us stability in this world, because we know there is coming a day when Christ shall judge all things as they truly are. We can be immovable in our hope, regardless of our circumstances, because we know that whatever we’re facing is only temporary, and there is a life to come that is eternal. We can give ourselves away, working in all things as unto the Lord, even suffering loss and enduring all manner of affliction, because we know that the Lord Himself is keeping score, and nothing done in service to Him is done in vain.

May God help us to believe in these central Christian doctrines – the resurrection of the body and life everlasting – and may God help us to be the sort of persevering and hopeful and active Christians in the world that such belief ought to produce.

Endnotes

[i] Gill, 730. [ii] Edwards, 9.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Edwards, Jonathan. The Works of Jonathan Edwards. Vol. 2. Banner of Truth Trust, 1974.

Gill, John. An Exposition of the New Testament. Vol. I–III. The Baptist Commentary Series. London: Mathews and Leigh, 1809.

Holcomb, Justin S. Know the Creeds and Councils. Know Series. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014.

Mohler Jr., R. Albert. The Apostles’ Creed: Discovering Authentic Christianity in an Age of Counterfeits. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2019.

Packer, J. I. Affirming the Apostles’ Creed. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2008.

Sproul, R. C., ed. The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version. 2015 Edition. Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2015.

Spurgeon, Charles. 300 Sermon Illustrations from Charles Spurgeon. Edited by Elliot Ritzema and Lynnea Smoyer. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2017.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016.

Witsius, Herman, and Donald Fraser. Sacred Dissertations, on What Is Commonly Called the Apostles’ Creed. Vol. 2. London: Khull, Blackie & Co., 1823.