About this sermon
1. Understand the principle of representation. (v. 12)
2. Consider some of the practical implications of this doctrine. (v. 12)
Sermon transcript
Friends, please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word. We take a little break this morning from the Foundations of Faith series that I’ve been preaching on, using the Apostles’ Creed as a guide to that series. But even though we’re taking a break from that sermon series this morning, we are considering a foundational passage, a passage that deals with a very foundational aspect of our faith, our Christian faith, and that is 1 Corinthians 15, verses 21 through 22. Now I’m gonna read the first 28 verses of this chapter to give us the fuller context. It’s a very important portion of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. So let us hear God’s holy word. But again, our focus will be on verses 21 and 22, but I’m gonna read the first 28 verses. And you’ll find this, by the way, on page 1142 in your Pew Bible.
Dear friends, hear the word of God. Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I deliver to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared also to me.
For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 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. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believed. Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But 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. 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.
For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ, then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.
For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 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 has accepted who put all things in subjection under Him. 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. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for the Lord to bless the preaching of His Word. Our gracious Lord and Father in heaven, we would ask that by your spirit you would attend the preaching of your word this day.
We pray that you would give us the grace to hear and receive that which the spirit is speaking to us in this portion of your God-breathed, inerrant, infallible word. And we ask that you would set a guard over my lips, Lord, that I, your unworthy servant, may speak only that which is faithful to the word, edifying to your saints and glorifying to your holy name. Be with us now, Lord. Open our minds to behold wondrous things from your word. We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said. Amen. Congregation, you may be seated. If you have your sermon outlined, you’ll notice there are four key words you can be listening for in my sermon this morning if you find that helpful in following along. Those words are, of course, resurrection, gospel, representative, and hope.
Well, dear friends, I’m not an expert in home building, but I imagine that any competent home builder knows that the stability of a house depends upon the stability of its foundation. A house that is not built on a firm foundation will not stand in the face of severe weather. For example, in areas of the country which experience hurricanes and tornadoes on a regular basis, why is it that mobile homes usually seem to be the homes which experience the most damage? Well, the answer would clearly seem to be that these homes usually do not have the kind of solid foundation that ordinary homes do. Well, dear listener, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, if Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior, then it’s important for you to check the spiritual foundation upon which you are building the house, if you will, the house of your Christian faith.
The stability of your faith in Christ and the stability of your Christian life will depend, in large part, upon the strength of your spiritual foundation. If your professed Christian faith is built upon a foundation which includes, for example, such things as false doctrines or unbiblical ideas or mere human traditions, worldly wisdom, legalistic tendencies, and so forth, Well, then you’ll find yourself being tossed about by every wind of doctrine. You’ll find yourself unstable in your faith because you’re not rooted and founded on a solid foundation. And you’ll be blown about by every wind of doctrine, just like a small rudderless boat tossed about by the giant waves of the ocean. Unless your Christian faith is built upon the solid rock foundation of sound Bible doctrine, you will find your stability in Christ easily upset. And friends, this is why it’s so important for us as believers to review those basic foundational truths of the gospel from time to time.
Those truths by which we are saved through the work and grace of the Holy Spirit who applies those truths to our hearts and lives. Friends, few Bible truths are more foundational, more fundamental than the glorious gospel truth of Jesus Christ’s literal, physical, bodily, supernatural resurrection from the dead. Christ is risen. And when we say Jesus is risen, we mean it. We’re not just talking mumbo jumbo. We’re not just talking in metaphors or myths or symbols. Jesus of Nazareth, who was literally crucified, literally buried on the third day, he vacated the tomb in which they buried him. Jesus is risen. Jesus is Lord. In fact, the resurrection of Jesus is such an important gospel truth that you cannot honestly call yourself a Christian, at least not in any kind of meaningful historical sense of that term, nor can you expect to go to heaven unless you believe this divinely revealed truth.
As the Word of God teaches in places like Romans 10, verse 9, it says in that passage, Wonderful gospel promise there, that if you confess with your lips the Lordship, the divine Lordship of Jesus, and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. You will be saved by the person and work of Jesus Christ as He’s offered to you in the Gospel. But friends, a clear implication of that passage is that if you do not acknowledge Christ’s divine Lordship nor believe in His resurrection from the dead, then you will not be saved. So as you can see, the historical fact of Jesus Christ’s bodily resurrection from the dead, and therefore the significance of that fact in our lives as believers, are absolutely foundational to the Christian message. Absolutely foundational to the message of the gospel.
This is what makes the gospel What, children, what does the word gospel mean? It means good news. This is what makes the Christian message, a gospel, such good news. On this Lord’s Day, known as Easter Sunday, it is well for us to consider some foundational truths related to the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Namely, we are gonna consider today the truths of our death in Adam, on the one hand, and our resurrection in Christ, on the other hand. Now before we get to the main thrust of our passage for today, it’s important to put our passage in its context. And so let me kind of give you some background information about 1 Corinthians. It’s very important background information. In the Apostle Paul’s first letter, his first epistle to the Corinthians, he addresses a number of very serious problems that were being experienced in the Corinthian church, the first century church of Corinth.
And dear ones, as we consider some of these problems, we really need to throw out the commonly held idea that the age of the earliest apostolic church was somehow a pristine golden age of church history, as if, you know, oh, if we could just go back to the apostolic church, if we could just go back to being like the earliest Christians, everything would kind of be better in the church. Well, friends, The truth is that the early church had many of the same kinds of problems that the church today faces. And really, that shouldn’t surprise you, because after all, the church back then was full of sinners, just as the church today is full of sinners. And what is a sinner? A sinner is one who has missed the mark, one who has not perfectly obeyed God’s law with all heart, soul, mind, and strength, one who has missed the mark and fallen short of the glory of God.
And we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And so the church is a hospital for sinners. It’s not an exclusive club. It’s not a holy club for those who have their lives all put together. Well, we certainly see that in the Corinthian church. The Corinthian church was in fact a perfect example of the imperfection of the church in the apostolic age. This body of believers in Corinth had really a long list of problems that the apostle Paul set out to address in his first epistle. If you read through 1 Corinthians, you’ll see these problems coming to the forefront. For example, there was division and a spirit of sectarianism in that church. There appears to have been a lack of respect among these believers for the God-given authority that Paul had as an apostle of Jesus Christ.
Now, Paul deals with that lack of respect and that questioning of his apostolic authority. He deals with that more directly in 2 Corinthians, but it still is implied here in 1 Corinthians. Not only that, there was some sexual immorality in the church at Corinth. In fact, a degree of sexual immorality that would have made the Corinthian Christians’ pagan neighbors blush Some of the Corinthians were actually taking each other to court before pagan civil authorities instead of dealing with and working out their differences in a biblical Christ-like way. Some of the Corinthian believers were thinking about divorcing their unbelieving spouses. Some of them even apparently were still participating at the pagan temples in pagan feasts which involved them in idolatry, in the worship of idols. Even add on to that, some of the Corinthian Christians were getting drunk during their celebrations of the Lord’s Supper.
Need I go on? I mean, friends, this was a church with some major, major pastoral and Christian lifestyle problems, if you will. We might describe the church in Corinth or at least the church culture of that congregation in modern terms, we would use the term dysfunctional. This was a highly dysfunctional, disordered church. But one of the biggest problems in the Corinthian church, this troubled church, was a doctrinal problem, a theological problem. Yes, there were practical pastoral problems. There were problems of sinful lifestyles and so forth. But there was also a major doctrinal problem, a problem that Paul spends the whole of chapter 15 dealing with. In this long chapter, Paul addresses some false ideas about the doctrine of the resurrection of the body, false ideas that were beginning to have an influence among the believers in this congregation.
You see, apparently, some of the Corinthian believers were saying that there was no resurrection of the dead, or at least they were questioning the resurrection of the dead. Now a few Bible scholars think that what this means is that the Corinthians were saying that Christ’s resurrection was not physical in nature. They were denying Christ’s bodily resurrection from the dead. And they would, I think this is the minority view, a minority view among Bible scholars, but it kind of traces back to this idea that is rooted in ideas that floated out there in Greek philosophy. In Greek philosophy at that time, there was this idea that the body was a prison house for the soul. And in this kind of mindset, the goal of salvation is to be delivered from the prison house of the soul.
The idea is you want your soul to be separated and freed from the body. And so according to this view, the body was either evil or at least far inferior to the soul. And so certainly if you deny the goodness of the human body, why would you believe in the resurrection of Christ’s body? But other Bible scholars think that these Corinthians were not denying Christ’s bodily resurrection, only they were denying the resurrection of believers at the end of this age. They were denying the bodily resurrection of believers on the final day, when Jesus returns in glory and raises us from the dead. In other words, they didn’t deny the bodily resurrection of Christ, but they said that the Christians’ only experience of resurrection is a spiritual resurrection. Perhaps they believed that this spiritual resurrection took place at their baptism.
Well, whatever the case may be, I believe that this interpretation makes better sense of what Paul is arguing in this chapter. He’s basically saying, look, if you deny in principle the future general resurrection of the dead at the end of this age, because you have problems with the resurrection of the body, then look, if there’s no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised from the dead. And there are all kinds of negative implications to that. Now after, in terms of a survey or an overview of this chapter, after Paul reviews the gospel that he had preached to them, and he does so, he summarizes in a encapsulated form the gospel that he preached in verses three through eight, Paul then goes on in verse 13 to say, but if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.
Paul then goes on to explain the logical implications of denying the bodily resurrection of believers. Look at verses 14 through 20. He writes as follows, and if Christ has not been raised, then what? Then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. Friends, if Jesus is not literally physically raised from the dead, then you’re wasting your time being here today. You might as well go and celebrate the Easter bunny and forget about celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. Because if Christ is not raised, Christian preaching is vanity. It’s futile. It’s worthless. Verse 15. He goes on to say, we, meaning we apostles and we preachers of the gospel, 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.
If Jesus has not risen from the dead, Paul was a liar, I am a liar, Christian preachers who preach the resurrection are liars. They’re misrepresenting God. That’s a pretty serious accusation, a pretty serious implication if there is no resurrection of the body and thus no resurrection of Christ’s body. Verse 16, for if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, here he brings it home. He says, here are the implications for you. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. You’re still dead in your trespasses and sins, headed for divine judgment. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ, he’s using a euphemism there for death. Those who have died, those Christians who have died, have perished.
If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. You see, friends, the resurrection of the body is a doctrine that is absolutely essential to the Christian gospel. Because without the resurrection of the body, there is no resurrection of Christ’s body. And the bodily resurrection of Christ is a foundational, fundamental truth of the gospel. It’s because Christ has been raised from the dead that we can be assured that death will not have the final say for us and for those of our loved ones and friends who die in the Lord. Friends, if there is no resurrection of Christ, there is no gospel. Good news. And if there’s no gospel, there is no salvation. And if there is no salvation, then all hope is gone. Only darkness remains.
All is lost. And we must all perish in our sins. But thanks be to God. that though all have died in Adam, in Christ all whom he represented will be made alive. And that brings us to verse 21. that we are considering today. As Paul writes, for as by a man came death, who do you think that’s talking about? That’s Adam, that’s the original Adam. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. Who’s that? That’s talking about Christ. So let’s consider these two verses now and see what they have to teach us about our death in Adam and our resurrection in Christ as we consider some points of application from our passage for today. And if you’re following along in your sermon outline, this is the first point here.
Beloved, understand the principle of representation. If we’re gonna understand what Paul is saying here, we need to understand the principle of representation. We must understand this principle, or else the glory of Christ’s resurrection will not impact us the way that it ought to. Picture, if you will, a family here in the United States, and a young boy in that family asks his father, Daddy, why am I an American citizen? His father answers, son, you’re an American citizen because you were born into an American family, or in the case of a child who’s been adopted, you’ve been adopted into an American family. Because his parents, in a sense, represent him and have authority over him, legal authority over him, he shares in their citizenry. That’s one mundane, earthly example of representation. We who are parents, in a very real sense, represent legally and otherwise we represent our children.
We see this principle of representation on the sports field as well. Let’s say you’re part of a baseball team and it’s time for a game and you’re in the locker room. What do you do? You put on your team’s uniform. And as you wear your team’s uniform and you go out, into the field and play that game, while you are in your team’s uniform, on the field, engaged in that game, you are representing your team. Or think of our political representatives. Why is it that we, in our American system of government, elect our politicians, elect our congressmen and so forth? Well, we elect them to represent us, to speak for us in the halls of power. I know that they don’t always do that in the way that we might hope for them to do, but that’s the way it’s supposed to work, at least. they represent us.
And so these are just a few of many examples that could be given of corporate representation. And what is true in terms of the corporate reality of representation on the earthly mundane field is also true in the higher realm when we’re talking about spiritual and covenantal realities with respect to our relationship with God and His gift of salvation. And we learn in the Bible, we learn in the Word of God that there are basically two representative men. There is Adam and there is Christ. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 verses 21 and 22, he says, for as by a man came death, By a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. You see, God appointed Adam as the original covenant head and representative of the human race. And so when Adam acted, when he disobeyed God, when he neglected to remain faithful to God and to guard the Garden of Eden from the incursions of Satan, and when he was put to the test by the snake, was by Satan through the snake, and was told to eat the forbidden fruit, and he caved to that temptation.
When he acted in rebellion against God and in rebellion against God’s word, he acted as our spokesman, our covenant head and representative. And so therefore, what are the wages of sin? The wages of sin is death. In Adam, we died. In Adam, we are fallen. As Paul says here in verse 21, for as by a man came death, it doesn’t stop there. Aren’t you glad? The wages of sin is death. As by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. And by the way, by implication, if you deny the covenant representation, the covenant headship of Adam, in order to be consistent, you would have to also deny the covenant headship of Christ. And that is to deny his saving work. Because Jesus died for his own sin? No, he didn’t have any sin.
He was the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. The Word made flesh. He was without sin when He died on the cross. Why did He die on the cross then? He died, brothers and sisters, for our sins. He took our place. He took the punishment we deserve. And the Father, out of love for us, sent His Son. It’s not that Jesus died to make an angry God loving. That’s a misrepresentation of the biblical doctrine of the atonement. No. It was the Father’s love that moved Him to send His Son. As it says in Romans 5, verse 8, God’s love is demonstrated in this, that while we were yet sinners, not good people, not people who had it together, while we were yet sinners, Christ did what for us? Christ died for us in our place, in our stead.
And so we see the two representative men, Adam and Christ. And Paul fleshes this out in more detail in Romans 5, verses 12 through 21. Let me just read that passage very quickly. Romans 5, verses 12 through 21. Paul writes this, or the Holy Spirit through Paul says the following. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, again, the original Adam, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned, For sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. There’s a parallel there, in other words, between Adam and Christ, between the first Adam and Jesus, the last Adam.
But notice the contrast, verse 15, but the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. and the free gift is not like the results of the one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if because of one man’s trespass death reigned through that one man, much more, Will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through that one man, Jesus Christ? Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification in life for all men. For as by one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. You see there. the back and forth and how Paul both compares and contrasts the first Adam, the first representative man, and Jesus, the second representative man. Now getting back to our passage for today, if you look at verse 22 in 1 Corinthians 15, it says this, all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” This verse makes it clear, beloved, that Paul uses the terms Adam and Christ to refer to real historical individuals. In other words, Adam, the first Adam, is just as historical as Jesus Christ, the last Adam. And that’s important because many folks today, especially in liberal theology, try to dismiss the historicity of the original Adam.
They deny the historical Adam and Eve. They say, well, you know, that’s just a story. That’s just a metaphor or a myth. The word Adam in the Hebrew means man. That’s one way to translate it. And so they say, well, Adam is not a real individual man. He represents every man, they would say. Well, he does represent every man. The reason he’s able to do that is because he himself was a real man, just as Christ himself was a real historical individual. So consider what these two representative men obtain on behalf of those whom they represent. What do we learn from this passage here in 1 Corinthians 15 and from the parallel passage that I read to you in Romans chapter five? Well, think about it, brothers and sisters. In Adam, the original covenant head and representative man, in Adam, we are fallen and sinful.
But in Christ, we who believe in him as Savior and Lord, we are redeemed by his grace and spiritually raised to newness of life. In Adam, we lost original righteousness. God created Adam righteous and holy, yet capable of falling into sin through his own free will. And sadly, he did abuse his free will and fell into sin. In Adam, In Adam, we lost that original righteousness, but in Christ, we are given as a gift his perfect righteousness. The guilt of Adam’s sin is imputed to us, that’s the bad news, but in Christ, the guilt of both original and actual sin is fully atoned for, and Christ’s perfect, everlasting righteousness is credited to us, imputed as it were to our spiritual account. In Adam, we are sinners. But in Christ, by faith in Him, we are saints, set-apart ones, indwelt by the Spirit of God.
In Adam, we are slaves to the power and dominion of sin. But in Christ, brothers and sisters, we are, in principle at least, we are freed from the power and dominion of sin. Sin need no longer be our slave master. because we’ve been raised to newness of life in Christ. In Adam, we are subject to the just penalty for sin. In Christ, we are freed from the penalty of sin and made heirs of eternal life. In Adam, we face a dreadful resurrection unto condemnation if we remain in Adam. We face a dreadful resurrection unto damnation, but in Christ, if we are in Him, united to Him by faith, we look forward to a resurrection unto life eternal. Now notice, by the way, who these representative men actually represent. Look at verse 22. It says, for as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
Now let me just say something. Some folks who hold to the view known as universalism, which is the view that in the end, everybody will be saved. They have a certain view of universal atonement that says, well, because Jesus died for everyone, they say, and therefore, everyone will be saved. And it’s different from Arminianism, which teaches that yes, Jesus died to make salvation possible for everyone, but only those who believe will be saved. We say that Christ died. Christ’s death is of infinite value, but he died specifically to save those who would come to believe in him, the elect. John 3.16 makes that clear. God so loved the world. How does God demonstrate his saving love for the world? Well, he gives his son so that whoever believes in him Whoever believes in him, that’s a limited group of people, might not perish but have eternal life.
But our universalist friends will latch onto this verse and say, aha, see, it says in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive, right? It’s the same all. But what they neglect to do is to read on. to the context, in the context of verse 23, where it says, That qualifies the all that Paul is referring to back in verse 22. In Adam, all without qualification died. But in Christ, all who by grace come to believe in him as Lord and Savior, those who belong to him will not perish, but will live. Again, this passage does not teach universal salvation. The all whom Christ makes alive are from the perspective of divine sovereignty. They are all whom the father has given to his son, those whom Christ refers to as his sheep or the elect.
But from the perspective of human responsibility, it includes all who repent of their sin and by faith are incorporated into Christ. Dear listener, who is today your representative man? Adam or Christ? If you’re not sure, I’ve got good news for you. Jesus says, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. The Bible says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Christ died to save all who through his mercy come to trust in him as Lord and Savior. Jesus died on the cross for our sins. He rose from the dead so that all who believe in him might not perish. but have everlasting life. Repent and believe in Christ. Turn to Christ as your savior from sin today. You might say, well, pastor, does that mean I have to clean up my life first?
No, come as you are. He’ll clean up your life. He’ll change your life. But come recognizing, acknowledging your sin, acknowledging your shortcomings, humbling yourself before the Lord. Receive and rest upon Christ for salvation. And the word of God says that you will be saved. Now as we close our time in the Word today, I want to just close with a few of the practical implications of this doctrine. There are many that could be mentioned, but a few I want to mention as we close our time. First of all, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you’ve trusted Christ as your Lord and Savior, the truth of our Lord’s resurrection from the dead, and the truth of our union with Him and being represented by Him. This should be a tremendous encouragement to you, because Christ’s resurrection guarantees your own participation in the resurrection of life.
Jesus makes this clear in passages, for example, like John chapter 5, verses 26 to 29. We read these words. Jesus says, For as the father has life in himself, so he has granted the son to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the son of man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. And of course, we only do good by the grace of God, that’s the fruit of a true and living faith. And if you are in Christ, you are promised that you will be raised in the resurrection of life.
And that should be a source of great comfort and encouragement to you. Believer, you should also be comforted about those friends and loved ones of yours who have died in the Lord. We’ve all probably, most of us I imagine, have been to a funeral service. We’ve all lost friends, loved ones, co-workers, whatever, and we all know the experience of grieving the loss of loved ones. But if your loved one is a believer in Christ, if your loved one is in the Lord, then you need not grieve as those who have no hope. For friends, Jesus rose from the dead. That means not only that you, believer, will rise from the dead, but that your believing departed loved one. will be raised as well at the end of this age, and you’ll get to see that loved one again.
You know, the most glorious thing about heaven and about living in the new heavens and the new earth after the resurrection of the dead at the end of this age, the most glorious thing is that we’ll get to be with Jesus. That’s the most glorious thing. People say, will I get to see aunt or uncle so-and-so when I go to heaven? Well, yes. But the greatest thing about heaven is that we’ll get to see Jesus. But a secondary blessing is that we’ll also get to see those loved ones and friends who were near and dear to us who died in the Lord. And so this should give you comfort and hope for those friends and loved ones are now with the Lord and will one day participate with you in the resurrection of life. This truth also gives us even more reason to cast off pride and to put on the mantle of humility.
For our salvation is all of God’s grace and all because of Christ and His work. For Christ represented you and me, brothers and sisters, in His life, in His death, and in His resurrection. We have nothing to boast in except in the Lord. So may the truth of our Lord’s resurrection humble us before Him. But finally, the resurrection can give us strength and peace to face the sufferings and struggles of aging and death. You know, sometimes the older years are referred to as what? The golden years. But they’re not always very golden, are they? It’s hard to grow old. It’s hard to face the prospect of death. It’s a source of great anxiety, but we need not fear the grim reaper. for we know that he will not have the final say. We know that in Christ we will be raised.
So let us live with confidence and hope. Christ is risen. Christ is risen indeed. Hallelujah. Amen. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you have given your son Jesus to represent us. We thank you that Jesus obeyed the law for us in our place and in our stead, thereby making up for all of our disobedience to your law. We thank you that he stretched out his arms upon the hardwood of the cross and took the penalty that we deserve for our sin upon himself. He absorbed your holy and righteous wrath against our sin. He took that upon himself so that we might be spared. We thank you, Heavenly Father, that you have raised Jesus, our Savior, your divine, eternal Son from the dead. and that we, united to Him, will be raised from the dead.
We thank you that in Christ, we have not only been raised, but are seated with our Savior at your right hand, oh Heavenly Father, and that when He returns, He will return for us. May these truths give us hope and joy on this resurrection, Lord’s Day, and always. We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, amen. Let’s close our time of worship by rising and singing this glorious resurrection hymn, 360, Christ the Lord is Risen Today, 360.
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