1 Corinthians 15:3-40

This is the heart and soul of that Gospel as I received it and gave it to you, and the whole of it is contained in this, that according to the meaning of the Scriptures the Christ died for our sins and was buried, and then according to the same truth of the Scriptures the Christ rose on the third day. The witnesses of this resurrection are first Cephas, then the twelve, then over five hundred brethren most of whom are alive at the present day, then James, then all the Apostles. These all saw him alive and triumphant after death, and the appearances were in the order I have mentioned. And last of all I myself saw the risen Christ, last as though I were the least and unworthiest of all, the persecutor that is to say of that divine Church of God, which is His infinite body. But the grace of God pierced even down to those depths where I lay, and made me such as I am, and abode with me, in my labours, labours exceeding those of all the others; for the grace of God has worked with me in an extraordinary manner in every way, not only in my first conversion from the lowest depths of opposition to God but in my subsequent labours. This then is the gist and burden of the message, I care not who it be that preaches it, whether I or they. Then what means this contention amongst some of you that the dead do not rise? But the Christ did rise. For death came through Adam, it came through a man, and through a man must come eternal life. If in Adam all die, then must death be conquered where it began, in a man. So rose the Christ from the dead. But if you say there is no resurrection from the dead, then neither did the Christ rise from the dead, and the whole of our teaching collapses, it falls to earth, empty, void, a perfect nothing, a falsity. The testimony we bear concerning God, namely, that He raised the Christ-man from the dead, has no meaning in it. If the Christ exists for this world only and has no eternal existence, we are the most miserable of all the dwellers on this planet! But the Christ has risen, and his rising is the commencement of a similar resurrection for the whole world. His re-appearance after death is like the first fruits of a mighty harvest. The increase and growth of this vast divine process will first include all who belong to him, when his eternal presence will become apparent throughout the world; and this process will continue till “the end” when there shall exist not one single power, influence or authority that moves contrary to His will, but everything will be subordinate to the infinite God and Father of All, the Creator. Everything that opposes must be reversed and subdued just there where it arose, namely in man on earth, until there be nothing left that opposes, and until death itself has been completely obliterated. That will be the end, when death is ended, and God is All-in-all, and even the Christ that saves and redeems exists only as the eternally perfect son subject to the infinite Father, there being no more enemies from which to save and redeem us, thus fulfilling the meaning of the Scriptures. For the reign of the Christ will continue on earth for a finite period, namely, until “He has made his enemies his foot-stool” (Ps. 110:1), until all finite death-conditioned things are overruled. “He hath put all things under his feet” (Ps. 8:6). All things, but not the Christ himself, for though the Christ has appeared amidst these things, he is not their subject, he is not conditioned by them, he is eternally, spiritually royal, existing only as subject to God, the All-in-all. That is the only significance of that practice which obtains amongst some of you, whereby the living are baptised on behalf of those already dead. It means that this progressive victory over death will ultimately include all who have died. The purpose of the Christ penetrates far beyond the little sphere of this life. But if you think that the Christ only comes to you on earth and for this life, what significance has this rite of baptism on behalf of those already beyond its pale? Unless they too are changed by the infinite operation of the Christ life, the rite is meaningless. And if the dead rise not, if there be no such victory and struggle at work, what is the significance of present struggles? I have faced the beasts in the circus before the crowd at Ephesus, I have run every risk, endured every danger, and won through them successfully — that is your boast, and the glory which you accord me for my service of the Christ; but if in this daily death of mine there is no underlying meaning, if it does not mean that even now Christ in me is fighting his victory over death, and successfully putting it under his feet and rescuing me from it, then what is the use of it all? I would rather say with the disobedient “Let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we shall die” (Is. 22:13) for there is no longer any meaning in my struggles. Beware! Do not let sleep overtake you, and your spiritual perception be cheated and fade. This is the result, as the tragic poet says, of that “bad company that doth corrupt the good.” There are those in your midst who have no knowledge of God. Protect yourselves against their influence. And now you ask me, How? What is that body which dies not, but comes again? How can flesh and blood not perish for ever, but live on immortal? Does it seem so impossible? Yet even in nature we see the seed buried in the ground, becoming a shrivelled extinct husk, and out of that decay and dissolution springs the new body which the eternal power of God shapes and forms. We see every type and pattern of shape and form given to various existences as their bodies, we see the elements of flesh and blood taking on the form of every type of being, man, beast, fish, bird — all distinct and separate entities with appropriate bodies. On the same principle the form of body appropriate to the heavenly and spiritual things of God’s creation is quite other than those which we see clothing things on earth. The things on earth all have their own special beauties, forms, types and their own splendour. And when we come to that which is spiritual and heavenly, we find that that too has its own appropriate expression and glory.