Standing Strong: Living in Light of the Empty Tomb
Introduction
Many of us have lost loved ones in death. Personally, I’ve said “goodbye” to all four of my grandparents. Last year, I lost a close friend from high school to suicide, and an aunt and uncle to overdose and suicide. My family has seen numerous friends die much too young from cancer, car wrecks, and debilitating diseases.
Scripture is right to treat death as an intruder, a marauder, and a thief. Death is a dreadful foe, but it’s also a defeated foe.
In our text, 1 Corinthians 15:20–34, we’re going to see Paul asserting that (1) Christ has been raised; and because Christ has been raised, (2) death will be destroyed; and because death will be destroyed, (3) all the dead will one day rise again. And because all the dead will rise again, (4) we can and must live with resurrection-shaped hope, and courage, and holiness while we do live.
Context of 1 Cor 15:20–34
The Corinthians believed many true things, but their lives were tangled up in pride, division, immorality, and theological confusion. And Paul is addressing one of the roots beneath their problems: some mistakenly believed “there is no resurrection of the dead” (v. 12).
Our text unfolds in four main claims:
Christ’s resurrection guarantees our resurrection.
Christ’s resurrection guarantees death’s destruction.
Our resurrection calls us to costly obedience.
Our resurrection calls us to sober living.
1. Christ’s Resurrection Guarantees Our Resurrection (vv. 20–24)
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.
Death is a reality that haunts and mocks the living. Yet in the midst of the very real pain, and fear, and grief at death, God’s Word plants our feet on a greater reality than death itself. Christ has been raised, and his resurrection guarantees our future resurrection.
The Firstfruits of Resurrection
V. 20 calls Jesus’ empty tomb “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” Firstfruits is an agricultural term that refers to the first part of a harvest that promises there’s more to come. A farmer sees the very first budding ear of corn, and he knows a greater harvest is near.
Among other things, Christ’s empty tomb was God’s pledge that every human who has ever died will be physically raised from the dead, that a full harvest will be gathered in.
At death, each soul enters what theologians call the “intermediate state.” Believers’ disembodied souls are immediately brought into the presence of Christ. And unbelievers’ disembodied souls, according to Jesus, enter an “outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.” At the future resurrection, every soul will be reunited with its own body, either glorified and fitted for everlasting joy in God’s presence or raised for everlasting sorrow under just and fully deserved condemnation. This is the plain teaching of Scripture, both Old Testament and New.
Paul explains why all the dead will rise. Look at v. 22: “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”
Being the first human that God created, Adam was the fountainhead of all humanity. Yet by his rebellion, death came upon all who came after him, except for one person, God the Son incarnate, Jesus Christ. And it is this Christ that stands as the new head of a new humanity, the second and “last Adam” (v. 45, 47).
Jesus (1) entered Adam’s ruined world, (2) he fulfilled all righteousness through an obedient life, (3) he suffered death for the sins of everyone the Father had given him in covenant to redeem, and (4) by his bodily resurrection, he overcame the power of death that held captive all mankind.
This is key for Paul: since the curse that came through Adam included bodily death, Christ’s victory over death as the second Adam must also include the bodily resurrection.
Because Jesus rose from the grave, Paul can affirm the universal future resurrection of all the dead, both godly and ungodly, both saved and unsaved. Everyone who dies will rise again. V. 22 says, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”
Notice, however, that he does not affirm the universal salvation of all humans. All will be raised, but not all will be saved.
All Will Rise, but Not All Will Be Saved
In v. 23, Paul explicitly distinguishes those who “belong to Christ” from everyone else who will also be raised. This further shows a divine distinction between the saved and unsaved in the last day: those who “belong to Christ” will rise before the ungodly at the end of this age.
There will be two distinct resurrections. Vv. 23–24: “But each will rise in his own order: 1 Christ the firstfruits, 2 then at his coming those who belong to Christ. 3 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.” This last stage includes the resurrection of the unredeemed.
Revelation 20:4–6 makes this distinction between the resurrection of the righteous and the subsequent resurrection of the unrighteous even clearer:
“I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection!” (Revelation 20:4–6)
Time prevents us from getting into how we might interpret this 1000-year reign or various end-times views here, but we should note the distinction made between those who “belong to Christ” and those who do not, and the staged sequence of their respective resurrections.
All will be raised, but not all will be saved.
Why Death Feels Wrong
On a practical note, this resurrection hope answers our deeply human grief at death and longing for the restoration of the dead to life.
There are many today who profess that human death is a natural part of our world and not the result of the Fall of Adam and humanity into sin and death. In naturalistic evolutionary theory, for example, it’s claimed that death is just the result of natural selection and “survival of the fittest” in a dog-eat-dog world.
But while many make this claim, virtually everyone faces the death of loved ones with tears and grief, and often a profound sense of outrage and moral revulsion at the horror of death. Think, especially, of the untimely death of a child.
Regardless of culture or creed, this universal and inevitable human response to death operates at an intuitive level that knows human death is not “natural,” it’s not right, it’s not okay; it’s much more than merely the cessation of cellular functions in a biological organism. In other words, we all know instinctively that human death is much more than natural selection at work, and we should just “get over it.”
Regardless of our scientific theories, we all feel and act as if death is the cruel fruit of the corruption of an orderly and beautiful world that should flourish, not decay and die.
The Christian gospel assures us that the pain we feel at death is in symphony with the groanings of a fallen creation that rightly longs to be redeemed and brought back to its original glory by our good Creator God. To deny that human death is unnatural and came through humanity’s tragic Fall does two things: it simultaneously strips death of its horror and strips us of our very humanity in protesting against death.
Christianity is both honest and accurate with our grief at death and our longing for its undoing. So, Christ’s resurrection guarantees our bodily resurrection. But his empty tomb not only promises future resurrection, but it also announces Christ’s present reign.
2. Christ’s Resurrection Guarantees Death’s Destruction (vv. 25–28)
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.
Paul now lifts our eyes from the empty tomb to the throne where Christ now presides. Christ has been raised, and because he rose, he reigns.
He cites Psalm 110, where in prophecy the Messiah is said to sit enthroned over all his enemies. Psalm 110:1 records,
“The Lord says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.’” (Psalm 110:1)
This is the program of God’s present kingdom. All powers are being subdued and subjected to God the Son, whose reign will reach its zenith at his promised return to earth.
In our passage, Paul’s language also alludes to Psalm 8:6, where King David wrote,
“You have given mankind dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet.”
So, where we humans have failed to rightly exercise the righteous dominion we were given over the earth, Christ the God-man will unstoppably exercise this dominion over creation in the restoration and subjection of all creation to his reign.
As the logical extension of this eventual fullness of God’s kingdom through Christ, Paul says death itself has a target on its back. V. 26 reads, “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” Christ is alive, and so death is doomed.
D-Day and the Death of Death
Yesterday marked exactly 82 years since D-Day, June 6, 1944.
D-Day, code-named “Operation Overlord,” was the decisive and costly turning point for the war in Europe. It claimed the lives of about 73,000 members of the Allied Forces on the shores of Normandy, France. But this decisive battle did not end World War II immediately. Full victory would occur on V-E Day, or Victory in Europe Day, eleven months later, on May 8, 1945.
In the meantime, the enemy still fought ferociously, but the outcome was inevitable as superior Allied forces swept through France, pushing back the German lines.
In a similar way, Christ’s death and resurrection were our D-Day. It was the costly yet decisive victory that guaranteed the eventual death of death. Death still rages now, but its ultimate defeat is sure. So, if our risen Lord reigns and death will be destroyed, then the way we live now matters immensely, even if our obedience to Christ proves costly.
3. Our Resurrection Calls Us to Costly Obedience (vv. 29–32)
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.”
Paul now turns to the present cost of this war and to how Christ’s resurrection reframes the way we are to live our lives.
His point is simple: if the dead are not raised, Christian sacrifice makes no sense. Inversely, since the dead will be raised, Christian sacrifice makes full sense.
“Baptism on Behalf of the Dead”
He first points to an inconsistency in the Corinthian church’s way of life, questioning, in v. 29, why some of them were being “baptized on behalf of the dead” despite their denial of the bodily resurrection of the dead.
Theologians have long debated exactly what Paul means by this phrase, “baptism on behalf of the dead,” which occurs only here in Scripture.
Some think he’s referring to a local Corinthian practice.
Others posit that he’s speaking of baptism itself as a confession that our bodies will die and rise again.
And there are some today who think this verse sanctions a practice of “proxy baptism for the dead.”
Based on only this verse and teachings in the Book of Mormon, the heretical sect called the Latter-day Saints, for example, receive baptism on behalf of the dead, so that, they think, their deceased ancestors can then be saved.
But historic Christianity has not understood this verse as establishing such a doctrine or practice of baptism. “Proxy baptism for the dead” is not affirmed elsewhere in Scripture or in the practice of the early church. In fact, several early church fathers condemned it. This is a case in point that we must not build an entire doctrine on one obscure or debated verse when the doctrine is not taught elsewhere in Scripture at all. Either way, Paul is not endorsing the practice but is using it rhetorically to show that some of them were living inconsistently with their denial of the resurrection.
If the dead will not be raised, why be baptized at all? Why identify with the risen Christ, whether for yourself or anyone else? That’s his larger argument. He wants us to know the truth and live consistently with it.
A Wartime Lifestyle
Paul then appeals to his own manner of life in vv. 30 and 32: “Why are we in danger every hour?” “What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus?” Why suffer exposure, ridicule, and sacrifice for the gospel if we’re not going to rise again?
Paul famously cataloged his sufferings in 2 Corinthians 11. He endured beatings, imprisonments, shipwrecks, hunger, cold, sleeplessness, and the daily pressure of caring for churches. Without the resurrection of our bodies, that kind of life is foolish. Paul’s sacrificial life rests on the conviction that Christ will redeem the whole person, including the body.
Imagine an embattled battalion of Marines holding the line because they know reinforcements are on the way. Retreat or surrender would be much easier. But they fight on because (1) deliverance is coming, and (2) their mission matters in the end. That’s the Christian wartime lifestyle to which we are called.
“Hold the line! Victory is assured, and the present cost is worth it!”
When you think of your own lifestyle, are you living as if we’re fighting a winning and worthy war, and our bodies will be raised in glory one day? Or are you living as if there is no war to wage, and this life is the best we have?
Paul says, if death wins, then we might as well live by the motto of the pagans: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” But Christ has been raised, so tomorrow is not endless death. Tomorrow is resurrection. Tomorrow is the fullness of God’s kingdom. Tomorrow, we give account to our Lord for how we lived our lives. Tomorrow is victory. Tomorrow is glory.
C. T. Studd famously put it this way:
Only one life, yes only one, Now let me say, “Thy will be done”
And when at last I’ll hear the call, I know I’ll say “twas worth it all”
Only one life, ‘twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last.
And when I am dying, how happy I’ll be,
If the lamp of my life has been burned out for Thee.C. T. Studd, “Only One Life”
But resurrection hope does more than strengthen us in our suffering. It also wakes us up from the stupor of sin and selfishness.
4. Our Resurrection Calls Us to Sober Living (vv. 33–34)
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.
Having offered resurrection comfort, Paul concludes our text with resurrection confrontation.
All doctrine must yield a certain kind of people who live in a certain kind of way. So, he says, “Do not be deceived.” The Corinthians were being led astray. “Bad company ruins good morals.” In context, bad company means resurrection-denying influences, voices that teach us to think and act as if the resurrection of our bodies is a myth or an irrelevant and distant reality that makes no difference now.
We like to imagine ourselves as being immune to the lies and the distractions baked into most of the media we consume every day. But we’re not immune. And young people are not the only highly impressionable demographic. Both deception and distraction are significant dangers for young and old alike.
In fact, to the degree we give our ears and hearts to voices that (1) mock righteousness, that (2) scorn the idea of a future judgment, that (3) idolize present bodily appetites, our moral and spiritual lives will decay.
Spiritual Carbon Monoxide
Because carbon monoxide is a lethal, colorless, and scentless gas, most of us probably have carbon monoxide detectors in our homes. It can enter our homes from malfunctioning gas furnaces, boilers, water heaters, stoves, and ovens. And it can overtake us without warning.
False doctrine works similarly. And 99% of the time, it comes to us not from a pulpit but from YouTube, Instagram, and New York Times bestsellers. False doctrine or unbiblical ideology is carbon monoxide to our lives. Paul is sounding the alarm to awaken a drowsy, endangered church. He gives us two imperatives in v. 34: (1) “Wake up from your drunken stupor” and (2) “do not go on sinning.” The imagery is vivid: ideological intoxication and moral apathy.
You know how it works: the last person to realize he or she is drunk is usually the drunk person. Paul is calling us out when we think we’re doing just fine, but we aren’t. We’re drunk on the world and have made peace with our sin.
Two Resurrection-Shaped Challenges
Based on his admonitions, I want to challenge us in two ways.
First, from the youngest to the oldest here, I want to challenge us to redouble our efforts to treat and screen our casual media diet as spiritual company, and not simply “news” or harmless “entertainment.”
Everything we give our minds and hearts to, especially habitually, is spiritual company that either shapes us more into the image of Christ or into the image of the world and its perishing values, its vain pursuits, and its empty pleasures.
Second, I want to challenge us to steward our physical bodies in light of God’s plans for them in the end.
If God created and designed our bodies and values them so highly that he has committed himself to raising them up on the last day, we ought to commit ourselves to taking care of these bodies that he will resurrect. Our bodies are neither disposable shells to neglect nor idols to be worshiped. Our bodies are gifts to be stewarded and treated wisely, temples of the Holy Spirit to be kept holy, instruments to be offered to God in service to his glory.
As we close out our time together, I’ll conclude with a personal story.
“Daddy, I Don’t Want to Die”
A few months back, I had a conversation with my daughter as I tucked her into bed for the night. Out of the blue, she said, with a look of concern on her face, “Daddy, I don’t want to die.”
I didn’t know what had prompted that thought, but it’s one of those conversations you don’t necessarily feel fully prepared to have with a six-year-old. So, what would I tell her? That she’s too young to worry about dying? That death only happens to old people?
Instead, I took a deep breath and asked the Lord for wisdom. Then, after asking her a few questions about what she was thinking, I gave her the gospel and our hope of the resurrection of our bodies. I explained that death is sad and something we all will face because of our sins against God, but it’s not something we who love and trust in Jesus have to fear. Because Jesus died for our sins and came back from the dead, death is a lot like our bodies falling asleep and waking up later. Since Jesus came back to life, our bodies will also one day wake up and come alive again and be reunited with our souls. And our bodies will be special bodies that are still us but beautiful and perfect, like Jesus’ body after his resurrection. Then we’ll get to live with all those who love Jesus, and we’ll see Jesus face to face in a perfect world of joy, and peace, and wholeness.
As I said these things, I wondered if this would satisfy her. To my delight and surprise, a smile slowly spread across her worried little face. And then she became giddy with joy. She began laughing and said, “So we won’t stay dead?? And we’ll get to see Jesus for real?! I can’t wait to see Jesus for real, in real life!” Her joy in the gospel melted my heart.
It’s to this same childlike hope and joy that Paul now points us, who believe. In the end, death will be dead, we’ll be re-embodied and more alive than ever, “for real, in real life.”
The Cemetery Is Not the End
Church, the grave is real, but it’s not final. Death is menacing, but it is not triumphant. The cemetery is not the end of our story. The cemetery is a field waiting for the harvest. Christ is risen, and all will rise.
So, we believers grieve, but not as those without hope. We labor and sacrifice, but not as those whose labor is in vain. We soberly pursue holiness in the fear of God, because our bodies belong to our Lord and will one day be raised in glory. ❖
