You Will Be Raised!
by Joey Carroll Corinth Missionary Baptist Church
The people of God have always faced one great challenge. The challenge itself is neither difficult to recognize nor is it difficult to overcome.
Yet, the people of God have been continually caught in the same snare since the Garden of Eden.
One blessing of belonging to God is knowing what God has said.
Adam was the first to hear the Lord speak.
Sometime later, however, Adam rejected what God said. Adam’s bride had been deceived into believing that God had lied to Adam.
So she was led astray, and Adam willingly followed her in disobedience to God.
The nation of Israel heard much from God.
Their leader Moses set an excellent example of how to listen and obey God’s Word.
There is a repeated phrase while Israel was under the leadership of Moses that says “just as the Lord commanded” (especially see that phrase in Exodus 39-40).
However, Israel quickly abandoned the commands of God as soon as Moses died.
They have suffered greatly for it, and they continue to suffer for it, even today.
As you read through the written record of God and how He has dealt with His people, you easily come to the conclusion that God says what He means, and He means what He says.
He has always spoken clearly to His people with the expectation that they would in turn obey Him.
Therefore, Satan’s approach has always been one simple tactic—deceive all those who have heard what God says.
Sometimes Satan will twist God’s Word.
Sometimes he will change God’s Word entirely.
It matters not what he does with it as long as the people ignore it or turn away from it.
When our Lord was born in the flesh, there was a group of religious leaders called Sadducees.
They did not believe in anything spiritual; therefore, they considered the idea of a resurrection foolish.
In fact, they mocked our Lord about the subject (see Matthew 22:23-33).
They refused to believe what God had said about the reality of the resurrection.
However, their deception continued to affect the Church even after Jesus was raised from the dead.
By the time Paul wrote his letter to the Corinthians, he still had to address this issue.
Paul wrote, “Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?”
(1 Corinthians 15:12, NAS95).
The empty tomb of our Lord is the hope of the Christian faith.
It is a historical reality that I argued for last week.
Like it or not, you have to do something with the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
But as believers, we know that we too will one day be raised from the dead to everlasting life. But how can we be so sure?
Paul argues, “if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised” (1 Corinthians 15:16, NAS95).
In case you didn’t notice, Paul’s argument is backwards.
The proper way to argue a point is to start with something known to prove something unknown.
For instance, it would be proper to say, “Since Christ has been raised from the dead, those of you who are in Christ will be raised from the dead as well.”
That argument offers great encouragement, but it’s not foolproof.
I mean, Jesus was, after all, God in the flesh, and we are not.
But by turning the argument around, Paul removes all doubt whatsoever.
He starts with our resurrection.
And says that if we who have trusted in Jesus are not raised from the dead, then the certain, historical reality (namely, Jesus’ resurrection) never actually took place.
We often say you cannot go back and undo what’s been done.
How true that is! We cannot undo the resurrection of our Savior.
And so the way Paul frames his argument, he puts even more emphasis on the reality of our resurrection.
Therefore, we can say with absolute certainty, you can no sooner stop the future resurrection of a Christian to eternal life than you can go back and stop the resurrection of the Christ!
