Pity Me?
by Joey Carroll Corinth Missionary Baptist Church
What if it has all been a hoax? What if the atheist is right, and we are nothing more than earth-bound beasts doomed to decay in the grave forever?
Sounds hopeless, but many actually do believe that dismal fate, and almost everyone lives like they do, even if they profess to believe otherwise.
But by God’s grace, the darkness has been shattered by the glory of the light of Jesus Christ.
We, as followers of Christ, have been rescued from the ignorance that is bound up in the heart of the unbelieving, and we have been brought to the knowledge of God in the person of Jesus Christ our Lord.
But let’s not so quickly leave behind the question. What if?
The apostle Paul comes to this question’s conclusion in 1 Corinthians 15, and his answer definitely needs contemplation.
“If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:19, NAS95).
In other words, if we have clung to Christ in this life and there is no next life in the joys of Christ, we are of ALL MEN to be pitied — more pitied than all others.
Now there are a great many peoples to be pitied in this world.
As Americans, there is hunger we have not known, and there is suffering we have not seen.
In fact, from our perspective, most of the rest of the world should be pitied.
But as Christians, Paul says we are to be pitied more than the plight of all men if there is no Christ.
How so?
It would not take very long if you were to examine the life of the Apostle Paul to conclude that it was a life of great suffering for the glory of Christ.
More than once, Paul described his hardships to the Church, but the most thorough description is found in 2 Corinthians 11.
However, his sufferings pale in comparison to those of our Savior.
Words fail to describe the great suffering of our Savior when He willingly exposed Himself to the terrifying wrath of God in our place.
Did He do so in order that all those who follow Him would never have to suffer in this life? Definitely not!
The call to come to Christ is a call to be bound to Christ, a binding in which experience is shared.
He has shared in our sin, judgment, and death in order that we might share in His righteousness and everlasting life.
But when we come to Jesus in faith, we are willingly offering up ourselves to Him through death.
Is not baptism itself a picture of these things?
Into the watery grave we allow ourselves to be placed in order that in His mercy, He might raise us up to newness of life.
Death not only marks the beginning of our life in Christ; death also marks the entirety of the journey.
The Christian life, if lived to the glory of Christ, will be marked by the continual death of self.
“The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised up on the third day …
If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it” (Luke 9:22-24, NAS95).
If you have been taught that there is a difference between coming to faith and following Christ in discipleship, you have been lied to!
As Christ went, so goes those who are truly born again.
We must faithfully follow Him. And for those who do so, they understand the words of Paul well.
If I only had one life to live, and I forsook that life and lived it all for the glory of Christ, but in the end, there has turned out not to be a Christ, I should be greatly pitied more than all.
