The Hope of Resurrection
7/23/25 Bible Thought (1 Corinthians 15)
The foundation of the Christian hope is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In 1 Corinthians 15, as the apostle Paul is nearing the end of his letter, he lays out a grand defense of the resurrection.
Now, resurrection wasn’t a common belief in that day.[1] To many it didn’t make sense as the body was seen as an evil to be escaped. Even the Jewish Sadducees didn’t believe in the concept of resurrection at all (Matt. 22:23) while the Pharisees did.
With these differing worldviews, it appears that some of the believers in Corinth still struggled with the concept altogether.
In response, Paul reminds them that the gospel message they were saved by is rooted in the resurrection. He then puts forth the folly of faith apart from the resurrection. If there is no resurrection from the dead, then not even Christ has been raised (1 Cor. 15:13). If Christ has not been raised then their preaching and faith are in vain, and they are still condemned by their sins (1 Cor. 15:14-17).
If Christ has not been raised there is no source of hope, and a world filled with darkness is darker still.
Yet, Christ has been raised! (1 Cor. 15:20).
Regardless of what any of them believed or even struggled to believe, the Lord Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. It might not have aligned with some worldviews. It might not have been part of their expectations, but the tomb was empty!
This isn’t a story that was just made up on the spot. This wasn’t a vision that some hopeful disciples saw. This wasn’t a panicked response to a crucified Messiah.
Christ appeared to many individually and over 500 disciples at one time! (1 Cor. 15:1-8). Peter and John both stooped into the empty tomb, Thomas was offered the chance to touch His wounds. The disciples saw Him die and yet they saw Him alive again. The risen Christ was with them, and He spent 40 days teaching them about the Kingdom of God after His resurrection (Acts 1:3).
The Christian hope didn’t originate in legend. The Christian hope is rooted in the historical event of Christ’s own resurrection who became the first fruits of resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20).
Now, that hope comes to us today.
We are all born into this world bearing the image of the man of dust—Adam. We all deal with physical bodies that grow weaker with age that are subjected to the consequences of the fall.
Death and decay have had their reign, but there is the certain hope that one day we will no longer bear the image of the man of dust but the image of the man of heaven! (1 Cor. 15:49).
When the last trumpet sounds, we will be raised imperishable, and death will be swallowed up in victory (1 Cor. 15:50-55). As Christ was raised to life again, so we will experience a transformation into everlasting life and all the sorrows and pains of this former life will have faded away.
What a wonderful hope that the Lord Jesus purchased for us!
With this in mind, the apostle admonishes,
“Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Cor. 15:58).
Our work in the Lord and for His Kingdom aren’t in vain. With eternity to come, our labor here has eternal ramifications.
One day we will experience everlasting bliss in a new creation. As such everything we do today matters. The story doesn’t end in death. It ends in resurrection.
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[1] Clinton E. Arnold, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: Romans to Philemon. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), 176.