Two Minutes With the Bible
Daily Devotional for March 11

ST. PAUL AND THE RESURRECTION

By Cornelius R. Stam

The Apostle Paul, in discussing the resurrection of the

dead, came to the simple and valid conclusion: "If there be

no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen" (1 Cor.

15:13).

But the Apostle does not stop here. Hear him as he

presses a further argument home: "And if Christ be not

risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also

vain" (Ver. 14). And this leads to yet another conclusion:

"If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your

sins. Then they also who have fallen asleep in Christ have

perished" (Vers. 17,18).

These are frank words about stern realities. If there is no

such thing as the bodily resurrection of the dead, then

Christ has not been raised from the dead, and if such is the

case we have no living Savior.

But granting all this, can we believe in what is palpably

impossible? Ah, but is resurrection palpably impossible?

Paul answers this question quite simply in this same

discussion, in I Corinthians 15:

"But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? And with

what body do they come?" (Ver. 35).

Mark well, this is not an interested inquiry, but a challenge,

meant to prove that resurrection is impossible, and the Apostle

answers it as such:

"Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened except

it die" (Ver. 36).

What a devastating reply! We may point out all the reasons why

resurrection is "impossible," but after all is said and done we

are still surrounded by overwhelming evidence that it is a

fact. Every blade of grass, every ear of corn, every beautiful

flower bears witness to the fact of resurrection from the dead.

Yes, Christ is alive from the dead, and "able to save them

to the uttermost that come unto God by Him..." (Heb. 7:25).