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).