If No Dead Rising, Neither is Christ 1 Corinthians 15:16

Paul the apostle declared to the church members in Corinth, “if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain, yes, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.”, and in chapter fifteen and verse sixteen of First Corinthians, Paul shared, if there is no “resurrection”, “then is not Christ raised”, where we read:

For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:

The verse begins, “For if the dead rise not,...” Paul began with the word, “for” or “even as, no doubt, seeing then, verily and therefore” “if the dead” which means “whether those who are lifeless, deceased, departed, destitute of life and inanimate” “rise not” or “do not arouse, raise or appear”. Paul began his next statement by referring to the possibility that the “dead” do not “rise”.

The verse goes on to say, “... then is not Christ raised:” Paul continued with the word, “then” which means “therefore, consequently and accordingly” “is not Christ” which means “the anointed One, the Messiah and the Son of God is not” “raised” which means “aroused, risen and caused to appear from the dead”. Paul concluded, if there is no possibility of the “dead” rising, then Jesus Himself could not have risen from the “dead”.

When we think through these words from Paul, we see how there had to be a “resurrection” of the dead, otherwise Jesus Christ could not have been “raised”. “Resurrection” is real, and because it is, Jesus was able to obtain it. Those who believe in Jesus shall also experience the “resurrection” even as Jesus declared in the gospel of John in chapter eleven and verse twenty-five, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” Jesus' question is for everyone, “Do you believe this?” May the Lord Jesus lead you to the truth.

Next time Paul tells the church members how if Jesus was “not raised” then, “your faith is in vain”, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.

Until tomorrow…there is more…

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