St. Paul And The Resurrection

by Pastor 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).