“Resurrection of Christ!”

"And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins.”  (1 Cor. 15:14-17 ESV)

Chapter 15 is my go-to teaching on the importance of our Lord and Savior's resurrection. Resurrection is an essential part of the presentation of salvation. Certainly, we need to understand that we were sinners destined for eternal hell, and we have to repent (change our minds) of thinking that we can be good enough to please God and that He is obligated to save us based on our own good works. We need to understand that Jesus died once for all so all of our sins can be forgiven (past, present, and future). We need to understand that Jesus was buried after He died and remained in His earthly grave for three days, fulfilling prophecies. Then, to prove everything He said was true, that He and God the Father are one, that He came to seek and save those who were lost in their sins, that God has given His Son complete authority over all creation, Jesus had to rise from the dead. He had to come back to life to fulfill all of His promises to us.

The resurrection is a critical part of the Gospel of Grace. Without the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus would have only been a mortal man, not the true Son of God. But as Paul says in this chapter, “If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.” We can’t just believe that Jesus was a good man or even a good prophet and not believe in the resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus is one of the Cardinal Doctrines of the faith. Like believing that Jesus was 100% man and 100% God, that He was born of a virgin, that He lived a sinless life, that He died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins, that He was God in the flesh, all of these are Cardinal Doctrines that we need to accept and believe so we can have the proper understanding of “By grace you are saved, through faith, not by works, lest any man should boast”. The complete picture of salvation includes Christ’s resurrection. “Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed…” (15:51). We shall all share in the resurrection of Christ, and Paul uses verses 50-58 to explain this wonderful mystery to us.

Now in Chapter 16, Paul provides some parting teachings to the Corinthians. One of the clearest teachings of New Covenant giving is provided here in this Chapter and in 2 Corinthians, Chapters 8 and 9. The collection for the saints was a special offering given by the churches Paul visited during his 2nd missionary Journey to support the brethren in Jerusalem who were undergoing a famine. First, Paul tells the Corinthians that collections should be made on the first day of the week (Sunday) and that each one should set aside some of the money they have received. For many years, I heard that believers should “give until it hurts, to put ourselves to the test so we can see that God will be faithful”. Well, I don’t find anywhere in the Bible that presents such teaching. Paul never tells us, either here or in 2 Corinthians, that we should or must give until it hurts to receive God’s blessings. Tithing isn’t mentioned here or in II Cor. or anywhere else in any of the New Covenant letters; it just isn’t there. But what Paul does say is “let each one do just as he has purposed in his heart; not grudgingly or under compulsion; for God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Cor. 9:7).

So, the “collection” that Paul is talking about in verses 2 and 3 is a special collection for the believers in Jerusalem. He doesn’t command that anyone participate in this special collection, just that they should put some money aside as God causes them to prosper, and give some of their excess to their brothers and sisters in Jerusalem.

Something to note here is that Paul is primarily addressing a Gentile church that has committed to helping their Jewish brethren. Outside of Christ, this would never have happened. Remember that the Jews and Gentiles were separated and never concerned themselves with each other. But Paul is teaching them now that Christ has died, been buried, and is resurrected, that anyone who calls upon the name of Jesus shall be saved, Jew and Gentile, and are now all brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.

What a wonderful truth for the New Covenant Church to know and practice. Prejudice, segregation, distinctions, and special cliques have no place in the Church of our Lord and Savior. As he said in 12:12, “For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.” These Corinthians believers, though they had many problems, heard the call of the Holy Spirit and were obedient in giving, from their hearts, not under compulsion, to their brothers and sisters in Jerusalem.

So, while God never commands New Covenant believers to give a certain percentage of their income to support the local church or to “give until it hurts,”  It is important for the believer to know that “God loves a cheerful giver”, and that we have the Holy Spirit to guide each of us, showing how we can accept the Privilege to Participate in the blessings that God has in store for our brothers and sisters in Christ.

"Living in Grace is not about what I can do, but about what Jesus has already done!"