All the way my Savior leads me Cheers each winding path I tread Gives me grace for every trial All right, what's up, everybody? Chester A.R.P. Church devotional podcast. Clint Davis, your host. Thanks for being with us. Missed yesterday. I've been a little under the weather. You can probably hear it in my voice, but I'm glad to be back today. First Corinthians chapter 15, beginning in verse 12, is where we are. Paul has given, so far in chapter 15, two basic arguments for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We covered those in pretty deep detail over the last three podcasts, the first three of this week, we looked at 1 Corinthians 15 verses 1 through 11. There those two arguments are clearly laid out. One is by the argument of authority, the authority of the scriptures. Christ was raised according to the scriptures, died according to the scriptures, died and lived according to the scriptures, etc. And so that was based off the authority of the scriptures. Then the second argument is the argument of experience or eyewitness experience. And so he was resurrected. He appeared to Peter and then to the twelve and the five hundred brothers who are still alive. And then the last to me, Paul says, and so. He has an argument of authority from the Bible, an argument of experience, of human experience. And today we move into this discussion, the first of several, on the section where Paul talks about the resurrection of Jesus Christ from an argument of logic, argument of logic. So we pick it up in verse 12 here. Verses 12 through 19 is what we'll cover today. Now, if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain. We are 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. than those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. Now, that's a little bit of a challenging read. As you can see, I stumbled through some of it. But this logical argument is actually very, very powerful. See, Paul's entire idea in chapter 15 of the book of 1st Corinthians is to bring unity to the church by reminding them that they are all one in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If they could unify on the resurrection of Jesus Christ, then all the other things can be settled. All the division, all the issues, all the attempts to spiritual pride and all that stuff can be settled if they would unite on the fact that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead. You have to put all that other stuff aside if you recognize that your salvation is by grace through faith and the Savior who died according to the scriptures, buried according to the scriptures, and raised according to the scriptures. If that's the case, then what I do and how well I do it, or who I heard it from and how long I've been doing it. And all that stuff, that is immaterial. It really pales in comparison to the greatness of the fact that I have been saved by one who came, lived, and died, and rose again for my sake. Right? And so Paul is trying to get them to understand that. And so he's unifying them on this idea of the resurrection, which I think is a really good point in the modern world. We live in what's called a postmodern time, a time of pluralism, where there's religious pluralism, all these different religions, a lot of sectarianism in the church, a lot of different denominations, a lot of different groups. And we wonder sometimes, right, why we can't seem to emphasize what we agree upon versus what we disagree upon. We are often known for our disagreements more so than we are known for our agreements. And we need to come back and understand if we can unite on the resurrection of Jesus Christ, then we can begin to have that as a common ground and then back off of that. But our center will be the resurrection of Jesus. And after all, that's what's essentially necessary, excuse me, for us to be saved by grace. So this line, this line of argument, this, uh, this argument, this line of logic that Paul gives here in verses 12 through 19 is really negative. On the negative side, in other words, he says, some would say there's no resurrection, but we've just proven to you, right, by experience of the scripture, excuse me, by authority of the scripture, by experience of people, that Jesus has been raised. But if there is no resurrection, then Jesus has not been raised. Right? So some people would have a tendency to say, well, I can't believe Jesus has been raised because I don't believe there is such thing as a possibility of a resurrection. Well, not for you and me, but certainly for God. If we believe that Jesus is God, certainly it's possible for him to take up his life again. But he says, if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain. The logical consequences of this argument are very important. The logical consequences are, if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain. It's powerless, it's useless, it's a waste of time. We've also, he says, in verse 15, we've been found to be misrepresenting God. In other words, we're blasphemers, we've been lying. Because we've been telling you, right, that Jesus has been raised. We've been telling you that Jesus is raised. And if you're gonna say there's no such thing as a resurrection, then you're saying I'm a liar, and I'm a blasphemer, and I should be killed for my sin. He says, then he goes on and says, but your faith is futile. In verse 17, additionally, not only does this have an impact on us, but on you. You're believing in a resurrected Jesus, but you have a futile faith. It's, you're still in your sins. In other words, you and I, you know, I don't need Jesus to be raised from the dead, someone may say. Well, to be forgiven, or because I think Jesus is a great example, right? Somebody may say, well, he is a great example by which we are to live our lives. But at the same time, if he has not been raised from the dead, we are still under the curse of sin. And we might be forgiven, but we're still going to suffer the curse of that sin eternally. And so we've not been freed from it. We are still in that sin. Oh, well, I've been pardoned. Well, have you really? If the effect and the consequence of that sin have not been taken away, have you really been pardoned? I mean, I think we're in a time where it's been controversial. I'm reading this in 2025 with presidential pardons. Previous President Joe Biden in America had a tremendous amount of pardons at the end of his term. President Trump has come in and he's issued a tremendous amount of pardons or a number of pardons in the early days of his term. A lot of controversy in the news about that. I'm not trying to get into that. I'm simply saying, what good is a pardon if you still have to be in jail? And so Paul says, if Jesus has not been raised, you're still in jail. So what's good? Oh, I'm pardoned for my sin. No, you're not. You're still in your sin. There is no pardon because you still have to suffer the consequences of that sin. And he says, those who have fallen asleep as a result of that, those who have died, have died in no hope. They've perished. You'll never see them again. You should be pitied. You should pity those who lost loved ones. You'd never see them again. The idea that you can encourage one another. Well, you'll see them again. No, you won't. If there is no resurrection, And he says, verse 19 then, if our only hope is in Jesus who has not been raised, then we are most of all to be pitied because we're wasting our time. That's a tremendous argument. If you think about the consequences. of our beliefs, right? Consequences have beliefs. Beliefs have consequences in our lives. Beliefs lead to values, values lead to behaviors, behaviors lead, you know, and attitudes lead to actions. And so here we've got to recognize that what Paul is saying here is we've got to believe that Jesus has been raised, and if we don't, we are most to be pitied. argument from logic. We'll see the positive side of his argument tomorrow or next time. You guys take care. God bless you. I'll catch you on the flip side. You carry me close to your heart and surely your goodness and mercy will find