An Empty Tomb or an Empty Faith?

And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!

1 Corinthians 15:17

Yesterday was Easter (at least when I wrote this). I hope you had a good weekend celebrating

our risen Savior; I did. I’m 41 years old right now and believe it or not, I went to my first Good

Friday service a few days ago, and I’m really glad I did. I wish I’d written a devotional relative to

the Resurrection before Easter weekend, but it still has great hope no matter what day of the

year it is.

I chose just one verse from Paul’s argument in 1 Corinthians 15 on the necessity and hope of

the Resurrection, a verse that is very direct. “If Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still

in your sins.” Let’s consider two primary implications from this verse:

Number one: the if-then principle. If Christ is not risen, (then) your faith is futile. If the

Resurrection did not happen, all of this church stuff, this sacrifice, reading your Bible, praying,

even reading this devotional, it’s all a waste of your time. If you’re trying to get others, be that

your family, friends, coworkers, etc. to buy into this, you’re throwing not only your own life away,

but theirs, too. There’s a lot of people out there who think those thoughts about Christianity and

every person who subscribes to it. Then again, there’s very well a lot of people who celebrate

Easter weekend as a tradition, not really caring all that much whether it’s really true; it’s just a

nice story that we try to remember. If that’s the case, stop wasting your time. We don’t sit around

driving ourselves crazy over the location of a fabled unicorn because it doesn’t exist, so

solemnly consider this passage: everything you’re doing as it relates to church either means

Jesus rose again or that you’re a complete fool.

Paul uses the word vain more than once in 1 Corinthians 15. If we go back to the early parts of

this passage, in 15:1-2, we hear him say that word relative to their faith: “Moreover, brethren, I

declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you

stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you-- unless

you believed in vain.” The Greek words are not the same word for vain between verse 2 and

verse 17, mind you, but they both speak to emptiness. Verse 2 would tell us that the Gospel is

what our faith is founded upon, what redeems us actively, and what keeps us into

eternity—unless we believed in vain. This word means to do so mindlessly, without careful

consideration, haphazardly. Do you mean to tell me that there’s people, perhaps many, who

have mindlessly repeated prayers for salvation and so forth? Absolutely, because Paul shows

us right here that it’s quite possible. Put your faith in Jesus, not in your mantras and motions,

not in the affirmations of others, but in Christ alone.

Now, on to number two: if the Resurrection did not happen, you are still in your sins. Meaning

that everything Jesus promised about forgiveness and eternal life, it’s all a crock. We, then,

would be nothing more than wishful thinkers, preaching a message of hope that’s just a story of

imagination that deceives the followers. They think they’re fine, and they’re not fine. Jesus died

and He’s dead and they’re acting like He rose again and they’re preaching forgiveness and life

but He can’t confirm that any of it’s true; He’s dead. See, this is why the Gospel of Christ dying

and rising again is so important. His death is an atonement for our sins, but His resurrection is a

confirmation of His promises. His resurrection is necessary because it shows His power over

death. How can He offer life if He cannot overcome death Himself? How can He offer forgiveness of sin, its wages being death, if He does not rise again? It’s this kind of theology that

is important in understanding the necessity of the Resurrection. If death has dominion over

Jesus, death is superior to Jesus. By nature of His divinity, Christ must reign over all. He is

sovereign and superior to everything that poses a threat to us, be that sin, death, Hell, the Devil,

other people or even ourselves. The resurrection confirms the claims and promises made about

Him in prophecies and also made by Him before His death on the cross.

Paul writes in Romans 8:38-39, “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor

principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any

other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus

our Lord.” A risen Lord establishes that nothing can separate us from the love of a superior

Savior. This all-consuming love that holds us and keeps us is cause for your bravery right now.

Be braver than lions, my friends.

Sam Stringer

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.

Used by permission. All rights reserved.