If Christ Stayed Dead We Are Still In Our Sins

And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
(1 Corinthians 15:14–19)

There is a tendency in the human heart to lose affection the longer it possesses something, no matter how precious or important that object is. We can witness this tendency in new marriages, new jobs, and yes even new life.

In no other area is this more dangerous and more deadly than when the Christian’s grip upon the resurrection of Jesus slips or grows slack.

Liberal Christianity has sacrificed the historical nature of the resurrection upon the altar of progress but we must notice that the Evangelical has left the power of the resurrection at the door of familiarity.

My point is simple: if Christ didn’t leave his grave alive, there is no salvation for us, there is no object of our faith, there is no heaven before us, only condemnation. If Christ didn’t put death to death “we are of all people most to be pitied.”

Paul states that if we lose the resurrection, Christianity becomes a religion of death with no hope. It’s the religion of miserable wretches believing in a God who has every right to judge them and has provided no atonement, no forgiveness, no propitiation, and certainly no reconciliation.

In light of these strong words, it is clear that the Christian hope in The resurrection is not an event to merely assent to, to confirm its veracity, to defend. Our belief in the resurrection of Jesus is a desperate, personal, necessary, all-or-nothing hope on which rides our very lives.

When we celebrate Easter we don’t celebrate a historical event by itself but our own life being spared, our own hope in heaven, our own forgiveness from the death we deserve.

Christianity is a faith oriented around a single “If” statement.

“If Jesus is still in the grave we are still in our sins”

While Easter has already past for this year, our valuing and relying upon Jesus as our Living Hope and Reigning King can know no end.

The ultimate assurance a Christian can have is that if Jesus wasn’t raised, nobody goes to heaven. Everyone goes to hell.

This is our joy in proclaiming the resurrection. This is the joy in saying He’s alive and meaning it!

If Christ is raised there is hope.

If Christ is raised so too may we.

If Christ is raised there is power in the blood.

If Christ is raised, there is an atonement for sin, permanent and powerful in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ!