David Bahn – Reflections

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I’m using the 49 Week Bible Challenge for these blog posts. I encourage you to join me in this discipline. Today’s readings are 1 Corinthians 15; Isaiah 22; Hosea 13; Ezekiel 45; 46.

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, ² and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

³ For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, ⁴ that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, ⁵ and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. ⁶ Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. ⁷ Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. ⁸ Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. ⁹ For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. ¹⁰ But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. ¹¹ Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

TV personality and show host Larry King once said that if he could interview anyone from history, he’d choose Jesus Christ — because the answer to one question, ‘Were you really born of a virgin?’ would define history. King understood that if Jesus truly entered the world as God in the flesh — and rose again — that changes everything.

Antony Flew, a famous atheist philosopher, later said the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus “is outstandingly different in quality and quantity” compared to other claimed miracles.

So there you have it. Larry King says in effect, that the resurrection of Jesus – if it were true – changes everything. King was a self-described agnostic and of Jewish ethnicity, yet he realized how pivotal Jesus’ virgin birth and bodily resurrection is to all of life. Antony Flew recognized that the evidence of Jesus’ resurrection is not easily dismissed.

They are echoing Paul’s witness here in 1 Corinthians 15. Paul further says, “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” (v. 14-15). The resurrection of Jesus is one of two pillars on which the Good News of Jesus rests – the other being the virgin conception and birth of our Lord.

I’m not certain how much thought we give to this foundational truth. Perhaps that’s because it is so remarkable – nearly unbelievable. But it is of first importance, and the foundation of our hope for our eternal salvation. Not only that (as if that isn’t enough!), here’s the application for us today: “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (15:58).