In Fact Christ
Has Been Raised
From The Dead
Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised
from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If
there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if
Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your
faith has been in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we
testified of 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, then Christ has
not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you
are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished.
If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be
pitied.
But in fact Christ has been raised
from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.
Some people try to do good works to
save themselves from spiritual death. But just as leaves cannot keep from
falling and people cannot keep from aging, no one can work hard enough to avoid
the consequences of sin, which is death.
At the crucifixion, mockers challenged
Jesus to save Himself. Instead He put His life into the hands of God, and God
gave back to Him not only His own life but ours as well. To receive salvation,
we too must simply put our lives into the hands of God, for if the Spirit of
Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in us, He will give life to us as
well.
The forces of
sin outside cannot defeat the life of Christ inside.
Salvation
isn’t turning over a new leaf; it is receiving a new life.
Our Daily
Bread – January 24, 2007