Co­rinth was a busy city where life was world­ly. The Lord ap­pe­a­red to Paul in a dream and ex­hor­ted him to pre­ach the word of God bold­ly in Co­rinth.

The epist­le text for Eas­ter Day (1 Cor. 15:12–22) may at first glan­ce bring two qu­es­ti­ons to mind. First of all, it may seem that it does not evo­ke a fes­ti­ve Eas­ter fee­ling. Se­cond­ly, it may ap­pe­ar that Paul pro­vi­des weak jus­ti­fi­ca­ti­on of the re­sur­rec­ti­on.

Upon re­a­ding the text more ca­re­ful­ly, one can see that Paul ap­p­ro­ac­hes the is­sue wi­se­ly. Sup­por­ted by the evi­den­ce pre­sen­ted prior to this por­ti­on of text, he not on­ly con­firms that the re­sur­rec­ti­on hap­pe­ned, he al­so in­di­ca­tes its great sig­ni­fi­can­ce in Chris­ti­an his­to­ry of sal­va­ti­on. In it God ex­tends his hel­ping arms to­ward us pe­op­le.

The Lord ex­hor­ted Paul to pre­ach

On his se­cond mis­si­on trip Paul had lin­ge­red lon­ger in Co­rinth (ca. 50–53 AD) than in ot­her pla­ces. Co­rinth was a busy port city and trade cen­ter where life was world­ly. There the Lord ap­pe­a­red to Paul in a dream and ex­hor­ted him to re­main in the city and to pre­ach the word of God bold­ly.

Paul lin­ge­red in Co­rinth a ye­ar and a half (Acts 18:2–3, 9–11). A cong­re­ga­ti­on was born there which had to bat­t­le against many dif­fi­cul­ties. In his let­ters to the Co­rint­hi­ans Paul poin­ted out, among ot­her things, that the cong­re­ga­ti­on had grou­ped be­hind cer­tain pre­ac­hers of the word. At ti­mes the tone of Paul’s let­ters is stern, while at ot­her ti­mes it is gent­le (e.g., 1 Cor. 13). The let­ters al­so con­tain doct­ri­nal exp­la­na­ti­ons of the word of God.

Jo­yous mes­sa­ge of the gos­pel

Paul emp­ha­si­zes the most im­por­tant mat­ter to the Co­rint­hi­ans: “And I, breth­ren, when I came to you, came not with ex­cel­len­cy of speech or of wis­dom, dec­la­ring un­to you the tes­ti­mo­ny of God. For I de­ter­mi­ned not to know any thing among you, save Je­sus Christ – – that yo­ur faith should not stand in the wis­dom of men, but in the po­wer of God” (1 Cor. 2:1–5).

In the 15th chap­ter of his let­ter Paul re­minds the Co­rint­hi­ans of the gos­pel which he had pre­ac­hed to them: “I dec­la­re un­to you the gos­pel which I pre­ac­hed un­to you, which al­so ye have re­cei­ved, and whe­rein ye stand; by which al­so ye are sa­ved.”

Paul wri­tes about Christ, who died be­cau­se of our sins, was bu­ried, and whom God awa­ke­ned on the third day—as had been fo­re­told in the Bib­le. Christ’s re­sur­rec­ti­on was not evi­den­ced by the emp­ty grave, but rat­her by the fact that the li­ving Je­sus ap­pe­a­red to Pe­ter and the rest of the apost­les, and even to a group of five hund­red men. Paul al­so had his own ex­pe­rien­ce of mee­ting the ri­sen one.

Ap­pa­rent­ly there was un­cer­tain­ty re­gar­ding the re­sur­rec­ti­on in Co­rinth, sin­ce Paul won­de­red why some thought there is no re­sur­rec­ti­on of the dead. They were pos­sib­ly inf­lu­en­ced by the Sad­du­cees, a Je­wish sect which did not be­lie­ve in re­sur­rec­ti­on. Pos­sib­ly it was just these pe­op­le’s own ra­ti­o­na­li­za­ti­on.

Hope re­mains

Je­sus as the Son of God was vic­to­ri­ous over the po­wer of de­ath. He al­so has the po­wer to awa­ken the dead to life. This was ex­pe­rien­ced by La­za­rus (John 11:1–44) and the son of the wi­dow in Nain (Luke 7:11–17), among ot­hers.

For us de­ath is a real event that touc­hes us all. We are par­ta­kers of Adam’s he­ri­ta­ge—de­ath. The hu­man mind would tell us that when a body in a cof­fin is lo­we­red in­to a grave, there is no re­turn. From the pers­pec­ti­ve of faith, though, the si­tu­a­ti­on is not this ho­pe­less.

Faith gi­ves our life not on­ly a tem­po­ral di­men­si­on, but al­so a spi­ri­tu­al one. Be­cau­se of sin, a per­son may be spi­ri­tu­al­ly dead even though he or she is li­ving. Je­sus re­fer­red to such pe­op­le when he said: “Ve­ri­ly, ve­ri­ly, I say un­to you, the hour is co­ming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voi­ce of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live” (John 5:25). This kind of ser­mon which awa­ke­ned pe­op­le from de­ath was he­ard in Co­rinth. The same proc­la­ma­ti­on is he­ard in our midst, al­so, in the ser­mons of the king­dom of God.

Christ’s re­sur­rec­ti­on is an in­di­ca­ti­on of the po­wer of God. Wit­hout it we would have no uni­ty with God. The ri­sen Je­sus ap­pe­a­red to his dis­cip­les, anoin­ted them with the Holy Spi­rit, and gave them the aut­ho­ri­ty to for­gi­ve sins.

Paul’s te­ac­hing is con­den­sed in the last ver­ses of the text: “For sin­ce by man came de­ath, by man came al­so the re­sur­rec­ti­on of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made ali­ve.”

Re­sur­rec­ti­on is not a mat­ter of free choi­ce for any­o­ne. “For the hour is co­ming, in the which all that are in the gra­ves shall hear his voi­ce, and shall come forth; they that have done good, un­to the re­sur­rec­ti­on of life; and they that have done evil, un­to the re­sur­rec­ti­on of dam­na­ti­on” (John 5:28–29). By faith and the grace of God we are par­ta­kers of the re­sur­rec­ti­on of life.

Text: Mik­ko Ul­jas

Pub­lis­hed: Sii­o­nin Lä­he­tys­leh­ti 3/2013

Trans­la­ti­on: Keith Ko­so­la

Teks­tis­sä kä­si­tel­lään seu­raa­via raa­ma­tun­koh­tia: 1 Cor. 15:12–22

Jul­kais­tu eng­lan­nin­kie­li­ses­sä kie­li­lii­tees­sä 4/2014