We live in a time when people believe foolish lies, calling them the truth and forming their faith around those errant assumptions. It is happening now, just as it did when Paul was preaching. The point to which our faith is attached is the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. To abandon that single truth will remove us from the faith, and we will become heretics, abandoning God’s truth.

Paul wrote, “Since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead? For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless” (I Corinthians 15: 12-14).

If we choose to believe that no resurrection took place, “In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world” (vs. 18-19). To abandon the truth about Christ’s resurrection makes us pitied people because we have put our hope and our lives in the hands of a false gospel.

When Christ rose from the dead, He set in motion a future harvest of souls who believed in His message – those who would follow Him into eternity, “Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died” (vs. 20).

If we think there is no resurrection, in that case, we have permission to party and live like there is no afterlife and no eternal consequence for how we chose to live our earthly life. Paul said, “If there is no resurrection, Let’s feast and drink, for tomorrow we die! Don’t be fooled by those who say such things, for bad company corrupts good character” (vs. 32-33).

The goal of our belief in Jesus’ resurrection will change how we live this life and interpret our time of passing. In closing, Paul quoted the prophet Isaiah,

“Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?” (vs. 54-55).

Without believing in the Lord’s resurrection, we will have no hope in this life or in the life to come. Only fools believe there was no resurrection, and that foolish belief carries significant consequences that only faith in the Lord’s resurrection can resolve.