Death in Adam, Life in Christ (1 Corinthians 15:20-22)

 

Jaroslav Pelikan: ‘If Christ is risen, nothing else matters. And if Christ is not risen – nothing else matters.’

  1. Death in Adam.
    • 15:20-22. This is how death came into the world – Gen.2:17; 3:17-19. This is not by imitation, but incorporation. If we had been there, we would all have done the same thing.
    • Charles Darwin in The Descent of Man, published in 1871: The western nations of Europe… now so immeasurably surpass their former savage progenitors [that they] stand at the summit of civilisation… The civilised races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace the savage races through the world. But it was the Europeans who destroyed themselves in World War I.
    • see Acts 17:24-27.
  2. Life in Christ.
    • Thomas Goodwin: ‘In God’s sight there are two men – Adam and Jesus Christ – and these two men have all other men hanging at their girdle strings.’ Rom.5:12, 18.
    • Lazarus did not defeat death. Christ raised him – John 11:25-26.
  3. Christ as the firstfruits of a great harvest.
    • 15:20-23; Lev.23:10-11. That took place on a Sunday. Col.1:18.
    • Oscar Cullmann said this is like D Day (6 June 1944) guaranteeing Victory in Europe Day (8 May 1945). For each of us, it is death in Adam or resurrection life in Christ.