Paul has been writing of the resurrection body – 15:44; and of the final resurrection victory – 15:52, 57. One might then have expected something like Revelation 4:1.
When G. K. Chesterton’s sister, Beatrice, died at the age of eight, her grief-stricken father turned her picture to the wall, got rid of all her possessions, and forbade the mention of her name. The Christian faith does not guarantee us tomorrow, but it does guarantee us eternity in …
Paul imagines someone arguing with him – 15:35-36a. Acts 26:8.
15:12-19 centres on belief; 15:29-34 on ethics. With the resurrection of Christ, there is endless hope; without Him there is a hopeless end.
Paul Barnett calls this ‘a short history of Death’.
Jaroslav Pelikan: ‘If Christ is risen, nothing else matters. And if Christ is not risen – nothing else matters.’
Kathy Keller: ‘One woman told me tearfully when she learned Redeemer did not ordain women as elders or pastors, “It was like finding out that your fiancé is a child molester!”’ The subject has certainly made for drama and melodrama.
15:12. The Stoic philosopher Seneca in the first century said that at death ‘I will leave my body, and myself I will give back to the gods.’ Francis Schaeffer was adept at ‘lifting the lid’ off arguments.
This is part of Paul’s sermon in the synagogue in Antioch in Pisidia in modern Turkey (not Antioch in Syria). The ESV uses the word ‘freed’ which is probably all right (David Peterson thinks so), but it is actually the word for ‘justified’.
Herodotus records Xerxes weeping: ‘I was thinking and it came into my mind how pitifully short human life is – for of all these thousands of men not one will be alive in a hundred years’ time.’ That is the human condition. For the immediate problem, see 15:12.
