1 Corinthians 15:25

1 Corinthians 15:25

The Quantity and Quality of the Evidence for the Resurrection.

Look:

I. At the amount of evidence afforded. St. Paul sums it up (1 Corinthians 15:1). Can anything be more conclusive, within the limits which, for the very highest reasons, it seemed important to observe? Here was no tremulous expectation, no eager, excited expectation. The Cross had withered all their hopes. Far from watching for a resurrection, the women took spices to embalm Him. Far from being in a state of mind to invent a resurrection to fulfil their hopes, the apostles were much more in a state to regard the real resurrection as an illusion. But the evidence was simply overwhelming. "He showed Himself alive after His passion" by so many infallible proofs that there was no room for the faintest hesitation. They saw, and inevitably believed. And when demonstration to the most capable judges was complete, He was seen of five hundred brethren at once, and then the fact enshrined itself indisputably in human history. We have no means of sifting the evidence in detail and of examining the witnesses. But there were very powerful political and religious bodies who had the opportunity, and who had, moreover, the deepest interest in proving the resurrection to be an imposture. But it offered evidence which assured its acceptance, and planted it firmly in the deepest convictions of mankind.

II. The quality of the evidence is entirely that of disciples those who knew the Lord after the flesh, and by whom, when the first incredulous surprise was conquered, the truth was eagerly welcomed and joyfully enshrined in their hearts. It is the evidence of those whose sympathies, affections, and hopes disposed them to believe. I attach the greatest importance to the evidence of the Apostle Paul. We can weigh the objections in the balance of the mind of a man who was a master of arguments, who had the widest learning and the keenest discernment, and who tells us what he thought by living and dying the martyr of the Resurrection. Saul of Tarsus, who knew everything about it, became a convert to the truth of the Resurrection; he lived through a long life of matchless trials and sufferings with one simple object to preach it; and he lifted up his voice to proclaim his faith in it in the moment when that voice was hushed in death.

J. Baldwin Brown, Christian World Pulpit,vol. viii., p. 347.

References: 1 Corinthians 15:25. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xiv., No. 807. 1 Corinthians 15:26. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xii., No. 721; vol. xxii., No. 1329; R. L. Browne, Sussex Sermons,p. 31; S. Minton, Christian World Pulpit,vol. v., p. 305. 1 Corinthians 15:26; 1 Corinthians 15:27. C. W. Furse, Sermons at Richmond,p. 72. 1 Corinthians 15:27. Preacher's Monthly,vol., ii., p. 254.