1 Corinthians 15:58

1 Corinthians 15:58

I. The duty which is connected with our being steadfast and unmovable in the faith of the resurrection, and of the resurrection life, is (1) to be about the work of the Lord; (2) to abound in it; (3) to abound in it always.

II. The motive your labour is not in vain. It is in the Lord that your labour is not in vain empty, or void of result and issue. You enter into the work of the Lord as the Lord Himself entered into the work given Him to do. It belongs to Him to see that your labour in His work shall not be in vain. His labour is not in vain, (1) because He has gone, in that very body, the same man precisely that He was on earth, the same man complete, to present Himself before the Father whose will He has done and whose work He has finished, saying, "Behold, I and the children whom Thou hast given Me." He asks sentence to be passed on Himself in that body, and on what He has done and suffered in that body. He asks for a judicial award. The mere bettering of His condition, as a natural consequence and gracious owning of His past and forgotten history, will not suffice. He asks for a verdict on that history, as a history not buried in oblivion's indulgent tomb, but raised for righteous judgment. (2) And then, secondly, His labour is not in vain, since not only in His risen body does He challenge judgment on Himself and His work, but, with that same risen body, He takes the work up and follows it out. He carries on in heaven the work which He had on hand on earth. He resumes it that He may carry it out to its endless issues of blessedness and glory in the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. And as the Lord's own labour in the work is thus not in vain, so yours is not in vain in Him; and that for the same twofold reason.

R. S. Candlish, Life in a Risen Saviour,p. 346.

The truth concerning the resurrection is of vital moment. It touches the very essence and heart's core of the gospel of Christ. The view which you take of it, whatever that may be, must colour the whole of your Christianity your whole Christian faith and your whole Christian life. So the Apostle teaches.

I. Thus, in the first place, it touches the credibility of those on whose testimony your faith rests. "We are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not." This of itself is surely a very serious consideration.

II. Not only is the Lord's authority, or Divine authority, thus involved in the question of the resurrection; the reality also of His great work of propitiation is at stake. If there is, and can be, no such thing as a resurrection of the body; if the very notion of it is to be contumeliously dismissed with a sneer, as a resurrection of relics, a resurrection of corruption then Christ is not risen. What took place on the third day after His crucifixion may have been some mysterious removal or annihilation of that which was buried. It follows, either, on the one hand, that death is not to men the penalty of sin, and, on the other, that Christ has not redeemed men from the penalty of sin.

III. Our standing as believers, our justification, our peace, is intimately connected with that doctrine of the resurrection, in the faith of which you are exhorted to be steadfast and unmovable. It is a doctrine as essential to your completeness in Christ as it is to His completeness for you.

IV. Lastly, for its bearing upon your holiness of character and your diligence in duty, you do well to be steadfast and unmovable in your belief of the doctrine of the resurrection.

R. S. Candlish, Life in a Risen Saviour,p. 325.

References: 1 Corinthians 15:58. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xix., No. 1111; T. T. Munger, The Freedom of Faith,p. 193; Christian World Pulpit,vol. vi., p. 198; J. B. Heard, Ibid.,vol. xiii., p. 216; D. Burns, Ibid.,vol. xxiii., p. 88; Dean Bradley, Ibid.,vol. xxix., p. 225; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. iii., p. 412. 1 Corinthians 16:1. E. Bersier, Sermons,1st series, p. 91. 1 Corinthians 16:1. F. W. Robertson, Lectures on Corinthians,p. 247. 1 Corinthians 16:2. E. M. Goulburn, Thoughts on Personal Religion,1 Corinthians 16:3. Preacher's Monthly,vol. ii., p. 249. 1 Corinthians 16:6. W. Morison, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxi., p. 24. 1 Corinthians 16:7. H. P. Liddon, Church Sermons,vol. ii., p. 225.