1 Corinthians 15 - Introduction

By Christ's resurrection he proveth the necessity of our resurrection, against all such as deny the resurrection of the body. The fruit and manner thereof, and of the change which the faithful shall pass through who shall be found alive at the last day.

Anno Domini 57.

FROM Acts 17:32 it appears, that the resurrection of the dead was a subject of laughter to the learned Greeks, who, regarding the body as the prison of the soul, placed their happiness in being freed from it for ever by death. The false teacher therefore, to render the Gospel acceptable to the Greeks, denied the resurrection of the body; contending that the only resurrection promised by Christ to his disciples, was the resurrection of the soul from the death of sin, and affirming that that resurrection was already passed, 2 Timothy 2:18. But the resurrection of the body, being one of the great objects of the faith and hope of Christians, the Apostle, in this xvth chapter, set before the Corinthians, and all mankind, the proof by which that joyful event is rendered indubitable: it is a necessary consequence of the resurrection of Christ. Wherefore, to lay the foundation of this proof deep and strong, the Apostle, before he shewed the connection which subsists between the resurrection of Christ and the resurrection of the dead, recalled to the remembrance of the Corinthians, the arguments by which he had proved to them the truth of Christ's resurrection so effectually, that many of them had believed him to be really risen. And first, to make them sensible of the importance of the facts by which he had proved the resurrection of Christ, he told them, that they constituted some of the principal articles of the Gospel, 1 Corinthians 15:1.—That they were the things which he first of all had delivered to them; and that he himself had received them first of all by revelation; namely, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, 1 Corinthians 15:3.—and that he was buried as one known to be really dead; and that he arose from the dead on the third day, according to the scriptures, 1 Corinthians 15:4.—That after his resurrection, he was seen of the Apostle Peter: then of the twelve, while they were assembled together in the evening of the day on which he arose, and on the eighth day thereafter, 1 Corinthians 15:5.—That he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part were living at the time when St. Paul wrote this Epistle, 1 Corinthians 15:6.—That after this he was seen of James, and then of all the Apostles, immediately before he ascended into Heaven, 1 Corinthians 15:7.—and last of all, that he was seen of St. Paul himself, in different places and at different times, 1 Corinthians 15:8.

Such were the proofs, by which the Apostle had persuaded the Corinthians to believe the resurrection of Christ. To view these proofs in a proper light, the three following remarks may be of use.
The first is, that the death and burial of Christ, having been publicly transacted at Jerusalem in the view of all the people assembled to celebrate the passover, were matters sufficiently known, and not denied by any one. And therefore, though they were necessary antecedents to his resurrection, the Apostle did not think it at all needful to prove them. It was of more consequence to observe, as he has done, that these things happened according to the scriptures: for thereby he insinuated, that the death and burial ofthe Messiah, having been foretold by the Jewish prophets, Christ's pretensions to be the Messiah were not invalidated, but rather confirmed by his death and burial.—And with respect to his rising again from the dead on the third day, because that was not a matter of such notoriety as his death and burial, but was denied by the Jews, it was absolutely necessary that the Apostle should establish it, to the conviction at least of the unprejudiced, by the clearest proofs.
The second remark is, That Christ's resurrection from the dead being a matter of fact, it could not, during his absence in heaven, be so well proved by any other way as by the testimony of credible witnesses, who saw him alive after his resurrection, and had often conversed with him; and who had no interest to serve by deceiving the worldinthatmatter; and who accompanied that testimony by the working of miracles, and by other supernatural gifts. Accordingly, from the account which St. Paul has given of the proofs by which he persuaded the Corinthians to believe the resurrection of Christ, they appear to have been precisely of the kind required. For he says he told them, that after his resurrection, Jesus shewed himself alive in different places, and on different occasions, to his Apostles; that is, to persons who, having accompanied him during his ministry, were perfectly acquainted with his form, his visage, his voice, his manner of speaking, and every other circumstance by which the identity of any person can be ascertained; and who, for that reason, were well qualified to judge, whether the person who appeared to them was really their Master risen from the dead. And as these witnesses had no interest to serve by testifying Christ's resurrection, but, on the contrary, exposed themselves thereby to innumerable evils,their testimony merits in every respect to be believed.
The third remark is, The Apostle's exposition of the proofs, whereby, at his first coming among the Corinthians, he persuaded many of them to believe Christ's resurrection, though intended more immediately for the confirmation of the faith of the Corinthians, has been of singular benefit to the world. For it not only shews, in what manner the belief of the resurrection of Christ was established in the world; but it makes mankind sensible, that the prevalence of that belief in the first age was well founded: and that we likewise, who at this distance of time entertain the same belief, have sufficient reason for so doing: and that our Master, by his resurrection from the dead, is powerfully demonstrated to be the Son of God, and our religion is shewn to be divine.

The Apostle having appealed to the testimony of the eye-witnesses, as the proper evidence of our Lord's resurrection, now that he is gone into Heaven, proceeds in the followingpart of the chapter to shew in what manner that evidence establishes beyond all contradiction, first, the truth of Christ's resurrection; and secondly, the certainty of the resurrection of all the dead.—His reasoning for that purpose is as follows: If it be constantly preached by all the eye-witnesses, and if it be firmly believed by all Christians, that Christ really arose from the dead, how can the false teacher, or any among you Corinthians, who call themselves Christ's disciples, affirm that there will be no resurrection of the dead? 1 Corinthians 15:12.—For if there is to be no resurrection of the dead, Christ, who promised to return and raise the dead, is an impostor who has deluded the world with false hopes, 1 Corinthians 15:13.—And if Christ had not been raised, the preaching of all who call themselves eye-witnesses of his resurrection, is false, and your faith in the Gospel is false, 1 Corinthians 15:14.—Besides, we Apostles are found false witnesses concerning God, because we have witnessed, to the infinite dishonour of God, that he has raised an impostor from the dead, who assuredly is not risen, if the dead are not to be raised, 1 Corinthians 15:15.—The argument, taken from the resurrection of Christ, to prove that the dead will be raised, is of such importance, that the Apostle affirmed a second time, if the dead are not to be raised, neither is Christ risen. He is an impostor whom God would never raise, 1 Corinthians 15:16.—Besides, if Christ have not risen, your faith in him as your Saviour, though founded on miracles, is not only false but useless. It answers no purpose. The guilt of your sins remaineth, and you have no ground for escaping punishment, 1 Corinthians 15:17.—Certainly also, both they who have died in the belief of Christ's resurrection, and they who have suffered death for that belief, are perished, if there is to be no resurrection of the dead, 1 Corinthians 15:18.—Farther, to shew you the absurdity of imputing to us Apostles the crime of falsely testifying against God, that he has raised an impostor from the dead whom he has not raised, consider that if there is to be no resurrection, consequently no future state, our only motive to committing the great crime imputed to us, must be some advantage which we reap from it in this life. Yet, instead of advantage, we have, by preaching Christ's resurrection, drawn on ourselves from every quarter, the greatest present temporal evils; insomuch, that if in this life only we have hope of advantage from Christ, we are of all men the most miserable, 1 Corinthians 15:19.—This argument joined with the consideration mentioned, 1 Corinthians 15:18.—namely, that if there is to be no resurrection, those who have died in the belief of Christ's resurrection, and the witnesses who have suffered death for attesting Christ's resurrection, are all utterly perished, demonstrates that the witnesses of Christ's resurrection were themselves fully persuaded of the truth thereof. Wherefore, being perfectly qualified for judging, and having had the best opportunities to judge, of the truth of Christ's resurrection, they could not possibly be deceived in that matter, and had no motive whatever to deceive the world.

It seems, the philosophers affirmed that the resurrection of the dead, on account of the obedience of Christ unto death, is a thing unworthy of God: for the Apostle told the Corinthians, that God had confuted that assertion, by raising Christ from the dead, as the first fruit or pledge of his raising all the dead at the last day, 1 Corinthians 15:20. Next he observed, that since God, consistently with his justice and goodness, subjected all mankind to death for one man's sin, as experience shews, he may, with equal justice and goodness, raise all men from the dead on account of the obedience of one man unto death, as revelation teaches. This I think is the meaning of 1 Corinthians 15:21.—Withal, to render the resurrection of the dead more certain, to such of the Corinthians as understood and believed the other doctrines of the Gospel, the Apostle assured them, that Christ will reign in his mediatorial kingdom, till he has destroyed all dominion opposite to God's; and in particular till he has, by the resurrection of the dead, destroyed the dominion of death, one of the greatest enemies of mankind. After which, Christ will deliver up the mediatorial kingdom to the Father, 1 Corinthians 15:24; and then the Son himself, in respect to his humanity, shall be subject to the divinity, that the tri-une God may be over all his saints throughout the universe, 1 Corinthians 15:28.

Next, turning his discourse to those who denied the resurrection of the dead, he asked them, what they must do to make up their loss, who are baptized, that is, plunged into the greatest afflictions, for believing the resurrection of the dead, if the dead rise not? and what possible reason can be assigned for their willingly suffering death, on account of that belief? 1 Corinthians 15:29.—Here it is insinuated, that the testimony of the eye-witnesses concerning the resurrection of Christ, had through divine grace appeared so credible to many, and had wrought in them such a firm persuasion of their own resurrection, that at the time when the Apostle wrote this letter, they were suffering the greatest evils,rather than renounce that faith and hope. Farther, he asked what reason the Apostles could have for exposing themselves to the danger of death every hour, if they knew the resurrection of Christ and of the dead to be a falsehood? 1 Corinthians 15:30.—and what advantage he, in particular, could propose to himself, in undergoing all the evils that he suffered, if there is to be no resurrection of the dead? In that case, he told them, it had been better for him, and the other Apostles, to have followed the maxims of the profane, Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die, 1 Corinthians 15:31.—Having by thesestrong reasonings established, first, the truth of Christ's resurrection, and next, the certainty of the resurrection of all the dead, the Apostle advised the Corinthians to shun conversing with any one who denied these essential articles of the Christian faith, 1 Corinthians 15:33.—and commanded the faction to awake from their errors, 1 Corinthians 15:34.

In what follows, the Apostle answers two questions, with which the false teacher combated the doctrine of the resurrection. But some one will say, how can the dead be raised? How is it possible? And if it be possible, with what kind of body do they come out of the grave? The philosophers argued, that the resurrection of the body is a thing impossible; and that though it were possible, it is by no means desirable: because a body, such as men now have, is a clog to the soul in its operations. In answer to the first of these questions, the Apostle shewed the possibility of the resurrection of thebody, by appealing to the operations of the divine power which we daily behold; namely, the production of plants from seeds which rot in the earth; the diversity of the bodies of bears, fowls, and fishes; and the different degrees of light, with which the celestial bodies shine. For if the divine power appears so great, in the endless variety of its productions, can any rational person doubt of God's being able to raise the dead? 1 Corinthians 15:35.—He therefore concluded that the resurrection of the dead is possible, 1 Corinthians 15:42.

Next, to shew the philosophers their mistake, in supposing that the soul will be clogged in its operations by its re-union with the body, the Apostle compared the body of the righteous which dies, (for it is of them only that he now discourses,) with that which will be raised. Their buried body is corruptible; is dishonoured by death; is deformed and wasted by disease; and at best is weak in its operations; in short, it is an animal body, which like the body of beasts, depends for its growth and subsistence on meat and drink. But the body of the righteous, which shall be raised, will be incorruptible, and gloriously beautiful in its outward appearance, and powerful in its activity: in one word, it will be a spiritual body; a body which does not subsist by meat and drink, but by its own internal vigour. Now, there being these differences between the body of the righteous which dies, and the body which rises, the resurrection of the body, instead of being a disadvantage to the righteous, will contribute greatly to their perfection and happiness in the life to come, 1 Corinthians 15:42.—For, as the heavenly man Christ now is, such also, at the resurrection, shall the heavenly men, the righteous be, in respect of their bodies, 1 Corinthians 15:48.—And to prove that the righteous who are destined to live in Heaven, must bear the image of the heavenly man in their body, as well as in their soul, he affirms, that a corruptible body, composed of flesh and blood, cannot inherit the kingdom of God, 1 Corinthians 15:49.—Then he declares a great mystery or secret, namely, that the righteous, who are living on the earth at Christ's coming, instead of dying, shall all be changed in their body, from corruptible to incorruptible, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye: by which, and by the resurrection of the righteous from the dead, death shall be swallowed up for ever, 1 Corinthians 15:51,—and being warmed by the grandeur of his subject, he breaks forth into that noble song of victory: Where, O death, is thy sting? 1 Corinthians 15:55.-The Apostle gave to this discovery, the appellation of a mystery, not only because it was hitherto kept secret from mankind; but because it is a discovery infinitely more important, interesting, and certain, than any of the discoveries concerning a future state, pretended to be made in the heathen mysteries, which were all fictions contrived to amuse the initiated, and raise the curiosity of the ignorant. This discovery St. Paul was inspired to make, because the knowledge of the manner and circumstances of the resurrection of the dead, and of the general judgment, and of the final issue of things, by rendering our conceptions of these matters more distinct, greatly strengthens our faith in them, and gives them a powerful influence on our conduct. Accordingly, the Apostle concluded this wonderful discourse, with an exhortation to the Corinthians to be stable, unmoved, and always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that their labour in the Lord is not in vain, 1 Corinthians 15:58.

Ishall finish this preface with observing, first, that no single fact in the history of any nation is supported by evidence equal to that which the Apostle Paul has produced in this xvth chapter of his first Epistle to the Corinthians, in proof of our Lord's resurrection from the dead. He was seen after he arose, by a great number of his acquaintance, of whom eleven are particularly specified, who were appointed by Christ to publish and attest his resurrection to the world. These, having accompanied him during the three years of his ministry, were well qualified to judge, whether the person they conversed with during the forty days that he shewed himself to them and ate and drank with them, was their Master risen from the dead. And being fully assured of his resurrection by the evidence of their own senses, they published it in Jerusalem where he was put to death, and throughout all Judea, and every where else, as a thing of which they were absolutely certain; and shewed their persuasion of it, by suffering death for bearing testimony to it. This was the case likewise with St. Paul himself, who, though he had not accompanied Jesus during his ministry, was honoured at different times with a sight of him after his ascension, and was put to death for publishing his resurrection to the world. I therefore conclude, that if there be any force in the concurring testimonyof many competent and disinterested witnesses, to induce mankind to believe things at which they were not themselves present, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead cannot be called in question, without rendering all history uncertain, and destroying the best source of men's belief.—Secondly, The resurrection of Jesus, his miracles, and the miracles of his Apostles, have been denied, because their existence destroys the Aristotelian atheism, which modern philosophers are so fond of reviving; namely, that the world, by powers natural to matter, has continued from all eternity the same as we see it; and that there exists nothing in the universe distinct from matter; so that the present course of things, consisting of the motions of the heavens, and of the successive generations and corruptions of animals and vegetables, can neither beinterrupted nor destroyed by anything extraneous, but must continue for ever. Nevertheless, if miracles have happened, this system of atheism cannot hold; because miracles, being an interruption of the course of nature, are proofs from experience that there exists a power distinct from and superior to all the powers inherent in matter. And as this controuling power has exerted itself with intelligence and freedom, it must possess both these attributes, and is in part what we mean by the term God.—Miracles, therefore, being proofs from experience of the existence of God,—before the Aristotelian atheism can be established, that strong historical evidence by which the resurrection of Jesus, his miracles, and the miracles of his apostles are supported, must be destroyed. But, as was observed before, this cannot be done without destroying the faith of history, and overturning the grand foundation of human belief.