I was converted as a high school student and knew virtually nothing about the Christian faith. I was a blank slate, but eager to learn. One day, I stumbled across a Christian bookstore, not knowing that such establishments even existed, not really even knowing that “Christian books” existed, outside of the Bible. While walking through the aisles, my eyes fell on two titles placed right next to each other because the authors shared the same last name. The first book, called Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper, was about the call to live a life with a single purpose: to exalt the glory of God in everything you do, to love Christ supremely, and the constant temptation to waste your life on the things of earth that in the final conclusion won’t matter. The second was called 90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper Piper, a book essentially about a man who got to go on a Disneyland trip to heaven. Both titles piqued my interest, so I bought them, went home, and started to read them.
And, much to my present day chagrin, my younger self found John Piper’s book a rather dull option in comparison with hearing about a man who had apparently come back from the dead to tell me what Paradise would be like. But as I read through the fantastical—dare I say too fantastical—story, I was left with a sense of let-down; as if I had eaten only whip cream and no cake. So I returned to the first Piper book, Don’t Waste Your Life, and it has proved to be the more durable and edifying of the two. Piper’s burden in the book is to make our lives count, to matter, to live out the implications of the couplet:
Only one life twill soon be past;
Only what’s done for Christ shall last.
Here is one paragraph that unnerved me: “You may not be sure that you want your life to make a difference. Maybe you don’t care very much whether you make a lasting difference for the sake of something great. You just want people to like you. If people would just like being around you, you’d be satisfied. Or if you could just have a good job with a good wife, or husband, and a couple of good kids and a nice car and long weekends and a few good friends, a fun retirement, and a quick and easy death, and no hell—if you could have all that (even without God)—you would be satisfied. That is a tragedy in the making. A wasted life.”
I read that and thought: why is that a tragedy? That sounds pretty nice: marriage, kids, a good job, and no hell? What is wrong with that? And what dawned on a 15-year-old Marc Sims was that my current goals and priorities in life were aimed at the wrong thing and needed to be recalibrated. And my prayer is that this sermon may serve as a means of helping all of us recalibrate what our life is about.
12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
- 1 Cor 15:12-19
There are two versions of what Paul calls a pitiful life, or what John Piper calls a wasted life. One is the outcome of living like a Christian if the resurrection is false: that is a pitiful life. The other is living like a non-Christian if the resurrection is true: that is a wasted life.
Background: Where Is this Coming From?
Apparently, there are some of the Corinthians who have begun to teach that there is “no resurrection of the dead.” This strikes Paul as outrageous since the pivotal event of the work of Christ is that He was raised from the dead. This baffles Paul to the point of exasperation and leads him at the very end to openly shame these false teachers: “Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame,” (1 Cor 15:34). This is actually the second time that Paul has literally said: ‘I say this to your shame.’ The other occurrence happening where Paul chastises the Corinthians for suing each other in court (1 Cor 6:5). Denying the resurrection hits that same shameful note in Paul’s mind: What is wrong with you?
How could something like this happen?
Well, it isn’t too difficult to imagine. We know that when Paul preached at the Areopagus in Acts 17, the sophisticated Greek philosophers listened until Paul mentioned the resurrection of the dead (Acts 17:32). We know that in Jesus’ own ministry the Sadducees, the elite ruling class of Jews in Jerusalem, completely denied that there was such a thing as a resurrection (Mark 12:18). So, in both Jewish and Greek contexts, the resurrection of the dead was seen by many who were known as intellectual and sophisticated as something too incredible to be taken seriously.
We know that the Corinthians have already adopted some of the world’s standards in evaluating the relevance or significance of a public speaker based on their rhetorical skill, not the content they present (1 Cor 1:10-3:23). We know that they are eager for prizing positions of power and influence, and find the lowliness and humility of Paul off-putting (1 Cor 4:1-13). And here we find the church denying a doctrine that, while central to the faith, is publicly embarrassing. It isn’t difficult to imagine that these approval-hungry Corinthians likewise would be tempted to sheer off some of the more unpopular doctrines of the faith to save face and win influence. Maybe you too feel a similar temptation. But that is a game with an ever-changing goal post; it is like negotiating with a terrorist or a two-year old. Capitulate now, and they’ll take more! Think you’re only going to yield a little, and you’ll give more than you would have ever thought. When we manicure orthodoxy to win the approval of the world, we will eventually find ourselves not only trimming nails, but lopping off the arms and legs of our faith. Which is precisely what the Corinthians have unwittingly done.
Paul must remind them of the consequence of this idea: “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised,” (1 Cor 15:13). Apparently, despite the Corinthians’ denial of the resurrection of the dead, they still believe that Jesus was raised from the dead, because Paul uses this as the pivot point of his argument: he assumes that the Corinthians do believe that Jesus was raised from the dead. They have just adopted the idea that no one else is. And Paul forcefully rebukes them for this. If God doesn’t raise people from the dead, that includes Jesus as well. And if Jesus isn’t raised from the dead? There are serious consequences.
A Pitiful Life: Living Like a Christian When there Is no Resurrection
If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. – 1 Cor 15:19
Is this just exaggeration? Of all people? Why should we be pitied if there is no resurrection? Couldn’t we claim that even if our faith was false, it still provides some social and psychological benefits? Doesn’t our faith—even if it were false—provide meaning, purpose, stable families, hope, etc.? Or, to put it another way, were your non-Christian neighbors and friends to become convinced that there is no life after death, certain that there will be no resurrection…would they look at you and say: That guy has wasted his life.
Why does Paul make this audacious claim? If there is no resurrection of the dead and so we have hope only in this life, then we should be pitied because:
First, the Christian life is hard. If Christ has not risen from the dead, then Paul’s entire ministry is now pointless: “And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised,” (1 Cor 15:14-15). Since the Damascus Road, Paul has given his life to preach the message of the resurrection. He has forsaken his right to marry, to live in one place, to settle down and live a quiet life. Instead, he has thrust himself into the squeeze of trials and travel and tribulations, pounding the pavement of the known world to preach—often at great cost—that Jesus has risen from the dead. And if that’s false? Then Paul has wasted his life.
Later Paul explains, “Why are we in danger every hour? 31 I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day! 32 What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die,” (1 Cor 15:30-32).
Paul has not lived a comfortable life. He is “in danger every hour”, faces death “every day,” and he faces “beasts at Ephesus.” What is that? We aren’t entirely sure, but it was some sort of severe and intense persecution or opposition—tantamount to being fed to beasts in the colosseum. This could be the same even that Paul references in his second letter to the Corinthians: “For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead,” (2 Cor 1:8-9). (Note:Ephesus is located in Asia). Paul’s life in obedience to God did not lead him from one degree of comfort to another. At times, it led him to feel crushed beyond what he could handle till he felt like he just wanted death. But the point of that trial was to lead Paul to not rely on his own strength but on God “who raises the dead.”
Why bring up the resurrection of the dead there? I think the idea is that Paul was pressed to such a point that all his own resources were so thoroughly exhausted, he was so despairing, that the miracle needed to sustain him was analogous to the miracle of the resurrection. When God raises someone from the dead, the person contributes nothing. God provides all. And Paul here is saying: God, I have nothing left, you must be all! You have brought me to a place of death, so give life! You can do it! You can resurrect the dead, so do it now!
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
30 Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
31 but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
- Isa 40:28-31
The point of the Christian life is not to remain in the narrow band of your own strength. Obedience to Christ will take us beyond that, to the breaking place where we come to the throne of God trembling and say: If you do not provide, I will perish. And it is there, once you find your own resources exhausted, once you realize that your own giftedness, your own cleverness are no longer sufficient for the task at hand and you cry out: God help!—then, there His strength comes to sustain you, to renew you, to uphold you.
But if God does not raise the dead? If there is no strength from heaven, but this is all just in our heads? Then you would be a colossal fool to expend yourself so seriously. If religion is just palliative care, a nice story to make strong families and help people deal with the problems of life, then why on earth become a missionary? What fool would risk their life, their family, to go to people they do not know, who may be hostile, and share a message that isn’t true? Why give money to support missionaries you have never met serving in a country that doesn’t affect you? Why view your relationships as anything other than instruments of convenience? Why serve in areas that push you out of your comfort zone?
The Christian life is hard, so if this life is all we have to hope in, we live a pitiful life.
Second, if Christ is not raised we are still in our sins.
“And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished,” (1 Cor 15:17-18).
If Jesus is not resurrected from the dead, they are still in their sins (1 Cor 15:17), and if you die in your sins, you perish. So, Paul points out that if Christ hasn’t risen from the dead, then the Christians who have died have all gone to Hell. Notice, Paul isn’t claiming that if Christ has not been risen, then atheism is true. He isn’t claiming that there is no afterlife, no judgment—He is claiming that if Christ hasn’t risen we remain in our sin and therefore face judgment when we die.
Jonathan Edwards explains: “For if Christ were not risen, it would be evidence that God was not yet satisfied for [our] sins. Now the resurrection is God declaring his satisfaction; he thereby declared that it was enough; Christ was thereby released from his work; Christ, as he was Mediator, is thereby justified.”
Justified? Where is Edwards getting that term?
He is getting it from 1 Timothy 3:16 says that Jesus was “vindicated [or, justified, same word] by the Spirit,” referring His resurrection. Jesus was justified when He rose from the dead. To be justified, vindicated, is to be cleared of all accusations of guilt, to be proven and declared innocent. When Jesus was taken to the cross, He was accused of many things. The Romans assumed He was another messianic imposter, the Jews thought He was a blasphemer, the crowds thought He was a criminal worse than Barabbas. The Law of God itself claims that anyone who is hung on a tree is cursed of God, and Jesus’ cry of dereliction from the cross proves that in some sense the Father is forsaking Jesus. Hell accuses the man Jesus Christ of sin. And Jesus is dying for sins, only it is not His own sin. He is perfectly holy, perfectly righteous, never sinning. His death, His curse, His sacrifice isn’t for Himself—it is for us. So when he dies, He has expired at our expense. When He is buried, He is sunk because our sin sits upon His chest. It was my sin that held him there. But because it was my sin, your sin, the sins of the elect that held Him there—not His own—then He could pay our debt. Our sins, though vast, are finite; His holy nature, though scrutinized at Golgotha, is infinite—so He can swallow our sins, and atone for them. And when He resurrects He proves that He was no sinner, He was no pretender, He was no mere man…but the Son of God. He is vindicated, proven to be righteous and innocent.
This is why Paul told the Romans that Jesus was “was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification,” (Rom 4:25). Salvation comes through our union with Christ—we were united with Him by faith, so when He dies for sin, His death covers our sins; and when He resurrects to life, we too will rise with Him. But if Jesus hasn’t risen from the dead? If His body is moldering in the ground? Then we would be destined to remain in the grave likewise—we would still be in our sins.
It is instructive that Paul’s advice to us if there is no resurrection is, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” His advice isn’t, “Well, Jesus didn’t pan out, so just be a good person. Read your Bible, stop sinning, follow the Law.” Remember, Paul doesn’t think that the absence of resurrection proves there is no God, no judgment—it proves that the Christian hope is false. But the great dilemma is that our sin still clings to us. But Paul is certain that there is nothing you can do to rid yourself of your sin. The only thing that can cleanse you is the blood of Jesus, the only thing that can declare you as innocent is the resurrection of Christ.
Two facets of the Christian life that should make others look at us with a countenance of pity:
- You suffer as a Christian
- You are banking on the gospel to save you
A Pitiful Life: Living Like the World when there Is a Resurrection
The most pitiful life, of course, is to believe in the resurrection yet live like it isn’t real.
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. – 1 Cor 15:20
We will look at all of this in depth much more next week, but Paul tells that Jesus has been raised, and is the firstfruits of the resurrection. Meaning, Jesus’ resurrection is like the first fully ripe apple in the whole orchard, an example of what the rest of the crop will be. Which means that if He was vindicated, justified, and resurrected—you will be too. And also means that if all the difficulties of His life…which were many…were rewarded with the resurrection, if He was delivered from the most severe of all calamities with strength that came from the Father—so will you.
Which means…
- Now, a life to be pitied is a life zealous to guard its earthly comforts and unwilling to sacrifice or risk for Jesus.
And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ 20 But God said to him, Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” – Luke 12:15-21
“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.”
- A life to be pitied is a life that does not rest in the certainty of forgiveness and justification, but still tries to pay off sins.
“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” – Luke 18:10-14
