What was the message of the false teachers about the resurrection? Perhaps an analogy will help. The life of Martin Luther King Jr. was tragically cut short, but what he stood for continues through people who believe what he believed and teach what he taught.

It may be that Hymenaeus and Philetus said something like this about Jesus: “The life of Jesus was tragically cut short. But what He stood for continues through people who believe what He believed and teach what He taught. His work is being carried on by His people.”

“Yes, we believe that Jesus rose from the dead,” they would say. “And what this means is that His spirit lives on in His people. What matters is not that the tomb was empty, but that we do the kinds of things that Jesus did.”

Their message was not so much about Jesus but about us. The power that would change the world, in their view, was not the power of the risen Lord, but the power of what we do as we follow the example of Jesus. You can see how this would gain traction:

It sounds spiritual. “You don’t need to worry about the body,” they would say. “It is just a shell. What matters is your spirit—what you feel, what you want, what you choose to live for.”

It sounds relevant. “The calling of the church,” they would say, “is not to prepare people for another world. It is to meet the needs of the world today.”

It sounds liberating. If there is no resurrection to eternal life, we are accountable only to ourselves. That puts us in control and leaves us free to live and plan our lives as we think best.

What is most attractive to you about this view of the resurrection? What is the biggest problem you can see with it?

The central truth of 1 Corinthians 15 is that Jesus was raised from the dead, and we who receive and continue in the gospel will share in His resurrection life.

But it seems that some at Corinth had denied this wonderful truth. That’s clear from verse 12: “How can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?” They denied that believers will rise from the dead and share a glorious new life with Christ.

This was not unique to Corinth. There were false teachers in the early church who taught that the resurrection had already happened. Paul refers in 2 Timothy to “Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some” (2:17-18).

If someone asked these teachers, “Don’t you believe that there will be a resurrection for us?” they would say, “Yes, of course we do. But the resurrection has already happened. If you are a believer, you have already risen to a new life in Christ.” And of course that is true. The problem was that they denied a future resurrection.

If someone denies the future resurrection of believers, they have to reinterpret the resurrection of Jesus. And this is Paul’s point: “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised” (1 Cor. 15:13).

Do you believe in a future resurrection for all Christian believers?

Many of the Corinthian believers were standing and holding fast to the gospel. But some were abandoning the faith they once professed.

The world is always inventing new words to describe old sins. One word you might be familiar with is the word deconstructing. We hear about people deconstructing their faith. They have concluded that the faith they once professed is merely a human construct—that it was put together by the apostles and the early church. They hold that it morphed over the centuries and now needs to be taken down like an old bridge that has become unsafe.

Here is the warning from these verses: A deconstructed faith won’t redeem you from your past sins. A deconstructed faith won’t give you strength for your present calling. A deconstructed faith will not save you.

Paul wants us to know that the gospel is not a human construct. It is something that he himself received from God: “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received” (15:3). God has revealed it to the prophets and apostles, and you will be blessed, like Paul, if you receive it and continue in it.

There is hope in Jesus for all who receive and continue in the gospel. God’s Word says, “We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end” (Heb. 3:14). Jesus Himself says, “The one who endures to the end will be saved” (Mat. 24:13).

Have you been urged to “deconstruct” your faith? Hold onto Jesus’ promise that those who endure to the end will be saved.

Whether you are a newer Christian, a long-time Christian, or you are still exploring the faith, Paul has something to say to you today.

1. Receive the Gospel
“ The gospel I preached to you, which you received...” (15:1). Jesus offers grace for your past, present, and future. But you must receive this grace by believing the gospel. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ who died for our sins. Receive the grace He is offering you.

2. Continue in the Gospel
“The gospel... in which you stand... if you hold fast to the word” (15:1-2). Does receiving the gospel at some time mean that you will be saved regardless of what you believe or how you live afterwards? No! You know that you received the gospel if you are standing in it and holding fast to it. That’s what true believers do.

3. Count on Being Saved by the Gospel
“The gospel... by which you are being saved” (15:1-2). The promise of God to all who receive this gospel and continue in it, is that you will be saved by it. Paul speaks of salvation in the present tense: “You are being saved.” It is a continuing process. Jesus will give you strength to overcome your sins. He will save you from the condemnation sin brings. He will save you from the control sin exercises, and one day, He will save you from sin altogether.

There is hope in Jesus because He died and rose, through the grace He brings, for all who receive and continue in the gospel.

What is the greatest challenge for you today: To receive the gospel? To continue in it? Or to believe that you are being saved by it?

Where did Paul get the energy to do the work he was called to do? Paul tells us what he endured as an apostle. He was beaten, stoned, lashed, and shipwrecked. He lists days without food, nights without sleep, and exposure to danger and cold. And then he says, “There is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches” (2 Cor. 11:28).

These are good verses to reach for when you are tempted to feel sorry for yourself. You read them and you wonder, Where did he get the staying power to keep going? And right here, he gives us the answer: I worked as I did because of “the grace of God that is with me” (1 Cor. 15:10). God’s presence with me and His kindness toward me kept me going.

You may be facing an overwhelming challenge. God has given you a task that feels beyond you. You find yourself saying, “I don’t think I can do this.” Oh, yes you can! The grace of the risen Lord Jesus Christ is with you. His presence and power will sustain you, and He will enable you to do all that He has called you to do.

What overwhelming task are you facing? Like Paul, commit to completing your work by the grace of God that is with you.

When we think of what we were, we can use it as a lens through which to view what Jesus has done in our lives. Our sins, horrible as they were, are what He has redeemed us from. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ has brought a change in our lives. We are no longer the person we were.

The answer to our shame and regrets from the past is more than, “It’s ok, because I’m forgiven.” The answer is to say, “By God’s grace I have changed. I am not the person I was. By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain.”

Paul never claimed or thought he was all that God called him to be. Instead, he said, “I’m a long way from being perfect. But Jesus Christ has made me His own and I am pursuing the purpose for which He laid hold of me” (Phil. 3:10–13).

By God’s grace you, too, will be able to say, “I am not what I should be. I am not what I want to be. I am not what I one day will be. But I am not what I used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am.”

When you are troubled by past sins, use it as an opportunity to remind yourself of what the grace of God has done in you.

The word grace is used three times in these verses. This whole chapter is about how the grace of Jesus changes the future for all who believe. But Paul begins with the effect of grace on past sins.

Paul tells us we have redemption from our past sins: “I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God” (15:9). People who walk most closely with God often struggle with things they regret. How do you live with things in the past that now make you deeply ashamed?

The voice of conscience reminds you of things you wish you had never said, or things you wish you had never viewed. You sometimes wonder, How could I have been such a fool?

Paul knew what this was like. He remembered that he had a foul mouth and a raging temper. He had committed violence against the people he now loved: “I persecuted the church of God” (Gal. 1:13). That was the reality Paul lived with. He never forgot it. How could he?

Or perhaps your regret is not over what you did but what you failed to do. Paul tells us that the risen Christ appeared to him “last of all” (15:8). You may think, “If only I had come to faith in Christ sooner. If only I had exercised more faith. If only I had walked more closely with God.”

Every thoughtful person knows what it is to live with regrets, shameful sins, missed opportunities, and wasted years.

Where do you feel deep regret in your own life? How does Paul’s experience encourage you?

Jesus dying for our sins would not have been good news if He had not been raised from the dead. If Jesus had not been raised, hope, for us, would have died and been buried with Him. But Christ was raised on the third day, and this is of “first importance.”

The Bible records twelve occasions when the risen Lord appeared to His disciples, and Paul lists six of them here in 1 Corinthians 15.

• “He appeared to Cephas [Peter]” (15:5).
• He appeared... to the twelve” (15:5).
• “He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time” (15:6).
• “He appeared to James” (15:7).
• “He appeared... to all the apostles” (15:7).
• “Last of all... he appeared also to me” (15:8).

Other people that Jesus appeared to, but who are not mentioned here in 1 Corinthians 15, include Mary Magdalene, two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and the apostles on multiple occasions.

Hope is found not in something but in someone. Our hope is in Jesus who died and rose—not in an ethic, not in a more disciplined way of life, not even in a creed, but in a person, a saviour to whom you can come, a person in whom you will find hope.

And, in this chapter, Paul talks about the hope that Jesus brings. There is hope in Jesus because He died and rose again.

How does it strengthen your confidence in the resurrection knowing how many people encountered the risen Lord?