False Or True Faith

1 Corinthians 15:14-20
Richard Spencer | Sunday, April 16, 2017
Copyright © 2017, Richard Spencer

Do you have Vain Faith, or a True and Powerful Faith?

This is Easter Sunday, the day we celebrate the fact that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead nearly 2,000 years ago. But, I want to consider for a moment what this world would be like if Jesus Christ had not risen from the dead. For one thing, this would not be the year 2017 AD, because AD stands for the Latin phrase anno domini – meaning, in the year of our Lord, and such a designation would make no sense. But, that is a trivial matter. Far more importantly, the Christian church would not exist, because Jesus’ followers showed no signs of telling anyone anything about him after his death.

We aren’t told that Jesus’ disciples stood around after the crucifixion saying to people, “don’t worry, don’t be afraid! He told us that he would die and be buried, but that on the third day he would rise!” No, in spite of the fact that Jesus had told them beforehand, on multiple occasions, that all of this would happen, indeed, that all of this must happen, they did not believe enough to speak and to wait in anticipation of his rising from the dead. In fact, when Jesus was seized by the authorities, all of the apostles fled, and even though Peter and John followed to see what would happen (John 18:15), they didn’t speak up to support him. Far from speaking up in his support, Peter even denied three times that he knew him.

So, not only were his disciples not boldly telling people that Jesus would rise from the dead after his death, they were hiding and, we are told in Mark 16:10, they were mourning and weeping. They didn’t even have the faith or the courage to take the body of Jesus, their teacher and friend, down from the cross and bury him. That was done by two secret disciples who were members of the ruling Sanhedrin (Mark 15:43, John 3:1), Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, as we read in John 19:38-42.

And, on the third day, his disciples didn’t remember what he had said and go to see whether or not he had risen. No, there they were, hiding, mourning and weeping. Only a few women had the devotion and courage to go to the tomb and try to properly prepare his body. And then, when the risen Lord Jesus appeared to these women, and they reported it to the apostles, they still didn’t believe. In other words, prior to the resurrection, all the apostles had was a dead hope. In his commentary on 1 Corinthians 15 John Calvin wrote that “in the death of Christ, considered in itself, there is seen nothing but ground of despair, for he cannot be the author of salvation to others, who has been altogether vanquished by death.”[1] But, praise God, death did not vanquish Christ. And after the resurrection, Jesus’ followers had a living hope as Peter tells us in 1 Peter 1:3, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”.

So, I think it is clear that if Christ had not risen from the dead, the Christian church would never have gotten started, these men would simply have drifted away in hopeless fear and depression. And so, the existence of the church, by itself, is tremendous evidence for the truth of the resurrection.

But, even losing the church would be completely insignificant compared to the real tragedy if Christ had not been raised from the dead. The apostle Paul deals with the most significant result of this hypothetical situation in the passage we are considering this morning in 1 Corinthians 15.

In verse 14 he wrote that, “if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” Friends, if Christ has not been raised from the dead, then the preaching of the gospel, and the believing of the gospel, would be in vain, they would be futile, they would be worthless. In verse 17 Paul wrote that, “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.” In other words, there would be no salvation possible and we would all have to face the terrifying prospect of dying in our sins and then facing judgement because, as we are told in Hebrews 9:27, “man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment”. And the judge before whom we must appear is the omnipotent, omniscient, absolutely holy and just creator God. This judge does not need confirmation by the US Senate or anyone else. He rules and judges by divine right as the creator of all.

Imagine yourself standing naked before this perfect God, who knows every single thing you have ever done, said, thought or felt. He is absolutely just and holy and cannot bear to have sin in his presence. If that doesn’t terrify you, then you have no understanding at all of how far short of the mark we all come. As Paul wrote in Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. Nor do you have any understanding of the power and holiness of God. He is the only one who exists necessarily and independently. The only one who is absolutely perfect, just and holy. The only one who spoke and this universe came into existence. The only one who upholds all things. This is the God to whom we must give an account.

This is the God spoken of in Psalm 2, where we read, “Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One. ‘Let us break their chains,’ they say, ‘and throw off their fetters.’ The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. Then he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath”.

God laughs and scoffs at all of the combined powers of this earth because they are nothing in his sight. In fact, the whole universe is nothing in God’s sight. He created it, and he could destroy it in an instant.

But even the creation of the universe pales in comparison to the work God has done in redeeming a people to be his own. He only had to speak and the universe came into existence. But redeeming his people required sending his own eternal Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity, to become man. Friends, I declare to you this morning the truth, that Jesus Christ is God. He came into this world as a true man, born of a virgin. He lived a sinless life in fulfillment of the law and he offered his life as a sacrifice of atonement to pay for the sins of all those who will place their trust in him. He was buried, and on the third day he was raised to life; he is risen!

When the apostle Paul was defending himself before the great King Agrippa, he asked, “Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?” (Acts 26:8) This was, of course, a rhetorical question, because the instant you realize that there is a God who created all things, it is not at all incredible to believe that he can raise the dead.

Nevertheless, God’s redeeming his people is a greater miracle than creation because his own eternal justice demands that our sins be paid for. And the only way that could be accomplished, was for God to become incarnate. Jesus explained this to his disciples in Matthew 16:21, saying “that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” This is what John Murray called a consequent absolute necessity.[2] As a consequence of God’s gracious, loving decision to save some, it was necessary that his own eternal Son become incarnate, live a perfect life, die on the cross as a substitutionary atonement, and be raised from the dead.

Friends, Jesus Christ is the most important figure in all of history and his resurrection is the single most important fact in all of history. Without it, even his death was futile. It was his resurrection that proved that everything he said was true. It was the resurrection that demonstrated that God the Father accepted his sacrifice of atonement. It was the resurrection that enabled him to ascend into heaven and be seated at the right-hand of the Father and to intercede on behalf of his people. On the cross Jesus declared “it is finished”, and the resurrection was the Father’s “amen” to this declaration.

The basic gospel message was summarized by the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:3-5, where he wrote, “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.” And Paul tells us in Romans 10:9 that, “if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” In other words, you will be spared the eternal punishment that your sins deserve, and will, instead, spend eternity in great joy in God’s presence.

Sin is, at its core, enmity against God. It is rebellion. And because we rebel against the infinite God, our sin is infinite and we can never pay for it. If we endure the wrath of God for all eternity, our debt will still not be paid. Only God himself is able to pay the debt, and that is why it was necessary for God to become man. God did not die on the cross of course, he cannot die. But because Jesus is truly God as well as truly man, when the man Jesus died on the cross the payment was accepted by God on our behalf. And God went even further, he not only placed our sins in Christ’s account, he placed his righteousness in our account so that we would have the righteousness necessary to come into his presence.

We are told about this double transaction in one of the greatest verses in all of Scripture, 2 Corinthians 5:21, which says, that “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Oh, what amazing love and mercy, can you say hallelujah? Instead of facing God as your judge, you can come home to him as your heavenly Father. And all of this was made possible not just by Jesus’ sacrificial death, but by his resurrection.

Paul exclaims at the end of 1 Corinthians 15, in verses 55-57, “‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” What a glorious salvation we have. Death itself has been defeated, that greatest of all enemies has been vanquished forever and holds no power over those who are in Christ Jesus. That is why we have a glorious living hope!

Death came into this world when our first father Adam sinned. And death reigns over every son of Adam. But, if you are united to Christ by faith, then death for you is better by far (Phil 1:23), it is precious in God’s sight (Psalm 116:15), it is blessed (Rev 14:13), it is gain (Phil 1:21), and it is to be at home with the Lord (2 Cor 5:8). If however, you have not surrendered your life to Christ, then for you, death is the entrance into eternal damnation. So, there is nothing more important for you than to consider this Jesus, whom God raised from the dead. And it is this resurrected Jesus whom I am declaring to you this Easter morning with my hope and prayer being that everyone who hears my voice will repent of their sins and place their trust in Jesus Christ alone.

I want to consider three points this morning in relation to this passage. First, vain, or futile, faith; second, true, powerful, saving faith, and third, the result of true, saving faith. So, let’s first consider vain, or futile, faith.

I.       Vain, or futile, faith

Let me tell you the truth. If you are not trusting fully in Jesus Christ, then your faith is vain, futile, useless. And don’t try to tell me that you have no faith, you do. If you say that you are not religious at all, or that you don’t believe in a spiritual realm, then you have faith in a materialistic worldview. And that worldview is not the result of a neutral consideration of evidence, it is faith. And it is a worldview that says we are all just grown-up germs; matter and energy in motion according to the laws of physics. But, if this is your faith, you are a fool.

You are a fool because you are ignoring the greatest reality of all, God. You are suppressing the truth that is obvious to everyone; that this universe did not come into existence by chance, that you did not come into existence by chance, and that you are not just matter and energy in motion. You are a moral being, who makes real choices, for which you will be justly held accountable by Almighty God.

And, if you tell me that you are religious, or spiritual, but you don’t trust in Jesus, then you are also a fool. You are trusting in a lie. There is no other Savior. They is no other Lord. There is no one else who has paid the penalty for our sins and been raised for our justification. All other religions depend, in some way or other, on human effort. But examine yourself. Can you say, with all honesty and sincerity, that you have ever done anything from a completely pure heart filled with love for God and others and with no other motive? Of course you can’t. No one can. But if you can’t, then you condemn yourself by admitting that all of your actions are tainted, at least to some degree, by self-interest. You are not living as a child of God.

And, finally, let me also warn you if you say you are a Christian, but you don’t believe in the real Jesus Christ as he is presented to us in the Bible. Perhaps you have bought into the liberal lie that is so prevalent in our time. The lie that says the Bible contains spiritual truths mixed in with scientific and historical error. The lie that lets you decide for yourself which parts of the Bible you will believe and obey. In other words, the lie that tells you that you are saved and on your way to heaven while still allowing you to live just the way your sinful flesh wants to live. This lie often presents itself in pious and altruistic sounding ways. It tells you that giving to the poor, working in a soup kitchen once in a while, and being a nice person who never says a harsh word to anybody, but always turns the other cheek and smiles, is the essence of true faith and piety.

No, that faith is futile too. In fact, it is even worse than the others because you are taking the name of God in vain. That faith is focused on this life, and what does Paul say in our passage? He says, in verse 19, that “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.”

This liberal so-called Christianity says that the resurrection of Christ is not important, it is the good moral teachings he presented that are important. But that is a lie. Let me ask you, you who call yourself a Christian; How do you know anything about Christ? Is it not through the Bible? So then, who are you to decide what parts of the Bible are true and which are not? Repent of your arrogance! Listen to the Word of God, believe the Word of God, and obey the Word of God. “if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9) You must surrender fully to this Jesus and you must believe the historical record of his life and work, which is given to us in the Bible.

He himself said, in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” If you think that you can be saved by being a nice person, then listen to the words of Jesus himself. As he expounded the true, deep meaning of the law in the Sermon on the Mount, he said to those who wanted to establish their own righteousness, in Matthew 5:48, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” That, my friends, is the standard if you want to save yourself; absolute perfection. And we must all admit that we have already failed to meet that standard. And then, at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warned against being presumptuous in taking his name. He said, in Matthew 7:21-23, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!”

Note that their self-declaration and works did not save them. No, we must do the will of the Father in heaven. And what is his will? It is that we repent and believe on Jesus Christ as he is presented to us in the Word of God as we read in John 6:29. And, in 1 Thessalonians 4:7 we are told that “God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.” Friends, God’s will is that we read, believe and obey his Word in its entirety; so that we live holy lives to the praise of his glorious grace. Do not separate obedience from faith.

So, all faith outside of faith in the true and living Savior, Jesus Christ, is vain; it is a useless faith that will condemn you on the last day. Jesus is the only Savior, and he is revealed to us in the Scriptures. His life, death and resurrection are historical facts. And so, let me now move on to discuss my second point; true, powerful, saving faith.

II.      True, Powerful, Saving Faith

True saving faith is the instrumental means by which we are united to Christ and become partakers of the salvation offered by God. True faith is a gift from God. True faith is obedient faith. No man can repent and believe unless God has enabled him. Jesus told us in John 6:44 that “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” and in John 3:3, when the Pharisee Nicodemus asked what he must do to be saved, Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” This answer dashes all hopes of being saved based on our own works. It is simply not possible. If it were, then Jesus would not have had to die to save us, and we wouldn’t need to be born again.

It isn’t just that we need a little help. It isn’t that we are sick and need some healing, or ignorant and need some guidance. Paul made that quite clear in writing to the church in Ephesus; in Ephesians 2:1-2 he wrote, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.” We are dead until we come to true faith in Christ. We may be walking around, but we are spiritually dead, physically dying, and destined for eternal death in hell. Death has complete and total control over us. And notice that we are not neutral toward God. We are, Paul tells us, completely obedient to “the ruler of the kingdom of the air”, who is Satan. And we are, therefore, completely disobedient to God.

So, as Jesus told Nicodemus, what we need is new birth. And we cannot cause ourselves to be born again. Dead men cannot put their faith in Jesus Christ. Those who are obedient to Satan cannot, of themselves, change and start to obey God. But, this knowledge should not discourage you or make you think all hope is lost. Rather, it should make you lose all hope in yourself! Hope in yourself, or in anyone or anything other than the true and living God, is vain and useless, and this knowledge should drive you to your knees before God, crying out like the tax collector of Luke 18, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

Friends, if you will humble yourselves before God and seek his face he will not turn you away. He is gracious and forgiving, abounding in love and faithfulness. In Acts 2:21, Peter told the crowd on the day of Pentecost that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” But, you must call on the true Lord! It must be the risen Christ. Not some figment of the liberal imagination who was only a good moral teacher, but who has long since died. It must be the Christ who lives even today and is seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven. A dead moral teacher cannot help you. As we’re told in Hebrews 7:25, “he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.”

And God is a reasonable God. He has provided ample evidence for anyone to believe in the resurrection of Christ. Just consider the following:

1. The tomb was empty. Pilate had placed guards at the tomb and put a seal on it, but the risen Christ came out in his resurrection body and, then, the angel rolled the stone away so that people could see the tomb was empty. If it had not been empty, the authorities would have produced the body and stopped the Christian religion before it ever got started.
2. The grave clothes were still there. Jesus had not been resuscitated, he had been resurrected, and his body simply left the strips of linen in which he had been wrapped sitting in the tomb where he had laid.
3. We have the testimony of many. The angels testified that he had risen, and his disciples testified that he had risen. He ate with them, he drank with them, they touched him and spoke with him. And at one time he appeared to more than 500 of them.
4. We have the continuing testimony of changed lives. It began with the apostles, who went from being fearful and timid to being bold witnesses for Christ, who gave their lives for the gospel. People may give their lives for a lie if they believe it to be true, but they do not give their lives for something that they know is a lie. The apostles knew the truth and they gave their lives for it. And this witness continues on to the present day with many examples of the transforming power of the gospel in people’s lives.
5. The day of worship was changed from Saturday to Sunday. Why would Jesus’ Jewish disciples do this? Because Jesus rose on Sunday, that’s why!
6. As I mentioned earlier, the very existence and growth of the church is powerful evidence, because the Christian faith, unlike others, is founded on historical fact. If that fact could have been proven false, the church would not exist.

And friends, let me tell you that God has appointed this Jesus to be judge of the world. So, if you have not placed your faith in him completely, you will meet him as your judge. When Paul was preaching in Athens, he addressed people who thought that belief in the resurrection was foolish and, in Acts 17:30-31 we read that he told them, “In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.” God commands! He laughs at the so-called wisdom and power of men. We are told in Philippians 2:9-11 that “God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Oh, listen to this severe warning. You will acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord, either in this life as the recipient of God’s gracious gift of new birth, or on the Day of Judgement as you receive your sentence.

Friends, you have no excuse to go on in your unbelief. If you have never trusted in Jesus Christ before, I call on you to repent and trust in him today. He is Lord! He is God! He is Savior! He is risen!

And now, let’s turn to my third point and consider the result of true, saving faith.

III.    The Result of True, Saving Faith

The result of true saving faith is nothing less than eternal salvation. But, there are radical changes that take place and clearly manifest themselves in this life. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” And this new life in Christ results in changed lives. When we are born again we are given a new mind, will and affections. We think differently, our desires are different, and we obey God. We are given the Holy Spirit to guide us and are adopted as God’s children and given the right to call him “Abba”, Father, as Paul tells us in Romans 8:14-15. We are given access to the throne of grace as we are told in Hebrews 4:16. We are promised that whatever we ask in the Father’s will and in the name of Jesus will be granted to us in John 15:16. We are promised all grace necessary to abound in every good work in 2 Corinthians 9:8. And, our own resurrection is guaranteed by the resurrection of Christ as we read in 1 Corinthians 6:14, “By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.”

The Christian life is a powerful life because we do not live it by our own strength. Paul wrote in Ephesians 3:20, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us”. Brothers and sisters, is the resurrection power of Christ evident in your life? We are told by Paul to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Phil 2:12), and by Peter to make our calling and election sure (2 Peter 1:10), and in 2 Corinthians 13:5 Paul gives us this command, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?” This Jesus who is in us is the same Jesus who has been raised from the dead and has vanquished sin, Satan and death. What great power! He who is in us is greater than the one who is in the world (1 John 4:4). We have power to put sin to death, to love God and each other, and to do all the work that God has called us to do. Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ours is a powerful faith. So, lay hold of that power. Listen to what Paul tells us in Romans 6:4, “just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” So, live this new life! Do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind through the washing with water by the Word of God (Rom 12:2 & Eph 5:26).

If you have been born again, you are now a good tree, and good trees produce good fruit! As our Lord said, in Matthew 12:33, “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit.” Let us all examine the fruit produced by our lives. Let us repent of sinful doubts and backsliding, let us lay hold of the resurrection power and move on in the faith, producing good fruit for the kingdom of God. Use your gifts in love for the edification of the church. Live holy lives that are a good witness to the world. And speak of Jesus Christ. Tell others that he is God, that he died to pay for sins, and that he is risen from the dead!

 

[1] Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol XX, page 18 of second half (Commentary on the Epistles of Paul the Apostle to The Corinthians, Volume Second), Baker Books

[2] John Murray, Redemption Accomplished and Applied, Eerdmans, 1955, pg. 12