Sermon Text:

This morning we return to our series Growing in Grace, working our way passage by passage through the letter of 1 Corinthians. Throughout the week we are bombarded with messages from the world that uplift and glorify Self. Messages that make us discontent and ungrateful. That tell us we deserve glory and comfort. That we have earned the good life.

But God’s word calls believers to forsake this world and to glorify God rather than Self. To put our hope in His promise rather than in the treasures of this world. A few years ago, there was a fad where many younger Christians were wearing bracelets with the letters WWJD on them. WWJD stands for “What Would Jesus Do”. Now, there is nothing wrong with asking what Jesus would do, but a better question for us to ask is “What did Jesus do?”

The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus shows us what our relationship with the world must be. His life demonstrates how we are to live as his children in a fallen world. That life of radical discipleship can only be lived if we are anchored in Gospel truth. One of those truths we have been looking at is that believers share in the promise of resurrection.

In our passage this morning, the apostle Paul will highlight a few practical results that flow from this promise of physical resurrection. His main point in this section is that the promise of resurrection enables a life of radical discipleship. The hope of the resurrection isn’t just a fact about the future, it is connected to how we live now. Because of the hope of resurrection believers can faithfully serve others, fearlessly face death, and fervently pursue holiness. The promise of resurrection enables a life of radical discipleship.

Just before where we pick up in verse 29, Paul has presented resurrection as one of the many blessing that come from the salvation God provides through faith in Jesus. He has shown that the doctrine of the physical resurrection of believers is a clear and necessary doctrine. Then in verse 29 he asks,

²⁹ Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf?

This is one of the most difficult verses in the New Testament. There are up to 200 different explanations of this verse in the scholarly literature and commentaries. Nobody knows for certain what Paul is referring to. Whatever it was, the Corinthians understood what he was talking about, and it helped him illustrate the truth that believers would be raised from the dead bodily.

The word the ESV translates as “on behalf of” is the Greek preposition ὑπέρ. That word usually means “on behalf of” but it can also mean “for” or “on account of” depending on the context. I think other translations, such as the King James, NASB, NIV, NET, etc. are better translating verse 29…

29 Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them? (NASB)

There is no evidence at all that there was ever any practice in the church of believers being baptized in the place of others who have died. The LDS or Mormon church does this, but there are no records of any Christian church ever having done so.

Doing so would contradict everything the New Testament, including this letter, teaches about faith and the purpose of baptism and no doctrine should ever be based on a single verse, especially not an obscure verse like this. So, it seems Paul means that these are baptized on account of the dead rather than in their place.

Some have taught that this was a pagan rather than a Christian practice and Paul mentions it not with approval, but just as an example but I don’t find that convincing. Paul is talking about a Christian doctrine, and it would be strange for him to use a pagan practice to support a gospel doctrine without any comment or clarification. That is especially the case in a letter whose major theme is the contrast between pagan wisdom and the revelation of Christ. Besides, this is complete speculation as there aren’t any records of any such practice among pagans either.

I think what Paul likely means is that new believers are being added who confirm the faithful testimony of those who have died in faith and look forward to joining them in the resurrection. This allows the ministry and testimony of the church, which is built upon the promise of glory, to continue.

If you have ever visited older churches or cathedrals in Europe, you know that there are bodies entombed in various places all throughout the church. People are buried in the floor, in the walls, and in the side rooms. When you attend a service in an old church, the sleeping saints’ bodies are right there with you.

And until recently, even in this country people were usually buried in a field next to their church. It was much harder to forget those who went before us because we walked past Mrs. Rogers who used to play the organ, or Mr. Smith who was a deacon, or the last preacher on our way in and out of worship. Some find it morbid, but I think we have lost something important by changing that. Even today it is common for us to speak of our faith in terms of seeing our faithful loved ones again on that day.

I think Paul means those who are baptized on account of the dead have seen and heard the testimony of those who have died and have been baptized so that they too will receive the promise of eternal life and resurrected glory. The promise of resurrection enables people to faithfully serve others as they continue the ministry of the church, being added through baptism, because they know that the reward is yet to come. He continues in verse 30.

³⁰ 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!

Paul then points to his own life as another example of the practical results of a trust in resurrection. Listen to the description Paul gives of his ministry experience in 2 Corinthians 11:24–28,

²⁴ Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. ²⁵ Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; ²⁶ on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; ²⁷ in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. ²⁸ And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.

Why would anyone be willing to live this kind of life if death was the last word? Through faith, Paul and all believers are united to Christ and become sharers in his suffering. Jesus says, if we identify with him, we will have tribulation in this world. The dark spiritual powers and principalities of this age focus their wrath against the church so those with Christ enter into his suffering. In John 15:18-19 Jesus said,

¹⁸ “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. ¹⁹ If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

Paul’s devotion to Christ is greater than his love for his own safety, comfort, and even life and he considers it an honor to suffer for the Gospel because it makes him like Jesus. Paul is not alone in this; it is the call to all believers that we be prepared to do so. Paul says that it is the promise of the resurrection that enables him to offer his life so readily.

This is such a profound and liberating truth. If we come to truly understand it, it unlocks a fearless boldness which unleashes an unstoppable power for ministry and godly living. When we realize that we have already overcome death because our life is hidden with Christ and when we realize that the world can take nothing from us because even if they kill us, we too will be raised to glory, we are empowered with a ministry that can turn the world upside down.

But all of this is by grace. We do not deserve any of this. What we deserve is death because death is the wages of sin… it is what sin earns and all of us are sinners.

1. We have opposed God as our creator through our pretended self-dependence.
2. We have opposed God as the Greatest Good by pursuing our own selfish desires and self-love.
3. We have opposed Him as King by rejecting His law and establishing our own standards of right and wrong.

We have rejected God and tried to live in the world he created as if we could enjoy His creation without him. We have loved ourselves more than we have loved what is good and the result is sin and death. Trying to be free from God, we have separated ourselves from the source of all life and blessing.

But in an incredible act of mercy and grace God made a way of salvation. Our sin mean that we could no longer come to God, so he came to us. He sent his Son Jesus to live the perfect life that we were supposed to live. He fulfilled all righteousness, earning all the rewards of a life of faith and love. Then in an amazing act of love, Jesus took upon himself the sin of all those who would ever believe in him and was crucified as payment for that sin on a cross.

He died and three days later rose again, proving God’s justice was satisfied. Now he calls us to repent and invites us to exchange the death that we earned for the life he earned. In Christ we have hope for tomorrow and power for today as we receive his Spirit.

1. Our self-dependence is removed by humility and trust in God.
2. Our self-love is overcome by joy and satisfaction in God.
3. Our self-seeking is replaced with self-denial and a desire to obey the Lord.

Believers are a new creation, born again to new life. The old sinful identity has been put to death on the cross. In Galatians 2:20 Paul says,

²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

What freedom we have in Jesus Christ! Think about it. What causes us to hesitate and hold back in pursuing the fullness of the great commission or following Jesus and living as he lived? Is it not a lack of an eternal perspective? Is it not the fear that we may lose something because we do not keep the hope of glory clear in our mind?

Maybe if I truly follow Christ, I will lose my friends and relationships. Perhaps my reputation will be diminished, and people won’t like me. But dead people are not concerned about what people think about them.

If I truly live a life of faith and honesty people may take advantage of me. I might be less successful or won’t be able to provide for myself and my family the same comforts and stability we have now. But people who have died do not care about such things do they?

What if persecution comes? I am afraid that when the moment of testing comes, I could be hurt, lose my freedom, or maybe even lose my life. But if I have already died and know that I shall be raised, what could they possibly take from me? My life, my body? Christ has promised to restore these things to me and much more.

In Mark 10:29–30 ²⁹ Jesus said,

²⁹   …“Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, ³⁰ who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.

There is great power in living as those who are already dead to the world. Are we living in light of the immortality we have been given in Christ? Do we believe like Paul, that the rewards are so certain and so amazing that we are willing to be spent, broken, abused, and even killed in the pursuit of the glory of God?

Maybe you’re thinking, that is fine for Paul, he is an apostle, but if you are a believer, you have the same commission, the same Spirit, and the same hope as Paul has. This is not only a promise for apostles, but for all believers.

I am reminded of Perpetua, a 22 year old new mother who was arrested around the year 200 for being a Christian. She knew that if she refused to renounce her faith not only would she and her servant be killed, but her newborn child would die and her family would be shamed. All she had to do to live was offer a sacrifice to the emperor. Her father, who was not a Christian pleaded with her to the end to renounce Jesus and save her life. She refused, saying

“it will all happen in the prisoner's dock as God wills, for you may be sure that we are not left to ourselves but are all in his power."

These things are not just ancient history. I am reminded also of the story of Richard Wurmbrand. He was a pastor in Romania back when the country was communist. Since he did not hide his faith, he was in and out of prison, on and off spending 14 years in prison.

No prison is a place you want to be, but we aren’t talking about an American prison. While in prison he was severely tortured. In fact, the stories are so gruesome it wouldn’t be appropriate to share the details in this setting. Eventually he was ransomed and deported out of Romania. At one point, he even testified before congress about the treatment he received, even showing them the scars on his body. During all the years of torture he continued to share the gospel with other prisoners and guards. He wrote,

“It was strictly forbidden to preach to other prisoners. It was understood that whoever was caught doing this received a severe beating. A number of us decided to pay the price for the privilege of preaching, so we accepted [the communists’] terms. It was a deal; we preached and they beat us. We were happy preaching [and] they were happy beating us, so everyone was happy.” (Richard Wurmbrand)

Explaining how believers could remain joyful and obedient in the face of such brutality Wurmbrand said,

“There was once a fiddler who played so beautifully that everybody danced. A deaf man who could not hear the music considered them all insane. Those who are with Jesus in suffering hear this music to which other men are deaf. They dance and do not care if they are considered insane.”

Do you hear the sweat music of the grace and love of Christ in your heart? Are you willing to dance, even if others think you are crazy? Paul says, if you do it will be worth it.

I could give you hundreds of other examples like the two I gave, spanning the first century to last week. We are not yet seeing persecution in our community, but a time could come when this changes. It will be impossible to maintain faithfulness in those circumstances if the hope of our faith is limited to our present blessings. God calls us to live like Christ. To live a crucified life now, forsaking the world because better things are coming for us. Paul says that is what motivated him and the other apostles whose preaching shook the world.

If death wins, Paul says there is no motivation for the kind of self-denial and sacrifice to which we are called. Look at what Paul says in verse 32,

 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.”

If there is no promise of glory, then this physical life has no significance beyond what happens here. In that case, we should live to maximize as much pleasure in the moment as we can. If we forego the pleasures of this world and there are no pleasures in the next, we are fools. That is why back in verse 19 Paul said, ¹⁹ If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

In our day, pursuit of pleasure has been elevated to a form of self-worship. One of the few sins of the modern age is to deny the goodness of someone pursuing what they think will make them happy.

This is in direct contradiction to what God says. Paul’s quotation, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die” is from references in Isaiah and Ecclesiastes where this approach to life is contrasted with faithfulness and wisdom. That philosophy of life is as ancient as the serpent in the garden. At the time Paul is writing this letter it was already a well-developed philosophy the Corinthians would have known about called Epicureanism. You don’t need to know much about philosophy to understand it because it is really the main way of thinking in our culture.

The philosophy of Epicureanism taught that the goal of life was happiness and people should avoid pain and mental stress. They taught that all knowledge came from our senses, and that everything in nature was made up of smaller particles that were completely physical. There was no spiritual or supernatural truth, only the material world which continued to evolve until human society emerged. The good life was defined by avoiding pain, and getting as much pleasure as you could without hurting anyone else.

Doesn’t that sound familiar? It should, as it is the message we hear constantly in our entertainment, advertising, and motivational speakers. The world says this life should be lived to the fullest now, and Paul says that if there is no resurrection of the body, then they are right.

But Christ is risen, and we live knowing that as believers, we have the blessed hope that we will be raised with him in glory. That is why we must not live like the world lives. We must not live like hedonists who pursue only physical pleasure. Neither should we live like mystics who seek only spiritual delights. No. We live in this physical world as witnesses that God is at work to redeem it and will rule over it. Paul says the promise of resurrection enables believers to fearlessly face death. That allows us to pursue radical obedience.

What we do in our bodies matters. Some people think of salvation as a rescue mission as if believers are like loyal crew members on a ship that has been taken over. The officers have mutinied and thrown the captain overboard. They have redirected the course of the ship, trying to steal it and use it for their own glory. Some think that salvation is like Jesus coming in a helicopter to evacuate his loyal crew from the decks so we can be with him.

But that isn’t quite right. Jesus doesn’t come like the coast guard in a helicopter to evacuate us. No, he comes like the Navy Seals to conquer. He comes aboard, overpowers the rebellious leaders, and turns the ship back around. Salvation is not evacuation, it is conquest. Jesus doesn’t abandon the world; he defeats his enemies and takes it back. The ship will arrive at the intended port under command of its captain where the faithful will be rewarded and the rebellious will be judged.

How we live matters. We remain in the world, but no longer of it. Mercy does not remove the need to diligently watch our hearts. Paul says,

³³ Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” ³⁴ 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.

Too many believers have a deformed view of grace. Christian liberty doesn’t make us immune to the corrupting influences of the world. We cannot continue to live worldly lives and claim fellowship with Christ. Our lives are the evidence of our faith in the promises.

The promise of resurrection gives us a basis to suffer obediently rather than join the world in sin. Do not make the mistake of thinking that the grace which frees us from sin frees us to sin. Paul says a lack of sensitivity to sin is like a drunken stupor. To know God is to know the Holy One. Any view of God that does not include an ever-present acknowledgement of his holiness is mistaken.

We must not stagger through the life of faith with blurry thinking like a drunk as so many seemingly do. We are children of the King and Paul says to those who live as though they have forgotten their adoption, “sober up, knock it off, and get your head right”. It should be the continual work of the believer, by the power of the Spirit, and through the truth of the Word, to guard our hearts to keep them tender and sensitive to sin.

Puritan minister John Flavel described it this way,

“It is with the heart well kept, as it is with the eye; if a small dust gets into the eye it will never cease twinkling and watering till it has wept it out; so the upright heart cannot be at rest till it has wept out its troubles and poured out its complaints before the Lord.”

We can do this only by the grace and power of God. Only he can give us a new and living heart. Only God can remove our heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh. Having received this grace, we are called to encourage our hearts and one another with the great promises, such as this promise of resurrection, so we are encouraged and enabled to persevere in the faith. These promises enable us to fervently pursue holiness.

Because in all these things we are more than conquerors and the enemy can take nothing from us of any lasting value. Jesus promises this in Mark 10:29–30,

²⁹ Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, ³⁰ who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.”

Friends, I encourage you to keep your eyes fixed upon these great promises. Remember God’s faithfulness to those who have come before us but most of all looks upon Jesus. He is the embodiment and proof that God will keep his promises. In Jesus we receive everything and he shows us the way, follow him.

I want to finish this morning with the words of Hebrews 12:1–2 that encourage us to do this very thing.

12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Amen.