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First-Fruits and Death's Defeat
by Pastor Ronald Boelte
Even after two thousand years, Jesus shows the world His triumph over
death in His resurrection. We still see no waning of the march of death in
our world as a whole. At times it is slow in its destructive power, but at
other times its attack can be sudden and unexpected. The very absurdity of
death can call into question the very narratives we use as Christians to
try to make sense of all the death. All of us will one day have to face
death itself, and for many it is still something to be feared even when
the actual moment of death may bring relief from the destructive powers
that may have been at work in our bodies. In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul's
metaphor of death as the last enemy to be destroyed rings true to all of
our experiences of death. Death has touched all of us at one time or
another.
So what was Paul trying to tell his audience two thousand years ago
about death in 1 Cor. 15 and does this still apply today in our own
situations?
Paul's main point is this: there seems to be "some" people in
the Corinth church that hold the view that there will not be a future
resurrection of the dead even though they do confess a belief that Jesus
was resurrected from the dead. Although the exact nature of who they are
is left ambiguous in the text, they however see no connection between the
resurrection of Christ and the future resurrection of all believers. They
have a hard time in their minds seeing how God can put back together the
decomposed human bodies. If Paul does not take care of this problem, it
would have a profound and detrimental effect on the Christian church and
its practices.
This week we will be looking closely at this text and many others on
death, and the resurrection of the dead.
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