Daily Devotionals

Colossians 1.15-23

The Christ Hymn of Colossians is one of my favourite passages. Here Paul takes my inadequate little picture of Christ, of the Father and of the world, and he blows it apart. In its place, we’re given a panoramic vista of the glories of creation, new creation, the church and the supremacy of Christ over it all. With this song, Paul launches a raid in broad daylight to liberate us from our inadequate pictures of our world and our saviour.

You see, I tend to shrink Jesus down to my size (which in my case is extra small). Often I have a Christ who bends to my will, submits to my desires and abides by my agenda. Paul blows this little picture to smithereens with a description of the real Christ: risen, ascended, exalted and enthroned over all creation, reigning over every power; the fullness of God, the one in whom all things were created and all things are reconciled.

Unsurprisingly, when I exchange the real Christ for one shrunk down to my size, it turns out he’s not really enough. I’m left with only my own strength, I remain in my own sins and struggle alone through my own storms.

But when I realise that Jesus isn’t really small like that, he’s magnificent like this, well that’s the most astonishing, liberating news imaginable.

Paul is writing to the Colossians because their picture of who Christ was and what kind of world they lived in was under siege. They were tempted to move on from Christ. To move on to the next thing, the next level of religious knowledge or practice or wisdom. They also lived in the shadow of the Roman Empire and were daily bombarded by its Imperial Cult. Caesar was Lord, he was proclaimed as the ‘saviour’, ‘the beginning of life and vitality’ and the one who ‘put an end to war and set all things in order.’

Well, here Paul imprints on their imagination and plants in their hearts the truth that Christ is sufficient and Christ is supreme. There’s no moving on from Christ. Any step away from him is a step further away from fullness of life, not a step towards it. And there is no one who is worthy of your full allegiance and worship except him.

We aren’t assailed by the demands of a Roman ruler, but there are plenty of other things which demand our undivided allegiance and which compete for our worship. There are many things we look to in order to satisfy us apart from Christ. ‘Enough’ is what we rush to find around the next corner, rather than what we have already found resting in the presence of Christ. We are similarly bombarded by the propaganda of a world which tells us life is found anywhere but Christ.

We need to resist this by refreshing our imagination with images of the real Christ, the one who perfectly reveals to us the invisible God. Christ is the firstborn over all creation; the one who holds the title to it all. All things were created in him, through him and for him. When we ask what this world is all about and why we’re here, we are not answered by a cruel and empty silence. Instead we hear a cosmic story of love, as the Father creates all things in, through and for the Son. A cosmic love story in which we are invited to participate.

Verses 21-23 tell the story of our invitation. We were once estranged from God, hostile to him, doing evil things. A threefold exclusion from the presence and love of God.

But now Christ has made peace with us by his blood. The one who created all things took on our physical flesh and submitted to death in our place. Christ, the raison d’être of the cosmos, the reason for all things, was given for you.

United with Christ in his death, resurrection and ascension we are now holy, blameless and irreproachable before the Father. In place of a threefold exclusion, we receive a threefold welcome into the presence and love of God, an invitation to join by the Spirit in the delight shared between the Father and the Son.

Paul tells the Colossians, do not move from the hope held out in the gospel.

That is what we also need to hear. If we hear it with a familiar sigh or a tired nod, let us lift our eyes from the little Christ we have made in our own image and look to the real Christ, the perfect image of the invisible God, risen, ascended and enthroned over all.

Father, thank you for Jesus. Thank you that you have reconciled all things through him and that by faith we are united to him so that your delight in him is the same as your delight in us. Please help us to live with the grain of the universe – along with all things would we also live in, through and for Christ. When other things demand our allegiance and attention, refresh our vision of you and fix our gaze so that we delight in Christ’s sufficiency and supremacy. 
Amen.

Philippians 2.5-11

There’s a question doing the rounds of social media asking ‘what were your first five jobs?’  It’s moderately interesting to see that almost everyone was a babysitter, paper boy or pot washer as a teenager, but it made me reflect on how we view our personal worth through what we do now…. A ‘look how far I’ve come since then!’ Not many people are writing ‘I’m still a pot-washer.’

As an extrovert I loved my jobs in bars and shops as a teenager and student, I even enjoyed temping in a transport caf, frying bacon and egg sandwiches for lorry drivers. The one I hated though, was in a pharmaceutical company, operating a machine that counted zinc tablets into pots. It was mind-numbing. 

I also remember sitting at lunch with the women who worked there full time. I confess I was a snob. I thought that work was beneath me. I was going to do something important. I had 2/3 of a History degree from Leeds University and a bright shiny middle-class future in front of me. This was just getting me summer pocket money. 

What stuck with me though was a lady in her 60’s who had worked there for 20 years, counting tablets into pots 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 47 weeks a year, and she came in with a black eye and broken nose – the result of her husband’s weekend drinking binge. 30 years later I remember being shocked and humbled at the reality of her world. And I remember the Holy Spirit saying to me – take note of your privilege Ruth, you are no better than her, you are not worth more to me than she is, she is precious in my sight. 

In his letter to the Philippians Paul writes about the challenges of his situation. A highly qualified and esteemed Jewish religious leader he was on the fast track to career success… but having met Jesus his priorities completely changed. He wrote this letter from prison, disgraced and humiliated. I mean, what kind of an apostle gets banged up?  How is the message he brings good news if THIS is the outcome? Surely this is proof that God is not on his side? 

But Paul is convinced of his message, encouraging the Philippians to have a new perspective on being humbled or asked to do things that they saw as ‘beneath them’. He argues that struggling and even suffering for the gospel are not just part of the deal, but an honour! That as long as people are hearing about Jesus why does it matter who delivers the message or what anyone thinks of them? In fact, he takes his inspiration from Jesus own example

Jesus, he says, who was part of the Godhead, didn’t take advantage of that but instead laid down his privilege and status for the sake of humanity. He became a squalling baby that needed his nappy changing, entirely dependent on his socially unimpressive parents. He didn’t have a shiny future, with aspirations for a comfortable middle-class lifestyle. Instead he humbled himself, obeyed the father – being despised and abused by all sorts of people – all the way to the cross, where he died a shameful death. 

Profoundly unimpressive behaviour for someone who could do powerful miracles and claimed to be the son of God. 

And yet, there was something so much more. The sacrifice, the struggle, the humiliation he experienced in being obedient have had such results.  God has exalted and honoured him. His very name brings angels and humans alike to their knees in worship, pouring out their gratitude at what he did, at the freedom his actions have brought. At the promise of redemption, restoration, – the hope that his name carries for all of us. 

Paul says that right now some people have grasped that, but one day everyone is going to get it! Everyone is going to see Jesus, not with a beard and sandals like a 1960’s hippy or tortured and dead on a cross. His name won’t be an expletive used by those who know no better. His name will be roared across the universe – bringing glory to the father who sent him. 

Jesus; God to the rescue!

Paul says, whatever I suffer for obeying God, whatever you suffer for doing that – just look to the example of Jesus. If it seems unfair, if it seems beneath your dignity, if you consider yourself too good, or wish God would give you more status, power, income, honour – whatever you crave –  check your perspective. Look not to your own interests but to the interests of others… like He did. God honoured him and he will be faithful to us. 

For now though, just keep focussed on the resurrected, ascended and glorified Jesus – who we are told is still interceding for us. Still at work on behalf of humanity. Still concerned with the poor and downtrodden, those without a shiny, privileged future. Still asking us to be his representatives to them, in words, works and wonders. Still offering a hope and a future – especially to those who can’t see one right now. Like that lady I worked with. 

I wish I’d had the courage to tell her about my faith, but I didn’t. I hope God sent someone else to her – I know he loved her. Lets be brave in offering the hope we have, and willing to humble ourselves to serve, because we’ve got nothing to prove, our identity and future are secure in the ascended and exalted Christ. 

Lets pray: 

Lord Jesus, give us perspective. Give us a glimpse of who you are now, of a different reality from the tiny one we see and live in. And in a world that craves status, among people who are trying to prove themselves as having value, shape us into your servants, people secure in our identity and your love, that follow in your footsteps and Like the Apostles are brave to offer faith, hope and love to those around us, especially those with none. 
Amen.

Psalm 110

So why has the 110^th Psalm crept into a series of devotional reflections for Easter to Pentecost? Maybe after the reading of Psalm 110 it is obvious to you, unless you were distracted by the reference to that obscure OT character Melchizedek. It would be a big claim to assert that Psalm 110 is the most influential text in the OT but it is just arithmetic to say that this Psalm is referenced in the NT more often than nay other OT text. Let’s take a look at what the Psalm says.

In the context of Israel’s ancient worship Psalm 110 is a Royal Psalm: The LORD, that is YHWH, says to my Lord, that is the King, that he is his vice-regent and that he will put all his enemies under his feet. Israel’s King will be victorious – all his enemies will be made his footstool.

This alludes to the ancient practice of a defeated enemy by doing obeisance, that is bowing face down before a great ruler. They get so low down to the floor that the victorious king can put his feet up on them like the footstool that goes with your TV chair.

Quite how the Psalm segues into the Melchizedek bit is harder to follow, but the chain of logic is something like this: Since the king of 110 verse one is a king of David’s family and royal ‘house’ and David’s descendants rule in Jerusalem that connects him to the first king of Jerusalem. That takes us the story in Genesis 14 of the patriarch Abraham bringing the spoils of battle to the first  ancient ‘King of Salem’ or Jeru-salem. This king of Salem is the rather obscure Melchizedek whose name means king of Righteousness. He is the also the first priest of the Most High in the Bible and being earlier he is not a descendant of the priestly line of Levi, Aaron or Zadok. In 110.4 God promises the king of verse one an eternal priesthood. The rest of the Psalm reinforces the promise that he will have victory over his enemies: by God’s power his sceptre extends over his enemies; people will volunteer for his army and God will fight alongside him and lead him to victory.

Reading this the earliest Christian preachers and writers could see immediately that this Psalm found its fulfilment in the Lord Jesus. ‘Jesus is Lord’ is the most basic of early Christian confessions. Three simple words (actually its only two in Greek) convey three mind blowing things about Jesus: (i) that Jesus is the anointed king of David’s line and inheritor of all the promises to David; (ii) that he is exalted over the cosmos as ruler of all things and (iii) that Jesus (remember in the world’s eyes just a penniless preacher from the Galilee) is himself God, the eternal Son of the eternal Father. The double Lordship language: ‘the Lord said to my Lord’ made perfect sense if you confessed ‘Jesus is Lord’. Here was one of the passages from the Hebrew Bible that drew aside the veil on the Holy Trinity before Jesus came in the flesh.

The promise to the Lord Jesus then is that he is to sit at God’s right hand until all his enemies are made his footstool. This is what the kingdom or kingship of God is about – the vanquishing of all authorities than God himself. And here it is in the Psalm: he will make your enemies your footstool. Jesus rule is unassailable. It is inevitable, it can be taken for granted. But of course we only need to look around us (or even look in the mirror sometimes) to see that not everyone has got the message yet and that he is still waiting.

It is a terrible travesty of this cosmic rule of the Lord Jesus when we reduce that Lordship to my ‘making Jesus Lord of my life’. The Lordship of Jesus is of cosmic and historical significance. It is not something that I create but which God has already created and what I do is accept, embrace and confess what God has already done.

Psalm 110 also answers three key questions all of which fill out the picture of Jesus’ Lordship. First: what happened to the Lord Jesus after his ascension? Answer: he was seated at God’s right hand. This is all over the New Testament in allusions and quotes and explains the numerical dominance of Psalm 110 over all other OT texts quoted in the New. Occasionally there are visionary glimpses of heaven and that confirm that this is indeed what heaven looks like. Revelation 5.6-7 is one example and Stephen’s martyrdom in Acts 7.55-56 another. Though actually Stephen saw Jesus standing at God’s right hand. I like the idea the Lord stands up so salute the very first of many who will walk the way of the cross.

Second: how will God bring in his final rule? Answer: he will do it through Jesus who as Paul says will then present the Kingdom to the Father (1 Cor 15.24-25).

Thirdly: What does Jesus do all day? Or if you prefer more respectable theological language: What kind of heavenly ministry does Jesus exercise? Answer: a priesthood like Melchizedek’s, a picture is mos fully worked out in the description of Jesus the Great High Priest in Hebrews.

Now you can see why Psalm 110 snuck in here? It tells us what comes between the ascension and Jesus appearing. And Psalm 110 all good news: He sits at God’s right hand, he is waiting for his enemies to be made his footstool and he is exercising a priestly ministry for you and for me. This is the sweet taste of the full fruit of the victory won on the cross for us.

Lord Jesus – when we call you this we open a treasure chest of who you are and what you are doing and will do for us. Thrill our hearts today to live in all the goodness of your heavenly rule, your intercession for us and the certainty of your full and final victory.
Amen.

2 Corinthians 4.11-5.10

‘Losing heart’ is one of those phrases that I know what it means without really being able to define it. The Message translation of this passage uses physical descriptions to translate what losing heart can look like: throwing up our hands and walking off the job, dropping our heads and dragging our feet.

I wonder, what is it that can make you lose heart? There is so much in the world around us that can drag us down, things that we see, hear or experience that just make us want to sigh and say ‘I give up’. Health, finances, relationships, injustice. But Paul confidently states “we do not lose heart”, and even states it twice just in case you didn’t hear it the first time! How can Paul say this so confidently, as though it is a fact? 

Chapter 4, verse 1 tells us they do not lose heart “since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry”. Paul knows that his ministry is given to him by God, that it is not his own and is an act of mercy to be working for God in this way. When the hard times come (and they really did come for Paul) he does not lose heart in the midst of difficulty. Instead he holds onto the fact that it is God’s mercy to be engaged in ministry, even when this ministry brings hardship. Paul does not lose heart when he is “afflicted in every way”, “perplexed”, “persecuted” and “struck down”. Why? Because he is not “crushed”, he is not “driven to despair”, he is not “forsaken” and he is not “destroyed”. Paul sees how the trials and persecutions that he describes as “carrying the death of Jesus” are actually making the life of Jesus more visible.

In verse 16 we come to it again: “so we do not lose heart”. This time, because of what God is doing in us and because of the life that is to come. Paul would have been so aware of his outer nature wasting away as he experienced the type of mental and physical pain described in this passage, but he knows that his inner nature is being renewed day by day. God is at work in him. He knows that what he can see is temporary, but what cannot be seen, the transformative power of the Holy Spirit in each one of us, that is eternal. That is the part of us that will stand the test of time. 

But being in the ‘temporary’ can be hard. We find it easier to trust in what we can see and we struggle to fix our eyes on what we cannot see. We struggle to live by faith rather than by sight. We want to switch this tent for our heavenly dwelling, to not have to deal with the things that drag us down and make us lose heart. But, wherever we are and whatever conditions we find ourselves in, Paul says our aim should be to please God. To remember that God’s extraordinary treasure is held in our very human-shaped clay jars. So, when life is tough, frustrating, unfair or painful, we can acknowledge this reality, as Paul does, but we can also acknowledge the reality of what God is doing in us and the eternal reality that is to come. So, we do not lose heart.

Let’s pray:

God, help us not to lose heart. We give to you all the very real things that are dragging us down at the moment, that are causing us to be downcast and place these burdens at your feet, knowing that you care for us. Give us an increase of faith to trust in what we cannot see, to trust in your transformational power at work in us day by day. We thank you that we can hopefully await a new heavenly body and a new heavenly home. But help us to please you while we live in this ‘in-between’, in our temporary home. May our lives, whether turbulent, or smooth, make the life of Jesus more visible.
Amen.

1 Corinthians 15.50-58

When I used to play football, I’d often come home covered in mud & sweat. Hair all over the place. Jersey half tucked in, socks rolled down with shin pads still visible. It wasn’t a pretty sight, I am the first to recognise that. Whenever I came home my parents would tell me that I needed to shower immediately. “You can’t go out for food looking and smelling like that.” Apparently. 

So I would do exactly that. Wash, change into smart attire. De-scruff myself until I was presentable enough to head out for food with the family.

There is an inherent problem. An issue that needs fixing. An issue with our “flesh and blood”. Our bodies. Put quite simply, our bodies are perishable. They will decay and ultimately they will die. But God is creating a new world, in Jesus, in which perishing, decaying and death have no say. That is a brief summary of this long chapter!

Lets move through the passage. Paul has a mystery to speak of. “We will not all die” before this triumphant day when God draws back the curtains and unveils his new masterpiece. BUT! We ALL will be changed. All of us who know and love our Saviour, have repented of the wrongs we have done and have the HOLY Spirit placed as a seal in our lives, guaranteeing our salvation. TRANSFORMATION AWAITS US! 

Transformation is necessary. In fact, if we call to mind this inherent sin which infects us all, transformation is therefore vital if we are to enter God’s new world. 

The analogy I began with is not a great comparison of the change that Paul is referring to as he is speaking of the transformation of the inner reality of who and what we are. But it is true that our corruptible, decaying bodies must change if we are to enter the promised sanctuary that God is creating anew for us. 

Paul conveys this exact thought when he writes to the church in Philippi. In chapter 3:20-21 he says: 

“But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” 

What an amazing thought. A body like our Saviours is what awaits us. 

“Thanks be to God! HE gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

This all happens in a “twinkling of an eye, in a flash, at the last trumpet”. As that trumpet blast echoes triumphantly across the cosmos creation will meet its intended goal, the enemies of sin and death will be defeated. The story of creator God’s victory over all of the forces of chaos and destruction will be a sudden and glorious reality. What a hope and what a God. 

Paul however, finishes this passage in a peculiar place. Surely his outro should be: “PRAISE BE. HALLELUJAH!” Or, is verse 57 not the ultimate ending point? Or even he could reiterate the future hope which he has just spoken of? Did Paul just get side-tracked and write verse 58 without thinking? Well, no. Verse 58 is key to understanding the here and now in which Paul alludes to. You see, the truth of the resurrection of the dead and the transformation of the living is not just a truth statement concerning future hope. It is a PRESENT truth of what we are and what we do. We cannot separate our future hope from our present responsibility. What an encouragement and challenge that our faithful obedience and service to God and His people at the present will last, will matter and will stand for eternity.

In closing, N. T. Wright says the following: 

“How God will take our prayer, our art, our love, our writing, our political action, our music, our honesty, our daily work, our pastoral care, our teaching, our whole selves – How God will take this and weave its varied strands into the glorious tapestry of His new creation, we can at present have no idea. That he will do so is part of the truth of the resurrection, and perhaps one of the most comforting parts of all.”

N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: 1 Corinthians

Friends, how amazing is this? Let us continue to serve our God in the here and now in light of the triumphant future hope that awaits us.

Father, thank you that you have set in our hearts the incredible hope of eternal communion with you. May our lives reflect your wonderful Son more and more each day that we live. Encourage us all this day. In Jesus’ name,
Amen.

1 Corinthians 15.35-49

Today we come to the next part of 1 Corinthians 15. So far, Paul has laid out the evidence in the scriptures and the testimony of the witnesses that Jesus did rise from the dead. He has argued that this makes certain our resurrection from the dead at Jesus’ return. And Paul has explained some of what will happen on that day. At the start of our text, Paul is introducing an objection: “How can everyone be raised from the dead? What kind of body will they have?”

The message of this text is twofold:

1. There will be resurrection of the dead.
2. We will receive better bodies, to be like Jesus.

First, let us be certain that the dead will be raised to everlasting life.

Though our bodies may decay, God will give us new bodies. Though they will be different to our bodies now, they are still bodies. Though they are bodies like we have now, they will be more glorious.

In verses 26 to 41 Paul introduces 3 illustrations to show the pattern of the resurrection:

First we read of the seed. It is sown into the ground, like bodies being buried, and the plant that grows is different from the seed that was sown – it receives its body from God, as he has chosen, according to the type of seed.

The point is this – there is more than one type of body. We will be raised to transformed, better bodies. As the plant is different from the seed, so our bodies then will be different to now. As God gives the body to a plant, so he will give us better bodies. 

Second, different animals have different bodies. As the animals have different kinds of bodies, so our bodies then will be different to what they are now.

Third, just as the stars and moon differ in glory, so our bodies then differ in glory from our bodies now.

In these three images Paul is demonstrating that resurrection from the dead will happen. Of course these old decaying bodies will not be lifted out of the ground! Fool! There are different kinds of bodies, that God gives as he chooses, and these will correspond to what came before. And what is to come is much more glorious than what has come before.

So, the objection does not stand. God will give a new, different, better body. May we be people of confidence, trusting our faithful God.

May we know it for certain: the dead will be raised to life.

Second, when we are raised, we will receive better bodies.

Receive the hope of the resurrection: new bodies! No more sickness or shame or sin or death! We will live forever with Jesus, in bodies like his.

I don’t know how you feel about your own body. Indestructible or failing, strong or fragile, impressive or embarrassing. Let us all hear the good news of the resurrection: though now our bodies are frail and dying, then they will be strong for everlasting life.

Now our bodies are weak, dishonourable, perishable. Then they will be powerful, honourable, imperishable. 

Now we are of the dust, like Adam. We bear his image and share his weakness to sin and all its consequences in sickness and death. Then we will have bodies from heaven, like Jesus. We will share his holiness, his indestructible life. This is the climax and the completion of God’s healing and transforming work.

God will give us better bodies, like Jesus’ body, and we will share his life. We will receive better bodies.

I wonder how much this truth shapes our thinking and praying and living. Do we fear death? Do we seek pleasure in this life because we don’t believe there is anything more? Or do we endure sickness full of hope in the day when we will be free from it? Do we thank God that the embarrassment and weakness and fragility of these bodies will be replaced by honour and power and everlasting life?

Jesus rose – the scriptures prophesied it, the apostles witnessed it. When Jesus returns, God will give us new and better bodies, like Jesus’, and we will live with him forever.

So let us be certain: God will raise us from the dead. And let us rejoice: he will give us better bodies.

Let’s pray.

Father, thank you for this sure and certain hope of resurrection from the dead. We are sorry for the times when we have lived as though this body and this life are all we will ever have. Help us to know for certain that we will rise from the dead. Help us to rejoice and give thanks for the better bodies that you will give us. Help us to wait in eager anticipation for that day when we will see Jesus face to face, and we will share his eternal life. In his name,
Amen.

1 Corinthians 15.20-34

It’s always a relief when we get to verse 20 of 1 Corinthians chapter 15. In the previous verses, Paul has been playing out a thought-experiment. What would happen if Jesus was not raised from the dead? The answer is that our faith would be futile and we would be pitied.

But verse 20, the beginning of our passage today, affirms the central and most crucial aspect of our faith: ‘In fact, Christ has been raised from the dead.’ Let us never forget how ground-breaking and life-changing Christ’s resurrection is. Jesus is the first-fruits, He’s our pioneer from the realm of the dead, leading the way for all of us who will one day follow in his footsteps. We too, will one day be raised just as Christ has been raised.

There’s a nice symmetry which Paul lays out for us next in verse 21: ‘For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being.’

Just as one human was sufficient to open the door to sin leading to death, one human being, Jesus Christ was completely sufficient to close the door to sin and death once and for all.

Do you see the significance of Jesus’ humanity has for our resurrection hope here? If Jesus was not fully human, but more of a demi-God, we would not have the full assurance that we will one day follow in His footsteps because He wouldn’t be completely like us. Jesus is the first fruits of those who have died, and then when Christ returns, we also will be raised. What an incredible hope!

Next, in verses 24-28, we get a breath-taking picture of Christ’s complete sovereignty over all creation. There will come a day when Christ will put all His enemies under His feet, even the last enemy to be destroyed, which is death. Praise God – we have a certain hope that all the disease, heartbreak, greed, poverty, loneliness, relationship break-downs, wars, addictions, jealousy, the list goes on – all these things will one day be destroyed by Jesus Christ.

But this battle is not won yet – we see that all too clearly every time we turn on the news. We still see suffering and sin in our world and our hearts today, but we know Jesus has the ultimate victory. We know that when we fight suffering and sin today, we are working towards an eternal destiny which Christ will one day bring to completion. Our labour will very much not be in vain as Paul reminds us in verse 58 of this chapter. So let’s keep going, and keep reminding ourselves and each other that there will come a day when all tears, pain and suffering will cease.

The final 5 verses of our passage today cause us to step back and ask ourselves, ‘How should I live if I have this hope of resurrection?’ Paul says that if there were no resurrection then we should ‘eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.’ If there were no resurrection, it wouldn’t really matter how we live in this life. Living longer, living happier and living more comfortably in this life would be our goal, for it would be our only life.

But we know that there is a resurrection. We know that that this life is not the end and Paul outlines two impacts this should have on the way we live:

Firstly, Paul says that he is daily in danger for the sake of the Gospel. His eyes are so fixed on the prize, that it does not matter to him what happens in this life, for his eyes are fixed on the victory and resurrection he will receive through Christ. Now I’m not suggesting that you go and find some wild animals you can fight for the sake of Jesus. But ask yourself, how should I live my life now, considering I have a certain hope of resurrection after I die? How should you steward your finances? What is the best use of your time? How could you share the hope you have with your friends or colleagues?

Secondly, Paul also gives a call to holy living. He says in verse 34: ‘Come to a sober and right mind, and sin no more.’ As we will discuss more in tomorrow’s devotional, our bodies will have some sort of continuity into the next life. The physical body which is sown will be raised a spiritual body (1 Cor 15.44). Therefore, we should seek to live holy lives in this life because of our resurrection hope for life after this life.

So today, let’s take a step back, let’s remind ourselves of the wonderful hope we have in Jesus and let our final destination shape the way we live our lives today.

Let’s pray:

Heavenly Father, there are no words to praise you enough for the incredible hope and life we have through Jesus. Thank you that Christ’s resurrection gives us certain hope of our own resurrection. May we never lose the wonder of this incredible truth. Help us to live today and every day in light of our wonderful final destination. We love you Lord,
Amen.

Not so long ago, my husband decided to make a birthday cake. He hunted out a recipe, got the ingredients together, whacked them in a bowl and fired it in the oven. 30 minutes later and he had something that looked suspiciously like a cake. Success! He iced it and congratulated himself on his cake baking prowess. It was later that evening that he spotted 150g of butter in the microwave and therefore decidedly not in the cake. Tucking into a slice revealed that although his creation did indeed look like a cake, it didn’t quite taste like one. There was clearly something missing. 

And this is where today’s passage is leading us. Not so much towards a discussion on butter to flour ratio, but rather the question of whether removing an ingredient changes the whole. More specifically, whether a belief in the resurrection of the dead is really all that important to our faith.

Whilst ‘on the third day he rose again’ might roll off the tongue – after all, we say it in the creed and we sing it in the songs – Paul is calling us to imagine an alternate reality: a world in which Easter Sunday never arrived. He’s hit pause at the Saturday and calls us to linger there. So let’s do just that… what if…? 

• What if the final vision of Jesus was him hanging, bloodied and lifeless on the cross?
• What if all his promises of new life and new hope ultimately came to nothing?
• What if he didn’t rise from the dead?

If, if, if… Paul uses this tiny word seven times. He doesn’t hold back. ‘If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile.’ It’s simply pointless. Just as some of the disciples did in the shadow of the cross, we may as well pack up and go home. If Jesus remains in the tomb, neither do we have any hope of leaving the grave. There’s no point to any of it. God is misrepresented, we’re still dead in our sins and at death everyone perishes. A sobering thought.

That isn’t to say, however, that a belief in the resurrection is the only ingredient of faith. 

If we were to ask each other, what makes you believe the Gospel? We would each throw other offerings into the mix. Maybe:

• Because I pray and God answers
• Because Jesus shows me how to live 
• Because it makes me the best version of myself 

There is nothing wrong with pointing to the good things of this life as reasons for the hope we have in Christ. But we don’t have to walk with Christ for long to realise that good things can feel fleeting and sometimes invisible altogether. There are times when:

• I pray and God doesn’t seem to answer
• When I don’t want to live in the way Jesus calls me to 
• When I’m frustratingly far from the best version of me 

The final verse says: ‘If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.’ The word ‘only’ is crucial here. Paul doesn’t say this life offers no reason to hope in Christ. Of course not: there are glorious blessings for us to celebrate and rejoice in. But we are to make sure we fix our eyes on the extraordinary truth of the resurrection. We are to hold tight to it, refusing to loose our grip, determining to believe and keep on believing that this world is not all there is. There is a resurrection, there is life beyond the grave, there is a hope for the future. And, my word, will it taste good. 

Let’s pray.

Father God, 
Forgive us for all too easily living as if this life is all there is. Lift our eyes, we pray, and make the mind-blowing doctrine of the resurrection real to us. Give us a new perspective and help us to live in light of it. In the names of Jesus, our risen Lord and Saviour,
Amen.

1 Corinthians 15.1-11

Believing that all Scripture is inspired by God does not mean that every chapter of the Bible has equal significance for Christian living and believing. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 is a towering giant of a text even amongst the writings of Paul the Apostle. It is honoured with the longest single quote from Scripture in the Nicene Creed: ‘he died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, he was buried, he rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.’ When Paul says something is of first importance – we sit upright, we stop talking and we pay attention. The saving events anticipated in Scripture are simple: his death dealt with sin, his burial confirmed his death and located his body and the rising of Jesus the Messiah brought resurrection to light. As Harold Dodd observed: the resurrection is a reversal, not just of the death but of the burial of Jesus. On Friday he was dead and buried. By Sunday morning the tomb was empty and Jesus was alive.

Later in this chapter Paul goes on to expound the key implication of the resurrection of Jesus for Christian believing: if Jesus is raised bodily then bodily resurrections are possible and she is no fool who hopes in God for a future bodily resurrection. Jesus, Paul teaches, is only the firstfruits. Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is only the first helping of the final resurrection of the dead.

Paul sets out his list of resurrection witnesses not so much to convince people in Corinth of these basic facts. No one was saying straight out: we don’t believe in the resurrection of Jesus. Rather he is tackling those who prefer a doctrine of the immortality of the soul and who regard the hope of the resurrection of the body on the last great Day as either unnecessary, philosophically incoherent, or just downright distasteful (surely bodies are not that great!). The core of Paul’s point is an argument by counterexample: if resurrections can’t happen, Jesus was not raised. But since Jesus was raised the assertion that resurrections can’t happen is just plain wrong. Christian faith and hope therefore rest on facts: the death of Jesus who shed his sacrificial blood for the sins of the world and his bodily resurrection as the basis of Christian hope. Moltmann captures the point perfectly when he says: ‘The immortality of the soul is an opinion – the resurrection of the dead is a hope. The first is a trust in something immortal in the human being, the second is a trust in God who calls into being the things that are not, and makes the dead alive.’

All this rests on a key fact: Jesus’ bodily resurrection. We don’t have direct access to the actual moment of Jesus resurrection: no one else was there. No one was up that early. What we do have is eye-witness testimony to both the empty tomb and the presence of the risen Jesus – passed on and passed down the centuries to us. But Paul’s pen practically elevates those witnesses from distant acquaintances in a far off land many years ago to being our neighbours two doors down. We hear Paul’s letter and Paul knew these people personally. Here we learn that Jesus appeared alone to broken Peter – Cephas – who Paul had met and spent time with. Paul also tells us that Jesus appeared to his own brother James. Neither of these encounters with the two men is recorded in the Gospels. Both Peter and James’s lives were turned right round. Nowhere else can we find the astounding report that the Lord appeared ‘to more than 500 brothers at one time.’ No wonder that so many who heard the testimony of Peter and the twelve, James and all the other apostles were irrevocably convinced that the tomb was empty and that Jesus had risen.

This gospel of Jesus’ saving death and risen life is God’s power to save. Down the ages people have been tempted to tidy things up a bit on God’s behalf and make the gospel more sophisticated or more respectable in the eyes of a watching world. Or to turn the Christian message into something essentially ethical or moral. But the gospel is not a clever set of ideas or a convincing argument. It is neither beautiful aesthetically (people dying on crosses are not pretty and Jesus didn’t come out of the tomb all shiny – he left that to the angels). Nor did the risen Lord Jesus overwhelm people with his power. In fact they hardly recognised him. Instead he pointed people to Scripture and said: this has now come true in me. The glory of this simple factual gospel is that it is God’s power to save us. As Paul says in the opening of this chapter, we are called to receive the gospel and to stand in it. When we do these things we will be saved by it. This is the foundation stone of all Christian faith. As we will hear tomorrow the whole edifice of Christianity stands and falls on this one matter: the bodily resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Honestly, without this we may as well pack up our little religious games and go and do something more useful. But seen in the light of Jesus death and resurrection life the universe and everything is transformed.

To the sceptic Paul’s list of eye-witnesses trumpets loud and clear: all your philosophy, all your science, all your arguments, all your prejudices and all your predilections come up against this one great brute fact: Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. This is the great event with which we have to do. It means that the rest, as they say, is his story.

Lord Jesus, we rejoice from the bottom of our hearts that you became obedient even to death on the cross for us and for our salvation. And we rejoice that by your mighty resurrection you showed yourself to be the resurrection and the life. Lord, embed these simple truths in our hearts and lives by your Holy Spirit, so that we may live in all the good of your work for us.
Amen