The Resurrection: Motive for Salvation - Devotional

GracetoYou.org ^ | 1997 | John MacArthur, Grace Community Church

[metmom]

“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?” (1 Corinthians 15:29).

The fact of the Resurrection often is a powerful testimony to draw people to saving faith in Christ.

The apostle Paul knew that believers who face death with joy and hope can present powerful testimonies to unbelievers. The prospect of life in Heaven and a reunion with loved ones is a strong motive for people to hear and receive the gospel. When believers die, their spirits go immediately to be with the Lord. And one day in the future their glorified bodies will rejoin their spirits, and Christians will worship and enjoy God for all eternity.

First Corinthians 15:29 uses the term “baptized” to refer to those who were testifying that they were Christians. Although the mere act of baptism does not save a person, anyone who is an obedient Christian will be baptized. In Paul’s day, the church assumed that any believer would have been baptized, and people were not baptized unless the church was confident their profession of faith was genuine.

“The dead” in 1 Corinthians 15:29 could also include believers, those who have died and whose lives were persuasive testimonies to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. People were being saved (baptized) in Corinth because of (“for”) the faithful witness of deceased believers.

The Resurrection is still a powerful incentive to salvation. In my years as a pastor I have seen people come to Christ after the death of a believing spouse or parent. Those husbands and wives, sons and daughters could not bear the thought of never seeing their loved one again. Those converted survivors were unknowingly touched and changed by the reunion hope that already sustains believers. That hope, based on the promise of resurrection, upheld David after the death of his infant son: “I shall go to him, but he will not return to me” (2 Sam. 12:23).

Suggestions for Prayer

Ask the Lord’s forgiveness for times when your testimony has been weak and the resurrection hope in your life has not been evident.

For Further Study

Read Matthew 22:23-33.

What did the Sadducees’ hypothetical story demonstrate about their belief concerning resurrection? How important was the doctrine of resurrection to Jesus? To what did He appeal in correcting the Sadducees?

[metmom]

Studying God’s Word ping

[OneVike]

Good red, thanks for posting.

[Migraine]

A very unusual rendering of the phrase “baptized for the dead”.

[MurphsLaw]

I do enjoy reading your posts. I don’t often comment on them to avoid the misunderstandings that obviously would arise. This post however is a serious red flag that I feel should be clarified.
Aside from the not-uncommon mis-application of this verse (“ those who are baptized for the dead”- is actually defining St. Paul’s present tense -self-referential way of explaining Baptism, as Christ did, and that it was the form of continued suffering for the sake of someone else.) - this commentary screams “church of Nice” for many of us.

The human sentiment of being separated from “loved ones” here on earth – and the reunion in the next life - should not be a motivating desire in eternal participation. Granted the Resurrection IS the Truth and Proof, as Justin Martyr said, of Christ’s truth as the One True God … we have to overcome this flawed emotional human nature and be made a totally new, different creature in Christ- shedding this earthly body- free of these worldly bonds.

While we will be bodily resurrected on that day and though its sounds anti-familial to us, we see often in scripture, we must move beyond human “family” and into the Body of Christ.

Eternal life is desirable, but not as a bone to throw to those needing a false sense of security facing death one day. I think we can agree on that.

[Elsie]

When believers die, their spirits go immediately to be with the Lord.

There we go again.

But he's a pastor of a big church, and I am just an anonymous voice on the net.

[Elsie]

It beats Joseph Smiths!

[Migraine]

That is for sure!

It is about the truth and reality of life-after-death itself (and the near-universal intuition that it exists).

Then Paul’s reasoning goes subtle. “Why baptize THEY for the dead, and why stand WE in jeopardy every hour.”

It doesn’t help Joseph Smith’s position at all, because the “THEY” is in all likelihood referring to the pagans, who apparently had such rituals.

Contrariwise, the Christians, the “WE” who stand in jeopardy every hour, were risking their lives daily, by adhering to their hope in Jesus Christ and the eternal life He had promised, and by doing so in the midst of a cruel, fascist dictatorship which severely persecuted them.

Thus, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.”

Thanks for your post.