As Christians, we rely on faith. Even with the growth of apologetics and the increasing archaeological and historical proofs of both the Old and New Testaments, faith is central to Christianity.
For many people, doubts can creep in from time to time. Some people may even be tempted to ask, “What if it’s not true? What if everything we believe turns out to be false?”
John Piper recently tackled this heavy question on his “Ask Pastor John” podcast. One listener wrote in to ask Piper, “Even if Christ was not resurrected, isn’t our life, now, more satisfying than the life of the non-Christian?”
The question itself is rooted in the beginning of the Apostle Paul’s discussion of the resurrection — Jesus’ resurrection and our resurrection:
Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
“Evidently, Paul believes that delusion — a life of delusion — is to be pitied, even if it’s a happy delusion,” Piper replies (with emphasis in the original). “It’s not just that what we’re experiencing in this life proves to be more or less happy in the other; it proves to be nonexistent in the other.”
“If Christ is not raised from the dead, then my joy in the living Christ is not joy in the living Christ,” he continues. “There is no living Christ, and therefore, I am not experiencing joy in the living Christ. I am an absolute idiot — I’m a fool.”
The picture that Paul and Piper both paint is bleak. Generation after generation of Christians are burning in hell, and our lives are in vain. Believers suffer persecution for nothing, and we have repented and renounced sin with nothing to show for it.
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Piper points out that, in this scenario, our eternity is brutal.
“If Christ and we are not raised from the dead, then Paul doesn’t infer atheism; he infers hell,” he says. “We enter a worse punishment in hell than others, because we didn’t just make a mistake; we actively misrepresented God.”
It’s a scary thought, isn’t it? That’s why Paul says that “we are of all people most to be pitied” if Christianity isn’t true. But guess what? The truth is far better than any of the worst fears we can conjure up under those hypotheticals.
As Paul continued to the Corinthian church:
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
1 Corinthians 5:20-26 (ESV)
Good news! Christianity is true, which means that, if you’re a believer in Jesus, your eternity is secure. So if you ever find yourself struggling with doubt, turn to 1 Corinthians 15 and, like Paul also says in Romans 5:2, “rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
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