The Truth

In 1 Corinthians 15, God speaks plainly, through the inspired apostle Paul about our relationship with death. He says, "Christ has truly been raised from the dead-the first one and proof that those who sleep in death will also be raised." In verse 22, He goes on to say that "in Christ all of us will be made alive again".

Are YOU in Christ?

If you are, then death has nothing on you! You will experience physical death at some point, but it will be like walking through a door into the physical presence of God. Death, I'm speaking of...not suffering.There are probably some people reading this who do have a relationship with Christ. But there are probably some who don't. Let me share this with you:

God is perfect, and He made all things perfect...until sin was introduced into that perfection by way of Adam & Eve in the garden. God and sin don't jive. God is perfect, God is not sinful in any way, thus He can't be part of sin. So when Adam & Eve decided to be part of sin...to commit a sin...God had to separate Himself from that sin. The only way man and God could ever unite again was through a blood sacrifice...an offering to pay for the sins that people committed "back in the old days", usually a lamb. Now that doesn't mean that God took a vacation and allowed the world to play in it's corrupt nature. It just means that He didn't bless sin. He did love the people, however.

Then came Jesus.

God sent Jesus. To die. To pay for people's sin (yours and mine), ONCE AND FOR ALL! Jesus came to this earth and lived a human existence, just like we do...only with NO sin (imagine never EVER having told a lie...never EVER having eaten too much, or NEVER feeling like you wanted to choke your kids-HA!). So Jesus went through a horrible death on the cross to pay for our sins. If you accept that, and ask God to forgive you of your sins and be Lord of your life, and believe Him...trust Him, you will be saved by your faith in Him.

Let's look at 1 Corinthians again. Paul is talking about physical AND spiritual death here. The spiritual death is what I want to bring to your attention. In sin, we are spiritually dead. When we accept the free gift of salvation through Christ, we are then "in Christ", and become spiritually alive. "Now since we preached that Christ was raised from the dead, why do some of you say that people will not be raised from the dead?" If you're preaching it/claiming it, then you know it, so get off of your duff and SHARE it! "If no one is ever raised from the dead, then Christ has not been raised." Is your salvation a lie? "And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is worth nothing, and your faith is worth nothing." Do you live as if Christ's resurrection from the dead didn't happen? How valuable is your faith to you? "And also, we are guilty of lying about God, because we testified of him that he raised God from the dead" Do you believe God? Do you trust God? "And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith has nothing to it; you are still guilty of your sins" Do you live a victorious life...or a defeated one? "And those in Christ who have already died are lost" How does YOUR faith effect others? So many live as though they really ARE lost. "If our hope in Christ is for this life only, we should be pitied more than anyone else in the world" How deep is your relationship with Christ? Because if it's not really a relationship, but more of a convenient religious feeling...you need to reevaluate what Christ really means to you...and if you've asked Him to be Lord of your life.

In verse 31, Paul asks, "Why do we put ourselves in danger every hour?". He is speaking of the ministry that he and Sosthenes were doing to further God's truth. He was asking the people of Corinth to reevaluate if the ministry was all for nothing! In other words...why share a gospel that isn't even true, when we could be looking elsewhere for the truth of life!

Understand this...ANYTIME you don't know the truth, you are in danger! In danger of falling into sin. Or living your life as a lie. And he warns us in vs 33, "Do not be fooled: Bad friends will ruin good habits." You should make it a habit to learn the truth, study the truth, and know God. If you don't, you'll be in danger of falling.

Paul says to not live a life of sin, but to "come back to your right way of thinking and stop sinning". Sin equals death, which is why we must experience death. But if you are "in Christ", you will also experience the resurrection.

That is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me...

God...