The Apostles of the first century were oriented toward the coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth and so they stressed the fact that the Lord Jesus had gained immortality in the body.

Evidently some teachers already were explaining away the idea that the believers would be raised from the dead. Paul was stating that if the believers are not to be raised then neither has Christ been raised. Our resurrection and His resurrection are very closely tied together.

So important is the fact of Christ's bodily resurrection that if it did not take place our sins have not been forgiven. The forgiveness and deliverance from sin that come to us under the new covenant depend for their effectiveness on the resurrection of the Lord.

Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. (I Corinthians 15:18)

As we shall see later on, when the Apostle Paul referred to our being made alive in Christ he meant physically alive.

The idea of not coming back to life again was Paul's frame of reference when he said, "they which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished." If Christ has not been raised, then the believers who have died will never be seen alive again.

We are accustomed to comforting ourselves with the thought that our deceased loved ones are in Paradise with Jesus (and indeed they are if they have lived their life in Christ!). We do not give much thought to their coming back to life on the earth. The desirability of their resurrection is not uppermost in our mind.

But coming back to life on the earth was the original Gospel. Paul is stating (above) that if Christ was not raised from the dead, then our loved ones will not come to life again on the earth and all will be lost. Paul would not view their being saved as meaning they were safe in the arms of Jesus in Heaven. The issue in Paul's mind was their coming back to life in the Kingdom of God on the earth.

We are preaching "another gospel" today! We are preaching a gospel of going to Heaven to live forever rather than returning to live on a redeemed earth, an earth in which God's will is done as it is in Heaven.

If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. (I Corinthians 15:19)

By this saying we of today mean that if we are not going to have eternal life in Heaven, if our present life is all we will experience, then we are to be pitied. But Paul was not speaking of eternal life in Heaven but of our coming back to life on the earth. Paul was addressing those who were teaching that the dead will not be raised. Paul is saying that if the dead are not to be raised, and the only hope we have in Christ is in the present life, then we are to be pitied. But because Christ was raised by the Glory of the Father, was declared to be the Son of God by the power of His resurrection, we have the Divine assurance that we too will live once again on the earth.

To be continued.