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Pitiful, pitiful. That was what the Apostle Paul referred Christians to be should there be no resurrection from the dead. “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men” (1 Cor. 15:17-19)
The Apostle Paul reflected to assess his life if there had been no resurrection of Christ from the dead. He said he would be a much pitied man – very pitiful. The resurrection of Christ guided and empowered him to do things which would otherwise be absurd. He was a Jew and a Roman citizen. As a Pharisee he was trained under the leading teacher Gamaliel, a respected teacher of the Jewish Torah (Law). Things were going well for him. However, while on an “arrest and imprison” mission to Damascus (Syria), he had an encounter with the risen Jesus. Ananias gave to him the words from the risen Jesus: “I will show him how much he must suffer for my name” (Acts 9:16). Paul accepted this as part of his calling from God and his life was never the same after that. “If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for merely human reasons, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die’” (1 Cor. 15:32). But that was not what Paul chose. He chose obedience to God and with it came suffering. He ended up a martyr for his real Christian faith in Jesus, probably in Rome, during the reign of the crazy Emperor Nero.
The values and ideals of Christians are totally different from the world. Christians are called to live godly, Christ-honouring lives. Throughout the ages, many Christians have lived beyond themselves and sought to bring the message of resurrection to others. They are: Brother Andrew, Jim Elliot, Hudson Taylor, and Richard Wurmbrand, just to name a few. Only the resurrection of Christ and the joys of eternity can make sense out of all the sufferings that these great men of faith in recent times had gone through.
The risen Jesus Christ Himself will inspire us to new heights of worship and allegiance to God. Jesus Christ is Risen and our faith in Him is very real!
