What If?

But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
1 Corinthians 15:20

Recommended Reading 1 Corinthians 15:12-20

What if . . .?

What if the body of Jesus were still moldering somewhere in a Middle Eastern grave? The apostle Paul envisions that scenario and shows us the dire consequences: "If Christ is not risen," he wrote in 1 Corinthians 15, "your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished." All is lost, he said, and all hope is gone. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are pitiable indeed.

"But," Paul quickly added in verse 20, "now Christ is risen from the dead!"

Without the Resurrection, we're like the Swiss philosopher Henri-Frederic Amiel who wrote, "Melancholy is at the bottom of everything, just as at the end of all rivers is the sea. Can it be otherwise in a world where nothing lasts, where all that we have loved or shall love must die?"

With the Resurrection, we're like hymnist Fanny Crosby who wrote: "Christ is risen! Hallelujah! Gladness fills the world today."

From the tomb that could not hold Him, see, the stone is rolled away!
Fanny Crosby