But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek. 

I Corinthians 15:24-26 

Christ, not man, is King. As King, He reigns. According to David, Jehovah has said to Christ, ‘sit at my right hand, till I made your enemies your footstool.’ Paul echoes this idea in our text. It is a matter of who rules, God or humanity. For the believer, there is only one answer: God rules and Christ reigns. Everything else comes after that. Human government, morality, ethics, social policy and practice all come after the basic premise that God is God and is Sovereign. The long-term result of that is that His rulership will result in His subduing His enemies ‘under His feet.’ This is not manifestly clear in the world in which we live at the moment. The end is not yet. It is impossible to state, with any degree of certainty when it will become apparent. God has not told us the day or the hour of the revelation of Christ as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He has assured us, by the mouth of His prophets that it will come. We wait for Him to complete all He has planned and bring all to fruition. We pray, ‘Even so come, Lord Jesus.’ 

High King of Heaven, 
we rejoice that You are Sovereign over all. 
We praise You that every knee shall bow 
to Christ at His coming. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. 

I Corinthians 15:20-22 

By man came death and by man came the resurrection from the dead. This lies at the heart of our text. By what man did death come? It came by Adam. God said to Adam and Eve that they would die if they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They ate, sin came into the world and death came with it. Thus, we have become a dying race. What could change this the course of this procession of death?  Christ is the answer. Paul contrasts Christ, Who has risen from the dead, as a man, a true human, with Adam by whom death came. All the ancients testified of their looking forward to Christ.  The evangelists and disciples saw Him alive from the dead and testified of what they had seen. We follow in the same vein, testifying that Christ has risen from the dead and that He is the Man by Whom has come the resurrection from the dead. Thus, Christ is the central figure apart from Whom there is no eternal life. He is, as He says, ‘the Way, the Truth, and the Life.’ By man came death, by Man came the resurrection from the dead. Christ is the Man.  

Our Glorious, Living Christ. 
We rejoice that You are alive from the dead. 
We praise You that because You live, 
we shall live also. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. 

I Corinthians 15:12-14 

The faith we have rests upon the fact that Christ has risen from the dead. As Paul writes to the Corinthians, he expounds the truth of the resurrection because of some in Corinth who were saying there is no resurrection. Our text reflects Paul’s logic that, ‘if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen.’ He goes on to point out the logical implications of that by saying, ‘And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.’ Thus, the faith we have is integrally connected to Christ’s resurrection. This is why the resurrection of Christ is so clearly set forth by the evangelists, Peter, and Paul. Without the resurrection, the whole thing becomes a vain, empty fantasy. Paul goes to great lengths to establish, first, that there is a resurrection from the dead, and second, that Christ has risen. This was the perpetual message of the New Testament era. It continues today among all who preach Christ. The resurrection of Christ from the dead is critical to faith. We have the privilege to believe it and to proclaim it. Thus faith is not empty, and belief is not foolish. ‘He is risen indeed.’  

Our Glorious, Living Christ, 
we rejoice that You are the Author and Finisher of our faith. 
We praise You that because you live, 
we shall live also. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning