A Biblical Vision, Part II: Mastering the New Testament Witness to Christ

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A B i b l i ca l Vi s i on, Par t I I : Mas ter i ng the New Tes tament Wi tnes s to Chr i s t

3. Again, if the dead are not raised, not even Christ Jesus himself has been raised, v. 16.

4. And if Christ has not been raised

a. Our faith in Jesus is futile (completely meaningless), v. 17.

b. We are still in our sins, v. 17.

c. Those who have fallen asleep in Messiah Jesus have perished, v. 18.

d. If in this life alone we have hope, we are the most pitiful people on the planet! v. 19.

5. The fact of the matter: Christ Jesus has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep, v. 20. The witness of the New Testament is that an objective act took place in a garden outside of Jerusalem in which the crucified and entombed Jesus emerged from the grave into a new order of life. As we deal with the objective fact of the resurrection, it is not our intention to prove the fact of the resurrection and thereby compel faith. We recognized that faith cannot be compelled by a recital of “historical” or objective facts but only by the working of the Holy Spirit upon the human heart. But the Holy Spirit used the witness of the disciples to the reality of the resurrection of Christ, and we must here bear witness to the facts of the New Testament record.

~ George Eldon Ladd. Theology of the New Testament . Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1974. pp. 318-19.