Weird Ideas: Descent to Hell, Then Raised From the DeadMostra

1 Corinthians 15 is the Bible’s longest, most in-depth treatment of why Jesus’s resurrection is so significant. These final two days we’ll dive into it, starting with 15:1-28 today. It can be technical and confusing at times, so here’s some notes to help you stay focused on the main points as you go.

1 Corinthians 15:1-2 sets the stage. The Corinthians had an overly spiritualized idea of resurrection. What God promised as tangible in the future, they treated as metaphorical in the present. Their thinking was that the resurrection wasn’t really necessary. Or maybe that it already happened in some “spiritual” kind of way. 1 Corinthians tries to set them straight. Chapter 15 argues that Jesus’s resurrection (and therefore our resurrection) is absolutely inextricable from the gospel and salvation.

Remember, resurrection does not mean dying and going to heaven. It means our bodies will rise from the dead. It’s physical and tangible. But it isn’t just resuscitation or becoming like zombies. It’s also transformation. Paul will unpack these ideas later.

In 1 Corinthians 15:3-11 Paul lays the foundation of the gospel message. It’s not the easiest to detect, but 15:3-6 (or 8?) seems to be some sort of ancient Christian creed. Notice how historical it is. Notice the centrality of Jesus’s death and resurrection. Notice the repeated emphasis on how this is in accord with what the scriptures have always been saying (referring to the OT, not NT, since it hadn’t been written yet!). Notice too, how Paul shows from his own life (v.8-11) the interconnectedness between Jesus’s death & resurrection, and the absolute grace of God.

1 Corinthians 15:12-19 gets to the heart of the issue. If Jesus didn’t actually rise from the dead, Christianity is a sham. Paul shows why. The Corinthians seem to be rejecting the concept of resurrection (for themselves or otherwise) in general. If that’s the case, that means Christ wasn’t actually raised. Which means the apostles’ work is pointless. Even worse, a con and a lie! That also means our faith is pointless. Our loved ones who have died are gone and any future hope for ourselves is dashed. Without Jesus’s resurrection, Christianity is pitiful. Why suffer and struggle for the name of Christ if it’s for this life only? As Paul will say later in 15:19-32, we’d be better off just living for pleasure in the moment.

But as Paul asserts in 1 Corinthians 15:20-28, Christ is raised from the dead. And this makes all the difference. The power of sin and death are broken, future hope is born, Jesus is shown to be more than a mistaken teacher or sham messiah, and the new dawn of God’s kingdom has come.

NT Wright writes: “The resurrection of Jesus was the moment when the one true God appointed the man through whom the whole cosmos would be brought back into its proper order.” Paul goes on to show how it works. Obviously we don’t see those who have died walking around raised (other than Jesus), which seems to indicate the dawn and restoration of God’s kingdom is coming progressively in stages. Jesus is the first wave. He leads the way for what will ultimately be a resurrection of all the dead. The idea here is of reversal. God never intended his creation to die. But death came to all through the first man, Adam. Christ is also a man, but undoes Adam’s curse.

The metaphor Paul uses is “firstfruits,” the very first produce of the crops to appear which signal that all the rest are coming soon. (It is significant that Jesus rose on the festival of Firstfruits; Cf. Lev 23:10-14). And when the end comes, Jesus himself will hand the entire kingdom first given to Adam (Gen 1:28) back to God the Father.

Until then, there are still enemies of darkness to be defeated, the last being death which still holds its ground in our world. Notice how for Paul, death is an enemy. The promise of resurrection is that one day death will be defeated!