God's Story Is Our Story: From Acts to New CreationSample

Greek philosophies imagined several scenarios that could happen after death. Some believed that the soul is freed from the body and the physical world. Others believed  that life just ceased. A view they would not have found favor was the Christian description that human souls will one day be reunited to their bodies (resurrection).

Some early Christians wanted to deny the resurrection whether that was because it didn't make sense in their cultural logic or whether they thought it would make them look ridiculous to others. Paul tells the Corinthians that resurrection is not a concept they can reject and still be a Christian in any meaningful way. If Christ did not literally rise from the dead as he predicted that he would, then not only is Christianity untrustworthy but the whole hope it offers to us has been disproven.

Faith in a literal resurrection of Jesus can still make us look ridiculous to the culture today. People don't have a problem with Jesus being a moral teacher who was killed. But, Paul tells us that his resurrection from the dead is an essential part of our faith and the crucial solution to the human dilemma.

Jesus' resurrection is why we can have hope as we face death. One day our souls will be reunited to our bodies, but no longer prone to sickness, aging, injury, mental disorders, and so much more. This is the reason for hope in our own stories.