God's purpose is and was to SAVE US COMPLETELY - Body, Soul and Spirit! He came to save our souls from our sins by His death on the cross; to save our spirits from always being separated from with God through a New Birth upon reception of His Spirit; and came to save and change our bodies to become glorified like His own at His second coming.
Now Paul makes it Very Clear to anyone who seeks the truth, that even though they may believe in a crucified Christ (yet go no farther than that) then such a faith is worthless, done in vain, and stands alone not having the Spirit. He says...
1 Corinthians 15:14 And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
Jesus says it like this...
John 8:24 I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.
and who is "he"??? None other than God in the flesh! (1 Timothy 3:16)
People can believe what they want concerning a crucified Christ who died on the cross for our sins, but if they go no farther than this, religiously replaying His death over and over again then they are going to die in their sins. He is and always was - "God, come in the flesh!" His DEATH is unshared, and is what satisfied God when He died for our sins. Only sharing in His Life is what can satisfy us by making us into New Creations!
In order to become a New Creaure a person must KNOW Christ in the Power of His Life risen and made alive in us upon our reception of the Spirit of Truth; the same Spirit that Jesus promised to send to those who believe on Him. The PROOF of such faith is simple: They love the Lord now - They are made One - They hunger for more of Him - They want to talk of Him all the time - They are His witnesses, because they KNOW Him now... and serve and worship only Him. This is what the New Birth, A New Creature, gaining Eternal Life is all about --- "CHRIST"!!!
However, if you only believe and act like He only died for your sins' (and then you go and religiously attempt to do the rest to save or keep yourself saved) then you will surely die in your sins. Such a "faith" is worthless, because it is a "lie"! It is just this kind of "faith" that will gladly accept God's gift of Grace for their sins, but "refuses" to come to that same God in order to receive Christ, thus receive the Spirit of Truth and appropriate so great a salvation. It wants what God has to give but it doesn't want to pay anything to get it, and keep right on going in its sins. This kind of "Faith" is NOT the kind that comes from "Hearing" God's word, but hears instead what it wants to hear, what only goes to appease the flesh and keep the old-man going strong.
Acts 2:36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
Not only is He "The Crucified Christ", but He is "The Risen Lord" as well! Him who is, who was, and who is to come, God the Almighty (Rev.1:8). Therefore what Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians 15:14 is that IF Christ hasn't risen from the dead - and isn't in fact risen and alive in your heart, then you are not saved.
Even if we believe that He was "crucified" for our sins - yet if we don't actively seek Him to be alive in us and obey Him as not only our Savior but as our Lord as well, then what we believed was done in vain, because TO US it would mean that He is DEAD and never rose from the dead! Why? Because He personally is NOT a part of us. There is no Power! There is NO Godly Chage in us! He's still OUT THERE somewhere!
It is possible to believe that Jesus rose from the dead. However, this is intellectual/flesh and bood knowledge and it cannot change a man or make him a new creation. We must receive the kind of absolute knowledge that comes only by the Spirit revealing Christ to us. It is God who reveals and draws with absolute truth, not man. (Matthew 16:17)
It takes FAITH that comes from Hearing the word of God preached to believe that Jesus was crucified for our sins. It also takes FAITH to know that this same Jesus has risen from the dead and is (and always was) The Lord God. And it takes this same Hearing with FAITH the same word of God to know that He is going to return and give us new bodies and glorify us.
Just as it does our faith absolutely no good to believe in a Christ who was never raised from the dead (and therefore does not LIVE in us as our righteousness before God), neither is it the Gospel to believe that Jesus rose from the dead but isn't coming back again to give us new, glorified bodies.
1. What good would it do to have Faith in the crucified Christ if He was never raised from the dead? (In other words, what good is it if we aren't delivered from sin?)
2. What good would it do to have Love in the risen Christ if He was never made real and alive in us and seen as such in our new hearts? (In other words, what good is it to be a Christian if He is never going to return and give us an eternal body like His?)
3. And what good would it do to have Hope in a returning Christ if He's never going to return or return when and as He says?
On our part - "Deliverance, New Bodies, Glory"! On His part - "A people all made in the resurrected image of His Son, A Holy Temple for the Spirit to live in, A Glorified Family for the Father to love"!
Christ was Crucified for our sins! The Lord is risen for our righteousness! The King of Glory is coming again to set up His Kingdom!
Salvation comes from the fact that He has RISEN from the dead and that the believer comes and lays hold of Him thus becoming born again in obedience to the faith of the Gospel (Hebrews 5:9; Romans 1:5, 6; 16:26).
He is our Blessed Hope, as well as our Deliverer, as well as our Savior. This is The Gospel: "Christ came and died as the propitation for our sins - Christ came and rose from the dead in order that we become the righteousness of God in Him - and Christ is coming again to give a new and glorified body like His own to all that are His.
May God bless you in the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ!
Biff
