13 For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ must still be dead.
14 And if he is still dead, then all our preaching is useless and your trust in God is empty, worthless, hopeless;
15 and we apostles are all liars because we have said that God raised Christ from the grave, and of course that isn’t true if the dead do not come back to life again.
16 If they don’t, then Christ is still dead,
17 and you are very foolish to keep on trusting God to save you, and you are still under condemnation for your sins;
18 in that case, all Christians who have died are lost!
19 And if being a Christian is of value to us only now in this life, we are the most miserable of creatures.
20 But the fact is that Christ did actually rise from the dead and has become the first of millions who will come back to life again someday.
1 Corinthians 15:13-20
I was invited to have coffee one morning with Konrad Adenauer before he retired as the Chancellor of Germany. When I walked in, I expected to meet a tall, stiff, formal man who might even be embarrassed if I brought up the subject of religion. After the greeting, the Chancellor suddenly turned to me and said, “Mr. Graham, what is the most important thing in the world?” Before I could answer, he had answered his own question. He said, “The resurrection of Jesus Christ. If Jesus Christ is alive, then there is hope for the world. If Jesus Christ is in the grave, then I don’t see the slightest glimmer of hope on the horizon.” Then he amazed me by saying that he believed that the resurrection of Christ was one of the best-attested facts of history. He said, “When I leave office, I intend to spend the rest of my life gathering scientific proof of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” It was the fact of the resurrection of Christ that called the disciples to go out as burning young revolutionaries to change the world of their day. They preached that Christ is alive. This should be our message every day of the year.
