As we make our way through 1 Corinthians we are astounded at the problems that entangled the church at Corinth. Jealousies and factions divided them.  They sued each other in court.  Immorality was rampant in the church.  They were a selfish group of people, as evidenced by the more affluent members taking the best portions of food at the fellowship meal and leaving the less affluent members to be content with what was left over.  And over the past couple of weeks or so we have seen how the Corinthians struggled with the use of spiritual gifts.  In that context we learned that they had a lot to learn about love and about the need to build each other up.

As we come to the 15^th chapter, we see yet another problem in the church at Corinth.  Some people in the church were declaring that there is no resurrection of the body (v. 12).  I don’t believe this means that they thought that Jesus had never been resurrected.  It’s not that they were doubting the Lord's resurrection.   Rather, they were doubting their own resurrection. That is the reason why Paul starts his argument by using the resurrection of the Lord Jesus as an example as to how and why we one day will be resurrected too.

The resurrection is central to the Christian gospel.  The resurrection is central to all the facets of Christian doctrine.  So if we could just submit all the convincing evidence that points to Christ’s resurrection, then that should be enough to convert the world, right?  If that were the case, then Jesus would have surely appeared to Pilate and Caiaphas and Herod and the Pharisees and the Sadducees.  But he didn’t do that.  He appeared only to a select few who already believed in him.

There’s something very important here that I want you to see.  The issue of faith is never decided by the evidence but by the condition of a person’s heart.