Resurrection and Ethics

Christ’s resurrection from the dead changes the trajectory of human life. In 1 Corinthians 15:32, the apostle Paul hypothesises that if the dead are not raised then “we should eat and drink for tomorrow we die”. This is not difficult to understand. If this life is all there is, if our existence is limited to this temporal experience, then it makes sense to do whatever we can to adorn whatever time we have left with whatever morsels of leisure and pleasure might come our way. Nor is this an unfamiliar philosophy in our world. Slogans like “you only live once” abound, bending our minds into thinking we need this experience, or that possession, to be truly human. Putting this differently, if the resurrection is not real, then there is no real impetus to change the way we live: we might as well continue living what seems to be the sensible and familiar way.

But of course, as 1 Corinthians 15 so richly communicates to us, the Christian faith rests upon the reality of Jesus’ bodily resurrection from the dead, a resurrection that we are told is the first of many (1 Cor 15:20-23). Christ’s resurrection secures a resurrection future for those who are cleaved to him in faith (Rom 6; Eph 2). And so the ethical principle “eat and drink for tomorrow we die” — the principle so prominent in our world — is itself put to death in the resurrection of Jesus.

As far as the apostle Paul is concerned, the resurrection plays a vital role in the way a Christian chooses to act here and now. The resurrection changes the way we live life, because it changes the way we view life. Two features of the surrounding context — namely Paul’s example and Paul’s exhortation — provide insight into the primary ways the resurrection informs our life choices. Keep reading