In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was a king who received a cruel and unusual punishment from the gods. After betraying Zeus, he was chained by Hades in the Underworld - the place of the dead. While there, he tricked Persephone, Queen of the Underworld, into allowing him to return to normal human life. As a punishment from the gods for his trickery, Sisyphus was compelled to roll a huge rock up a steep hill, but before he could reach the top, the rock would always roll back down again, forcing him to start all over. This was his fate for all eternity. Always working, but never getting anywhere. All his efforts would result in absolutely nothing.

The maddening nature of this meaningless work strikes us all as tragic. The story invites us to consider whether our own activities share the fate of Sisyphus' eternal task. Are all our actions, like impressions in the sand at the edge of the ocean, only of momentary value, and therefore, ultimately insignificant, washed away by the tide?

Paul's answer to this question, in light of the good news of Christ's death and resurrection, is a joyfully victorious and hilariously bold, "No!" It is the resurrection of Christ that guarantees our future resurrection and assures us that our present actions are not in vain.

The Climax of Paul's Defense of the Resurrection

Paul closes his extended reflection on resurrection (1 Corinthians 15) with praise and exhortation. Having declared Christ's victory over sin and death and its significance for us, Paul celebrates our participation in Christ's work: "Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 15:57). Paul then concludes with a practical application: "Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain" (1 Corinthians 15:58).[1]

The promise of bodily resurrection in the future has practical significance in the present. Resurrection is not a "pie-in-the-sky" belief. Instead, the future promise of resurrection calls us to courageously and passionately participate in the work of Christ in the present.

Salvation is All of Grace... so Praise!

Salvation is all of grace - from beginning to end. And it is grace brought to us completely through Christ: "Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 15:57).

The Lord Jesus Christ is our mighty and merciful king. His might is displayed in his victory over sin and death. His mercy is revealed in that he "gives us" his victory - a gift of grace, undeserved and unearned.

The impact of Christ's victory begins in the present and continues on until it is complete. As a result of Christ's death and resurrection, we are presently being conformed into Christ's image and we will one day be completely transformed in the likeness of his resurrection glory (see 2 Corinthians 3:18; Philippians 3:21). The entire process of glorification is attributed to the power and grace of Christ.

Resurrection is a word of radical grace. We cannot produce, control, or manipulate resurrection. Left to ourselves, we have no power over death. Likewise, all our good efforts cannot earn or produce eternal life. It is a gift freely given to us through the grace of Christ. Our hope is exclusively in God's hands.

The only proper response to such radical grace is worship. And this worship should result in obedience to the heavenly vision.

Salvation is Assured in Christ... so Work!

Paul offers three quick, successive exhortations in light of Christ's resurrection. Those who live in hope of resurrection should "stand firm," that is, they should stand firm in the grace of Christ and stay the course in their Christian journey.

How should they do this? By remaining "immovable", that is, by standing against all opposition, both within and without. No matter how difficult the fight of faith, those with the hope of resurrection should remain immovable. Furthermore, they should "always abound in the work of the Lord." This is no half-hearted obedience, but a whole-hearted effort to remain faithful to Christ and his commands.

What reason does Paul give to sustain our passionate perseverance in the faith? We should "stand firm, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, because our labors are not in vain in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 15:58). Our labors in the Lord endure because they are acts of love, and love is eternal (1 Corinthians 13:13). To do "God's work" is at the same time to walk in love. Our labor of love is not in vain - it is not empty, meaningless, or insignificant.

Clearly, Paul is not just interested in a future life. He is concerned to provide a basis upon which to live life in the present. That basis is profound confidence in the Lord of life. Belief in bodily resurrection does not result in people who are so heavenly-minded that they are of no earthly good. Indeed, the opposite is true. Those who believe in the renewal and restoration of all things can apply themselves with passion to join Jesus in his kingdom work. They take heart in knowing that their efforts will not be in vain. Simply remember: Jesus believed in resurrection - and no one was of more earthly good than Jesus!

The good news of future resurrection is that our present actions matter. What we do now matters. How we live in the present has eternal significance. As Richard Hays writes, "everything that we do stands under the sign of Christ's resurrection, and all our actions are thereby given worth and meaning. The resurrection is the necessary foundation for faithful action in the world."[2]

How we use our bodies matters both now and for eternity. We must use our bodies in regard to their proper goal and end which is to be conformed to Christ (see 1 Corinthians 6:13b-14). If there is no resurrection, our actions in the present are ultimately futile (1 Corinthians 15:3, 10, 12-19, 29-32a). But in light of the truth of resurrection, our labor in the Lord is not in vain!

We presently participate in Christ's kingdom through faithful service to Christ. But we must be careful here. We do not establish, build, or consummate Christ's kingdom. This language is never used in regard to our labors. Only Christ establishes, builds, and consummates the kingdom. It is his kingdom, after all, not ours.

Now matter how great our efforts, we stand in need of a Savior. Jesus is our savior; we are not our own saviors. We merely participate in the saving work of Christ's kingdom through our faithful service. In spite of our best efforts, we still need both a Lord and a Savior. We still need grace. We are not Lord. We are not Savior!

We await a mighty and merciful Savior who will consummate the work we presently participate in through grace by faith. Our works have meaning - they are not in vain - but we will not know the full extent of their significance until the time of God's final judgment. The truth is that we could be mistaken in regard to our actions. What we thought was good could be judged as bad. What we thought was bad, or of little significance, could be judged as extremely meaningful. We should expect the unexpected, since we serve a Lord who taught that the first will be last and the last first.

For this reason, we wait in hope while participating in Christ's kingdom with full awareness that our efforts provide only a small glimpse of the glory to come - a glory only Christ can bring. Archbishop George Romero, who was martyred for his faith, offers a brilliant reflection on our role in God's kingdom.

It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.
The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts; it's even beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that should be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection; no pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something and do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it's a beginning - a step along the way.
It's an opportunity for God's grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the result.
But that's the difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are the workers, not master builders.
We are the ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future that is not our own. Amen.

We now come full circle. Paul called the divided Corinthians community to "stand fast" and "hold firmly to the gospel." Why? It is our hope of salvation! By denying the resurrection, the Corinthians denied the importance of God's created world, and furthermore, they denied the only hope that gives present meaning to our labor in the Lord. By denying the resurrection, they were denying "that these flawed bodies of ours are loved by God and will be redeemed. And therefore - whether they meant to or not - they denied that what we do with these bodies is of ultimate significance in God's eyes."[3]

Final Reflections

As we leave Paul's majestic text on resurrection, I offer the following brief reflections (in no real order) for our spiritual journey.

We must beware of cultural and philosophical captivity of the gospel. Some in the Corinthian community were unable to fully apprehend the gospel - and even undermined it - because of their inability to see how their philosophical and cultural biases were influencing their perception. Their commitment to Greek philosophy prevented them from fully embracing the gospel and its significance.

Our cultural context is no less challenging. There are countless ways we can compromise or eclipse the gospel. Let's make sure that we never chain the gospel to any epistemological theory or philosophical system. The gospel should not be chained to gnosticism, medieval thinking, enlightenment rationalism, fundamentalism, liberalism, progressive thinking, postmodernity, or any other epistemological theory or philosophical system. The gospel transcends them all, and must be heard on its own terms, without contemporary filters to obscure its impact and significance.

We must beware of faith without hope, that is, faith without a future. We need a hope, a future goal, to make our journey meaningful. Faith believes God's promise and seeks its fulfillment in the future. Without God's promise, faith loses its way, for faith without hope is aimless. And the ultimate promise of biblical revelation is that of a new heavens and new earth in which righteousness dwells (2 Peter 3:13). Through the gospel, we inhabit God's story: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. If we lose the ending, we lose our way. With no direction for the future, our journey is aimless and wandering rather than purposeful.

Without the future hope of resurrection we are left with a quandary. Either we must fully experience in our present earthly existence all the spiritual fullness promised in the gospel or we must reduce what salvation actually offers us. If we practice the former, we will inevitably experience frustration, for none of us ever "arrives" in this life. If we pick the latter, we have to wonder what's so "good" about the good news - especially if it involves little more than a minor and spotty moral improvement that possesses little significance beyond one's present lifetime. For if there is no resurrection, there is no real salvation from sin, death, and evil. We remain in bondage to these powers. They, not God, are the ultimate powers in the universe.

We must remember that salvation is not just individualistic (if we believe in Jesus, we will go to heaven when die) but cosmic (the entire world will be renewed, restored, and recreated through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ). God's goal is not simply to take disembodied souls to an ethereal heaven, but to redeem all of creation - including our bodies. Though we possess the hope that "to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord" we still await the general resurrection, and renewal of all creation, that God may be all in all (2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:21-24). As N. T. Wright says, "heaven is important but it's not the end of the world."[4]

Belief in resurrection does not reduce the significance of our present life and actions. We must still take full advantage of the days God gives us on this earth. The prayer of Psalm 90:12 still applies, "Teach us to number our days, so that we might present to you a heart of wisdom." We must "redeem the time for the days are evil" (Ephesians 5:16). We possess a limited amount of time to make a difference. And yet the hope of resurrection allows us to imagine that our actions will endlessly echo into eternity. We have no idea what the significance (or insignificance) of our present actions may be.

Put simply: Your life matters. Therefore, make it matter. Make it count! In the words of the martyred missionary, Jim Elliot, "Only one life, 'twill soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last." Contrary to what some secularists argue, belief in resurrection does not lead to an abandonment of earth and this life. On the contrary, it is the only belief that actually suggests our life and efforts on this earth have lasting, meaningful significance.

Resurrection is a revolutionary belief. Without it, we should not expect revolutionary actions. The oppressive powers of the world rule by the threat of death. The Lord Jesus rules in a different way. His reign is not through the fear of death, but through the promise of divine life. For the power of death has been overcome by God in Christ through the Spirit. We need no longer fear death. Instead, we should boldly go forward in faith, defiantly declaring to oppressive, ungodly powers that we serve the Lord of life: "Death, where is your victory? Grave, where is your sting?"

We act in accordance with what we believe is ultimate reality. If ultimate reality is disembodied existence in an ethereal heaven that has no connection to this world, why polish the brass on the Titanic? Why attempt to do anything to redeem life in this present world?

If ultimate reality is impersonal nothingness, why commit our lives to other persons or to the earth or to justice? If personality, creation, and good and evil are merely illusions, then actions performed in light of these illusions are ultimately insignificant - mere vapors, meaningless and empty.

But if ultimate reality is redeemed creation (including our humanity), restored by a personal, moral, good God, then persons matter, stuff matters, justice matters! This is the picture the promise of resurrection paints for us. And compared to its alternatives, it is glorious beyond belief!

Of First Importance... So Don't Abandon It!

There is a reason Paul declares that the gospel of the resurrection is of "first importance" (1 Corinthians 15:3). Paul refused to allow the gospel to be held culturally captive to Greek philosophies which rejected the possibility of incarnation and resurrection. In the same way, we should not allow the gospel to be culturally captive to the secular mind which also rejects the same things. A gospel that seeks to appeal the secular mind will lose everything transcendent, meaningful, and glorious. It will be emptied of its significance.

We desperately need further, deeper, more extended reflections on the significance of the true gospel - the gospel of Christ. The world is not an illusion. Resurrection is not insignificant. Life is not meaningless. When we lose the gospel, we have lost everything. We are left with an empty message of moral improvement rather than a meaningful message that our lives matter in and for eternity - not because we are great, but because Christ is victorious over death and gracious toward us.

Because of Christ's resurrection, we do not share in Sisyphus' horrific and maddening fate. Our actions are not pointless, meaningless, and empty of significance. With faith in God's promise of future resurrection, we passionately give ourselves to the Lord's work, for we know that our labor in the Lord is not in vain.

© Richard J. Vincent, 2008