Paul said that “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith” (1 Corinthians 15:13-14). But why does it matter whether people believe that they go to heaven as spirits when they die, or whether there will be a bodily resurrection of all who have ever lived? What makes it “useless” when people deny the resurrection of the dead, as long as they believe in Jesus’ resurrection?

It is useless because if there is no bodily resurrection of all who die, then Jesus did not defeat death. He simply escaped from it and helped others escape—though only partially, since their bodies would still be in death’s possession. But Christ conquers death. Death must give back everything. Everything.

If you ask a Christian, “Are you saved? From what are you saved? When were you saved?” They may answer, “I was saved from my sins when I prayed the sinner’s prayer.” But this understanding of salvation is not found in scripture. When scripture talks about salvation or justification, it is talking about more than being saved from our sins through a special prayer. It is primarily talking about being saved from the curse of death which came to us through Adam’s disobedience. So, the answer to the above question, according to scripture, would be, “I possess the sure and certain hope of the resurrection from the dead on the day of judgment, when I will be justified and declared righteous by the Lord himself, with whom I will live forever in my Spirit-animated physical body on this earth, which will be made new by God.”

Because the Lord is coming to earth to make his home among those whom he resurrects and justifies, the earth, which was previously polluted by sin and death, has to be purified (cf. Numbers 35:33-34). It must give up her dead. According to Paul, the earth is pretty excited about that, because at the coming of the Lord, “creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21).

At the present time, we have the “firstfruits” of salvation through the forgiveness of sins and the Holy Spirit, and we receive both of these when we are baptized (cf. Romans 8:23). The Holy Spirit then teaches us directly and reveals Christ fully to us through the word (cf. John 16:13-14, Jeremiah 31:31-34). So salvation has begun and will be brought to completion at the coming of Christ Jesus. This, says Paul along with all the Apostles, is “the blessed hope” (Titus 2:13).

 Some Christians say that it is not possible for people to “lose their salvation”. But this way of talking views salvation as something that is already fully possessed. But scripture talks about salvation as something that is presently underway, that we can drift away from if we do not pay attention to the gospel and hold tightly to the word but instead ignore it (cf. Hebrews 2:1-3).

This is what Paul was warning the Corinthians about in 1 Corinthians 15, and it is also what we need to warn the Christians of our own time about. Many Christians believe that salvation from sin is a past tense matter and can be safely set aside from our daily deliberations. They believe that at issue today is the salvation of our nation and of our Christian way of life, and that Christ’s focus today is on raising up specially anointed political leaders to wage this battle. The focus of Christians, they say, is to support these leaders and win this battle at all costs.

But to do so is to ignore the great salvation of the Gospel and to go backwards from the New Covenant to the Old Covenant.

In the New Covenant, our present citizenship is in heaven and we are a “chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9). God is not saving nations. He is raising up a holy nation from among all nations.

In the New Covenant, God is not raising up anointed political leaders but rather “there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus,” (1 Timothy 2:5).

In the New Covenant, “Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah.” (Matthew 23:10).

In the New Covenant, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to” Jesus. (Matthew 28:18).

In the New Covenant, Jesus said, “It is finished” (John 19:30).

Many Christians gladly affirm these things as spiritual truths but believe they are not political realities. But scripture does not distinguish in this way between spiritual truths and political realities. The Lord Jesus has all power in every realm. Jesus did not die so that we could rewrite the laws in our country. Jesus died so that he could write his law on our hearts.

Christ did not leave the Kingdom of God in the future to be lived in after death. He brought it back to the present in seed form. And those who do not receive it as a seed in the present, watering it and caring for it, will not see it sprout in them in the future. If we do not live the way of the Kingdom in this life, Christ warns us that, “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit” (Matthew 21:43).

Christ already holds all authority in heaven and on earth. So Christ even uses the politicians who oppose him to accomplish his purpose. So we should never worry that a politician can be raised up who can destroy God’s work—this is impossible.

This present evil age is seeking to destroy us not only through governments but also through our flesh-and-blood families and even our own flesh because these things are all hostile to Christ’s kingdom. In Galatians 1:4 Paul says being saved from this present evil age requires Christ’s active work on our behalf today.  

So if Jesus is not focused on saving our nation, what is he focused on today? And what does he expect us to focus on today if we are not focused on supporting certain political leaders?

He tells us in Matthew 10:8:

“Freely you have received; freely give.”

He directs us to pass on the love for enemies, opening his home, sharing his bread, etc. which is the grace he himself gives us daily. If we receive these things from him and what we extend to other people is not that same grace, even the grace we have received will be taken away.

A simple illustration: My wife loves to give clothes, food, and tools to other people. But, when she finds a year later that what she has given to other people is still sitting in the closet and not being used, she asks for those things back in order to give them to someone else who will use them. The kingdom of God is like that. Grace that is not passed on to others is grace that is received in vain (2 Cor 6:1).

We cannot receive mercy from Christ and give others judgment. We cannot receive love from Christ and hate our enemies. We cannot receive hospitality from Christ and close our homes. We cannot receive bread from Christ and let others starve. If we do this, we reveal ourselves to be tares and not wheat and we will be plucked up and burned on the last day, even if we call ourselves Christians and seek to save the nation in his name during our lifetime.

It is absolutely true that nations cannot turn the other cheek to people who attack them, open their home to strangers, or cancel debts and give freely. This is why we are not called to disciple nations. Governments are not instruments of God’s grace, they are instruments of God’s wrath to punish wrongdoers (Romans 13:1-5).

So Christ calls us to discipleship people, not governments, and he calls us to teach people to obey everything he has commanded. Some Christians may say that it is not practical or realistic to live according to Christ’s commandments in this world. What they mean is, “If I obey everything Christ commanded, then my nation and my present way of life will be lost, not saved.”

Jesus responds like this, “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds” (John 12:24). And “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” (John 12:25)