Why did some of the teachers in the church at Corinth deny the possibility of bodily resurrection? Why did they question that?
In the time when our Lord Jesus walked the earth, and afterwards, there were two major religious parties of the Jewish people…the Pharisees and the Sadducees. While they agreed on some aspects of the Jewish faith, they disagreed on others.
The Pharisees were known for their legalism. While they taught strict obedience to the Law, they themselves were not obedient. The Lord said in Matthew 23:2-3, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.” The Lord often spoke of the Pharisees as hypocrites. We read in Matthew 23:13, “But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.” (Also read verses 14, 15, 23, 25, 27, and 29).
The Sadducees were known by their rejection of belief in an afterlife or a supernatural realm. They did not believe the soul lived after death, neither did they believe in the existence of angels. At one point some of them questioned the Lord. Mark 12:18-23 tells us, “Then come unto him the Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection; and they asked him, saying, Master, Moses wrote unto us, If a man’s brother die, and leave his wife behind him, and leave no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there were seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed. And the second took her, and died, neither left he any seed: and the third likewise. And the seven had her, and left no seed: last of all the woman died also. In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them? for the seven had her to wife.” In this question, they were not seeking knowledge, they were trying to trap the Lord with this illogical query. The Lord’s answer was instructive as well as corrective. He told them, “And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God?” (Mark 12:24).
In 1 Corinthians 15:12-17, Paul is contending with the Sadducees. There, he states, “Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.”
Paul stresses the absolute necessity to believe in the resurrection of the dead. So much so, that if there is no resurrection, Christ was not raised, and if He was not raised, we are still in our sins and guilty before God. Speaking of the righteousness imputed to believers, Paul wrote in Romans 4:24-25, “But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.”
May we grasp this necessary truth. Our salvation depends upon it. “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt BELIEVE IN THINE HEART THAT GOD HATH RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD, thou shalt be saved.” (Romans 10:9). (CC) (640.6)