I Corinthians 15:26  The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
27  For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.
28  And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.
29  Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?
30  And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?
31  I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
32  If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die.

Before we look at the verses above I want to address an issue that was brought to my attention recently.

KJV
Romans 8:1  There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

ESV
Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

As you look at that verse, you will notice quite a difference between the KJV and the ESV. That difference is not unique to the ESV, but it is common among the perversions. Apparently the corrupters of the ESV added a footnote on this verse to state that some manuscripts do not have the last part of the verse included. What they do not tell you is that the manuscripts that do not have the complete verse are corrupt manuscripts.
What the promoters of the perversions do is they reject the promises of God that He will preserve His Word “from this generation and for ever”. They also reject the promise of God that “every word of God is pure”.
The devil is a liar. He changed God’s Word in Genesis 3. He has been doing so ever since. The person who was speaking on Romans 8:1 stated that there is no perfect English translation of the Bible. If that is true, then we are all in big trouble. When we die, the Bible declares that we will be judged according to the pure Word of God. If that pure Word of God does not exist, then God would be unjust to hold us accountable for something we could not know.
The perverters try to get around this corruption by stating that the same thought is brought out in other verses. The fact is that God does not waste any words. If He mentions something 5 times, then we have no right to remove it 1 time. God puts extra emphasis on certain things for a specific reason. In the case of Romans 8:1, the majority of professing Christians want to keep their sin and claim to be right with God. That is very obvious. Of course, if they use a perversion, they would argue that they are not living in sin. A person that is set on living in sin should be warned of the reality, but if they want to insist on their deception, they will find out soon enough that they were wrong.
In our text, the apostle Paul addressed the false doctrine regarding the resurrection. He was directed by God to remind the saints and all who would read this letter, that there is a resurrection for all. Jesus Christ rose from the dead and He will be the judge of all people. The church in Corinth was carnal. Of course a carnal Christian would not want to face judgment by a righteous and holy God. What they had not thought through very well was that they actually had no salvation if Jesus Christ was not risen from the dead. You cannot have it both ways. If Jesus Christ is dead, and there is no judgment after death, then there is no salvation either. Since Jesus Christ is alive and He is the judge, He will judge all things according to His righteousness. Jesus Christ is not like the modern day judges who are full of double standards. They reinterpret the law depending on who stands before them and in what time frame they are in. God is not like that. His Word never changes. Most churches have changed, but churches are supposed to build on the sure Word of God. Churches do not set the standard. Jesus Christ is the Head of every true church. He is the Standard. He is the Rock. Don’t be fooled by smooth talkers. The flesh loves sin. The flesh will gravitate to those who will sugar coat sin and ignore that it is sin. You and I will not stand before the deceivers. We will all stand before the Righteous Lord Jesus Christ.
In our text, death is described as an enemy. Death is the result of the fall of Adam. Death is something that all people face. Death will be eradicated in the New Heavens and the New Earth. There will be no more death. According to God’s timing, that is when death will cease to exist. Those that will be in the new heavens and the new earth have eternal life. They cannot die.
In verse 27 we are reminded that Jesus Christ, the One Who has put all things under His feet, will not put God the Father under His own feet. The order of things in Heaven will never change. In verse 28 we are reminded that when all things are subdued, then Jesus Christ, as the name above all names and the One Who will judge all people, will willingly put Himself under His Father. The Godhead will never change. There is never any tension in the Godhead. There is no sin in the Godhead. God the Father will always be the superior One. The willing submission that was demonstrated in Jesus’ first coming will still be there in the New Heavens and the New earth. Nothing changes. Jesus Christ is our example. Those who are saved need to learn this important submission now. We will not do so completely here due to the old man who still interferes with the new man. However, we should be learning this more and more as we walk with God.
In verse 29 we are given a verse that is abused by the Mormons and also misunderstood by many. The Mormons literally believe that one of their followers can get baptized to cover for some dead person that was never baptized according to their false religion. The Mormons teach “baptismal regeneration.” There are other religions, including some Mennonites who also teach baptismal regeneration. The Bible makes it very clear that baptism does not save anyone. It is clearly a picture of the identification with Christ that took place at the moment of salvation.
In Bible times baptism was a very public matter. There were no baptistries in churches. The baptisms were always done in a river, or sea or some other public body of water. Thus anyone who was at that place would witness this baptism. Baptism was clearly taught as that public identification with the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 6 makes this clear. The saved person that gets baptized is essentially demonstrating what they already did in their heart earlier. This public declaration, would put the new saint into the crosshairs of those who hated the truth. Persecution was very real in those days. It has been very real at other times as well. We are living in a time now where it is not nearly as common, at least not in North America. The reason for that is the watered down nature of Christianity today. There are still a few true saints that are facing persecution. The government hates the truth and so do many others.
The question Paul was asking was why would a person want to identify with a dead Saviour? A dead Saviour is no Saviour at all. The saints were opening themselves up to persecution because they identified publicly with the risen Saviour in public baptism.
In verse 30 Paul reminded the saints that they, the apostles, were facing the threat of persecution every day by identifying with the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why would they do that if Jesus were still dead in a grave?
In verse 31 Paul pointed out that the saints in Corinth were rejoicing in their salvation. They were not living in accordance with that fact and that needed to be changed. The apostle Paul reminded them that he died daily. Every day when he awoke, he committed himself to the will of God, which in essence would put him in harms way. He would face some God-haters every day and he needed to be ready to face the persecution that was so prevalent at that time. If he did not die daily, then he would subject himself to compromise.
In verse 32 Paul spoke of some of the persecution he faced at the hands of the Roman government. The Judaizers hated him as well, and they welcomed the persecution that the Romans could put upon Paul. He fought with wild beasts at Ephesus. He was able to defeat those beasts because it was not God’s time for him to go home. Paul trusted in God every day. When his day of death would come, he would be ready for it. As he testified to Timothy, he was ready to die because he had fought the good fight of faith. He would not be taken by surprise at death. He was busy doing the work of the Lord every day.
In verse 32 Paul again asked why he should bother getting arrested and subjected to lions seeking to tear him apart, if Jesus Christ was not alive, and there was no resurrection of the dead. If there is no resurrection and thus no accountability then we might as well live it up for today because we are going to die soon and it is all over then. There are people who believe in annihilation. They reject a resurrection and they believe that physical death ends it all. Those people will be shocked to discover they were wrong. They will face the reality of hell at the moment of death.
Today is the Lord’s Day. It is another day to go to a good Bible-believing church where you can be blessed through the faithful preaching of the Word of God. It is also the opportunity to fellowship with other true saints, if you are saved. Don’t miss out on God’s blessings. Follow Him and receive the blessing that God has in store for you.
Pastor Bartel