For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied.
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.
1 Corinthians 15:16–21 (RSV)
Should anyone ever quiz you on what lies at the heart of the Christian faith, the answer is this plain: The death and resurrection of Jesus for the salvation of the world.
This is the Holy Gospel which we receive in Word and Sacrament. Everything else can be stripped away, forgotten, yet shall the Church ever be. The comfort, peace, and joy contained in this simple message are beyond comprehension.
Still, folk make two blunders when they hear this Gospel; both in their way are a denial of Christ and a rejection of His life-giving resurrection.
Some hear the Gospel, rejoice in such wondrous news, yet say, 'Now we must accept the Lord into our hearts." They do believe that Jesus suffered, died, and was raised on the third day. They believe but cannot let go of the all too human desire to have some say in what God chooses to do. Such cannot imagine that the work of the Holy Spirit within us creates and sustains saving faith without any effort on our part.
Redemption and salvation were in the heart and mind of God before the foundation of the world. What the Father had chosen to do untold ages before I was even conceived does not need my ratification or acceptance.
The other folly we are prone to fall into is taking the free gift of salvation seriously through the death and resurrection of our Lord and then going our own way. Such folk tell themselves, 'since Jesus has saved me, set me free, I am now free to do as I please.' These rejoice in the unmerited mercy of God in Christ, then go on to live as if Christ has no further claim on their lives.
Neither takes Jesus' suffering and death seriously, one saying it wasn't quite enough without my consent, the other, now I no longer need to worry about God for I am free. They are each a slap in the face of the Lord. They have yielded to the profoundly human desire to be God.
We are baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus; through the waters of baptism, we become God's, and our lives no longer belong to us.
We no longer live for ourselves in any way. As we have been joined to our Lord's death and resurrection, we are joined to His risen life. This life is given by the Spirit who sustains it within us. This life understands that the only freedom I now have is in Christ, and His love poured out through us to the world.
The Spirit spoke thus through the Lord's servant, St. Paul:
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20 (RSV)