THE PRAISE SERIES (PART 10) - RESURRECTION PRAISE: THE ENEMY HAS BEEN DEFEATED

If Christ Has Not Been Raised,
Your Faith Is Futile,
You Are Still In Your Sins
1 Corinthians 15:17 (NIV)

The resurrection validates everything we believe in - this includes all our praise and worship to our Lord and King. Without it, the Bible is bold enough to say, our faith is worthless. The resurrection also validates our faith in the redeeming work of our High Priest, Who has taken away our sins. It allows us to live with a sense of risk and adventure, because it makes us part of a new order of creation that ultimately cannot fail - our lives are grounded in Someone who reigns in eternal victory - Chris Tiegreen

NO RESURRECTION, NO CHRISTIANITY! 

 Michael Ramsey

For Paul, this transformation was more than just another event in salvation history. The resurrection of dead and the transformation of believers to immortality meant:

1) The Final Defeat Of Death

"And when this perishable puts on the imperishable and this that was capable of dying puts on freedom from death, then shall be fulfilled the Scripture that says, Death is swallowed up (utterly vanquished forever) in and unto victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? Now sin is the sting of death, and sin exercises its power [upon the soul] through [the abuse of] the Law" - 1 Corinthians 15:54-56 (Amplified)

THE ENEMY HAS BEEN DEFEATED!

Lyric :
The Enemy Has Been Defeated
Death Couldn't Hold You DownWe Gonna Lift Our Voice In Victory             

We Gonna Make Your Praises Loud

Shout Unto God With A Voice Of Triumph
Shout Unto God With A Voice Of Praise
Shout Unto God With A Voice Of Triumph
We Lift You Name Up, We Lift Your Name Up

2) A Hymn Of Thanks!
This leads Paul to a moment of praise. For Paul it is very important to remind us that we must give thanks for the greatest gift that could be given: complete victory over death

"But thanks be to God, Who gives us the victory [making us conquerors] through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:57 (Amplified)
3) Final Encouragement

"Therefore, my beloved brethren, be firm (steadfast), immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord [always being superior, excelling, doing more than enough in the service of the Lord], knowing and being continually aware that your labor in the Lord is not futile [it is never wasted or to no purpose]" 1 Corinthians 15:58 (Amplified).
It is important for Paul that Christians respond to what the have learned through their everyday actions. The experience of the Corinthians had been anything but firm, unmovable and abounding in the work of the Lord
Some, like a lot of Christians today, accepted the resurrection as a future reality but not as a present dynamic. They forgot what Paul emphasizes in Ephesians 1:19-20 - that the very power that raised Jesus from the dead is the power that is working in those who believe. We can live with that blessing not only in the future physical resurrection but also in the present spiritual one.

Have a blessed and victorious week!

TPWC