In the previous passage, Paul showed the absolute authenticity of resurrection. Jesus' resurrection was a historical fact, and it marked the beginning of the conquest of God's enemies that would bring about the restoration of His creation order. Now in this passage, Paul analyzes the consequences of denying the resurrection. What happens if there is no resurrection?

First, "if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead?" Apparently, in the Corinthian church, there were people who were being baptized on behalf of the dead thinking that if they received baptism in their place, their loved ones would go to heaven. They did not believe in Jesus' resurrection or in their own future resurrection, but strangely, they kept practicing this bizarre ritual. What they were doing did not match with what they said.

Second, "if there is no resurrection, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." The statement, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die" shows that if there is no resurrection, there can be only two ways of life -- either nihilism or hedonism. The phrase, "for tomorrow we die" shows the nihilist's sense of life's meaninglessness. If we die tomorrow, there is no reason to study hard or work hard today. Such people suffer from depression, fear of death, and a sense of emptiness. They don't know what to do with themselves and have no direction for their lives. They cry out in frustration, "What shall I do?" "What shall I do?" They perish in the shadow of death.

The other way of life is hedonism -- a pleasure-seeking life. These people reason that everything is over when you die; so there is no reason to deny any desire. Then life's only purpose becomes to enjoy as many things as possible -- maximum pleasure at minimum cost. But ultimately a pleasure-seeking life does not bring people pleasure, but deep suffering. God created man in His image, so man has desire for something really noble and meaningful; it is the desire to grow up in the image of God. But when these people plunge themselves into a pleasure-seeking life, they end up despising themselves. When they see how they are living, what they are doing, and how they have degraded themselves to an animal's level, they hate themselves even to the point of mutilating their bodies with knives, drugs, and alcohol. When you see someone living a pleasure-seeking life, be careful, because his is a person who easily gets angry at everyone and anyone, for no reason at all. Eventually, many of them end up killing themselves. All these hedonistic people become tortured by demons day and night. If there is no resurrection, we're in big trouble -- we'll become either nihilists or hedonists only to be tortured all the time. We thank God for Jesus' resurrection that gives us the hope of our own resurrection. Christ has indeed been raised from the dead as the firstfruit, so we know that we too will rise again.

Apostle Paul became neither a nihilist nor a hedonist because he had the hope of resurrection. His lifestyle was totally different. He says, "As for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? I die every day--I mean that, brothers--just as surely as I glory over you in Christ Jesus our Lord." He sums up his lifestyle in four words: "I die every day." He lived a life of dying every day. What kind of life is this? It is a life that denies its own desires, its own plans and its own emotions so that it can live for and serve the purpose of God. When Paul had the hope of resurrection, he died to his own desires and plans for his own life, but lived for God. He did not pursue his own purposes, but died to them, so that he could pursue God's purpose. When he had to deny his desire for success in the world, which was just within his grasp, he died -- the pain he experienced was almost the pain of death. When he had to deny his desire to marrying the woman of his dreams, purely for the purpose of serving God, he died. He lived this kind of life not only one day or two days, but every day until his own self, his own desires and plans were all destroyed in him. Surely, he had not lived as his own man who pursued his own desires and plans, but as a man of God who was ready to serve the will of God at any moment and at any cost. He lived as a faithful man of God even to the point of dying every day because his hope was not in this world, but in the kingdom of God where he would enjoy eternity together with God.

Paul says, "Do not be misled: 'Bad company corrupts good character.' Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God â?? I say this to your shame." When people do not have the hope of resurrection, they become either nihilists or hedonists. But when we have the hope of resurrection, we live as servants of God pursuing God's purpose.

Although I struggled hard in my life of faith to be a good disciple of Jesus, I wondered time and again why I was so ineffective as a servant of God even though my one desire is to know Jesus intimately. I tried first one way and then another. I tried doing everything God's servants asked of me. I tried relying on my extensive knowledge of the Bible and strict adherence to systematic theological principles. After a while, I fell into despair. I wanted to give up on this life of mission and was ready to go back home to my family in Nebraska. But I simply could not deny the mission God has called me to. I felt stuck. There was no going back, but it seemed I couldn't go forward in my life of faith either. There was nothing left to do but cling to a thread of hope that God would have mercy on me and give me the boost I needed. And thanks be to God! Because of God's training through this message, I have great hope that He still wants to use me mightily for His purpose and He hasn't cast me aside as worthless and hopeless!

I realized that my task now is to pray that the Lord may transform my heart so I may love Him above all else and serve Him with utter abandon. Through this entire struggle, my prayers had become powerless and vain, like howling wind instead of a direct connection to the throne room of God. But now, with new vision, my prayer is to be transformed into an entirely new person with a new heart at the core so I can fully give up myself and be devoted to Jesus all the way.

Through the key verse, I caught the vision of this old Stephi dying and being buried, with a new Stephi, an absolutely fully one-hundred percent committed-to-Jesus Stephi, being left instead. I realized that it is imperative that I make a spiritual transaction with my Lord regarding the casting off of my old ways of life and the entering into a new era of life in Him. This is the desire of my heart.

I want to give up my old way of life -- the weak, watered-down, ineffective way of living. I want to live a life that is hot, full of the Spirit, and absolutely devoted to God. I want to live a completely committed, sacrificial, and selfless life as the Lord's slave. I want to learn through personal experience what it means to die every day. I pray to do this through becoming a prayer warrior, fighting the spiritual battle on behalf of my sheep and comrades by faithfully keeping early morning and late night personal prayer time and by forming a spiritual unity with the other sisters through attending the 6 a.m. daily bread meetings. I also pray to fish seven precious sisters and raise them as disciples of Jesus. I want to live life as boldly as the apostle Paul!