Voddie Baucham (1969–2025) has gone home to be with the Lord. In light of the common hope we hold as Christians, we’re looking back at his message from The Gospel Coalition’s 2015 National Conference.

His passage was 1 Corinthians 15:35–58. He showed Paul’s emphasis on the way the resurrection shapes pastoral ministry by transforming our anthropology, our soteriology, and our missiology. These paragraphs are lightly edited summaries of his sermon’s three main points.

1. The Resurrection Transforms Our Anthropology

The resurrection affirms the dignity of humanity. The fact that Christ took on flesh and that he was then dead and buried and was raised again shows how valuable humanity is. He didn’t merely discard his flesh and go back to his heavenly home. He took this flesh with him in its resurrected form, and that says something about the inherent dignity of humanity in its entirety. It says something about the way we think of ourselves and about the way we think of other people. The resurrection says something about the sanctity of human life at every point.

2. The Resurrection Transforms Our Soteriology

Christ has been resurrected, and we’re going to be resurrected. Why? Because we’re united with him. The resurrection is real for us because our union with Christ is real for us. We have actual union with Jesus Christ.

In fact, death is for us the direct result of our union under the federal headship of Adam. In Adam, all of us died. Our resurrection, then, is connected to the change of our federal headship. We stand before God under the federal headship of Jesus Christ not only forgiven but righteous, and we can anticipate the resurrection of our bodies.

3. The Resurrection Transforms Our Missiology

The resurrection means our labor in proclaiming the gospel will not be in vain. Our labor means that the true, effectual gospel goes forth, and that’s never in vain. The proclamation of the truth of the gospel will always accomplish that which God intended it to accomplish, and that’s never in vain. And so we pound away, and we pound away.

Brothers, don’t give up on preaching the gospel.