Do many people talk about the resurrection but never experience its power?
Yes. Many people discuss and sing about the resurrection while only giving mental assent, yet never truly experiencing resurrection power personally. Paul teaches that such power is central to the Gospel and is appropriated through personal belief. Many remain in that condition despite years of church involvement.
Les explains that this is exactly where so many people are: they talk about the resurrection, they sing about it, and they have a mental ascent to it, but they have never really experienced resurrection power in their own life. He connects this to Paul’s teaching that the Gospel is not just that Christ died a martyr’s death or was killed by an angry mob. Rather, God had eternally set it in motion that Christ would die and shed His blood to pay the sin debt for the whole human race—not just the believer. Les rejects limited atonement, saying Christ paid for every human being, but it goes for nothing until a person believes it personally and cashes in. So resurrection power must be personally believed, not merely mentally acknowledged. He then reads verse 15 about being found false witnesses if the dead are not raised, stressing that these truths cannot be separated.