This is our series called “Truth for trusting” or “Creeds”. We’ll take a look at passages in the New Testament that are an expression of our faith, almost like formulas, which are always handy because formulas express profound truths in a compact, simple, easy way.
Last week, we looked at the New Testament’s presentation of the Old Testament’s shema. The shema means “listen” or “hear” and is presented in Deuteronomy 6. This is the quintessential expression of monotheism. Jesus came and expounded on it to say that if there is one God, we are to love Him with our heart, soul, mind and strength and also love our neighbour, those who bear the image of this God.
This week we are in 1 Corinthians 15, a well-known passage. We’ll look at the first five verses, and we’ll see another formula, especially in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4.
As we begin the new year, it is important and helpful for us to take a look at these formulas for our faith. I don’t know how you started this year — with resolutions? With work running through your mind? Or perhaps, with school and its trajectory filling your thoughts?
For Christians, it is good for us to remember that neither work nor school, nor feelings about life define life. God’s truth define us. It tells us who we are, how we ought to live, what our greatest problems are, and what the greatest solutions in life are. These are huge, larger than life questions (and answers) and we need to come back to it time and time again both as Christians in churches, as well as individuals. These are the things that we need to remember, define us. In this study, we’ll think hard about how this truth that we will look at tonight define us over and against, work, school and our feelings.
(A) What About First Things: Stand and Believe the Gospel (1 Cor 15:1-2)
The chapter opens with Paul calling them “brothers” (1 Cor 15:1). It is not to the exclusion of sisters but he is talking about the children of God who have a legal inheritance. They have the right to claim certain things about who they are in God and how they relate to one another. They share a familial link. He wants to remind them of their spiritual identity and what has happened to them. We don’t think about this often and we may not speak about it as often, but this is important.
Acts 18:1-19:1 helps us understand a bit of the context. Paul spoke to both Jews and Gentiles, and they did not have anything in common to begin with. They were brought together as they came to Christ out of that diverse background. There was also a sense of opposition there. This was not a church formed out of cultural ease, but was formed out of opposition.
Notice also that Paul met them and they saw him proclaim the gospel (1 Cor 15:1). Sometimes we forget this because of our digital age, and we are used to connecting with others across time and space. Paul connected with them and here in 1 Corinthians, he references the time that he spent with them where they heard him preach in real life this gospel, this Jesus. In that moment brought about by divine appointment, they came to the Lord. Here in 1 Corinthians, he is seeking to remind them of this gospel which makes them brothers. They now share the common identity.
Paul also tells them about their identity that arises because of the gospel, their response to the gospel and their continued response to the gospel.
In 1 Corinthians 15:1-2, we also read of actions they perform to establish their identity. They “received” the gospel in which they “stand”, are “being saved” (passive form, being done to them” and they “hold fast” to the word preached. Thus, there is a series of words and actions that are performed by them in order for them to have those things applied to them.
Why does Paul want to remind them of this gospel, if they have already received it, are standing in, are being saved and holding fast to? Why again the gospel? That’s how we keep holding on to the gospel.
Some of us may have heard the phrase, “once saved, always saved”. The problem is that the New Testament never uses this formula. The New Testament never says this! The New Testament says, “once saved, continually saving, will be saved, and has been saved”. All of these are true, even though it takes place at different timeframes. We show that we have been saved as we are being saved. We show that we will be saved as we are being saved. It is an interconnected formula.
If God ordains the ends, He will surely ordain the means. There are no ends without means. As we continue to hear, trust and hold without losing what we have already heard, we receive what we’ve not yet received.
(B) The Firstness of Things: The Gospel Unimpeded, Undiminished, Unaltered (1 Cor 15:3a)
1 Corinthians 15:1-2 is a preamble for this verse in 1 Corinthians 15:3 here. Paul is saying that this formula is what he’s going to pass on. Most scholars of church history accept that 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 is a tradition that was circulating around the early church.
From this verse, we can see at least three things. Firstly, what he received did not stay with him, but he delivered. He was not a reservoir or cul-de-sac, merely holding what he received. He is a river or a highway. It came to him and it left.
Next, the thing that came to him and left him is of first importance. The phrase “first importance” indicates that it is of utmost importance, and there is nothing more important than this. What is this thing of first importance? What is this that Paul, who had visions of the third heaven and knew so much of Scripture, declared as being of “first importance”? Every other thing is less important.
Lastly, what he received and delivered is not corrupted. It left him exactly as it came to him.
This is a picture of discipleship — we know the value of what we receive and it doesn’t just end with us. We Because it is important — not mere opinions — it defines us, life and everything in it. As a result, it will go out from us exactly as it came to us without any adjustment.
God has given us a wonderful deposit and a beautiful gift. This is the most important information that humans require and yet, we have the privilege to know. How much of it stays with us? Have you ever told someone about the gospel? Has it left your lips? We’re not talking about whether you bring people to church or if you teach children. Has the gospel come out of your mouth?
See what Paul does here — let the gospel leave us and flow into others! Let the gospel go forth from us unimpeded and unhindered. Put your fears aside. The gospel should go out from us unimpeded, undiminished and should not leave our lips flippantly. It should leave our lips as if we really celebrated it because the value of the gospel is the story of our souls.
It also leaves our lips unaltered. This means that we do not remove the bits we do not like or are ashamed of, or don’t fully accept. We don’t adjust the gospel and deliver it as we’ve fully received it.
Is this what matters of first importance mean to you?
In 1 Corinthians 15:3, Paul also describes the content of his message in two ways. He states that it is of top priority (“first importance”) and also “in accordance with the Scriptures”.
This means that it is the key message. Do you agree? But what about what we read last week? Or the truth that God is love? Or “holy, holy holy”? These are all important so why does Paul say that this is of first importance?
There are a number of ways to answer this. One way is to see that this is Christian doctrine. Deuteronomy 6 can also be accepted by Jews. A Christ without a cross is a different Christ. Yes, Christ is Lord, but what kind of Christ is He and how does He display His lordship? The simple phrase, “that Christ died for our sins” is of first importance, because it distinguishes Christian’s doctrine from other religions.
The phrase “in accordance with the Scriptures” is also important. The cross is the climax of the revelation of Scripture. If we really believe this, we will think about Habakkuk, Jonah, Proverbs, Songs of Solomon, Deuteronomy, Revelation, and all the other books of the Bible as going towards and leading away from the cross.
Open your Bible tonight and look at the 66 books of the Bible and consider how many you’ve actually read and how do you understand this book in light of the Bible’s storyline. What is its role in the cross-entered revelation? What does it say about the God who is so holy and cannot tolerate sin, and had to send Christ to deliver from our sins? Or about the God who is love and shows us what love is on that cross? Each of these different doctrines connect at the centre of the cross. That’s why it is of first importance, and Paul seeks to preserve these truths, and wants to ensure that it doesn’t just stay with us, but that we also do not alter it.
These are the first things that make us who we are! It defines who we are. Each one of us has a story to tell about how we came to Christ. Is that story still precious to you? Does it still bring joy to your heart? Is it still of first importance?
Now, when Paul uses the word “gospel”, does he mean a fixed body of content? In Revelation 14:6, we see that the apostle John uses the word “gospel” here and he refers to an eternal gospel. This is good news that is proclaimed to all nations, not just by men, but also by an angel. This same logic is in Galatians 1, where the apostle Paul says that he has received this gospel that must never be changed. The New Testament shows us that there is a gospel that the apostles have received, and there is also an eternal form. This means that us sharing how we received the gospel is not the gospel. Is this what you understand to be the gospel?
Read on.
(C) The Things Which Are First: Christ’s Death, Resurrection and Appearances (1 Cor 15:3b-5)
So, what are the things of first importance? Firstly, Christ died for our sins in accordance to the Scriptures. Next, that He was buried. He was also raised on the third day in accordance to the Scriptures.
Paul also lists six people to whom Jesus appeared in front of, but this is not exhaustive as he omits any mention of the women at the tomb, for example. So were the disciples on the Road to Emmaus (c.f. Luke 24:18-27).
Why is this of first importance? See that Jesus being buried is a physical reality. This makes the resurrection not just an abstract idea or a figurative notion, but his death, burial and resurrection mentioned in creeds are about the reliability and truthfulness of this fact.
What about his resurrection and appearances? It shows that there were witnesses to His resurrection. Paul specifically points out the male witnesses and this is not a trivial point. In the time of the Corinthians, women’s testimonies were not accepted legally. We must note that Jesus intentionally appeared to the women at the tomb, and that’s for another day. Paul mentions that Jesus appeared to Cephas, more than 500 brothers at one time and most are still alive, James (Jesus’ own brother), and to Paul himself. In this argument, Paul is the least important because he is delivering the argument.
On the apologetics front, Gary Habermas, who came up with the “Minimal Facts” argument on the resurrection states that if we take the facts that both Christian and non-Christian historians agree on, we find that there are about a dozen of them. If we lay these facts out, we come to the realisation that the resurrection is the most logical, compelling case based on historical facts.
Two further points for consideration regarding the resurrection. Firstly, James, the brother of Jesus, is an unlikely convert to Christianity. Try convincing your own brother that you are God. Yet, James became the leader of the church in Jerusalem, where Jesus died. Secondly, how was the number one enemy of Christianity, Saul of Tarsus, persuaded to convert?
Paul’s writings and the implications, together with modern apologetics arguments should prompt us to read and consider the resurrection today. The appearances of Jesus to witnesses matter because they give us an insight to how we can trust the resurrection. We do not trust and believe in the resurrection because we want it to be true. We trust and believe the resurrection because Jesus appeared to many, and this led to the creation of the church in His name, the transformation of their lives, and the world being turned upside down by a group of people who had no social capital, no intellectual credibility, and the world has never been the same since. Philosopher Anthony Flew, who also discussed the resurrection with Gary Habermas in 2003, converted from atheism to theism in 2004. This was prompted by the debunking of the hallucination theory of the resurrection.
This formula laid out in 1 Corinthians 15:1-5 and all its constituent parts are important for us because we say that Christ died for our sins. The rest of 1 Corinthians 15 lays out the meaning and implications of this. If we have a cross without an empty tomb, we only have half the message. Do you often talk about your sins and how Jesus died for it? Do you merely speak about repentance and just do morbid introspection? Don’t forget the other part of the message — Jesus rose for our newness of life! Jesus rose so that death and sin has no hold over us. We do not just have the cross, we also have the empty tomb. Hold to both!
The resurrection of Jesus means that today, Jesus has a new life, and so do we. Our new life is meant to be lived in righteousness, joy, peace and turning away from those things for which He died. See how Paul reasons it out in the rest of 1 Corinthians 15, especially verses 12 and on. If Christ is not raised, our faith is in vain, because there is no indication that God accepted the payment for our sins in Christ (c.f. 1 Cor 15:16-18). His resurrection also opens a new era where Christ reigns and we are waiting to be put under His feet (c.f. 1 Cor 15:20-28). This world is still waiting for this to come true and we see that there is still a lot of resistance and brokenness. But one day, death will be finally eradicated. We are not there yet, that’s why we need to keep hearing it, and need to keep holding on to it.
The chapter closes with these words in 1 Corinthians 15:50-58. These are words that are soaked through with resurrection hope and fulfilment. We are waiting in between. As we wait, we continue to tell ourselves that we’ve left behind a life, but now live a new life and are still waiting for it to be complete. We continue to remind each other of the things that we’ve heard before but still need to cling to because they are the things of first importance. They define us more than school, work and our feelings. Let us stand on them, and remain immovable. Let us not move away from the gospel and not be attracted or distracted by other promises that come our way.