Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them —yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.
- 1 Corinthians 15:1-11
As we begin this new year of 2024, we’re continuing going through the book of 1 Corinthians, but we start a new section here. Paul spent the last few chapters discussing the body of Christ and how we should interact in worship services. While those things are important to the lives of Christians, both in first-century Corinth and the world today, he now turns back to a very key topic for our faith: the resurrection of the dead in general and of Jesus Christ.
After all that discussion on gifts, worship, etc., Paul brings them back to what’s really important in verses 1-2. The gospel that he preached to them and the gospel that gives them salvation is what truly matters and why they even gather as believers and the body of Christ at all. It is all about the gospel message! They have made the decision to follow Jesus Christ, and that needed to be a firm decision that they would stick to. In the first century, there was much persecution for the Christian faith; there could not be a wishy-washy Christian, an occasional Christian, or a Christian in name only. They must hold firmly to that gospel message that Paul shared with them; that is the only way to be assured of salvation and make their faith and potential persecution in this world worthwhile.
In verses 3-4, Paul gives them the highlights of that gospel message. Jesus died, was buried (to show that He really died), and He was raised. Paul says “according to the Scriptures” twice to show that Jesus is the Messiah that was prophesied in the Old Testament. The Scriptures said that Jesus would come, and He did. The Scriptures said that Jesus would die for our sins and that He would be raised again, and He did.
But what the Scriptures say is just half of the proof that Paul provides. In verses 5-8, Paul lists many people and groups to whom Jesus appeared in His resurrected form. Paul lists Cephas (who we commonly know as Peter), the twelve disciples, more than 500 others, James, all the apostles, and then Paul himself. Paul shares that he was “one abnormally born,” referring to his unique conversion to the faith, as recorded in Acts 9.
Note that in verse 6 when Paul mentioned the 500 brothers and sisters to whom Jesus appeared, he says that most of them are still alive, though some of them have died. If the Corinthians needed further proof of Jesus’ resurrection, they could ask actual eyewitnesses to it! They could actually track down people who saw Jesus on earth in His resurrected form to further corroborate what Paul is telling them.
Paul gives the early people of Corinth multiple ways to prove that the gospel message is true. They could see it throughout the Scriptures, they could ask these people he named to them specifically, or they could find any of the more than 500 others who would testify to the risen Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus is a key point of the Christian faith, and Paul knew that all of the early believers would need to be completely certain in the faith if it was to spread and be sustained.
To build on the concept of Paul’s “abnormal birth” into being a follower of Jesus Christ, he shares with his readers how he persecuted the church of God (verse 9). Paul knows that because of his actions, he is not worthy to be the one God chose to spread this supremely important message of the gospel. While he calls himself an apostle, he realizes that he is not as worthy of that title as the other apostles are. He did not follow Jesus while He was on earth, and he actively sought to kill those who did.
But in verse 10, Paul shares how God was the one who brought him to faith and gave him this calling. Paul has his identity only by the grace of God! While Paul did his part to be obedient to that calling God placed on his life, he acknowledges that it was only through God’s power that he is what he is – an apostle who is called to preach the gospel message.
Paul gets back to the point in verse 11: it does not matter who God calls to share the gospel message but simply that it is shared. Whether Paul shared that message with them or someone else, whether they believe because of what Paul says or what another witness says, the key fact is the gospel message itself and how the people believed it. God can and does work through different people and different circumstances for that message to be proclaimed.
As we begin this new year, be reminded of the gospel message that Jesus Christ came to earth, died for our sins, and was raised to life again. There are so many other things in this world that we can focus on, but that truth should be central to our lives as believers. While we are not able to physically locate and ask eyewitnesses to the risen Jesus to share their experience with us, we have the entire history of the Church to prove that Jesus was a real person who died and was resurrected. Jesus was not simply resuscitated and brought back to life to die again later on, but He continues to live today.
I pray that we would all keep this gospel message as our focus in 2024 and beyond!
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