Introduction
Paul now switches gears. Read vs 1,2. "Gospel" means "good
news." Because of something God has done through Jesus, it is
now possible for us to get back together with him. It is no longer necessary
to live in alienation from God. We no longer have worry about where
we stand with God concerning our sins. We can now come to him with the
confidence that he will forgive and accept us, and this opens the way
to enjoy and experience personal intimacy with God and the transforming
power of his love.
But there is a condition which we must fulfill if we want this. The
condition turns out to be simple, but it is a real condition. Paul uses
two key words to describe this condition.
"Receive"—We must personally take this offered gift.
A gift may be truly offered with all the love in the world, but it
does not belong to me unless and until I receive it. In the same way,
we must receive God's offered gift of forgiveness and reconciliation
through Christ. In fact, this is the proof that I truly believe that
it is a good gift, and the news of it is indeed good news.
"Believe"—We must personally entrust ourselves to
Christ and this message about what he has done. The reason
why I personally cast myself on Jesus to reconcile me to God is because
I believe this message to be true.
Christianity is above all else a personal relationship with God through
Jesus. But this can never be separated from certain truths concerning
Jesus. There are certain minimums below which we cannot go and still have
biblical faith.
There are other areas which are not this way. These are the areas over
which true Christians sometimes disagree. Some of these areas are pretty
important; others are relatively unimportant (3 CONCENTRIC CIRCLES:
Each represents one of these areas).
RELATIVELY UNIMPORTANT: How to perform communion
IMPORTANT, BUT NOT ESSENTIAL: View of scripture
ESSENTIAL: This is what Paul refers to in vs 3 as "of first
importance." These are the non-negotiables. Paul gives us two
of these in the verses that follow . . .
"Christ died for our sins" (vs 3b)
Read vs 3. Christ's death was not like other deaths. It had absolutely
unique value and importance to God. It was not merely the tragic and heroic
death of a martyr. It was certainly that, but it was far more. Through
his voluntary death, Christ paid for our sins.
This is not simply a blind assertion without any evidence to back it
up. It happened "according to the scriptures." In various ways,
God described and predicted this before it happened so that we would have
a rational, evidential basis for putting our trust in his death to pay
for our sins (versus BLIND FAITH).
Jesus' death fulfilled what God had prefigured for thousands of years
through the Old Testament sacrificial system—that the penalty for
our sins is death, but that God in his love will provide a blameless
substitute to pay our penalty for us by taking our sins on himself and
dying for us.
800 years before Jesus died, God made it clear that these animal sacrifices
would be fulfilled by a Person—God's Servant (Isa. 53:5,6,12).
"He was raised on the third day" (vs 4-8)
Read vs 4. Jesus was "buried." He was really dead, embalmed
and entombed. This was not a resuscitation; it was a bodily resurrection
to life on a new order. This is an amazing claim, but we are not asked
to blindly believe this. Precisely because it is so out of the ordinary,
God has provided us with evidence for Jesus' resurrection.
He was raised "according to the scriptures." His resurrection,
like his death for our sins, was predicted by God in the Old Testament.
The same passage which predicted his death for our sins also predicted
that he would live again (Isa. 53:10). In fact, as we shall see
later, Jesus' resurrection is a verification of his claim that he died
for our sins.
But this is not the only evidence for Jesus' resurrection. There is
also the fact that "he appeared" to many witnesses
(read vs 5-8). Of course, there are many today who claim that ELVIS
has appeared to them—and some believe he has come back from the
dead. But there are some big differences between these witnesses and
the witnesses of Jesus' resurrection.
These witnesses were not inclined to believe that Jesus would come
back from the dead. He had to take extraordinary measures to convince
them (Lk. 24:36-43; Jn. 20:24-28).
The Christian movement began in an extremely hostile environment
in the very city where Jesus had been killed and buried—solely
on the apostles' claim that God had raised him from the dead. Why
didn't the hostile authorities produce the body and crush this superstition
at the outset? No one has ever given a credible explanation for how
this happened—except for the apostles' explanation . . .
The key witnesses (apostles) all suffered horribly for their testimony
(see 2 Cor. 11), and ultimately were killed because they would
not retract their testimony concerning Jesus' resurrection. I have
real doubts that ELVIS' witnesses would be willing to do this!
This is pretty good evidence! It isn't the only line of evidence for
Christianity's truth claim, but a good one. In fact, God says this is
sufficient evidence for him to hold to responsible to personally place
your trust in Jesus for your standing with him.
Is Jesus' resurrection really that important? (vs 12-19)
Some in Corinthian church were fudging on this issue. They were embarrassed
of this part of the Christian message because it ran counter to prevailing
Greek philosophy, which rejected the notion of bodily resurrection. Because
they wanted to be accepted by their peers, they were moving this truth
from the "essential" to the "relatively unimportant"
category.
As amazing as this may seem, we have seen history repeat itself in
the last one century. Today, the majority of both Protestant and Roman
Catholic theologians and clergy regard Jesus' bodily resurrection as
an unimportant and embarrassing feature of Christianity to be explained
away. They may publicly claim they believe it, but their writings reveal
a very different view. Consider these two examples:
Henry N. Wieman: "After the crucifixion came the resurrection.
The resurrection was an experience the disciples had three days after
the terrible shock of Jesus' death on the cross. It took that long
for the numbness of the shock to wear away so that they could again
respond to one another and to the past in the way that they had done
in their living fellowship with Jesus. So vivid and so powerful was
this recovery of the kind of interchange with one another that they
had had when Jesus was alive with them that it produced the feeling
of his actual presence with them in bodily form. Many have had this
experience after the death of someone deeply involved in their lives.
Either they had this psychological illusion, which would be very natural,
or, what is more likely, when they tried to tell of their experience
the only way they could tell it was in words that led others to think
they were speaking of the bodily presence. This would be most likely
to happen after the story had passed through many mouths in an age
that believed bodies rose from the dead." [1]
Rudolf Bultmann: "The church had to surmount the scandal of
the cross and did it in the Easter faith (i.e. the belief in Jesus'
bodily resurrection). How this act of decision took place in detail,
how the Easter faith arose in individual disciples, has been obscured
in the tradition (i.e. the gospel accounts) by legend and is not
of basic importance."
[2]
How does Paul view the importance of Jesus' bodily resurrection? Read
and judge for yourself what he says is at stake. Read vs 12-14. If Jesus
wasn't raised, Christianity is empty/worthless ("vain"). He
explains why in the following verses.
Read vs 15. The whole New Testament was written by liars. You
can't say that the apostles were merely mistaken; they were false witnesses
about the most important issue. The whole New Testament should be thrown
in the trash bin (ANALOGY: Mechanic's book is wrong about the engine,
drive train, brakes, and electrical system—but is basically an
important manual.)
Read vs 16,17. Your faith is worthless because your sins have not
been forgiven. According to the Bible, Jesus' resurrection is the
proof that God accepted his payment for our sins (Rom. 4:25). This
also was prefigured by the Old Testament sacrificial system (HIGH PRIEST
RETURNING ALIVE AFTER OFFERING SACRIFICE).
Read vs 18. Christians who have died physically are permanently
dead. They have sailed off into oblivion. The sole basis for our
hope for future resurrection is Christ's resurrection. If he didn't
rise out of the grave, we are left with no evidential basis for an afterlife.
And if there is no afterlife, living Christians have no reason to serve
God (RUSSEL QUOTE [3] >> vs 30-32).
Read vs 19. Christians are not to be admired for their faith; they
are pathetic fools who engage in wishful thinking! They are huddled
together, making a fuss over what turns out to be nothing, patting themselves
on the back, whistling in the dark together to distract themselves from
the terrifying emptiness all around them.
According to Paul, if we give this away, we give away the farm! If we
compromise this truth for the sake of cultural relevance, we have lost
anything to give our culture. Just as your ability to make a BANK WITHDRAWAL
is dependent on record of an actual deposit, the spiritual benefits of
Christianity are dependent on something that actually took place in history . . .
What should we call theologians who reject this . . . ??
But now Christ has been raised from the dead! (vs 20-23)
Read vs 20-23. Paul refers to Jesus' resurrection as the "first
fruits." This phrase refers to the Old Testament festival in which
the Israelites were to bring the early barley harvest to the tabernacle
and thank God for this actual evidence that a full harvest was on the
way.
Paul is saying that Jesus' resurrection (which occurred on the very
day of the First Fruits festival) is the actual evidence that we will
be raised as well—when Christ returns (vs 23).
Also, because Jesus has been raised, he is able to personally relate
to you (Rev. 3:20) and powerfully transform your life (Rom. 8:11;
Eph. 1:19,20).
But this applies only to those who "are Christ's." Do
you belong to Christ? If not, would you like to belong to him? >>
GOSPEL.
NEXT: the resurrection body
Footnotes
[1] Henry N. Wieman, "The
Revelation of God in Christ", Process Studies 10, cited
in Gordon Lewis and Bruce Demarest, ed., Challenges to Inerrancy
(Chicago: Moody Press, 1984), p. 271.
[2] Rudolf Bultmann, Theology
of the New Testament (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1951),
p. 45.
[3] "Brief and powerless
is Man's life; on his and all his race the slow, sure doom falls, pitiless
and dark. Blind to good and evil, reckless of destruction, omnipotent
matter rolls on its relentless way. For Man, condemned today to lose
his dearest, tomorrow himself to pass through the gates of darkness,
it remains only to cherish, ere yet the blow falls, the lofty thoughts
that ennoble his little day." Bertrand Russel, cited by Ray Stedman,
Expository Studies in 1 Corinthians (Waco: Word Books, 1981),
p. 299.