Of First Importance

Good morning,

In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul moves on to another heretical teaching which had invaded the Corinthian church.  This was the truth of Jesus' resurrection.  In coming to that topic, though, he makes a statement which has been often taken out of context and misinterpreted.  Let's examine verses 1-11.

 Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel that I preached to you, that you received and on which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I passed on to you as of first importance what I also received—that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, 4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as though to one born at the wrong time, he appeared to me also. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been in vain. In fact, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, this is the way we preach and this is the way you believed.

NET

In the past couple of months, I have heard two preachers refer to 1 Cor. 15:3-4 as "the gospel defined".  That is ... if anyone asks you, "What is the gospel?", here is the answer:
Jesus Christ died for our sins, according to how the Old Testament prophets predicted He would.
Jesus Christ was buried.
Jesus Christ, on the 3rd day, was resurrected.  Again, this was prophesied in the Old Testament.

{Implicit in these statements by Paul was Jesus's divinity, His 2nd Personhood of the Holy Trinity. That was not a point of dispute among the Corinthians, and Paul had drilled that doctrine elsewhere. He does not stop to perseverate on that point here in this context.}

So, that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ which Paul had preached, not only when he was with the Corinthians, but to all to whom he preached.  That is the gospel which the Corinthians had received.  It is the only gospel which saves.  Corinthians were being saved, coming to know Jesus Christ; but, this would continue to occur only through the preaching of the true gospel.

Verse 2 is one that trips some believers up, because they point to it as a proof that our personal salvation is dependent upon our working hard to keep it.  That is not what Paul is saying in verse 2.  Remember that this is the same man who, under divine inspiration, penned Ephesians 2:8-9!

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

ESV

What is his meaning here in verse 2, then?  He is emphasizing that we must hold fast to the truth of the gospel as he laid it out in verses 3 and 4 because, if believers perverted the gospel, their belief would be polluted, misdirected, false, "in vain" as Paul phrases it.  They would be believing "another gospel other than the one I preached to you" (Galatians 1:8-9; 2 Cor. 11:4).

The social and historical contexts are very important to note.  Christianity was born in the midst of Roman and Greek culture.  The Greeks did not believe in the resurrection of the dead.  In fact, when Paul was preaching on Christ's resurrection at Mars Hill in Athens (see Acts 17:32), the listeners laughed at him!  This societal belief had crept in to deceive the Corinthian believers, to make them question the concept of an afterlife and a resurrection.  It is to this point that Paul writes chapter 15.

Paul emphasizes that the true gospel must be "right".  If it is not right, then nothing else matters; nothing else will be "right".   The gospel is "of first importance".  This begs the question:  why does Satan try so hard to pervert the true gospel of Jesus Christ?  Because this true gospel is the only one with the power to save.  It is the only one given by God for the redemption of mankind.  There is one way to God, and there only one (John 14:6).

In verses 5-8, Paul lists some eyewitness accounts of Jesus' resurrection:  His appearance to Peter, His appearance to the 12 disciples, His appearance to over 500 people at one time (!), His appearance to James, His appearance to the apostles, His appearance to Paul (on the road to Damascus and possibly also during Paul's 3 years of solitary, private study in Arabia - - see Galatians 1:11 through 2:21).

Then, Paul sort of "digresses" a bit to talk about his own personal testimony.  I love these verses.  In fact, they deserve a blog post all their own.  We'll meditate on them tomorrow.

Father, we see from this letter that the enemy has, from the beginning of the Church, sought to pervert Your gospel message.  The same tactics are being used today.  Help us to be wise to recognize such perversion and deception when we encounter it.  Make us watchful to reject its infiltration into our own spirits.  In Jesus' name, amen.