We Stand on the Gospel
“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 (NIV)
As Paul nears the end of this letter, he turns to remind the Corinthians of the foundation for all they believe and all that Paul has just instructed them in—the gospel. The gospel is what saved them and what allows them to live for Christ and be transformed more like Him through the work of the Holy Spirit.
I think of the way someone puts on sneakers before going on a run. We can’t expect to run well if we don’t have the proper footwear. In the same way, we can’t expect a house to be built well if the foundation was laid with shoddy material, and we can’t expect a band to perform well if they have not practiced and know the songs by heart.
These examples may seem random, but they all have the same concept in common: We need to know the foundational elements of a craft before we can practice and execute it well. This is why Paul takes time here to recount what the gospel is. Let’s take time to review it for ourselves:
- “Christ died for our sins…” Because of the Fall, we are born into brokenness and separated from the Creator. We have no way to get back to God on our own. We need redemption. To redeem something means to regain possession of something we once had. That is what Jesus did for us! Through all of His life on Earth, He remained sinless. He was not disconnected from God at all. In fact, He WAS God . . . the Son of God. This made Him the perfect sacrifice. When He died, even though He had no sin Himself, He took all of our sin with Him.
- “that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day . . .” Jesus did not stay dead! On the third day, He resurrected and secured our salvation and victory! Christ brought us back to our Creator. We can be confident in this gift of forgiveness and redemption because He rose again, and Paul even goes on to list all of the different people He appeared to as a reminder to the Corinthians of the evidence of the resurrection! People’s lives were changed because of Jesus’ sacrifice, and that includes you and me.
- “by the grace of God, I am what I am . . .” If redemption is about bringing back something that once belonged somewhere, then restoration is the renewal of something that is broken but was once whole. When we choose to receive the gift of salvation in Christ, we are made new. The impacts of sin and brokenness in the world may still have effects on us, but they no longer have power over us because the power of God’s Spirit lives in us!