1Cor 15:3 | KingComments | STEP | The chapter you now have before you is the longest of the letter. Just like the previous chapters, Paul deals here with something that had to be corrected with the Corinthians. What we have here however is not a wrong practice, but a wrong doctrine. Not that practice and doctrine can be separated. You will see that a wrong doctrine always goes together with a wrong practice. In a positive respect it is also like that. If you are occupied with the sound doctrine of the Bible, it will result in a sound balanced Christian life. The wrong doctrine here has to do with the resurrection of the dead. There are people who say that there is no resurrection of the dead ( ). Paul is explaining here what the effects are of this error. As is often the case, he also uses the wrong doctrine that was preached to tell you a lot of things about Christ. He shows what effect a certain deceitful doctrine has for the Person of Christ. That is something you can learn from. If you happen to deal with people who want to teach you and who want to make you believe something which you do not know whether it is in accordance with the Bible, then the best thing you can do is ask yourself what effect that teaching has on the Person and the work of the Lord Jesus. What Paul also does, is showing what the truth of God is, thus how you should really see it. He uses the opportunity to teach the believers further about the subject that is attacked by the enemy. With regard to the resurrection, he even makes known a mystery ( ). In that way this chapter becomes an extraordinarily beautiful and important chapter. . In the first verses, before he speaks in details about the resurrection, he once more presents the gospel to the Corinthians, in a simple manner and intently. He had already preached it to them, but it was necessary to do it once more. They seemed to have forgotten about that, which was possibly caused by the influences of false teachers who took them on a wrong path about the truth of resurrection. Therefore he shows them right at the beginning, that if they believe this error, they jeopardize their salvation. He deliberately says it that way to indicate the gravity of the error and what is jeopardized by following this error. There is the assurance that believers cannot perish. The Lord Jesus gives the absolute guarantee for that ( ). This assurance is from God. He is the One Who guarantees that. However, here Paul is not talking about what God does, but about the responsibility of the believer. That is something you should distinguish well. There are more verses that make that distinction. It may be helpful if you read two verses in Colossians 1 ( ). There you read what God does ( ) and what the believer should do ( ). Do you notice that the last verse ( ) starts with “if”? Phrases that start with this word “if”, are often about the responsibility of the believer. Another example you read in Hebrews 3 ( ). . You also find the word “if” here in . It is not meant to make you doubt about your salvation. It is meant to talk to you about your confession. Have you really been converted and did you really accept the good news of God? Are you really sure about that, without doubts? Are you sure that you will be saved by that, which means: that you will definitely enter heaven? This is how Paul approaches the Corinthians. He had preached the gospel, the good news from God, to these profoundly lost sinners. He had seen that they accepted that good news. He knew that they made that choice; they had gained a certainty that kept them from being driven back and forth by their desires. He knew that they would reach the final goal safely. But … they have to prove that it is true by holding fast what they had learned from Paul. That also applies to you and me. There is only one way to show that your confession is true and pure and that is by showing that you hold fast the Word of God. Otherwise “you believed in vain”. ”In vain” means that your faith is empty, meaningless. . To make them well aware again of the content and the value of the gospel, he first of all points them at how he brought it to them. He had not told them anything different than what he himself had directly received from the Lord. He did not hear it from anyone else, so they could not possibly have misunderstood him. Second, they could verify the content of the gospel, for it was “according to the Scriptures”. In the Scripture you can read about the work of Christ. So Paul makes every effort to affirm the accuracy of the gospel they had heard. I am glad that he says it that clearly. There is no doubt about the content of the gospel. It is about Christ and about what happened to Him. Because it is written twice “according to the Scriptures”, you may say that the gospel is resting on two pillars. Should you take one of them away, then there is no gospel left. The first pillar is “that Christ died for our sins”. The death of Christ was necessary because we sinned. To be able to redeem us from our sins, He had to die in our place, bearing our sins. God judged our sins in Him. . But if this would have been all that Christ did for us, we would have never known whether God was really satisfied with what the Lord Jesus had done. Therefore it was necessary that He raised the Lord Jesus from the dead, as a proof that His work was fully accomplished and was accepted by Him. The second time that “according to the Scriptures” is mentioned, it is preceded by “that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day”. The burial and the resurrection are mentioned in one breath. Therein lies a tremendous consolation with the burial of a believer. The burial takes place with a view to the resurrection! One who had to bury someone whom he loved, may know that there will be a reunion. That will happen in the resurrection. Things will be far more beautiful than they were on earth. How things will be, is made clear from . This whole chapter makes clear how important it is to believe in the physical resurrection. The book of Acts also testifies to this. When in Acts 1 a new apostle has to be appointed in Judas’ place, the apostle to be chosen had to be able to witness of “His resurrection” ( ), which is the resurrection of Christ. In the speeches of Peter and also in one of Paul’s speeches, the resurrection is mentioned again and again ( ). Believing in the resurrection is a crucial part of the Christian faith. He who does not believe in the resurrection, may call himself a Christian, but he is not a child of God. There is a chance that you hear people talking about the resurrection, but that they mean something totally different than what you learn from this chapter. They mean by that what is called reincarnation. That is: returning to this world after death, but then in another form. There are more and more people who believe this lie. You can only counter this with one thing and that is to put before them what Paul says here about the resurrection. That is the truth through which deceit is unmasked. Now read 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 again. Reflection: Why is resurrection important?

‏ 1 Corinthians 15:3

The Gospel of Salvation

The chapter you now have before you is the longest of the letter. Just like the previous chapters, Paul deals here with something that had to be corrected with the Corinthians. What we have here however is not a wrong practice, but a wrong doctrine. Not that practice and doctrine can be separated. You will see that a wrong doctrine always goes together with a wrong practice. In a positive respect it is also like that. If you are occupied with the sound doctrine of the Bible, it will result in a sound balanced Christian life.

The wrong doctrine here has to do with the resurrection of the dead. There are people who say that there is no resurrection of the dead (1Cor 15:12). Paul is explaining here what the effects are of this error. As is often the case, he also uses the wrong doctrine that was preached to tell you a lot of things about Christ. He shows what effect a certain deceitful doctrine has for the Person of Christ.

That is something you can learn from. If you happen to deal with people who want to teach you and who want to make you believe something which you do not know whether it is in accordance with the Bible, then the best thing you can do is ask yourself what effect that teaching has on the Person and the work of the Lord Jesus.

What Paul also does, is showing what the truth of God is, thus how you should really see it. He uses the opportunity to teach the believers further about the subject that is attacked by the enemy. With regard to the resurrection, he even makes known a mystery (1Cor 15:51-55). In that way this chapter becomes an extraordinarily beautiful and important chapter.

1Cor 15:1. In the first verses, before he speaks in details about the resurrection, he once more presents the gospel to the Corinthians, in a simple manner and intently. He had already preached it to them, but it was necessary to do it once more. They seemed to have forgotten about that, which was possibly caused by the influences of false teachers who took them on a wrong path about the truth of resurrection. Therefore he shows them right at the beginning, that if they believe this error, they jeopardize their salvation. He deliberately says it that way to indicate the gravity of the error and what is jeopardized by following this error.

There is the assurance that believers cannot perish. The Lord Jesus gives the absolute guarantee for that (Jn 10:28-29). This assurance is from God. He is the One Who guarantees that. However, here Paul is not talking about what God does, but about the responsibility of the believer. That is something you should distinguish well. There are more verses that make that distinction.

It may be helpful if you read two verses in Colossians 1 (Col 1:22-23). There you read what God does (Col 1:22) and what the believer should do (Col 1:23). Do you notice that the last verse (Col 1:23) starts with “if”? Phrases that start with this word “if”, are often about the responsibility of the believer. Another example you read in Hebrews 3 (Heb 3:6).

1Cor 15:2. You also find the word “if” here in 1Cor 15:2. It is not meant to make you doubt about your salvation. It is meant to talk to you about your confession. Have you really been converted and did you really accept the good news of God? Are you really sure about that, without doubts? Are you sure that you will be saved by that, which means: that you will definitely enter heaven? This is how Paul approaches the Corinthians.

He had preached the gospel, the good news from God, to these profoundly lost sinners. He had seen that they accepted that good news. He knew that they made that choice; they had gained a certainty that kept them from being driven back and forth by their desires. He knew that they would reach the final goal safely. But … they have to prove that it is true by holding fast what they had learned from Paul.

That also applies to you and me. There is only one way to show that your confession is true and pure and that is by showing that you hold fast the Word of God. Otherwise “you believed in vain”. ”In vain” means that your faith is empty, meaningless.

1Cor 15:3. To make them well aware again of the content and the value of the gospel, he first of all points them at how he brought it to them. He had not told them anything different than what he himself had directly received from the Lord. He did not hear it from anyone else, so they could not possibly have misunderstood him. Second, they could verify the content of the gospel, for it was “according to the Scriptures”. In the Scripture you can read about the work of Christ.

So Paul makes every effort to affirm the accuracy of the gospel they had heard. I am glad that he says it that clearly. There is no doubt about the content of the gospel. It is about Christ and about what happened to Him. Because it is written twice “according to the Scriptures”, you may say that the gospel is resting on two pillars. Should you take one of them away, then there is no gospel left.

The first pillar is “that Christ died for our sins”. The death of Christ was necessary because we sinned. To be able to redeem us from our sins, He had to die in our place, bearing our sins. God judged our sins in Him.

1Cor 15:4. But if this would have been all that Christ did for us, we would have never known whether God was really satisfied with what the Lord Jesus had done. Therefore it was necessary that He raised the Lord Jesus from the dead, as a proof that His work was fully accomplished and was accepted by Him.

The second time that “according to the Scriptures” is mentioned, it is preceded by “that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day”. The burial and the resurrection are mentioned in one breath. Therein lies a tremendous consolation with the burial of a believer. The burial takes place with a view to the resurrection! One who had to bury someone whom he loved, may know that there will be a reunion. That will happen in the resurrection. Things will be far more beautiful than they were on earth. How things will be, is made clear from 1Cor 15:42.

This whole chapter makes clear how important it is to believe in the physical resurrection. The book of Acts also testifies to this. When in Acts 1 a new apostle has to be appointed in Judas’ place, the apostle to be chosen had to be able to witness of “His resurrection” (Acts 1:21-23), which is the resurrection of Christ. In the speeches of Peter and also in one of Paul’s speeches, the resurrection is mentioned again and again (Acts 2:31 ; Acts 3:15 ; Acts 4:2 ; 10 ; Acts 5:30 ; Acts 10:40 ; Acts 13:30 ; Acts 17:31). Believing in the resurrection is a crucial part of the Christian faith. He who does not believe in the resurrection, may call himself a Christian, but he is not a child of God.

There is a chance that you hear people talking about the resurrection, but that they mean something totally different than what you learn from this chapter. They mean by that what is called reincarnation. That is: returning to this world after death, but then in another form. There are more and more people who believe this lie. You can only counter this with one thing and that is to put before them what Paul says here about the resurrection. That is the truth through which deceit is unmasked.

Now read 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 again.

Reflection: Why is resurrection important?