1Corinthians 15:1-11 comments: the gospel

15:1 ¶  Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2  By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. 3  For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4  And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: 5  And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: 6  After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. 7  After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. 8  And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. 9  For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet 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 which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. 11  Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed.

Here is the essence of the gospel, what you must believe to have eternal life.

Romans 10:4  For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. 5  For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them. 6  But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) 7  Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) 8  But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; 9  That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11  For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

    12 ¶  For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. 13  For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

A “Christian” who does not believe in Christ’s physical resurrection is nothing more than a philosopher. A “Christian” who is not counting on Christ’s physical, bodily resurrection as what he or she can expect if they trust Christ is merely wasting their time. They may be very nice people, responsible and kind, but they are as lost as a goose in a horse race as the American Southerner saying goes.

Verse 5 uses Simon Peter’s other name as Paul has done three times previously in this letter and will do once in Galatians.

John 1:40  One of the two which heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41  He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ. 42  And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone.

Verse 9 gives us the word meet which means worthy. Notice the word substitution between these two passages following that gives us that definition.

Matthew 3:7 ¶  But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8  Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:

Luke 3:7  Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8  Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

This will help you understand what is meant in the following verses.

Genesis 2:18  And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him…20  And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.

Which is, of course, easier to understand than that nonsensical compound word, ‘helpmeet.’

Paul declares that there were more than five hundred witnesses to the resurrected Christ. To my knowledge there are no records of anyone of these denying under torture that they saw the risen Christ. Just think of how the testimony of one man, lawyer John Dean, helped bring down the Nixon Whitehouse in the Watergate Scandal. This is why conspiracies requiring large numbers of people to hold to a false story usually don’t work unless those people can be coerced or bribed into holding to their lie. But here, common, ordinary people, not government employees, witnessed something profound and amazing and there is no historical evidence that even one of them came forward crying foul. Not that Christians need that kind of testimony but it just goes to show that if there were any questions about Christ’s resurrection they would have been brought up by Jewish or Roman authorities and presented to the world as proof the gospel wasn’t true.

Pagan writers of first and second century Rome like Cornelius Tacitus, Lucian of Samosata, Suteonius, Pliny the Younger mentioned at the beginning of this commentary, and Mara Bar-Serapion refer to Christ and Christians either indifferently, mockingly, or in a hostile tone. The turncoat Jewish general of the 70AD revolt against Rome that left Jerusalem in shambles, Josephus, also refers to the resurrection. None of these writers would be able to say anything other than that they did not believe. We have the written testimony of Paul, the confirmation of the early church, and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to affirm in our hearts that the gospel is true. By this we are saved from mankind’s natural destination, a burning Hell.

Showing that God can use anyone, Paul persecuted Christians before he became one.

Acts 26:8  Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead? 9  I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.10  Which thing I also did in Jerusalem: and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them.11  And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.

  

But, it was God’s grace that mattered and God’s plan that bore fruit and now Paul was instrumental in the faith of many whom he would have driven to their deaths before he met Christ on the road to Damascus.