The gospel Paul preached
15
📚Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel 📖 which I preached to you, which also you have received, and in which you stand. 2 📚By it also you are saved 📖, if 📖 you hold firmly to the word I preached to you; unless you believed in vain.3 📚 For I passed on to you first of all that which I also received 📖: 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 by Cephas, then by the twelve. 6 📚After that, he was seen by more than five hundred 📖 brethren at once, of whom the majority remain to this present day, but some have fallen asleep 📖. 7 📚After that, he was seen by James 📖; then by all the apostles. 8 📚And last of all he was seen by me 📖 also, as by one born out of due time 📖.
15:3-8 Four important things are associated with the gospel – Christ’s death, His burial, His rising from the dead, and His appearances to His disciples. Christ’s death was “for our sins” – Matt 26:28; John 1:29; Rom 3:24-25; 4:25; 2 Cor 5:21; Gal 1:4; Heb 1:3; 9:28; 10:12; 1 Pet 2:24; 3:18; Rev 1:5. Anyone who denies that Christ really died is denying the one sacrifice for sins God has provided for mankind, and rejects the one way God has appointed for men to be saved from their sins. Christ’s burial was also of great importance. It was the final and needed proof that He was dead (Matt 27:57-66; Mark 15:42-46; John 19:38-40). Christ’s resurrection (His spirit entering again His dead body and making it alive again and enabling it to leave the tomb) is also of the utmost importance (vs 13,14,17,18; Rom 4:25; Matt 28:6).
Both the death and resurrection of Christ were “according to the Scriptures” (the Old Testament). See Matt 5:17; Luke 24:25-27, 45, 46. Christ’s appearances to His disciples were also of “first importance”. They were the proof that He had risen from the dead. Paul does not list all of His appearances. On Christ’s appearances after His resurrection see note at Matt 28:6.⚜
9 📚For I am the least of the apostles, and am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
15:9 Acts 8:3; 9:1-2; Eph 3:9; 1 Tim 1:12-15. Paul was happy to do what he told others to do in Phil 2:3.⚜
10 📚But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace which was granted to me was not in vain, for I laboured far more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
15:10 Paul understood that for him to be a servant of God, an apostle, was sheer mercy, indescribable grace (Eph 3:7-8; 2 Tim 1:9; Titus 3:3-4). When he says he worked harder than all, he is exalting the grace of God working in him, not himself.⚜
11 📚Therefore, whether I or they, so we preach, and so you believed.
15:11 The gospel Paul preached was the same gospel the other apostles preached. There is only one way to salvation. They all knew and preached this one way.⚜
The resurrection of Christ and of believers
12 📚Now if Christ is preached that he rose from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 📚But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not risen. 14 📚And if Christ has not risen, then our preaching 📖 is in vain, and your faith is also in vain. 15 📚Yes, and we are found to be false witnesses about God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ up, whom he did not raise up, if so be that the dead do not rise. 16 For if the dead do not rise, then Christ has not been raised. 17 📚And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is in vain, you are still in your sins. 18 📚Then, also, those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
15:17-18 If Christ did not rise from the dead it would mean that He sank condemned under our sins, that His sacrifice was not acceptable to God, and that no one is justified or forgiven (Rom 4:24-25). And if no one is counted righteous or forgiven, everyone is lost forever.⚜
19 📚If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied.
15:12-19 Some in the church at Corinth (just like the Sadducees – Acts 23:8) were saying that there was no such thing as dead bodies coming to life again. Paul points out that if there is no such thing then there are some very sad results – Christ could not have risen (vs 13,16); the preaching of the apostles would be both “useless” and false (vs 15); the faith of Christians would also be useless (vs 14,17); and they would still be in their sins and lost forever (vs 17,18); and all of them would be in a state to be pitied (v 19). In this way Paul shows the absolute necessity of the bodily resurrection of Christ for the salvation of men. It is at the very heart of the gospel. To deny it is to pervert the gospel. It is an attempt to rob the gospel of its truthfulness and power.⚜
15:19 The Christian’s hope must reach far beyond this present life. See Rom 5:2-5; 8:23-25. If there is no resurrection any such hope would be in vain. In such case Christians would be deluded and should be objects of pity. And all their hardships, trials, and persecutions (John 15:18-20; Acts 14:22; 2 Tim 3:12) would be for nothing.⚜
20 📚But now Christ has risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits 📖 of those who slept.
15:20 But Christ’s believers are not to be pitied. Why? Because Christ’s resurrection is a fact. There was not the slightest doubt about it.⚜
21 📚For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 📚For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all will be made alive.
23 📚But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward, at his coming, those who belong to Christ 📖. 24 📚After that 📖 comes the end 📖, when he will have handed over the kingdom to God the Father, when he will have put down all rule and all authority and power. 25 📚For he must reign until he has put all enemies 📖 under his feet. 26 📚The last enemy that will be destroyed is death 📖. 27 📚For he has put all things under his feet. But when he says that all things are put under him, it is evident that he who put all things under him is not included. 28 📚And when all things have been made subject to him, then the Son himself will also be subject 📖 to him who put all things under him, so that God may be all in all 📖.
29 📚Otherwise, what will they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead do not rise at all? Why, then, are they baptized for the dead 📖? 30 📚And why do we stand in danger every hour? 31 📚I declare by the boasting I have about you in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. 32 📚If, in the manner of men, I have fought with beasts 📖 at Ephesus, what does it benefit me, if the dead do not rise? In that case let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.
15:30-32 Verse 19. If there is no hope of a better future after death, it may seem to make some kind of sense to enjoy this life as much as one can. It was because Paul was sure of the resurrection that he was willing to face danger and death every day for the sake of the gospel. 2 Cor 11:23-27 gives a list of some of those dangers. “I die daily” probably means here that every day he was facing persecutions or dangers which could result in his death.⚜
33 📚Do not be deceived: Bad company ruins good character.
15:33 There is great danger in believers having the wrong kind of people for friends. Here “bad company” means the company of those who deny the resurrection. But is it necessary to say that other kinds of friends also can be bad company?⚜
34 📚Awake to righteousness, and do not sin. For some do not have the knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.
15:34 False teaching leads to a false way of living and to sin. The denial of the resurrection produced this result among the Christians in Corinth.⚜
A new kind of body
35 📚But someone will say, How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come? 36 📚Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive, unless it dies. 37 And what you sow is only seed; you do not sow the body that will be, but perhaps seeds of wheat or of some other grain. 38 📚But God gives it a body as it pleases him, and to every seed its own body. 39 📚All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh for men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. 40 There are also heavenly bodies, and earthly bodies. But the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another. 41 📚There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory.
42 📚So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption. 43 📚It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 📚It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
15:42-44 Believers after the resurrection will have bodies of glory and power which can never die. They will be perfectly fitted for a spiritual existence. In short, they will be like Christ’s resurrected body (v 49; Phil 3:21; Rom 8:29; 1 John 3:2. See Luke 24:31, 36, 51; John 20:19, 26).⚜
45 📚And so it is written: “The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a life-giving spirit”.
15:45 Gen 2:7. “The last Adam” means Christ the Head, the Representative and the Progenitor of a new kind of people. Adam had life. Christ gives life (John 5:21-29; 11:25-26; 14:6). “Life-giving spirit” does not mean Christ did not have a real body (see Heb 2:14). But He was spirit before He became a man (John 4:24).⚜
46 📚However, that which is spiritual did not come first, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
15:46 He means only that the first Adam came first in time.⚜
47 📚The first man was of the earth, earthly; the second man is the Lord from heaven. 48 📚As was the earthly man, so also are those who are earthly; and as the heavenly man is, so also are those who are heavenly.
15:48 What men receive from Adam are bodies which die and return to dust. What those who are “heavenly” will receive from Christ is something far superior. Observe that believers in Christ are “heavenly” or “of heaven” –
their hope is there (Heb 6:19-20),
their Head is there (Eph 1:22),
their inheritance is there (1 Pet 1:4),
their home is there (John 14:2),
their citizenship is there (Phil 3:20).⚜
49 📚And as we have borne the likeness of the earthly, so we will also bear the likeness 📖 of the heavenly.
15:35-49 Paul here answers questions some Christians were asking. It seems they were asking in unbelief and possibly even ridiculing the idea of resurrection, for he says to those who would ask such questions, “Foolish one” (v 36). He says the human body (he is speaking here only of the bodies of believers) is like a seed. After it dies it will be changed into something quite different from what it appears to be now. There are different kinds of bodies and different kinds of glory, and God can take the physical elements and make of them what He pleases. So can He do with the bodies of believers. And so He will do.⚜
15:49 In vs 47-49 thrice Christ is called the man from heaven. This does not mean He was a man in heaven before He came to earth, but that He was in heaven before He became a man on earth.⚜
50 📚Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither does corruption inherit the incorruptible.
15:50 Believers now are in the kingdom of God (Col 1:13). But Paul here speaks of “inheriting” it. See Rom 8:17-23; Eph 1:14; 1 Pet 1:4. We cannot inherit it with these bodies of death.⚜
The last trumpet
51 📚See, I show you a mystery 📖. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, 52 📚in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet 📖. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed.
15:51-52 1 Thess 4:13-18; John 14:3. Not all believers will “sleep” (die). Some will be alive when Christ returns and will be instantly changed.⚜
53 📚For this corruptible must put on the incorruptible, and this mortal must put on immortality.
15:53 Verses 42-44,49.⚜
54 📚So when this corruptible has put on the incorruptible, and this mortal has put on immortality, then will take place the word that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
55 📚O death, where is your sting?
O grave, where is your victory?
56 📚The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law 📖.
15:56 Death has no sting itself. Its sting is sin (Rom 5:12; 6:23), and to die in sin is to be lost forever. Christ has removed this sting for believers by removing their sins, and so death to them is only a door to life with Christ (Phil 1:21-23).⚜
57 📚But thanks be to God who gives us the victory 📖 through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 📚Therefore 📖, my dear brethren, be firm, unmovable 📖, always abounding in the work 📖 of the Lord, for you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.