1 Corinthians 15:1-4

Good Friday. To unbelievers this would seem a foolish statement. To those of us who follow Christ…it is the beginning of the New Covenant born in His blood sacrifice to offer salvation to all of Gods’ creation. We live because He died for us.

What a triune God we serve who could love us like that!

1 Corinthians 15:1-4

15 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

3 For I delivered 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,

Believers experience salvation in part now (in the sense of beginning their relationship with Christ without the burden of sin standing between them and God), but this salvation will be complete when Christ returns and they are unified with God for eternity. Faithlife Bible.

Paul’s gospel to the Corinthians centered on the physical death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God who became human yet never sinned. Paul had started the Corinthian church; the gospel that the Corinthians had originally received came from him. Paul did not originate the proclamation of Jesus that he delivered to the Corinthians; he simply gave the Corinthians what he himself had received. He viewed himself as a link in a long chain of witnesses to the truth of the death and resurrection of Christ. 

Christ’s death dealt decisively with our sins. He suffered in our place to endure the just wrath of God against us. Christ lived and died in accordance with the prophecies about Him in the OT.  The Resurrection verifies the fact that Christ’s death paid the full price for sin. The Greek term translated rose here is in the perfect tense, emphasizing the ongoing effects of this historical event. Christ is a risen Savior today. NKJ Bible.

The word resurrection, usually points out our existence beyond the grave. Of the apostle’s doctrine not a trace can be found in all the teaching of philosophers. The doctrine of Christ’s death and resurrection, is the foundation of Christianity. Remove this, and all our hopes for eternity sink at once. And it is by holding this truth firm, that Christians stand in the day of trial, and are kept faithful to God. We believe in vain, unless we keep in the faith of the gospel. This truth is confirmed by Old Testament prophecies; and many saw Christ after he was risen. This apostle was highly favoured, but he always had a low opinion of himself, and expressed it. When sinners are, by Divine grace, turned into saints, God causes the remembrance of former sins to make them humble, diligent, and faithful. He ascribes to Divine grace all that was valuable in him. True believers, though not ignorant of what the Lord has done for, in, and by them, yet when they look at their whole conduct and their obligations, they are led to feel that none are so worthless as they are. All true Christians believe that Jesus Christ, and him crucified, and then risen from the dead, is the sun and substance of Christianity. All the apostles agreed in this testimony; by this faith they lived, and in this faith they died. Matthew Henry Commentary.

Psalm 16:10  For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.

Isaiah 53:10  Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.

Hosea 6:2  After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His sight.