1 Corinthians 15:1-8

Catholic, Methodist, Pentecostal, Lutheran or any denomination matters not......what matters is that the Gospel of Jesus Christ be preached to ALL who will listen. It is Him through the power of the Holy Spirit who will draw men to Himself when we lift Him up for others to see.

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 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. At the time of Paul’s writing, a person could have verified the truthfulness of the apostle’s statements. The majority of the five hundred people who saw the risen Christ, as well as all the apostles and James (the half brother of Jesus), were still living.

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. 

1 Corinthians 15:1-8

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, ⁵ and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. ⁶ After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. ⁷ After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. ⁸ Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.