"For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance; that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures" (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).
The text which heads this paper is taken from a passage of Scripture with which most are only too well acquainted. The starting-point of the whole argument of this chapter will be found in the two verses which form the text. The Apostle opens by reminding the Corinthians that "among the first things" which he delivered to the Corinthians when he commenced his teaching, were two great facts about Christ; one was His death, the other was His resurrection. The passage seems to me to open up two subjects of deep interest, and to them I invite the attention of all into whose hands this paper may fall.
1. For one thing, let us mark well the primary truths which Paul delivered to the Corinthians.
2. For another thing, let us try to grasp the reasons why Paul assigns to these truths such a singularly prominent position.
1. What, then, were the TRUTHS which the Apostle preached "of first importance"?
Before I answer that question, I ask my readers to pause a moment and realize the whole position which Paul occupied when he left Athens and entered Corinth.
Here is a solitary Jew visiting a great heathen city for the first time, to preach an entirely new religion, to begin an aggressive Evangelistic mission. he is a member of a despised people, sneered at alike by Greeks and Romans, isolated and cut off from other nations, in their own little corner of the earth, by their peculiar laws and habits, and unknown to Gentiles either for literature, arms, arts, or science. The "bodily presence" of this bold Jew is "weak," and his "speech," compared to that of Greek rhetoricians, is"contemptible" (2 Corinthians 10:10). He stands almost alone in a city, famous all over the world even in the estimate of the heathen, for luxury, immorality, and idolatry. Such was the place, and such was the man! A more remarkable position it is hard to conceive.
And what did this solitary Jew tell the Corinthians?
What did he say about the great Head and Founder of the new faith which he wanted them to receive in place of their ancient religion? Did he begin by cautiously telling them how Christ lived, adn taught, and worked miracles and spoke "as no man ever spoke"? Did he tell them that He had been as rich as Solomon, as victorious as Joshua, or as learned as Moses? Nothing of the kind! The very first fact he proclaimed about Christ was that He died, and died the most ignominious death - the death of a malefactor the death of the Cross!
And why did Paul lay so much stress upon Christ's death rather than His life? Because, he tells the Corinthians, "He died for our sins." A deep and wonderful truth - a truth which lay at the very foundation of the whole religion which the Apostle came to preach! For that death of Christ was not the involuntary death of a martyr, or a mere example of self-sacrifice. It was the voluntary death of a Divine Substitute for the guilty sinners! It was a death of such mighty influence on the position of sinful man before God, that it provided complete redemption from the consequences of the fall. In a word, Paul told the Corinthians that when Christ died, He died as the Representative of guilty man, to make expiation for us by the sacrifice of Himself, and to endure the penalty which we deserved. "He bore our sins in His own body on the tree." "He suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (1 Peter 2:24, 3:18; 2 Corinthians 5:21). A great and stupendous mystery, no doubt! But it was a mystery to which every sacrifice from the time of Abel had breren continually pointing for 4000 years. Christ "died according to the Scriptures."
The other great fact about which Paul placed in the front part of his teaching was His resurrection from the dead. He boldly told the Corinthians that the same Jesus who died, and was buried - came forth alive from the grave on the third day after His death, and was seen, touched, handled, and talked to, in the body, by many competent witnesses. By this amazing miracle He proved, as He had frequently said He would, that He was the promised and long-expected Saviour foretold in prophecy, that the satisfaction for sin He had made by His death was accepted by God the Father, that the work of our redemption was completed, and that death, as well as sin - was a conquered enemy.
~J. C. Ryle~
(continued with # 2)
No comments:
Post a Comment