Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, (I Corinthians 15:1-4) A writer or preacher would be hard pressed to produce a better introduction to the Gospel of Jesus Christ than that which is given here by the Apostle Paul to the church in Corinth. In these few lines, he gives us enough truth to live on for a lifetime and to bring us home to glory. Only the Holy Spirit could enable a man to write so much, so clearly, and in so little space. A Gospel for All Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel…(I Corinthians 15:1) In this simple phrase, we find a truth that must be rediscovered by all of us. The Gospel is not merely an introductory message to Christianity. It is “the” message of Christianity, and it is not only the means of salvation, but also the means of continued sanctification in the life of the most mature believer. The Apostle had already preached the Gospel to these people! He was their father in the faith! Yet he sees the greatest need to continue teaching the Gospel to them, not only to remind them of its essential ingredients, but also to expand their knowledge of it. At their conversion, they merely began a journey of discovery that would encompass their entire life and carry on through the endless ages of eternity – the discovery of the glories of God revealed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As we look through the annals of Christian history, we see men and women of unusual passion for God and His kingdom. We long to be like them, and we wonder how they came to have such enduring fire. I have studied the lives of quite a few of them, and I find one common denominator among them. They all seem to have caught a glimpse of the glory of the Gospel, and its beauty kindled their passion and drove them on. Genuine and enduring passion comes from an ever-increasing, ever-deepening understanding of what God has done for His people in the person and work of Jesus Christ! Today, there are so many conferences and such, especially for our youth, which are designed to excite the believer’s passion through fellowship, music, eloquent speakers, emotional stories, and impassioned pleas. Yet, often whatever excitement they create quickly vanishes. In the end, little fires have been built in little hearts that burn out in a few days. We have forgotten that genuine, enduring passion is born out of one’s knowledge of the truth, and specifically the truth of the Gospel. The more one comprehends its beauty, the more one will be apprehended by its power. One glance of the Gospel will move the truly regenerate heart to follow. Every greater glimpse will quicken its pace until it is running recklessly toward the prize. Such beauty, the truly Christian heart cannot resist. This is the great need of the day! It is what we have lost—the preaching of the Gospel. A Gospel to Be Preached … which I preached to you, (I Corinthians 15:1) It seems that for the most part, impassioned preaching has gone out of style. It has been deemed by many to be lacking the refinement and sophistication that are necessary to be effective in this modern era. The passionate preacher proclaiming truth boldly and unapologetically is now considered an obstacle to the post-modern man who prefers a bit more humility and openness to other points of view. The majority argument is that we simply must change the way we preach because it just looks foolish to the world. Such an attitude toward preaching is proof that we have lost our bearings in the Evangelical community. It is God who has ordained the “foolishness of preaching” to be the instrument of bringing the saving message of the Gospel to the world. That is not to say that preaching should be foolish, illogical, or outlandish, but the standard by which all preaching should be compared is the Scripture and not the contemporary opinions of a fallen and corrupt culture that is wise in its own eyes. The theory is often put forth that our present culture cannot tolerate the type of preaching that was so effective during the great awakenings and revivals of the past. The preaching of George Whitefield, John Wesley, and other like-minded preachers would be ridiculed, lampooned and laughed to scorn by modern man. Yet, this theory fails to take into account that these same preachers were ridiculed and lampooned by the men of their own day! True Gospel preaching will always be “foolishness” to every culture. Any attempt to remove the offense and make preaching “appropriate” diminishes the power of the Gospel. It also defeats the purpose for which God chose preaching as the means of saving men – so that men’s hope might not rest in refinement, eloquence, or worldly wisdom, but in the power of God. We live in a culture that is bound in sin like bands of iron. Moral stories, quaint maxims, and life lessons shared from the heart of a beloved pulpiteer have no real power against such darkness.We need preachers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who know the Scriptures and are enabled by the grace of God to face any culture and cry out, “Thus saith the Lord!” A Gospel to Be Received … which also you received, (I Corinthians 15:1) For men to be saved, the Gospel must be received. Yet, what does it mean to “receive” the Gospel? There is nothing extraordinary about the word “received” in English or biblical Greek, but in the context of the Gospel, it becomes quite extraordinary, and one of the most radical words in Scripture. First, when two things are contrary or diametrically opposed to one another, to receive the one is to reject the other. Since there is no affinity or friendship between the Gospel and the world, to “receive” the Gospel is to “reject” the world. In this is demonstrated just how radical the act of receiving the Gospel can be. To receive and follow the Gospel call is to reject all that can be seen with the eye and held in the hand, in exchange for what cannot be seen. It is to reject personal autonomy, the right to self-government, in order to enslave oneself to a “messiah” who died two thousand years ago as an enemy of the state and a blasphemer. It is to reject the majority and its views, in order to join oneself to a berated and seemingly insignificant minority called the Church. It is to risk everything in this one and only life in the belief that this impaled prophet is the Son of God and the Savior of the world. Secondly, for a man to “receive the Gospel” is for Him to trust exclusively in the person and work of Jesus Christ as the only way of right standing before God. It is a common maxim that to trust in anything exclusively is dangerous, or at best, a very unwise thing to do. A man is considered careless to not have a backup plan, to not have an alternative escape route, to not diversify his investments, or to put all his eggs in the same basket and burn bridges behind him. Yet, this is the very thing that is done by the man who receives Jesus Christ. The Christian faith is exclusive. To truly receive Christ is to throw off every other hope in every other thing, but Christ alone. It is for this reason that the Apostle Paul declares that the Christian is of all men most to be pitied, if Christ is a hoax. To receive the Gospel is not merely to pray a prayer asking Jesus to come into one’s heart, but it is to put away the world and embrace the fullness of the claims of Christ. To “receive the Gospel” is to open one’s life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. This is quite different from the plea of contemporary evangelism that directs men to “make Jesus Lord” of their lives. What we must understand is that Jesus IS the Lord of every man. The Scriptures declare that God has made Him both Lord and Christ. He has installed His King upon His holy mountain and scoffs at those who would rebel against Him. God does not call men to make Jesus Lord, but to live in absolute submission to the Lord He has made. The man who receives the Gospel, and with it, Jesus as Lord, does a very dangerous and sensible thing. It is dangerous in a Narnian sort of way. After all, He is not a tame Lion, and He is certainly not safe. He has the right to ask anything of those who call Him Lord, but He is good, and worthy of joyful trust. Those who do not understand the danger of the Gospel call have heard it only faintly. The same Jesus, who calls the weary to Himself, may also ask of them everything, and send them forth to lose their lives for His sake in this dark and fallen world. To receive the Gospel and Jesus as Lord is also a sensible thing to do. What could be more reasonable than to follow the omnipotent Creator and Sustainer of the universe, who has loved His people with an eternal love, redeemed them with His own blood, and demonstrated uncompromising commitment to every promise He has made? Even if He were not this way, and all this goodness was not in Him, it would still be most sensible to follow Him for who can resist His will? It is for these reasons and countless more, the Apostle urges us “to present our bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God”, and calls it our spiritual or “reasonable service of worship”. To “receive the Gospel” is for the world and self to be dethroned and for Christ to become our new epicenter! He becomes the source, the purpose, the goal, and the motivation of all that we are and do. When a man receives the Gospel, his entire life begins to be lived out in a different context, and that context is Christ. Although the outward signs at the moment of true conversion may be less than dramatic, the gradual effects will be monumental. Like a pebble cast in the center of a lake, the ripple effect of the Gospel will eventually reach the full circumference of the believer’s life and touch every shore. Finally, to “receive the Gospel” is to take it as the very source and sustenance of one’s life. Christ cannot be received as “a part” of one’s life or as an addition to all the other good things that one already possesses without Him. He is not some minor accessory that dresses up our life and makes it better. In receiving the Gospel, He becomes our life. In John 6:53, Jesus taught, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.” In Psalm 34:8, David cries out, “O taste and see that the Lord is good.” What could make it clearer? To receive Christ into our lives is for Him to become for us not only a necessary meal that sustains us, but also an exquisite meal in which we delight. A Gospel in Which We Stand … in which also you stand, (I Corinthians 15:1) In our text, the Apostle Paul tells us that the Gospel is not only to be received, but it is also the truth upon which the true believer stands. In fact, standing firm on the truth of the Gospel is the evidence that one has truly received the Gospel. James teaches us that true saving faith produces works. Here, the Apostle Paul teaches us that true saving faith produces conviction that governs the will and determines behavior. The one who truly receives the Gospel, stands upon it, and lives his life in accordance with its truths. In the words of Jesus Christ, the one who hears and receives the Gospel “may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock”. The Apostle Paul had great reason to hope that at least some of the individuals in the Church at Corinth were true believers because they were in fact standing firm upon the truths of the Gospel. Others who identified themselves with the same Church brought great concern to Paul and thus he admonished them to test or examine themselves to see whether or not they were in the faith. It is one thing to make a profession of Christianity; it is quite another to validate that profession with one’s life. A man may say that he has “received the Gospel”, but the question remains, “Does he stand upon the Gospel?” The latter is the evidence of the former. To argue that the reception of the Gospel produces real Gospel conviction is not saying that new Christians will not be immature or that mature Christians will never struggle. Even the most godly among us fight against sin and are fraught with many failures. However, in the midst of the struggle, it is evident that they possess a deep conviction that the Gospel is true, and they demonstrate a determination to stand upon it. Though at times off balanced and even falling, over the general course of their life we see them standing! They stand because God makes them stand. They have been regenerated by the Spirit of God and that same Spirit dwells within them. Though they battle with sin and their fallen flesh, a true conviction leading to righteousness is evident. A Gospel by Which We Are Saved …by which also you are saved, (I Corinthians 15:2) The greatest promise of the Gospel is salvation. Every other promise and every other benefit derived from them pales in comparison to this one thing – that the Gospel is the power of God for salvation, and whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. According to I Peter 1:9, salvation is the very outcome or goal of the believer’s faith. It is the end or purpose behind all that Christ has done. It is the true believer’s great longing, and the end toward which he strives. God can give no greater gift and the believer can have no greater hope or motivation than that of final salvation through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The gift of salvation is even more greatly magnified when we realize what we were before Christ and what we deserved in that state. We were sinners by nature and deed and were corrupt to the point of depravity. We were lawbreakers and criminals without excuse or plea before the bar of God’s justice. We deserved nothing less than eternal condemnation, but now we are saved through the blood of God’s own Son. While we were helpless sinners and enemies of God, Christ died for the ungodly. Through Him, we who were far off have now been brought near. In Him, we have redemption through His blood, and the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace. We have been saved from our sin, reconciled to God, and brought into fellowship with Him as sons! What more could we desire, or what more do we need? Is not the gift of salvation through the blood of God’s own Son enough to fill our hearts to overflowing for an eternity of eternities? Is it not enough to motivate us to live for Him who died? What need do we have of other promises? Will we live for Him more because He promises us not only salvation, but also healing, ease of life, wealth, and honor? What are any of these things compared to the gift of salvation and of knowing Him? Away with those who would seek to coax us to devotion by promising us things other than Jesus Christ. If everyone we have every loved was taken from us, and our body lay rotting on a dung heap, and our name was slandered by friend and enemy alike, we should still find all the devotion we need to love, praise, and serve Him in this one thing – He shed His own blood for our souls. Pure and undefiled religion is fueled by this one holy passion. Why is it that the promise of eternal salvation alone no longer seems to have as much power to attract men to Christ? Why is modern man more interested in how the Gospel can help him in this present life? First, it is because preachers are no longer preaching about the certainty of judgment and the dangers of hell. When these things are preached biblically and clearly, men begin to see that their greatest need is to be saved from eternal condemnation, and the “more practical” needs of this present age become trivial in comparison. Secondly, we must understand that the great majority of men, on the street and in the pew, are carnal, and carnally minded men cherish this world above the next. They have little interest in the things of God and eternity. Most would sooner attend a conference on self-esteem and self-improvement than listen to one sermon on sanctification, without which no one will see the Lord. Although it is true that the Gospel can and often does improve one’s station and condition in life, as stewards of the Gospel, we must shun the temptation to attract hearers and congregants with any promise or prop other than Jesus Christ and eternal life. Although it would be beyond radical in this modern age of evangelism, we would do well to cry out to the masses, “Jesus Christ, promises you two things: an eternal salvation in which to hope and a cross on which to die. The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come’.” A Gospel to Be Held Fast … if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. (I Corinthians 15:2) The doctrine of the “Perseverance of the Saints” is one of the most precious truths to the believer who understands it. It is the greatest comfort and encouragement to know that He who began a good work in us will finish it. However, this doctrine has been grossly perverted and has become the chief instrument of giving false assurance to countless individuals who are yet unconverted and still in their sin. In the above text, the Apostle Paul writes, “…you are saved, IF you hold fast the word…” The word “if” introduces a conditional clause that we must not ignore and we cannot remove. A person is saved “if” he holds fast to the Gospel, but “if” he does not hold fast, he is not saved. This is not a denial of the doctrine of perseverance, but rather an explanation of it. No one who truly believes unto salvation will ever be lost to eternal destruction. The grace and power of God that saved them will also keep them until that final day, but the evidence that they have truly believed is that they continue in the things of God and do not turn away from Him. Though they will still struggle against the flesh and be subject to many failing, the full course of their life will reveal a definite and notable progress in both faith and godliness. Their perseverance does not save them or make them objects of grace, but reveals that they are objects of grace and truly saved by faith. To put it plainly, the proof or validation of genuine conversion is that the one who professes faith in Christ perseveres in that faith and grows in sanctification throughout the full course of his or her life. If a man professes faith in Christ and yet falls away, or makes no progress in godliness, it does not mean that he has lost his salvation; it simply reveals that he was never converted at all. This truth has tremendous and far-reaching implications for many who profess faith in Christ. How many on the street and in the pew believe that they are “saved” and thoroughly “Christian” because one time they prayed a prayer and asked Jesus to come into their hearts? Their lives have never changed, they show no evidence of the grace of God, and yet they stand assured of their salvation because of one decision in their past and their belief that their prayer was truly sincere. No matter how popular such a belief, there are no biblical grounds for it. It is true that conversion happens at a specific moment in time when men pass from death to life through faith in Jesus Christ. However, biblical assurance that a person has passed from death to life is not based merely upon an examination of the moment of conversion, but rather upon an examination of one’s life from that moment on. In the midst of much carnality, the Apostle Paul did not ask the Corinthians to reevaluate their conversion experience in the past, but to examine their lives in the present. We would do well to follow Paul’s lead in the counseling of supposed converts. They must know and we must teach them that the evidence of a genuine saving work of God in the past is the continuation of that same work until that final day. A Gospel of First Importance …as of first importance…(I Corinthians 15:3) There is no word or truth of greater importance than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Scriptures are full of many messages. The least among them is more valuable than the combined wealth of the world and more important than the greatest thoughts ever formed in the mind of man. If then, the very dust of Scripture is more precious than gold, how can we calculate the worth or importance of the Gospel? Even within the Scripture itself, the Gospel message has no equal. The story of creation, though lined with splendor, bows before the message of the cross. The Law of Moses and the words of the prophets point away from themselves to this singular message of redemption. Even the Second Coming, though full of wonder, stands in the shadows of this one word. It is not an exaggeration to say that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the one great and essential message, the acropolis of the Christian faith, and the foundation of the believer’s hope. There is nothing more important, nothing more useful, and nothing more necessary for the promotion of the glory and kingdom of God! This being true, it should be our magnificent obsession to comprehend the Gospel. It is an impossible task, but worth every ounce of effort spent, for all the riches of God and every true joy for the believer are found there. It is worth shutting ourselves away from every lesser endeavor and inferior pleasure so that we might sound the depths of God’s grace revealed in this one message. A beautiful illustration of such a passion is found in Job 28:1-9: Surely there is a mine for silver and a place where they refine gold. Iron is taken from the dust, and copper is smelted from rock. Man puts an end to darkness, and to the farthest limit, he searches out the rock in gloom and deep shadow. He sinks a shaft far from habitation, forgotten by the foot; they hang and swing to and fro far from men. The earth, from it comes food, and underneath it is turned up as fire. Its rocks are the source of sapphires, and its dust contains gold. The path no bird of prey knows, nor has the falcon’s eye caught sight of it. The proud beasts have not trodden it, nor has the fierce lion passed over it. He puts his hand on the flint; he overturns the mountains at the base. Even in the ancient world of Job, there were men who were willing to push themselves to the farthest limit, to deprive themselves of surface life, to burrow through solid rock in gloom and deep shadow, to risk life and limb, and to leave no stone unturned in their search for the treasures of this earth. How much more should we who have been enlightened by the Holy Spirit, and tasted the good Word of God and the powers of the age to come, be willing to leave off the things of lesser glory to pursue the glories of God in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Why then, is a true passion for the Gospel so scarce among God’s people? First, it is because the Gospel most often preached today is a terribly reduced or truncated version of the original. The Gospel of God cannot be contained in a tract, or summed up in a few spiritual laws. It is good to understand that God has a plan, that we are sinners, and that Christ died and rose again that we might be saved by faith, but it is only the beginning. It is when we search the Scriptures, and discover the meaning of these things that we realize that we are on a journey that will last beyond our lifetime and into a thousand eternities. With each new truth discovered we are more and more captured by the Glory of the Gospel until it consumes our thoughts and governs our will. This exploration into the Gospel is necessary if we are ever to be passionate about it. A second reason for a lack of passion is that the Gospel is seen by many to be Christianity 101, or the baby step into the faith that is quickly mastered and left behind for deeper things. Nothing could be further from the truth! The Gospel is the “deep thing” of Christianity! Eschatology and the book of Revelation will be mastered at the second coming, but our pursuit of the knowledge of the Gospel will continue on throughout eternity. The greatest of Christians will never master the Gospel, but every true Christian will be mastered by it! A Gospel Handed Down and Delivered For I delivered to you…what I also received. (I Corinthians 15:3) In the above text, we learn two important truths about the Gospel - it is handed down, and it is to be delivered. When the Apostle Paul writes that he “received” the Gospel, he is making a claim to special revelation. He did not fabricate this message, nor was it borrowed from others. Rather it came to him through an extraordinary revelation of Jesus Christ. In Galatians 1:11-12, Paul describes this experience in greater detail: For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. There is only one true Gospel. It was born in the heart of God and handed down to the church through the Apostles. These men, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, were quite clear regarding the content of their Gospel and its immutability. It was not to be changed or adapted to please the palate of differing cultures or epochs, but was to be held in the highest regard as absolute truth. We who have become recipients and stewards of this Gospel would do well to listen to their admonitions and handle the Gospel with the greatest caution, even fear. Jude exhorts us to contend earnestly for this faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. Paul admonishes us to guard it as an entrusted treasure, and even goes so far as to pronounce a curse upon any man or angel who would adapt the Gospel message to any preconceived notion of culture or religion: But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! Each generation of Christians must realize that an “eternal” Gospel has been handed down to them. As stewards, it is our charge to preserve that Gospel without additions, subtractions, or any sort of modification. To alter the Gospel in any way is to damn our own souls, and to hand down a corrupt Gospel to the following generation. For this reason, the Apostle Paul warned young Timothy to take pains with the truths entrusted to him, and promised him that in doing so he would ensure salvation both for himself and for those who heard him. We, who have received the Gospel, have a fearful obligation to deliver it. This obligation is not only to God, but also to our own generation and the generations to come. Although the Gospel can be corrupted in an instant, it may take the Church years, even centuries to recover it. If Church history teaches us anything, it teaches us that though heretical movements abound, there are few genuine reformations. There is something worse than holding our silence while the lost world runs headlong into hell. It is the crime of preaching to them a watered down, culturally carved, truncated Gospel that allows them to hold to a form of godliness, while denying its power, to profess to know God, while denying Him with their deeds, and to call Jesus “Lord, Lord”, while not doing the Father’s will. Woe to us if we preach not the Gospel, but even greater woe if we do so incorrectly! A Gospel to Be Explained …that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures…(I Corinthians 15:2) The Gospel is everything in Christianity and the Scriptures, but not everything in Christianity or the Scriptures is the Gospel. Physical healing, a sound marriage, and God’s providential care, although founded upon and flowing from the Gospel, are not the Gospel. The Gospel is a very specific message in the Scriptures, and the above text sets it out for us most clearly and concisely. In these simple phrases is found the salvation of the world. From our text, we learn that the Gospel of Jesus Christ rests upon two great pillars – His death and resurrection. The reference to his burial is important for two reasons. The first is that it was prophesied and fulfilled. The second is that it validates His death and lays the ground work for His resurrection and ascension. A thorough consideration of these two great truths are beyond the scope of this article. For now, we have only one goal, and that is to demonstrate the great need to not only proclaim these truths, but to explain them. It is the great task of the Christian evangelist to both proclaim as a herald and expound as a scribe. The Scriptures abound with such examples. Philip pointed the Ethiopian eunuch to Christ through his explanation of Isaiah’s prophecies. Priscilla and Aquila took Apollos aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. Paul the Apostle met with the Jews of Thessalonica for three consecutive Sabbaths and reasoned with them from the Scriptures, “explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead.” Finally, there is the greatest Expositor of them all, our Lord Jesus Christ, who explained God to man in His incarnation, and explained the Gospel to His bewildered disciples on the road to Emmaus. Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. We are not only called to proclaim truth, but to explain it to our hearers. We must tell them they have sinned, but we must also explain to them the evil of it and the dire consequences that follow. We must proclaim Christ’s death, but we must also explain why it was necessary and what it accomplished. We must declare His resurrection and ascension, but we must also explain what they mean for our salvation and the government of the universe. We must tell them what He has done, but we must also explain to them what they must do. Proclamations and the words that form them are important, but only to the degree that they are properly defined and applied. Such is the case of the Gospel.
Posted on: Wed, 06 Nov 2013 06:06:33 +0000
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