Sunday Devotional: 1 Corinthians 15:3-4

³ For among the first things I passed on to you [was] that which I also received, that Christ died on behalf of our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴ and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures.

Note: This is a re-post of a devotional from last August. Since today is Easter Sunday–Resurrection Day–I thought it fitting to repeat it.

This, for Paul, is the heart of the gospel message. Indeed, Paul clearly thought this was of great importance since it was “among the first things” (Greek: en prôtois) he shared with these people. This must be why Paul thought the anti-resurrection teaching that was going around needed to be dealt with: the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ is the basis of our faith. You can’t be a Christian and not hold to these truths. If these things are not true, our proclamation and our faith is in vain (1 Corinthians 15:14).

And these central elements didn’t derive from Paul. He received them. We aren’t told here from whom, but evidently he received them from the apostles. Eye-witness testimony was given a lot of weight in the ancient world. Here, Paul is testifying to the fact that he received the things he told the Corinthians directly from those who had been there and witnessed them first-hand.

Paul boils the most essential part of the gospel down to three simple points. First, Christ died on behalf of our sins. He didn’t die to make us happy, or to bring world peace, or even to show us how to be more loving (though the self-sacrificing nature of divine love demonstrated on the cross is a very important thing to grasp). He died because in order to have peace with God, our sin needed to be dealt with. God could not simply forgive our sins and remain just (otherwise, on what basis would He judge anyone?). The only way to satisfy God’s justice was for a perfect man to pay the penalty on our behalf. That man was Jesus–the God-man–the only one qualified for the task.

Second, Christ was buried. Jesus’s death was real. He didn’t fall unconscious, and he wasn’t faking death. The wounds he suffered on the cross were fatal. What’s more, there was a physical tomb located outside Jerusalem Paul could direct them to if they wanted to see where Jesus was buried.

Finally, Christ was raised on the third day. That is, he spent three days (counting inclusively, which is how it would have been done) dead in a tomb. Our sins paid for, and God’s justice satisfied. On the third day, he rose from the dead by the power of God, demonstrating his own divine power, but more than that, enabling us to be born again–renewed from within–and to receive the promise of our own resurrection. Sin no longer binds us thanks to the cross. Death no longer claims us thanks to the empty tomb.

A last point. Note Paul says twice that these things happened “according to the Scriptures.” If you read Matthew’s gospel, you’ll see constant references to the Old Testament where things Jesus did fulfilled ancient Messianic prophecies. Not only did these things happen in history, and could be verified by eye-witness testimony, but they prove Jesus’s Messianic status by the fact that they were foretold by prophets hundreds of years before the event.

As a closing thought, bear in mind that Paul isn’t trying to convince non-Christians here. Paul is underlining the core truths of the gospels that his readers, claiming to be Christians, should already believe. He’s trying to give them confidence that the gospel he received and passed on to them is not only trustworthy, but it is the very thing upon which they base their hope.

I pray we, too, would have a renewed confidence in the truth of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, and this would cause us all the more to worship our great God and Savior. Have a great week!