1 Corinthians 15:1 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Corinthians 15:1

Comments

‘Moreover, brethren’, that is to say, a new topic is introduced. Note that he calls them brethren. Although a serious problem is going to be raised which affected some of the Corinthians – how many we cannot tell – he is assured that they are true believers; that they are in Christ; that they love him. In the light of that introduction to this section, one must assume that the number of people who denied the resurrection was small. It was certainly not all of them, for in verse 12 he asks, ‘how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?’ Nevertheless, it is a very serious problem, and this is so often the case with the church at Corinth.The foremost thing, says the apostle, that I did, was to preach the gospel. I delivered to you first and foremost the gospel. I gave it the primacy of place. This was my mission: to make known the atoning death of Christ and your need of salvation. That word gospel in the New Testament always, without exception, indicates the soul-saving doctrines of the gospel. The gospel is never used in the Bible as a synonym for all the word of God. It is often used that way today, and it is a great mistake. Consider the preacher who perhaps – and it is a fault with him – seldom preaches explicitly and specifically the saving gospel, but who may faithfully expound the word. He may say, ‘Whenever I preach, I preach the gospel’, and what he means by that is that to him the gospel means the whole word of God, but that is a not correct. The gospel means very specifically the good news of salvation. Looking at the New Testament, it should be obvious that the apostle uses ‘gospel’ as a technical term to describe the soul-saving doctrines. When he says, ‘Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel’, he is not saying, ‘Woe is unto me if I do not preach the word of God’, but, ‘Woe is unto me, if I do not preach, in the course of my ministry, many specific, targeted, persuasive, evangelistic sermons, putting forward the doctrines of salvation to the lost.’ ‘Which also ye have received.’ They received it, in the sense they believed it, by the work of the Spirit in their hearts; they embraced it, and they obeyed it. Obedience to the gospel involves repentance. We believe the gospel; we believe in the atoning death of Christ; and we obey the commands of the doctrine, that we should repent of our sin as we seek the Lord.‘And wherein ye stand.’ You stand constantly in the gospel. This does not mean that you only stand while you believe it. Because if you are truly saved, you will always believe it. If you fall, and you fail to stand, it is because you are not truly and deeply saved. But what we are told here by the apostle, is, ‘You are always standing in the gospel.’

Application

If you pass examinations and you get a degree, that degree opens the door into some career for you, and you follow that career. As the years go by, you go up and up in your profession or your company, but your standing depends upon your performance. You may have been in that career, in that profession, 10 years, 20 years; you have forgotten you ever took that degree in order to get into it. That is all in the past. Nobody asks you about it anymore. It is how you are doing at the moment that counts. And if you fail terribly in your work, in your profession, well, then you will take a great fall. But you are constantly standing in terms of what you do. But the gospel is not like that. You never leave it behind. It isn’t just a kind of entrance examination. It is the gospel that holds us all our lives, from first coming to Christ, right to the end of our journey. We never forget the gospel. It saved us, and it holds us. It is the shed blood of Christ that keeps us in the path. It is the shed blood of Christ that will take us to heaven. It is the shed blood of Christ that sustains all the elect in the heavenly places throughout eternity. The gospel is always what keeps us and holds us, and so the apostle points it out so clearly, ‘Wherein ye stand’.

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1 Corinthians 15:1 Commentary and Bible Study