1 Corinthians 15:3 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Corinthians 15:3

Comments

‘I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received.’ Notice the apostle Paul was not the author of this; he did not think of it; he did not formulate this teaching that Christ came and suffered and died a substitutionary death for sinners on Calvary's cross. ‘I delivered unto you’, he says – I passed it down to you. That's all I did. I did not embellish it. I did not form it. I passed on to you something that I received. How did he receive it? Well he received it by revelation. He also authenticated it by comparison with what the other apostles were teaching, and of course he derived it from the Old Testament Scriptures that taught it long before. ‘How that Christ died for our sins.’ There could be no clearer statement of the substitutionary death of Christ. He died to bear the punishment due for our sins. He died in our place, as a substitute. It was a substitutionary death, he says in effect, for our sins.‘According to the Scriptures.’ Where does Scripture say that? He refers to the Old Testament Scriptures, of course. Much of the Old Testament is about the coming of Christ and what he would do. Christ is the only person in the whole of human history who has ever been prophesied personally. Not vaguely – ‘one day someone will come, who will be great and do significant things, and he’ll come from such and such a region’ – but very specifically – who he would be, what his character would be, when he would come, how he would come, what he would accomplish – step-by-step in great detail. For example in Genesis 3:15 which foretold that the seed of the woman, a great descendant, would one day come. He would bruise or crush the serpent’s head. He would defeat sin, but he would pay a price because his own heel would be bruised. He would suffer, non- fatally, but he would suffer and be bruised and crushed in the process. That was the first light on a substitutionary death: one who would take a punishment on behalf of those who sinned to secure their salvation. Probably uppermost in Paul's mind is Psalm 22. The Lord Jesus Christ quotes this on Calvary's cross, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me, why art thou so far from helping me from the words of my roaring?’ Christ must experience what was for him the worst thing of all, in his holy, divine being: to be separated from the Father. He must somehow turn away from his divinity for a moment, and not feel its benefits, and not see the wider picture, the outcome of his work on Calvary, but allow his human nature to be exposed to the forsakenness which we deserve to feel. Along with the penalty and the punishment, and the pain and the torment, he must also bear the forsakenness. Of course Isaiah 53 has the most explicit references to the features of the substitutionary atoning death of Christ. Many New Testament Scriptures teach the same thing. Matthew 1:21, ‘And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, which means Saviour, for he shall save his people from their sins.’ He could not do this from heaven, but he must come into this world and take our nature, and suffer in our place. Another aspect of Calvary is that he must pay a ransom price (Matthew 20:28). Christ gave his life a ransom price to purchase us from the slavery of sin. In Romans 3:25 Paul uses the term ‘propitiation’. A propitiation is a means of bringing about favour. People often confuse propitiation with expiation. Actually, they are almost opposites. Expiation is the act of Christ which takes away our guilt, by suffering in our place. He pays the price and the punishment on our behalf. Propitiation is the result of expiation – the securing of favour. Another word he uses in Romans 5:10 is ‘reconciliation’. The Greek translated, ‘reconciled’ literally means exchange, mutual change. Because Christ died a substitutionary death, there can be mutual change. God changes his attitude towards us: instead of indignation, there flows towards us love and acceptance. Our attitude is also changed by the power of God: instead of unbelief, we trust in him with all our hearts; instead of hostility, we obey him and desire to please him. In verse 11 of the same chapter Paul uses the word ‘atonement’. Modern translations say something like, we have now received the reconciliation. That is right, but our translators have chosen the word atonement – at-one-meant. We are now one with God.

Application

The gospel is the first thing Paul said, and it is the last thing we need. We are saved by the gospel, and when we go to glory, when we take our last breath, it is the gospel that will hold us and keep us and comfort us. As the old hymn says, ‘Yes, and when that world’s glory is dawning on my soul, tell me the old, old story: “Christ Jesus makes thee whole”.’ We stand constantly on the gospel.

Questions

‘I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.’ I remember years and years ago hearing a preacher saying that Christ died on Calvary’s cross as a demonstration of pacifism. He died on Calvary’s cross to set an example of how to behave. He was the first pacifist, and so on. No, you have only got to read the Bible. Christ died for our sins, not to be an example of pacifism; he died for our sins. He died on our behalf. He died to bear the punishment of our sin, and to take it away, if we believe in him.

Sometimes people say, ‘The apostle Paul never heard the gospel before he was on that Damascus road, and Christ appeared to him, and he was struck down.’ Of course he had heard the gospel before! The clothes of those who killed the first martyr, Stephen, were laid at his feet. He heard dying Stephen’s testimony. But these things never made any deep impression on him, to the extent that he understood them. He hated them, and he opposed them, and he was a persecutor. But then, when Christ dealt with him, certainly that is when he received his saving view of the gospel. And not only then, but subsequently, because, when he was converted to Christ, Christ took him and he was lifted up into glory; he received great revelations. The gospel plan was printed in all its glorious detail upon his mind.

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Introduction

1 Corinthians 15:3 Commentary and Bible Study