Chapter 15, verses 1-20
The subject of the resurrection, which occupies the fifteenth chapter, because of its special importance has been reserved almost to the last of the Epistle.
Without the resurrection of Christ there could have been no glad tidings of God's grace to reach our ears, our consciences and our hearts; therefore the believers at Corinth, beguiled by Satan into doubting or denying the resurrection of the body, are reminded first of all of the gospel which had been announced to them.
They had received it, and in it they stood; by it they were saved (if they held fast the word announced to them as the gospel) unless indeed they had believed in vain, or lightly. In verse 2 salvation is looked at as now going on in the life of the believer; it is so, frequently in the Epistles, but not always; for example, in 2 Tim. 1:99Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, (2 Timothy 1:9), and Titus 3:55Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; (Titus 3:5), it is a thing long completed; both are, of course, true. Our souls are saved and we, believers, are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed. The righteous, referring to all true Christians, are with difficulty saved because Satan throws every hindrance in their path that he may, and there is an evil nature within us that delights in sin (1 Peter 1:9, 59Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:9)
5Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:5), and 4:18).
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:3131And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31)). So, in our chapter, the proof that it was a real work of God in their souls would be in their “holding fast,” as the marginal note correctly reads, not merely “keeping in memory” what they had heard.
Verses 3, 4. What Paul had received in the first place, that he passed on to his hearers for their faith to rest in, like his own; and it was this, that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried; and that He was raised the third day, according to the Scriptures.
The Old Testament witnessed to the necessity for His dying for our sins (plainly, but by no means only in Isa. 53), and to His rising again (Psa. 16:1010For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. (Psalm 16:10), but many passages which foreshadowed His death indicated His living again).
What a burden is taken off the anxious, convicted before God of sin, when once it is apprehended that Christ died for our sins! Not every one's sins, mark you, were laid upon Him.
He died for the sins of all who put their trust in Him, not for those who reject Him.
“Come unto Me,” is His word, “all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls, for My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” Matt. 11:28-3028Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:28‑30).
You are not in truth a Christian, unless you have made the 28th verse your very own; and you are not a happy Christian, unless you have made the 29th verse your own too.
Verses 5-7: The fullest proof is afforded of the fact of Christ's resurrection. Mary Magdalene (John 20:14-1814And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. 15Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. 16Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master. 17Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. 18Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her. (John 20:14‑18) and Mark 16:9,109Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils. 10And she went and told them that had been with him, as they mourned and wept. (Mark 16:9‑10)) saw Him first, but her report (and that of others of her sex) was not given much acceptance then, as we learn from Mark 16:10,1110And she went and told them that had been with him, as they mourned and wept. 11And they, when they had heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not. (Mark 16:10‑11). The first witness of His resurrection named in 1 Cor.15 is the better known Cephas or Simon Peter (see Luke 24:33,3433And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, 34Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. (Luke 24:33‑34)), and the twelve are named next, passing by the two of Luke 2434Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. (Luke 24:34) who did not know Who the stranger was that walked with them, until He was about to vanish out of their sight. The third instance cited is of “above five hundred brethren at once”, of whom the greater part were living when Paul wrote. Of this meeting, and that with James, no account is given in Matthew, Mark, Luke or John's inspired writings, though in Acts 1:33To whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: (Acts 1:3) it is said that the Lord “showed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them (the apostles) forty days.”
“And last of all,” says Paul in the 8th verse, “He was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.” The occasion was when he as Saul of Tarsus was going to Damascus, an open enemy of Christ, and suddenly there shone about him a light from heaven, and he fell to the earth, hearing a voice saying to him,
“Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” Acts 9.
With becoming lowliness the apostle writes, “For I am the least of the apostles, who am not fit to be called apostle, because I have persecuted the assembly of God” (verse 9, N. T.). The twelve had never been guilty of that, but Paul before his conversion had passed all others in sin against Christ, as he says in 1 Tim. 2:15, 1615Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety. (1 Timothy 2:15)... “sinners, of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting.”
And so in verse 10 of our chapter he says,
“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace which was bestowed upon (or, was toward) me was not (or has not been) in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”
In the Acts there is little mention of the twelve apostles except Peter and John, and they only to the 12th chapter, and again in chapter 15 where Peter is named. The risen Lord had given them a work to do, in Matt. 28:18-2018And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matthew 28:18‑20), which it is evident they did not carry out, and we do not know from the Scriptures to what extent they really acted on those instructions. The Holy Spirit in the Acts, after the martyrdom of Stephen (chapter 7) by the Jews (“Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost; as your fathers did, so do ye”—verse 51), is concerned with the Gentiles much more than with the children of Israel who had both rejected and crucified their Messiah and rejected the Holy Spirit in Stephen whom they stoned to death. The salvation of God was therefore being offered to the Gentiles (See Acts 28:23-2923And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening. 24And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not. 25And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed, after that Paul had spoken one word, Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers, 26Saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive: 27For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. 28Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it. 29And when he had said these words, the Jews departed, and had great reasoning among themselves. (Acts 28:23‑29)). This is no doubt the reason why we are told so little about the twelve, whose mission was primarily to Israel.
Verses 11-14. Whether Paul or the twelve preached the message of salvation depended upon the resurrection of Christ. So Paul had preached at Corinth, and so they believed. Now, he says, if Christ be preached that He rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen; and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
Verses 15-17. It would necessarily follow then, that Paul and those with him, and all others who were making the way of salvation known, were false witnesses of God, because they had testified of Him that He raised up Christ, whom He raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not raised, and if He be not raised from the dead, the faith of the Corinthians (and of all others, necessarily) is vain; ye, says the apostle, are yet in your sins.
What a test of any new teaching we have here! How, we may ask, does it affect Christ, His person, His work, His glory? In denying a bodily resurrection, the bold advocates of human reasoning overlooked the vital fact of His rising from the grave everything depends upon His resurrection; take only one passage: Rom. 4:24-2524But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; 25Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. (Romans 4:24‑25),
“Who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification.”
He was delivered up to the death of the cross, bearing our sins' judgment; but His raising again is proof that He had exhausted that judgment, so that it can never fall upon the believer.
“God will not payment twice demand;
Once at my bleeding Surety's hand,
And then again at mine.”
But the resurrection of Christ has other aspects. It was the seal of the miracles He had performed, and of His grace Who had gone down into death to deliver men from Satan's chains and from death.
Do not these verses show how fully Christ took His place with men—with his saints—
“If there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen” (ver. 13).
“If the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised?” (ver. 16).
He was taken out from among the dead, from the rest of the dead—the seal, as another has said, of His perfect acceptance; and we who believe shall be taken out from among the dead in the same manner; it is only a question of time. Beside this, the resurrection of Christ is evidence that all that have died shall rise again; not only the saints but the wicked; but each in his own order (John 5:28, 2928Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, 29And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. (John 5:28‑29)).
Verse 18 speaks of those who have died in faith; they would be lost eternally if Christ is not raised; and verse 19 measures up the case of living believers, if there be then no hope beyond this life, they are of all men most miserable, because the world has no attraction for them; they are indeed spoiled for this world. But now (verse 20) is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of the sleeping saints. He, seated in glory, is my assurance that I shall be there also, through grace.