At this point in his letter, Paul turns to a very serious doctrinal problem in the Cornithian church, which has far-reaching practical consequences. But he doesn't barge into the subject with words like "Now as for your misconceptions about resurrection…" Instead he approaches it carefully and through a doorway that was his hearers own doorway into faith: the gospel.
There are several ways we use the word "gospel" today. One can refer to "the gospel of Matthew" by which we mean a part of the Bible, one of the four accounts in the New Testament of the earthly life of Jesus. Or we can say we heard Billy Graham "preaching the gospel." This means his explanation to non-believers of what Jesus accomplished for us in his life, death and resurrection, and what is expected from us if we wish to be "saved" from our sins. Some people would call this "the way of salvation". It is the short version that is told to inquirers, who want to become Christians.
What Paul calls "the gospel" in these verses comes close to the second use described above, but it lacks the information about what the hearer must do in order to benefit from it. Paul states that part in v. 2, but it is not part of what he describes as received in vv. 3-8. We can compare this description of "the gospel" in vv. 3-8 with what Luke describes as the first evangelistic messages given by Peter in Jerusalem after the resurrection of Jesus (Acts 1-4). What we find is uniformity: what Paul describes here as what the other apostles passed on to him is exactly what Luke tells us that they preached in Jerusalem from the beginning. But of even greater significance to his readers, Paul reminds them that it was what he made known to them, and on which their faith and salvation was based.
Notice that in v. 2 Paul stresses that a superficial and casual "believing" that is not accompanied by a firm conviction of the truthfulness of the message and that is not the product of God's inner working in the heart of the believer will not in fact save. "Believed in vain" (v. 2) recalls Psalm 127:1 "Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain." Paul was well aware that a true conversion was the product of supernatural, divine action in the mind and heart of the believer.
Notice in v. 3 that Paul describes this gospel as "of first importance." This means that he taught them many other things of great importance, but nothing can compare with this monumental truth: the the Messiah ("Christ") died for our sins according to Old Testament prophecies (see Isaiah 53:4-6), was buried and rose again the third day, also in harmony with what was predicted (see Psalm 16, as interpreted by Peter in Acts 2:24-36).
The verb "received" (Greek parelabon v. 3) refers to receiving a tradition.
It is very likely that the tradition Paul received is contained in verses 3-7, and that verse 8 begins Paul's own addition to the primitive tradition. That tradition contained the following elements: (1) the Messiah (Greek ho christos "the Anointed One") died for our (i.e., all humans) sins, as the Scriptures predicted he would; (2) he was buried and rose again on the third day, also as predicted; (3) and the resurrected Messiah Jesus was seen, heard and felt by many witnesses, some here named so as to allow verification.
This should be familiar to you all, for this is in essence what we confess to each other in Christian fellowship. If you worship in a church where old creeds are used, you are also familiar with the clause "that he was buried". And you may have wondered why this phrase is included. It serves a purpose similar to the "third day": it is to make clear that Jesus did not just swoon, but really died, was interred, and his body remained dead until the third day. It also serves to remind us that, when we speak of "resurrection", we are not speaking of a spirit coming to life, but a body. This, in fact, is what is primarily on Paul's mind here, as he addresses the Corinthians' unwillingness to believe in resurrection: that it implied a future beyond death for the human body.
If the so-called "apprearances" of Jesus to his disciples after the crucifixion were not bodily ones, then one would expect the list to go on and to include more than Paul himself. For a vision of Jesus ascended was had by Stephen as he was dying (Acts 7:56), and countless visionary believers down through Christian history have claimed to have received visions of Jesus (I will not attempt to validate such claims, but I cannot completely exclude their possibility). Yet the list stops with James and "all the apostles" in verse 7. Why? Because after the ascension of the body of Jesus as recorded in Acts 1, a validation of the bodily resurrection of Jesus was no longer possible for a person living on Earth!
But notice how carefully this list was drawn up, and with such caution. No one was mentioned here who could not be interviewed, and his experience validated. This statement was of a type that could be submitted to the authorities or to a court. But it was also what was presented to potential believers, honoring their legitimate desire to know on what basis they should believe that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah promised centuries beforehand and that his resurrection proed that he was also divine and able to grant salvation from sins.
Notice too that this is called the "gospel". It is not a credal statement such as one finds in certain parts of Paul's letters (Philippians 2:6-11). It omits the pre-existence of the Son of God, which is included in the Philippians passage. It focuses on what is necessary for a new believer to confess and on what was predicted in the Old Testament.
In verses 8-11 we sense that Paul feels a certain isolation from the "club of the super-apostles". He respects the Twelve and acknowledges in this very passage his indebtedness to them for their knowledge of the earthly ministry of Jesus and their invaluable eyewitness testimony to the bodily resurrection. But we hear an echo in v. 8 of what he had heard that they called him: "the least of the apostles" and "one untimely born" (perhaps a miscarried fetus?). And he is willing to accept that sobriquette, although interpreting it in his own way (v. 9-10): he admits that he once persecuted the church of God, something none of the Twelve were guilty of. Paul may or may not have known of Peter's denying Jesus three times on the night of his betrayal. But if he did, he does not strike back viciously with this weapon. Instead, he confesses that it was through the undeserved mercy of God that he was turned around by the vision of the exalted Jesus on the Damascus Road. Paul dares to compare this experience to the appearances to the Twelve and to James, although the bodily resurrected Jesus was seen only in a vision. But this "appearance", he would have admitted, was of a different kind, and was not intended to be used as the others would to validate the resurrection. Jesus' appearance to Paul was in the nature of a divine commission to an apostolic mission to the Gentiles. Hence, he adds: "I worked harder than all of them" (v. 10).
And finally, in v. 11 he returns to his readers: You came to believe this gospel either through my direct ministry in Corinth or through one of the Twelve ("whether it was I or they"). This statement is intended to pave the way for his argument in the rest of the chapter. Persons who saw, heard and felt the body of the resurrected Lord Jesus brought this message which either one of them or I preached to you, and through believing it, you are now saved.
These facts have ramifications on what you are to believe about the future resurrection to take place at the end of this age, when Jesus returns. And those ramifications Paul will spell out in the rest of the chapter.
I hope to devote an eight-part blog series in the Fall, on this site, to an examination of the plan of God for the ages, in which both the resurrection of Jesus and the end-time resurrection of believers plays a crucial role. It will entail many other parts of the Bible than 1 Corinthians 15. I hope that many of you will join me for that series.
ⓒ2008 Harry Hoffner
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