1 CORITHIAS 15:1-11Written and edited by Glenn Pease

PREFACE

This is part one of a verse by verse commentary on this amazing chapter. I include theintroduction for the whole commentary below. I quote many authors both old and new, and if anyauthor I quote does not wish their comments to be shared in this way, they can let me know, and Iwill remove them. My e-mail is glenn_p86@yahoo.com

ITRODUCTIO

1. Barnes wrote, "The chapter may be regarded as divided into four parts, and four questions inregard to the resurrection are solved:

1. Whether there is any resurrection of the dead? 1Co. 15:1-34.

2. With what body will the dead rise? 1Co. 15:35-51.

3. What will become of those who shall be alive when the Lord Jesus shall come to judge theworld? 1Co_15:51-54.

4. What are the practical bearings of this doctrine? 1Co_15:55-58.

This important and deeply interesting chapter, I have spoken of as the third part of the Epistle.See the introduction. It is more important than any other portion of the Epistle, as it contains aconnected, and labored, and unanswerable argument for the main truth of Christianity, and,consequently, of Christianity itself; and it is more interesting to us as mortal beings, and ashaving an instinctive dread of death, than any other portion of the Epistle. It has always,therefore, been regarded with deep interest by expositors, and it is worthy of the deepestattention of all. If the argument in this chapter is solid, then Christianity is true; and if true, thenthis chapter unfolds to us the most elevated and glorious prospect which can be exhibited todying, yet immortal man.

There were, probably, two reasons why the apostle introduced here this discussion about theresurrection:

First, it was desirable to introduce a condensed and connected statement of the main argumentfor the truth of Christianity. The Corinthians had been perplexed with subtle questions, and tornby sects and parties, and it was possible that in their zeal for sect and party, they would lose theirhold on this great and vital argument for the truth of religion itself. It might. be further

apprehended, that the enemies of the gospel, from seeing the divisions and strife which existedthere, would take advantage of these contentions, and say that a religion which produced suchfruits could not be from God. It was important, therefore, that they should have access to anargument plain, clear, and unanswerable, for the truth of Christianity; and that thus the evileffects of their divisions and strife might be counteracted.

Secondly. It is evident from 1Co_15:12, that the important doctrine of the resurrection of thedead had been denied at Corinth, and that this error had obtained a footing in the church itself.On what grounds, or by what portion or party it was denied is unknown. It may have been thatthe influence of some Sadducean teacher may have led to the rejection of the doctrine; or it mayhave been the effect of philosophy. From Act_17:32, we know that among some of the Greeks, thedoctrine of the resurrection was regarded as ridiculous; and from 2Ti_2:18, we learn that it washeld by some that the resurrection was passed already, and, consequently, that there was nothingbut a spiritual resurrection. To counteract these errors, and to put the doctrine of theresurrection of the dead on a firm foundation, and thus to furnish a demonstration of the truth ofChristianity, was the design of this chapter.

2. Henry, It is the apostle's business in this chapter to assert and establish the doctrine of theresurrection of the dead, which some of the Corinthians flatly denied, 1Co_15:12. Whether theyturned this doctrine into allegory, as did Hymeneus and Philetus, by saying it was already past(2Ti_2:17, 2Ti_2:18), and several of the ancient heretics, by making it mean no more than achanging of their course of life; or whether they rejected it as absurd, upon principles of reasonand science; it seems they denied it in the proper sense. And they disowned a future state ofrecompense, by denying the resurrection of the dead. ow that heathens and infidels should denythis truth does not seem so strange; but that Christians, who had their religion by revelation,should deny a truth so plainly discovered is surprising, especially when it is a truth of suchimportance. It was time for the apostle to confirm them in this truth, when the staggering of theirfaith in this point was likely to shake their Christianity; and they were yet in great danger ofhaving their faith staggered. He begins with an epitome or summary of the gospel, what he hadpreached among them, namely, the death and resurrection of Christ. Upon this foundation thedoctrine of the resurrection of the dead is built. ote, Divine truths appear with greatest evidencewhen they are looked upon in their mutual connection. The foundation may be strengthened, thatthe superstructure may be secured.

3. William Barclay, 1 Cor.15 is both one of the greatest and one of the most difficult chapters inthe ew Testament. ot only is it in itself difficult, but it has also given to the creed a phrasewhich many people have grave difficulty in affirming, for it is from this chapter that we mainlyderive the idea of the resurrection of the body. The chapter will be far less difficult if we study itagainst its background, and even that troublesome phrase will become quite clear and acceptablewhen we realize what Paul really meant by it. So then, before we study the chapter, there arecertain things we would do well to have in mind.

(i) It is of great importance to remember that the Corinthians were denying not the Resurrectionof Jesus Christ but the resurrection of the body; and what Paul was insistent upon was that if aman denied the resurrection of the body he thereby denied the Resurrection of Jesus Christ andtherefore emptied the Christian message of its truth and the Christian life of its reality.

(ii) In any early Christian church there must have been two backgrounds, for in all churchesthere were Jews and Greeks.

First, there was the Jewish background. To the end of the day the Sadducees denied that there

was any life after death at all. There was therefore one line of Jewish thought which completelydenied both the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body (Ac.23:8). In the OldTestament there is very little hope of anything that can be called life after death. According to thegeneral Old Testament belief all men, without distinction, went to Sheol after death. Sheol, oftenwrongly translated Hell, was a gray land beneath the world, where the dead lived a shadowyexistence, without strength, without light, cut off alike from men and from God. The OldTestament is full of this bleak, grim pessimism regarding what is to happen after death.

For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in Sheol who can give thee praise? (Ps.6:5).

What profit is there in my death if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise thee? Will it tell ofthy faithfulness? (Ps.30:9).

Dost thou work wonders for the dead? Do the shades rise up to praise thee? Is thy steadfast lovedeclared in the grave? Or thy faithfulness in Abaddon? Are thy wonders known in the darkness,or thy saving help in the land of forgetfulness? (Ps.88:10-12).

The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any that go down into silence. (Ps.115:17).

For Sheol cannot thank thee, death cannot praise thee; those who go down to the pit cannot hopefor thy faithfulness. (Isa.38:18).

Look away from me, that I may know gladness, before I depart and be no more. (Ps.39:13).

But he who is joined with all the living has hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion. Forthe living know that they will die; but the dead know nothing.... Whatever your hand finds to dodo it with your might; for there is no work, or thought, or knowledge, or wisdom, in Sheol towhich you are going. (Ecc.9:4-5,10).

Who shall give praise to the Most High in the grave? (Ecc.17:27).

The dead that are in the grave, whose breath is taken from their bodies, will give unto the Lordneither glory nor righteousness. (Bar.2:17).

J. E. McFadyen, a great Old Testament scholar, says that this lack of a belief in immortality inthe Old Testament is due "to the power with which those men apprehended God in this world."He goes on to say, "There are few more wonderful things than this in the long story of religion,that for centuries men lived the noblest lives, doing their duties and bearing their sorrows,without hope of future reward; and they did this because in all their going out and coming in theywere very sure of God."

It is true that in the Old Testament there are some few, some very few, glimpses of a real life tocome. There were times when a man felt that, if God be God at all, there must be somethingwhich would reverse the incomprehensible verdicts of this world. So Job cries out,

Still, I know One to champion me at last, to stand up for me upon earth. This body may breakup, but even then my life shall have a sight of God. (Jb.19:25-27. Moffatt).

The real feeling of the saint was that even in this life a man might enter into a relationship withGod so close and so precious that not even death could break it.

My body also dwells secure. For thou dost not give me up to Sheol, or let thy godly one see thePit. Thou dost show me the path of life; in thy presence there is fulness of joy; in thy right handthere are pleasures for evermore. (Ps.16:9-11).

Thou dost hold my right hand. Thou dost guide me with thy counsel, and afterward thou wiltreceive me to glory. (Ps.73:24).

It is also true that in Israel the immortal hope developed. Two things helped that development.(a) Israel was the chosen people, and yet her history was one continued tale of disaster. Menbegan to feel that it required another world to redress the balance. (b) For many centuries it istrue to say that the individual hardly existed. God was the God of the nation and the individualwas an unimportant unit. But as the centuries went on religion became more and more personal.God became not the God of the nation but the friend of every individual; and so men begandimly and instinctively to feel that once a man knows God and is known by him, a relationshiphas been created which not even death can break.

(iii) When we turn to the Greek world, we must firmly grasp one thing, which is at the back ofthe whole chapter. The Greeks had an instinctive fear of death. Euripides wrote, "Yet mortals,burdened with countless ills, still love life. They long for each coming day, glad to bear the thingthey know, rather than face death the unknown." (Fragment 813). But on the whole the Greeks,and that part of the world influenced by Greek thought, did believe in the immortality of thesoul. But for them the immortality of the soul involved the complete dissolution of the body.

They had a proverb, "The body is a tomb." "I am a poor soul," said one of them, "shackled to acorpse." "It pleased me," said Seneca, "to enquire into the eternity of the soul--nay! to believe init. I surrendered myself to that great hope." But he also says, "When the day shall come whichshall part this mixture of divine and human, here, where I found it, I will leave my body, myself Iwill give back to the gods." Epictetus writes, "When God does not supply what is necessary, he issounding the signal for retreat--he has opened the door and says to you `Come!' But whither? Tonothing terrible, but to whence you came, to the things which are dear and kin to you, to theelements. What in you was fire shall go to fire, earth to earth, water to water." Seneca talks aboutthings at death "being resolved into their ancient elements." For Plato "the body is the antithesisof the soul, as the source of all weaknesses as opposed to what alone is capable of independenceand goodness." We can see this best in the Stoic belief. To the Stoic God was fiery spirit, purerthan anything on earth. What gave men life was that a spark of this divine fire came and dwelt ina man's body. When a man died, his body simply dissolved into the elements of which it wasmade, but the divine spark returned to God and was absorbed in the divinity of which it was apart.

For the Greek immortality lay precisely in getting rid of the body. For him the resurrection of thebody was unthinkable. Personal immortality did not really exist because that which gave men lifewas absorbed again in God the source of all life.

(iv) Paul's view was quite different. If we begin with one immense fact, the rest will become clear.The Christian belief is that after death individuality will survive, that you will still be you and Iwill still be I. Beside that we have to set another immense fact. To the Greek the body could notbe consecrated. It was matter, the source of all evil, the prison-house of the soul. But to theChristian the body is not evil. Jesus, the Son of God, has taken this human body upon him andtherefore it is not contemptible because it has been inhabited by God. To the Christian, thereforethe life to come involves the total man, body and soul.

ow it is easy to misinterpret and to caricature the doctrine of the resurrection of the body.Celsus, who lived about A.D. 220, a bitter opponent of Christianity, did this very thing long ago.How can those who have died rise with their identical bodies? he demands. "Really it is the hopeof worms! For what soul of a man would any longer wish for a body that had rotted?" It is easyto cite the case of a person smashed up in an accident or dying of cancer.

But Paul never said that we would rise with the body with which we died. He insisted that wewould have a spiritual body. What he really meant was that a man's personality would survive. It

is almost impossible to conceive of personality without a body, because it is through the body thatthe personality expresses itself. What Paul is contending for is that after death the individualremains. He did not inherit the Greek contempt of the body but believed in the resurrection ofthe whole man. He will still be himself; he will survive as a person. That is what Paul means bythe resurrection of the body. Everything of the body and of the soul that is necessary to make aman a person will survive, but, at the same time, all things will be new, and body and spirit willalike be very different from earthly things, for they will alike be divine.

4. Ray Stedman has this introduction...We are beginning this great "resurrection" chapter, thefifteenth chapter of First Corinthians, which is undoubtedly the climax of this letter.

In the first eleven chapters the Apostle Paul has been dealing with what we have called "thecarnalities," the things concerning the flesh, the hurtful, false and divisive things that wereoccurring there in the church at Corinth. These same things are also present in the churches ofCalifornia, therefore, the letter is very pertinent to us.

But then, beginning with Chapter 12, Paul introduced what he himself called "the spiritualities,"the things concerning the spirit, what the Spirit of God has come to do in your life and in mine.The Apostle pointed out that there was: First an indwelling of the Spirit, whose object is to exaltand magnify the person of Jesus our Lord. Then there were the "gifts of the Spirit," which areimparted to every one among us so that we have a ministry of our own by which we may seeGod's power manifest through us individually. This is the basis for all personal ministry. Thenthat merged, in Chapter 13, with the "fruit of the Spirit," how the exercise of gifts to one anotheris to help us produce in our lives that amazing fruit of the Spirit, which is love and all itsmanifestations. Finally we come in this section to the ultimate truth about the Spirit, theresurrection of the body after death.

You recognize that one of the most relevant questions of our day is, "What happens after death?"A dozen books have come off the presses recently dealing with this theme. Many are speculatingabout it; many testimonies are being given about various experiences of those who, supposedly,have died and then come back to life again. The apostle is dealing with that very theme in thischapter. Here he brings us face to face with the great reality of life, one that is even more certainthan taxes, and that is death.

You may evade paying your taxes, but you are not going to avoid growing old and ultimatelydying. We may try to avoid it. I know a lot of people who are working hard at it; they are tryingto cover up all the evidences of age and decay. But we have to face the fact that there is aninvisible, irresistible, and inevitable process going on in every one of us right now. o matter howold, or how young, we may be, this process is slowly stealing the bloom from our cheeks, takingthe spring from our steps, reducing the sharpness of our senses so we do not see quite as well orhear quite as accurately, decreasing the potency of our sexual powers, and in many waysdepriving us of what we thought to be the joy of living. (I read somewhere recently that death isnature's way of saying, "It's time to slow down.") (1 Corinthians 15:1-4 Of First Importance)

5. Charles Ryrie comments that...othing in the Greek background of the Gentile converts atCorinth led them to believe in the resurrection of the dead. In general, they (pagan Greeks)

believed in the immortality of the soul, but not the resurrection of the body. To them, the bodywas the source of man's weakness and sin; death, therefore, was the welcomed means by whichthe soul was liberated from the body. Resurrection, in their thinking, would only enslave the soulagain. (The Ryrie Study Bible: ew American Standard Translation: 1995. Moody Publishers)(Comment: In fact it is worth noting that because the idea of resurrection was foreign to Greekthought, there existed no technical words in Greek to describe it.)

6. One is reminded of Paul's encounter with the pagan Greek philosophers in Athens, Lukerecording...And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him.And some were saying, "What would this idle babbler wish to say?" Others, "He seems to be aproclaimer of strange deities,"-- because he was preaching (euaggelizo/euangelizo) Jesus and theresurrection....(And on Mars Hill Paul explained that God) ...has fixed a day in which He willjudge the world in righteousness through a Man Whom He has appointed, having furnishedproof to all men by raising Him from the dead." 32 ow when they heard of the resurrection ofthe dead, some began to sneer (literally throw out the lip, and so to scoff, mock, deride withwords, etc, but others said, "We shall hear you again concerning this." (see notes Acts 17:18, 31-32)

The resurrection is the same central truth Paul preached everywhere he went, as for example onhis first visit to Thessalonica where Luke records...And according to Paul's custom, he went tothem (into a synagogue of the Jews), and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from theScriptures (Old Testament writings), explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to sufferand rise again from the dead, and saying, "This Jesus Whom I am proclaiming to you is theChrist (the Messiah)." (see notes Acts 17:2-3)

Richards adds that..The culminating experience in our personal transformation is to beresurrection. Yet, some in Corinth denied this completion. They carried over into their new faiththe typical Greek attitude toward life after death; they could not accept the idea of a bodilyresurrection. Christian faith might have meaning for the here and now. It might even offer someastral form for their personalities after death. But, a literal resurrection? o. (Richards, L., &Richards, L. O. The Teacher's Commentary. Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books)

1. ow, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel Ipreached to you, which you received and on which youhave taken your stand.Amplified: AD OW let me remind you [since it seems to have escaped you], brethren, of theGospel (the glad tidings of salvation) which I proclaimed to you, which you welcomed andaccepted and upon which your faith rests,

Barclay: Brothers, I want to make clear to you the nature of the good news that I preached toyou, that gospel which you also received, and in which you stand,

1. What a paradox Christians can be. They can remember dirty stories they heard as teens andyet need to be reminded of the Gospel by which they are saved forever. Paul here confirms atruth that applies to all of us in so many areas of life-we need to be constantly reminded of whatwe already know. They knew the Gospel, but it is possible to know something and not beconscious of it as a present influence in your thinking. You can slip away from your highestvalues for you forget to be aware of them at all times.

2. Barnes, Moreover - But ( de). In addition to what I have said, or in that which I am nowabout to say, I make known the main and leading truth of the gospel. The particle de isstrictly adversative, but more frequently denotes transition and conversion, and serves tointroduce something else, whether opposite to what precedes, or simply continuative orexplanatory - Robinson. Here it serves to introduce another topic that was not properly acontinuation of what he had said, but which pertained to the same general subject, and whichwas deemed of great importance.

I declare unto you - ( Gnriz). This word properly means to make known, to declare,to reveal Luk_2:15; Rom_9:22-23; then to tell, narrate, inform Eph_6:21; Col_4:7, Col_4:9; andalso to put in mind of, to impress, to confirm; see the note at 1Co_12:3. Here it does not meanthat he was communicating to them any new truth, but he wished to remind them of it; to statethe arguments for it, and to impress it deeply on their memories. There is an abruptness in ourtranslation which does not exist in the original. Bloomfield.

The gospel - See the note at Mar_1:1. The word here means the glad announcement, or thegood news about the coming of the Messiah, his life, and sufferings, and death, and especiallyhis resurrection. The main subject to which Paul refers in this chapter is the resurrection, but heincludes in the word gospel. Here, the doctrine that he died for sins, and was buried, as well asthe doctrine of his resurrection; see 1Co_15:3-4.

Which I preached unto you - Paul founded the church at Corinth; Act_18:1 ff. It was proper thathe should remind them of what he had taught them at first; of the great elementary truths onwhich the church had been established, but from which their minds had been diverted by theother subjects that had been introduced as matters of debate and strife. It was fair to presumethat they would regard with respect the doctrines which the founder of their church had firstproclaimed, if they were reminded of them; and Paul, therefore, calls their attention to the greatand vital truths by which they had been converted, and by which the church had thus farprospered. It is well, often, to remind Christians of the truths which were preached to them whenthey were converted, and which were instrumental in their conversion. When they have gone offfrom these doctrines, when they had given their minds to speculation and philosophy, it has agood effect to remind them that they were converted by the simple truths, that Christ died, andwas buried, and rose again from the dead. The argument of Paul here is, that they owed all thepiety and comfort which they had to these doctrines; and that, therefore, they should still adhereto them as the foundation of all their hopes.

Which also ye have received - Which you embraced; which you all admitted as true; which werethe means of your conversion. I would remind you, that, however that truth may now be deniedby you, it was once received by you, and you professed to believe in the fact that Christ rose fromthe dead, and that the saints would rise.

And wherein ye stand - By which your church was founded, and by which all your piety and hope

has been produced, and which is at the foundation of all your religion. You were built up by this,and by this only can you stand as a Christian church. This doctrine was vital and fundamental.This demonstrates that the doctrines that Christ died for sins, and rose from the dead, arefundamental truths of Christianity. They enter into its very nature; and without them there canbe no true religion.

3. Gill, Moreover brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel,.... The apostle here passes on, andproceeds to a new subject, the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, which some in this churchdenied; and which he undertakes to prove, establish, and defend; and in order to lead on to it,observes, that what he was about to declare, make known, or put them in mind of, was no otherthan the Gospel he had formerly preached to them, they had received, professed to stand in, andwere saved by, unless their faith was in vain. The doctrine of the resurrection of the dead he calls"the Gospel", that being a most important doctrine, and a fundamental article of it. Theresurrection of Christ from the dead made a considerable part in the ministry of the apostles, tothe grief of the Sadducees among the Jews, to the scorn of the Gentile philosophers, and to thefaith, hope, and comfort of Christians: this is the sum and substance of the word of faith, ordoctrine of the Gospel, upon which the whole depends; see Rom_10:8 and the resurrection of thesaints is connected with it, and assured by it. This indeed is the Gospel, good news, glad tidingsthat the bodies of the saints shall be raised again, and made like to the glorious body of Christ;and being reunited to their souls, shall live with him to all eternity; and were this out of theGospel, it would not be Gospel, or good news; it would be an idle story, faith would be a vainthing, and hoping and believing Christians of all the most miserable. Moreover, says the apostle,the Gospel I declare, is

which I preached unto you; meaning, when he first came among them, and which had been sovery useful to them for conversion and consolation; and therefore if he himself, or an angel fromheaven, was to preach any other doctrine, it was to be rejected; and hence, much less should thefalse teachers be regarded: yea, adds he, it is the doctrine which also you have received; whenfirst enlightened and converted, with all gladness and joyfulness, with all readiness andcheerfulness, in the love of it, and by a full assent to it; and therefore having had such anexperience of it, should not now depart from it: nay, he further says, and wherein ye stand; as hehoped they did, at least it was what they ought to have done, and doubtless was the case of themajority of them, and whose example it became the rest to follow.

4. Henry, What a stress he lays upon it (1Co_15:1, 1Co_15:2): Moreover, brethren, I declareunto you the gospel which I preached to you. 1. It was what he constantly preached. His word wasnot yea and nay: he always preached the same gospel, and taught the same truth. He couldappeal to his hearers for this. Truth is in its own nature invariable; and the infallible teachers ofdivine truth could never be at variance with themselves or one another. The doctrine which Paulhad heretofore taught, he still taught. 2. It was what they had received; they had been convincedof the faith, believed it in their hearts, or at least made profession of doing so with their mouths.It was no strange doctrine. It was that very gospel in which, or by which, they had hitherto stood,and must continue to stand. If they gave up this truth, they left themselves no ground to standupon, no footing in religion. ote, The doctrine of Christ's death and resurrection is at thefoundation of Christianity. Remove this foundation, and the whole fabric falls, all our hopes foreternity sink at once. And it is by holding this truth firmly that Christians are made to stand in aday of trial, and kept faithful to God.

5. Paul begins, ow brothers, but what about sisters? Paul included the women in the termbrothers, for that was a term for all believers. Paul was like Randy, the judge on Idol. He evencalls the girls dudes, and so he uses a male term to include females, and that is what Paul does.The males did dominate in leadership, however, and so they were the ones most often addressed.The followers of Jesus were called brothers from the start, and one of the reasons is that many ofthe first disciples were actual brothers in the flesh. Matthew 4:18, [ The Calling of the FirstDisciples ] As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon calledPeter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.Matthew 4:21, Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and hisbrother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus calledthem...

The people of God in the O. T. were formed from the 12 brothers who were sons of Jacob, and sothe 12 tribes of Israel were based on literal brothers. In Rev. 21:12-14 we see the 12 tribes and 12Apostles are made eternal as part of the eternal Jerusalem. Brothers are forever. Jesus called all of his disciples brothers. Matthew 23:8, But you are not to be called Rabbi, foryou have only one Master and you are all brothers. Matthew 28:10 Then Jesus said to them, Donot be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me. Luke 8:21, Hereplied, My mother and brothers are those who hear God's word and put it into practice. Luke22:32, But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turnedback, strengthen your brothers. John 20:17, Jesus said, Do not hold on to me, for I have not yetreturned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, I am returning to my Fatherand your Father, to my God and your God. HEB. 2:11, Both the one who makes men holy andthose who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.5B. The term sisters is used also, but just not as much. They play a very important role in theew Testament, but just not in leadership positions. They were primarily in servant roles, and weknow that Jesus said the servant is the greatest of all. Jesus grew up with sisters. We read of themin Matt. 13:56, Aren't all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things? And again in Mark6:3, Where did this man get these things? they asked. What's this wisdom that has been givenhim, that he even does miracles! Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son and the brother ofJames, Joseph, [ Greek Joses, a variant of Joseph] Judas and Simon? Aren't his sisters here withus? And they took offense at him.In Matt. 12:50 we read, For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother andsister and mother. In Mark 3:35, Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister andmother. The women in his life were at his side when all of the men were hiding. We read of thescene at the cross in John 19:25,ear the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and MaryMagdalene. Two of his favorite sisters were Mary and Martha.Paul also had a sister, and we read about her in Acts 23:16, But when the son of Paul's sisterheard of this plot, he went into the barracks and told Paul. He had the highest respect for hissisters in the faith. We read in Rom. 16:1, [ Personal Greetings ] I commend to you our sisterPhoebe, a servant [ Or deaconess] of the church in Cenchrea. Again in Rom. 16:15, GreetPhilologus, Julia, ereus and his sister, and Olympas and all the saints with them. And again inPhilemon 1:2, To Philemon our dear friend and fellow worker, to Apphia our sister, toArchippus our fellow soldier and to the church that meets in your home: James 2:15 refers to believers as both brother or sister, Suppose a brother or sister is withoutclothes and daily food.

You have to get into the Gospel of Luke, where the only Gentile author of the ew Testamentgives women a much larger role than the other gospels. Check out my study of women in thegospel of Luke on Scribd. The point of all of this is to make it clear that it was a cultural thing to keep males and femalesseperated in the synagogue, and in leadership roles, and this meant they got less recognition interms of being addressed as females, or sisters.

6. Preceptaustin, The writers of the ew Testament adapted the term as God's message ofsalvation for lost sinners. Euaggelion is found in several combination phrases, each describing thegospel like a multifaceted jewel in various terms from a different viewpoint (from the ASB,1977).

It is the Gospel...

of God (cf Mk 1:14, Romans 15:16 (note), 2Cor 11:7, 1Th 2:2, 8, 9 see notes 1Th 2:2, 8, 9,1Pe 4:17-note) because it originates with God and was not invented by man

of God...concerning His Son - Ro 1:1, 2, 3 (notes)

of His Son - Ro 1:9 (note)

of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Mk 1:1 because it centers in Christ

of our Lord Jesus - 2Th 1:8

of Christ - Ro 15:19 (note), 1Cor 9:12, 2Cor 2:12, 9:13, 10:14, Gal 1:7, Php 1:27 (note), 1Th3:2 (note)

of the glory of Christ - 2Co 4:4

of the grace of God - Acts 20:24

of the glory of the blessed God - 1Ti 1:11

of your salvation - Eph 1:13 (note)

of peace - Eph 6:15 (note)

of the Kingdom - Mt 4:23; 9:35; 24:14

of the Kingdom of God - Lk 16:16

an eternal gospel - Re 14:6 (note) (Some such as C I Scofield interpret this as a "differentgospel" than the other "gospels" mentioned above but I think such a distinction is incorrectand is poorly substantiated).

my Gospel - Ro 16:25, 26 (see note) Paul called it my Gospel indicating the specialemphasis he gave the gospel in his ministry.

7. Preceptaustin, Euaggelion was commonly used in the Greco-Roman culture as "a technicalterm for "news of victory." The messenger appears, raises his right hand in greeting and calls outwith a loud voice: "rejoice we are victorious". By his appearance it is known already that hebrings good news. His face shines, his spear is decked with laurel, his head is crowned, he swingsa branch of palms, joy fills the city, euaggelia are offered, the temples are garlanded, an agon(race) is held, crowns are put on for the sacrifices and the one to whom the message is owed ishonored with a wreath...[thus] euaggelion is closely linked with the thought of victory in battle. "(Theological Dictionary of the ew Testament) This is a convicting definition - here a paganmessenger radiantly announces good news of an earthly victory. How much more radiant should

we be who are the bearers of the great news of Christ's eternal triumph over sin, Satan, anddeath!

Euaggelion was used in secular Greek chiefly in connection with oracles (i.e. the promise of somefuture event) and in the imperial cult that euaggelion acquires a religious meaning. In the lattersphere news of the "divine" rulers birth, coming of age or enthronement and also his speeches,decrees and acts are glad tidings which bring long hoped-for fulfillment to the longings of theworld for happiness and peace (albeit a counterfeit hope and peace). An instance of this is thedecree of the Greeks of the province of Asia c. 9 B.C. marking the birthday of Augustus (23September) the beginning of the civil year (this is worth reading as an example of thinking thathas become darkened) --

It is a day which we may justly count as equivalent to the beginning of everythingif not initself and in its own nature, at any rate in the benefits it bringsinasmuch as it has restoredthe shape of everything that was failing and turning into misfortune, and has given a newlook to the Universe at a time when it would gladly have welcomed destruction if Caesar hadnot been born to be the common blessing of all men...Whereas the Providence which hasordered the whole of our life, showing concern and zeal, has ordained the most perfectconsummation for human life by giving to it Augustus, by filling him with virtue for doingthe work of a benefactor among men, and by sending in him, as it were, a savior for us andthose who come after us, to make war to cease, to create order everywhere...and whereas thebirthday of the God [Augustus] was the beginning for the world of the glad tidings that havecome to men through him...Paulus Fabius Maximus, the proconsul of the province . . . hasdevised a way of honoring Augustus hitherto unknown to the Greeks, which is, that thereckoning of time for the course of human life should begin with his birth (compare our useof BC to AD because of the birth of Christ!) (E. Barker: From Alexander to Constantine:Passages and Documents Illustrating the History of Social and Political Ideas 336 B.C.-A.D.p337, 1956)

The new testament evangelists appropriated euaggelion in reference to the good news of salvationby grace through faith in Jesus Christ. "Gospel" in fact was Pauls favorite term for his messageand occurs nine times in Philippians (more proportionately than in any other letter). In the T inPauls letters the meaning of euaggelion narrows down to the specific sense of the "good news"that God has acted to save people from their sins and to reconcile them to Himself in or throughJesus Christ (cf Mt 1:21; 1Co 15:1, 2, 3; 2Co 5:19). For Paul, the gospel is not merely good newsin the sense of words spoken and heard, i.e. a good story, but is itself "the (inherent, dynamic)power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek" (Ro1:16, 17-notes). The gospel then possesses the inherent power to deliver (rescue and preserve)otherwise eternally lost sinners "from the domain (the power = right and the might) of darkness"and transfer them "to the kingdom of His beloved Son" (Col 1:11, 12, 13-note).

Paul reiterated the truth of the living, dynamic aspect of the gospel in his epistle to the Colossianswriting that because they were saved, the saints now had a

"hope laid up (reserved, laid away for preservation, waiting, in store) for (them) in heaven,of which (they) previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel, which has come to you, justas in all the world also it (the gospel) is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it(gospel) has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it (gospel) and understood thegrace of God in truth just as you learned it (gospel) from Epaphras...." (see note Colossians

1:5, 6-7)The gospel is not a stagnant system of ethics but is the Word of Truth which is living, moving,growing, bearing fruit and spreading.

The gospel possesses a divine energy that causes it to spread like a mustard seed growing into atree (Mt 13:31, 32).

The gospel produces fruit both in the internal transformation of individuals, and also in theexternal growth of the church. The living gospel is the power that transforms lives. As it does so,the witness of those transformed lives produces fruit, including new converts. So as the gospelproduces fruit in individual lives, its influence spreads.

Finally, note that although the gospel reaches its consummation in the T with the truth of thebirth, death, burial, resurrection and soon, sure return of Jesus Christ, the gospel was alsoproclaimed in the Old Testament.

A. B. Simpson is reported to have said that the gospel...

Tells rebellious men that God is reconciled, that justice is satisfied, that sin has been atonedfor, that the judgment of the guilty may be revoked, the condemnation of the sinner canceled,the curse of the Law blotted out, the gates of hell closed, the portals of heaven opened wide,the power of sin subdued, the guilty conscience healed, the broken heart comforted, thesorrow and misery of the Fall undone.

Christ commands believers to share this Good ews with the rest of the world. This Good ewsis Christs life-giving message to a dying world

Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. (Mk 16:15)Which I preached (2097) (see word study of euaggelizo/euangelizo in next verse). The use of theaorist tense in this verse views the total ministry of Paul, emphasizing the one gospel which hepreached.

John Calvin once said that...

Whenever the gospel is preached it is as if God himself came into the midst of us.Charles Colson...

The gospel is good news. But Jesus never said it was easy news.Richard Owen Roberts...

The nature of the gospel is that it divides.

In a similar vein Oswald Chambers said that...

There is nothing attractive about the Gospel to the natural man; the only man who finds theGospel attractive is the man who is convicted of sin.

Vance Havner on the proclamation of the Gospel...

The Gospel makes some people sad, some mad and some glad. It is better that people shouldgo out of church mad than merely go out, neither sad, mad, nor glad.

Augustine

If you believe what you like in the gospel, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospelyou believe, but yourself.

WHICH ALSO YOU RECEIVED, I WHICH ALSO YOU STAD:

Writing to the Thessalonian saints Paul affirmed that...

You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received (dechomai) the word (theGospel) in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit (1Th 1:6-note)

Paul uses the same verb paralambano in verse 3 explaining...

I delivered (paradidomi) to you as of first importance what I also received (paralambano),that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures (1Co 15:3-note)

Paul had earlier mentioned the ideas of receiving and delivering writing...

For I received (paralambano) from the Lord that which I also delivered (paradidomi) to you,that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread (1Cor 11:23)

Which you received - ote that no one discovers the Gospel for himself or herself. The Gospel isdesigned to be transmitted (proclaimed) and to be received. Think of an FM transmission sentout over the radio waves to be received by an FM radio. This same picture of reception of the"broadcast" of the Gospel is beautifully portrayed in the lives of the Thessalonian saints Paulwriting...

And for this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received (paralambano)from us the word of God's message, you accepted (dechomai) it not as the word of men, butfor what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe. (Seenote 1Thessalonians 2:13)

Commenting on the difference between received and accepted Warren Wiersbe writesthat the verb received or paralambano "means simply 'to accept from another' while thesecond (dechomai) means 'to welcome.' One (paralambano) means 'the hearing of theear,' while the other (dechomai) means the hearing of the heart.' The believers atThessalonica did not only hear the Word; they took it into their inner man and made it apart of their lives...How do we appropriate the Word? By understanding it and receivingit into our hearts, and by meditating on it so that it becomes part of the inner man.Meditation is to the spiritual life what digestion is to the physical life. If you did notdigest your food, you would die. It takes time to meditate, but it is the only way toappropriate the Word and grow. (Wiersbe, W: Bible Exposition Commentary. 1989.Victor or Logos)

Paul writes...

How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall theybelieve in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? (Ro10:14-note)

James describes the reception this way...

Therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receivethe word implanted, which is able (dunamai = present tense = the word of God, the Gospel,continually has intrinsic, inherent supernatural, miracle working power to accomplish itsintended purpose which in this verse is) to save your souls. (Jas 1:21-note)

Received (3880) (paralambano [word study] from para = beside + lambano = appropriate,receive) means to receive from another, to receive alongside or to take to oneself.

The aorist tense looks back to the time when the Corinthians heard the proclamation the gospeland records their active response (active voice = made a decision of their will) to the message -they took hold of the divine message. They received it alongside. They took it to themselves as

their possession.

Barclay writes that the good news...

was something which the Corinthians had received. o man ever invented the gospel forhimself; in a sense no man ever discovers it for himself. It is something which he receives.(Barclay, W: The Daily Study Bible Series. The Westminster Press or Logos)

Paralambano also has nuances of seizing or taking to one's self or taking something into one'spossession How do I respond when I am confronted with the word of God's message?

Paralambano is the verb the Lord used to to encourage Joseph's reception of Mary after herconception

Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife...And Joseph...took her as his wife (Mt 1:20, 24)

John uses this verb describing the failure of most of the Jews (in contrast to the predominantlyGentile population at Thessalonica) refusal to receive Jesus as their Messiah...

He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive (paralambano) Him. (John1:11)

Paralambano denotes an objective, outward receiving. It was used for the reception of wordswhich were to be conveyed, Paul writing...

For I received (paralambano) from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the LordJesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread (1Cor 11:23)

Paul used paralambano in the context of the gospel proclamation in other epistles...

As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contraryto that which you received (paralambano), let him be accursed...12 For I neither received(paralambano) it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation ofJesus Christ. (Galatians 1:9, 12)

The things you have learned and received (paralambano) and heard and seen in me, practicethese things; and the God of peace shall be with you. (see note Philippians 4:9)

As you therefore as you have received (paralambano) (the) Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk(present imperative) in Him" (see note Colossians 2:6).

Paralambano is the verb especially used of receiving a message or body of instruction handeddown by tradition, to be delivered (paradidomi) to others in turn. Paul uses it in this sense in2Thessalonians...

ow we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep alooffrom every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition (paradosisderived from paradidomi - give alongside) which you received (paralambano) from us.(2Thessalonians 3:6)

In summary, the verb paralambano conveys the idea that the Corinthians had received theGospel into their mind and thus they had learned it.

I WHICH ALSO YOU STAD:

In which also you stand - Picture the saints at Corinth standing in the Gospel. Like when we hearsomeone say "So and so took their stand on the truth." The Gospel is not spiritual quicksand buta sure foundation upon which their faith can stand.

Brian Bell (ref) comments that...

Once received, the Gospel gives a person stability. In a slippery world we need to be able tokeep our feet!

Pr 4:11,12 I have taught you in the way of wisdom; I have led you in right paths. When youwalk, your steps will not be hindered, And when you run, you will not stumble.

2Sa 22:32,34,37 For who is God, except the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God?He makes my feet like the feet of deer, and sets me on my high placesYou enlarged my pathunder me; so my feet did not slip.

Ray Stedman commenting on the gospel in which we stand...

There are two things, then, the gospel does for you, Paul says, two simple divisions: First, itmakes you stand. otice he says, the gospel, which you received, by which you stand.

That means you have a foundation; you have a place to handle life; you have a security towhich you can resort at any time of pressure and problem and you can stand steady, nomatter what kind of force comes against you. When you believe that God has forgiven yoursins for Christ's sake, when you believe that God loves you and has accepted you as Hischild, when you believe that He is working in you by the power of His resurrected life toenable you to love and to live as you ought and to give you power to say "o" when you needto say "o," you have a place to stand that can handle anything that comes. That is whatPaul said these Corinthians had. They were loved by God, therefore they had a place ofemotional security. That is the first thing the gospel does.

In a dangerous and slippery world like this, it is a tremendous thing to have a place whereyou can find love and acceptance and understanding and support in all the pressures. Well,that is what the gospel does. When things are frightening and foreboding all around, thegospel gives you a place of reassurance. I do not know how you feel when you pick up thenewspaper and read that China has now invaded Vietnam, that Russia is standing by, readyto retaliate. These two great powers are about to leap at one another's throats. The MiddleEast is all aflame and in turmoil; wars are breaking out in the African states; the SouthAmerican countries are restless and filled with violence and the threat of revolution. Whatdoes it do to you, living in a world like that? Who knows, warfare may break out very shortlyand nuclear bombs will scream across our country?

Well, in the face of an uncertain future the gospel gives us a sense of certainty. It reminds us,as we read in those wonderful words from Colossians 1:16, that there is One who is above allprincipalities and rulers and authorities and powers; He is in charge of all human events.When you fail and slide away and slip, the gospel is the place where you find recovery and anability to come back again, sick of soul and hungry of heart, and find relief and forgivenessand healing for your hurting heart. That is the gospel -- the fact that God loves you despiteall your failure and all your weakness. He is always ready to pick you up again and wash thehurt away, to start you out anew and teach you to walk in His strength and by His grace.That is a place to stand. (1 Corinthians 15:1-4 Of First Importance)

Stand (2476) (histemi) means literally to take up or maintain a specified position or posture. Pauluses histemi figuratively in this verse meaning that the Corinthians had adopted and remained ina resolute position or attitude regarding the Gospel.

Guzik comments that...

Despite all their problems with carnality, lack of understanding, strife, divisions, immorality,and weird spirituality, they still stood for the gospel. This is in contrast to the Galatianchurch, who was quickly being moved away to another gospel (Galatians 1:6 "I am amazedthat you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different

gospel").

The perfect tense pictures the abiding results. They stood and they are still standing. How do theycontinue to stand? The same way they began to stand, by grace through faith (not sight, not selfeffort, not works, not flesh).

Bob Bolender (1Cor 15.pdf - very technical) writes that..

The principles of standing and standing firm are critical for the Christian Way of Life.

a. Positionally, believers are having stood ones (Ro 5:2-note; 1Co 15:1).

b. Experientially, believers must fight the good fight standing firm (1Co 10:12; 16:13;Gal 5:1; Ep 6:11-note, Ep 6:13,14-note; Col 4:12-note; 1Th 3:8-note; 2Th 2:15).

c. Ultimately, all believers will stand for reward (Ro 14:4-note; Jude 1:24).

John MacArthur adds that Paul's...

point of the first two verses is that the Corinthian believers were themselves living evidencethat this doctrine was true. The fact that they came out of the spiritual blindness anddeadness of Judaism or paganism and into the light and life of Christ testified to the power ofthe gospel, and therefore to the power of the resurrection. It also testified that they alreadybelieved in the truth of Christs resurrection. It was the gospel of the resurrection of JesusChrist that Paul had preached to them, that they had received, and in which he assures themthey now stand and by which they are saved, delivered from sins power and condemnation.Because of the reality of Christs resurrection and of their trust in it, they were now a part ofHis church and thereby were evidence of the power of that resurrection. (MacArthur, J:1Corinthians. Chicago: Moody Press or Logos)

C H Spurgeon writes that...

There were people in the Apostles' days who had an idea that there was no resurrection. Paulendeavours to refute the idea, and teaches the Corinthians that there was a resurrection fromthe dead. From the 1st to the 11th verse he proves the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and uponthat grounds the doctrine of the resurrection of the just. ow, we expect to hear a whole listof doctrines when the apostle says "I declare unto you the gospel;" but instead of that, hesimply tells us of the resurrection of Jesus, for that is the very marrow of the gospel, thefoundation of itthat Jesus Christ died and rose again the third day, according to theScriptures.

Raymond Ortlund, Jr has a powerful and convicting "Afterword" on the Gospel in his excellentbook A Passion for God: Prayers and Meditations on the Book of Romans. Ortlund entitles his"Afterword"...

A EAREST CALL FOR EVAGELICAL LEADERS TO RECOVER THE GOSPELFROM ITS PRESET HUMILIATIO

A wave of authentic revival sweeps over the church when three things happen together:teaching the great truths of the gospel with clarity, applying those truths to peoples liveswith spiritual power, and extending that experience to large numbers of people. Weevangelicals urgently need such an awakening today. We need to rediscover the gospel.

Imagine the evangelical church without the gospel. I know this makes no sense, forevangelicals are defined by the evangel. But try to imagine it for just a moment. What mightour evangelicalism, without the evangel, look like? We would have to replace the centrality ofthe gospel with something else, naturally.

So what might take the place of the gospel in our sermons and books and cassette tapesand Sunday school classes and home Bible studies and, above all, in our hearts?

A number of things, conceivably. An introspective absorption with recovery from pastemotional traumas, for example. Or a passionate devotion to the pro-life cause. Or aconfident manipulation of modern managerial techniques. Or a drive toward church growthand success. Or a deep concern for the institution of the family. Or a fascination with themore unusual gifts of the Spirit. Or a clever appeal to consumerism by offering a sort of cost-free Christianity Lite. Or a sympathetic, empathetic, thickly-honeyed cultivation ofinterpersonal relationships. Or a determination to take America back to its Christian rootsthrough political power. Or a warm affirmation of self-esteem. The evangelical movement,stripped of the gospel, might fix upon any or several of such concerns to define itself andderive energy for its mission. In other words, evangelicals could marginalize or even lose thegospel and still potter on their way, perhaps even oblivious to their loss.

But not only is this conceivable, it is actually happening among us right now. Whatever onemay think of the various concerns noted above as alternatives to the centrality of the gospeland some of these matters possess genuine validity and even urgency, especially the familynot one of them is central to our faith. ot one of them is the gospel or deserves to push thegospel itself to the periphery of our message, our agenda and our affections. But the gospel ofour blessed Lord Jesus Christ is today suffering humiliation among us evangelicals by ourconspicuous neglect of it.

When we think of the gospel, we may have a feeling that We already know that. Ho-hum.We assume the gospel as a given. We assume that the people in our churches know thegospel, and we are anxious to move on to more relevant and practical topics. The gospelis being set aside in our minds and hearts in favor of a broad range of issues, as broadlyranging as evangelicalism is fragmented, while the heart and soul of our faith is falling intoobscurity through neglect. The holy mysteries of the incarnation, cross, resurrection,ascension and heavenly reign of our Lord, the great themes of election, propitiation,justification and sanctification, the power and deceitfulness of sin, the meaning of faith andrepentance, our union with our crucified, buried and risen Lord, the infinitely superior valueof our heavenly reward compared with anything this life has to offer (including the Christianlife), the final judgment and eternitythese glorious themes which lie at the very center ofour faith, which made the church great at her greatest moments in the past and which can dothe same again for us today if only we will recover them and exploit them confidently,prayerfully and biblically, these infinitely precious treasures are being bypassed in favor oflegitimate but secondary matters of concern. We must guard the centrality of that which iscentral.

We should not think, Well, of course we have the gospel. The Reformation recovered it forus. Such complacency will cost us dearly. Every generation of Christians must be retaughtafresh the basic truths of our faith. The church is always one generation away from totalignorance of the gospel, and we today are making rapid progress toward that ruinous goal.Rather than carelessly assume the gospel, we must aggressively, deliberately, fully andpassionately teach and preach the gospel. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge arehidden in Christ. If we do not intentionally search them out, we will miss them.

Pastors and church leaders, in particular, are under enormous pressure today to satisfy theimmediate demands of the marketplace at the cost of the gospel. People want what they wantwhen they want it, or they will drive down the street to the First Church of Where-Its-At toget it. Are we leaders losing our nerve? Have we come to feel that the gospel itself meetspeoples needs less convincingly and helpfully? But think about it. Without a clearunderstanding of the central truths of our faith, where will the wisdom and motivation to livegodly lives come from? We are constantly offering people Five Steps to (whatever) inanswer to their problems. But it is not working. To a shameful degree, we Christians aremorally indistinct from the world. Why? One reason is that we think piecemeal, and ourlives show it. We do not perceive reality from Gods perspective. We perceive reality from theperspective of our ungodly culture, and then we try to slap a biblical principle onto thesurface of our deep confusion. Consequently, very little actually changes. What we reallyneed is not to be pandered to but to be re-educated in reality, as it is interpreted for us by thegospel. We need to know who God really is. We need to find out who we really are. We needto understand what our root problem really is and what Gods merciful answer really is. Andwe need that new perception of reality to percolate deep down into our affections and desires,reorienting us radically and joyfully to a whole new way of life. But if we frankly feel that theplain old gospel offers very little for peoples real needs, then we have never really known itat all.

We evangelicals today are suffering massive defeat, brilliantly disguised as massive success.

A record high 74% of Americans eighteen years of age and older say they have made acommitment to Jesus Christ, according to a recent Gallup Poll. That could suggest ahigh degree of effectiveness in our witness. But at the same timeas if we neededverification of the facta survey by the Roper Organization shows little difference inthe moral behavior of born-again Christians before and after their conversion.

If we come under the spell of ratings appeal rather than the imperatives of the gospel, whatroom can there be for the narrow gate and the hard way? Even as our churches enjoy ameasure of outward success, we remain the influenced, not the influential, as long as we shiftour power-base from the ways of God to the ways of man, from Spirit-anointed biblical truthto human skills and novelties. Operating in a man-centered rather than a God-centeredmode, our churches do not necessarily fail. They stand as good a chance of success as anyother franchise network. Some even become popularbut popular as what? As a religiouspastime, or as a force for God?

And you, O desolate one, what do you mean that you dress in scarlet, that you deckyourself with ornaments of gold, that you enlarge your eyes with paint? In vain youbeautify yourself. Your lovers despise you; they seek your life.Jeremiah 4:30

O desolate evangelicalism, what do you mean by your stylish fads and restless search forever new relevance? Why are you so insecure that you long for the worlds approvingrecognition?

They despise everything you hold dear! All things to all men is no license to cater to thewhims of the consumer. Christ alone is Lord. Or have you yourself forgotten his majesty?And why are you so boastful of your numbers and dollars? How poor you really are! Comeback to the Gospel. Come back to the wellspring of true joy and life and power. SanctifyChrist again as Lord in your hearts. Wake up! Strengthen what remains, for it is on the pointof death. But if you will not return to the centrality of the gospel as Gods power for thechurch today, then what reason does your Lord have for not abandoning you altogether?

(Ortlund, R. C., Jr. A Passion for God: Prayers and Meditations on the Book of Romans.Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books . or Logos)

2. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to theword I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed invain.Amplified: And by which you are saved, if you hold fast and keep firmly what I preached to you,unless you believed at first without effect and all for nothing. Barclay: and through which you are saved. I want to make clear to you what account I gave youof the good news, an account which can save you if you hold fast to it, unless your belief is arandom and haphazard thing.

1. It is not the Gospel that saves as such, for men can hear the Gospel and not respond and sohave no salvation. But it is the truth of the Gospel that saves when men believe and receive theChrist of the Gospel. He alone can save, but He has to be believed in before He will save. Belief isvain, however, if it is only temporary. If you cease to believe in Christ as Savior and redeemerfrom death then your belief is not what Paul means by belief. Belief in the ew Testament meanstrust and full commitment. If I really believe in Jesus as my Lord and Savior, it is a truth that Iwill hold to firmly the rest of my life regardless of whatever changes life brings my way in termsof trial and suffering. He is my Lord and thus my highest value in life that gives life meaning, andso I will never forsake him who promises never to forsake me. Belief has to be perpetual and notperiodic or it has no value.

The Australian coat of arms pictures two creatures--the emu, a flightless bird, and the kangaroo.The animals were chosen because they share a characteristic that appealed to the Australiancitizens. Both the emu and kangaroo can move only forward, not back. The emus three-toed footcauses it to fall if it tries to go backwards, and the kangaroo is prevented from moving in reverseby its large tail. Those who truly choose to follow Jesus become like the emu and kangaroo,moving only forward, never back (Luke 9:62).

1B. When you study the controversy in depth between the Calvinists and the Arminians there isreally no difference. It is just a matter of how it is all described. The Calvinist believes that youcan believe in Christ, become a godly person and led of the Holy Spirit and even gifted and yetstill fall away because of rejection of the truth. The truly saved will not do this however, but willpersevere to the end. The Arminian says the same thing, and so both agree that salvation isconditional and does depend upon perseverance. The once saved always saved theme is whatleads to confusion, for it assumes that we can know when one is saved. Can one go forward in aBilly Graham Crusade and pray for Christ to forgive them and be their Savior and Lord and stillnot be saved? Yes! And this goes for all such experiences. If there is no growth and people do notpursue the faith they can fall away and the seed never gets to bring forth new life.

1C. Doug Goins, There is a word of conditionality here: "If you hold fast unless you believed invain." The term "in vain" literally means "at random" or "without basis." In the paraphraseThe Message, Eugene Peterson turns that conditional phrase into a parenthetical statement:"(I'm assuming, now, that your belief was the real thing and not a passing fancy, that you're inthis for good and holding fast.)" (1). Faith that is in vain or a passing fancy is a superficialresponse to the gospel, such as seeing it as fire insurance: "I don't want to go to hell, so I'll acceptJesus." Or it may be a response of selfishness: "I want Jesus because I won't feel as guilty, andthings will work better in my life." It's a way of adding value to your life. Paul would considerthose responses vain or empty in terms of any stabilizing reality in people's lives.

WHAT ARE THE CODITIOS OF SALVATIO? There are two summary scriptures thatestablish the "conditions" of salvation. The first is found in Romans 10:13: "For whosoever shallcall upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." The second is in Romans 10:9-10: "That if thoushalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raisedhim from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, andwith the mouth confession is made unto salvation." We can see from scripture the essence of thesimplicity that is in Christ Jesus. First, we have to call upon Him. He is not going to force us, ormake us accept Him. He is there, waiting on us to make up our minds, and accept Him willingly.Rev. 3:20, Jesus says "Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hears my voice, ADOPES THE DOOR, I WILL COME ITO HIM...". Secondly, we must believe that God raisedJesus from the dead. There is a lot more to this than just saying "yeah, yeah" in our minds. Whenwe believe in our hearts, we are acknowledging that God is, that He is the greatest power thatexists, that He and He alone has the power to leave us dead or to raise us up to live forever, andthat His act of raising Jesus up was a sign to us of His acceptance of Jesus' sacrifice on ourbehalf. Lastly, we see that we must confess, or openly speak, that Jesus is our Lord. There is nosuch thing as a "secret" disciple. Either Jesus is Lord, or He isn't, and He can't be the Lord ofyour life if you don't tell anyone. Jesus said, in Matt. 10:32, "whosoever therefore shall confessme before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven, and whosoeverdenieth me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven".

1D. The lack of stressing conditions and human responsibility in salvation has led to the greatmodern controversy among Christians over the distinction between Lordship salvation and FreeGrace salvation. Both view are held by outstanding Christian leaders and authors. The essence ofthe debate is over how many conditions are involved in salvation. The Free Grace view is that allthere needs to be is faith. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Lordshipsalvation says that is not enough. There needs to be surrender to the Lordship of Christ or beliefwill not be sufficient. Lordship leaders say the easy believism of so much evangelism leads to thechurch becoming filled with Christians who are not Christian.

John MacArthurs introductory comments in The Gospel According to Jesus: This new gospelhas spawned a generation of professing Christians whose behavior often is indistinguishable fromthe rebellion of the unregenerate. Recent statistics reveal that 1.6 billion people world-wide areconsidered Christians.[3] A well-publicized opinion poll indicated nearly a third of all Americansclaim to be born again.[4] Those figures surely represent millions who are tragically deceived.Theirs is a damning false assurance.

Likewise, Chantry states, Products of modern evangelism are often sad examples ofChristianity. They make a profession of faith, and then continue to live like the worldOnly a

small proportion of those who make decisions evidence the grace of God in a transformedlife

All of this is related to the use of a message in evangelism that is unbiblicalEvangelicals areswelling the ranks of the deluded with a perverted Gospel. Anything but the Lordship gospel islabeled a perverted gospel[41] or a heresy[42] in apparent identification with the ApostlePauls concern expressed in Galatians 1:6-10. To Lordship proponents the controversy with FreeGrace proponents is therefore no small debate or matter of semantics, but a debate about twovery different views of the gospel and salvation.

2. Calvin, These two expressions are very cutting. In the first, he reproves their carelessness orfickleness, because such a sudden fall was an evidence that they had never understood what hadbeen delivered to them, or that their knowledge of it had been loose and floating, inasmuch as ithad so quickly vanished. By the second, he warns them that they had needlessly and uselesslyprofessed allegiance to Christ, if they did not hold fast this main doctrine.

3. Barnes, By which also ye are saved - On which your salvation depends; the belief of which isindispensable to your salvation; see the note on Mar_16:16. The apostle thus shows theimportance of the doctrine. In every respect it demanded their attention. It was that which wasfirst preached among them; that which they had solemnly professed; that by which they had beenbuilt up; and that which was connected with their salvation. It does not mean simply that by thisthey were brought into a salvable state (Clarke, Macknight, Whitby, Bloomfield, etc.), but itmeans that their hopes of eternal life rested on this; and by this they were then in fact savedfrom the condemnation of sin, and were in the possession of the hope of eternal life.

If ye keep in memory - Margin, as in the Greek, if ye hold fast. The idea is, that they weresaved by this, or would be, if they faithfully retained or held the doctrine as he delivered it; ifthey observed it, and still believed it, notwithstanding all the efforts of their enemies, and all thearts of false teaching to wrest it from them. There is a doubt delicately suggested here, whetherthey did in fact still adhere to his doctrine, or whether they had not abandoned it in part for theopposite.

Unless ye have believed in vain - You will be saved by it, if you adhere to it, unless it shall turn outthat it was vain to believe, and that the doctrine was false. That it was not false, he proceeds todemonstrate. Unless all your trials, discouragements, and hopes were to no purpose, and all havebeen the result of imposture; and unless all your profession is false and hollow, you will be savedby this great doctrine which I first preached to you.

4. Clarke, By which also ye are saved - That is, ye are now in a salvable state; and are savedfrom your Gentilism, and from your former sins.If ye keep in memory - Your future salvation, orbeing brought finally to glory, will now depend on your faithfulness to the grace that ye havereceived.

5. Gill, By which also ye are saved,.... It was the means of their salvation, and had been madethe power of God unto salvation to them. Salvation is inseparably connected with true faith in

Christ as a Saviour, and with a hearty belief of his resurrection from the dead, which is theearnest and pledge of the resurrection of the saints; and because of the certainty of it in thepromise of God, through the obedience and death of Christ, and in the faith and hope ofbelievers, which are sure and certain things, they are said to be saved already. To which theapostle puts in the following provisos and exceptions; the one is,

if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you; or rather, "if ye hold fast, or retain"; that is, byfaith, the doctrine preached to you, and received by you, particularly the doctrine of theresurrection of the dead; for the salvation that is connected with it does not depend upon thestrength of the memory, but upon the truth and steadfastness of faith: it is the man thatperseveres in the faith and doctrine of Christ that shall be saved; and everyone that has trulybelieved in Christ, and cordially embraced his Gospel, shall hold on, and out to the end; thoughthe faith of nominal believers may be overthrown by such men, as Hymenaeus and Philetus, whoasserted, that the resurrection was past already; but so shall not the faith of real believers,because the foundation on which they are built stands sure, and the Lord has perfect knowledgeof them, and will keep and save them. The other exception is, unless ye have believed in vain: not that true faith can be in vain; for that is the faith of God'select, the gift of his grace, the operation of his Spirit; Christ is the author and finisher of it, andwill never suffer it to fail; it will certainly issue in everlasting salvation: but then as the word maybe heard in vain, as it is by such who are compared to the wayside, and to the thorny and rockyground; and as the Gospel of the grace of God may be received in vain; so a mere historical faithmay be in vain; this a man may have, and not the grace of God, and so be nothing; with this hemay believe for a while, and then drop it: and since each of these might possibly be the case ofsome in this church, the apostle puts in these exceptions, in order to awaken the attention of themall to this important doctrine he was reminding them of.6. Jamison, ye are saved rather, ye are being saved.

if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you Able critics, Bengel and others, preferconnecting the words thus, I declare unto you the Gospel (1Co_15:1) in what words I preachedit unto you. Paul reminds them, or rather makes known to them, as if anew, not only the fact ofthe Gospel, but also with what words, and by what arguments, he preached it to them. Translate inthat case, if ye hold it fast. I prefer arranging as English Version, By which ye are saved, if yehold fast (in memory and personal appropriation) with what speech I preached it unto you.

unless which is impossible, your faith is vain, in resting on Christs resurrection as anobjective reality.

7. Henry, It was that alone by which they could hope for salvation (1Co_15:2), for there is nosalvation in any other name; no name given under heaven by which we may be saved, but by the

name of Christ. And there is no salvation in his name, but upon supposition of his death andresurrection. These are the saving truths of our holy religion. The crucifixion of our Redeemerand his conquest over death are the very source of our spiritual life and hopes. ow concerningthese saving truths observe, (1.) They must be retained in mind, they must be held fast (so theword is translated, Heb_10:23): Let us hold fast the profession of our faith. ote, The savingtruths of the gospel must be fixed in our mind, revolved much in our thoughts, and maintainedand held fast to the end, if we would be saved. They will not save us, if we do not attend to them,and yield to their power, and continue to do so to the end. He only that endureth to the end shallbe saved, Mat_10:22. (2.) We believe in vain, unless we continue and persevere in the faith of thegospel. We shall be never the better for a temporary faith; nay, we shall aggravate our guilt byrelapsing into infidelity. And in vain is it to profess Christianity, or our faith in Christ, if we denythe resurrection; for this must imply and involve the denial of his resurrection; and, take away

this, you make nothing of Christianity, you leave nothing for faith or hope to fix upon.

8. In vain is a term used quite often in Scripture: Matthew 15:9 They worship me in vain; theirteachings are but rules taught by men. [ Isaiah 29:13]

1 Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always giveyourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not invain.

2 Corinthians 6:1 As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain.

Galatians 2:2 I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preachamong the Gentiles. But I did this privately to those who seemed to be leaders, for fear that I wasrunning or had run my race in vain.

Philippians 2:3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider othersbetter than yourselves.

9. Paul says here that it is vital to salvation. If you believe in what is not the Gospel, you believein vain. It is of no value to believe if you believe in what is not Gods Gospel of salvation. If youbelieve in a false Gospel you cannot be saved by it, for there is only one Gospel that saves, andthat is because there is only one Savior. Change that gospel to be good news about someone elseor something else and you have a belief that is vain and empty of power to save. Paul took it veryseriously when a different gospel was being preached or believed, for it was an enemy of Christand the Kingdom of God.

But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should

preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be

accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to

you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! (Gal 1:8-9).

There is no room for another gospel in Christianity, and so it is vital that we be clear on theGospel that Paul preached and hold to it and stand on it and never waver from it.

When the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy and Titus, he mentioned the importance of sounddoctrine. By "sound", Paul simply means reliable, accurate, and faithful. If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our LordJesus Christ and to godly teaching, he is conceited and understands nothing (1 Tim 6:3).

What you have heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love inChrist Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you - guard it with the help of

the Holy Spirit who lives in us (2 Tim 1:13-14).

He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he canencourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it (Titus 1:9).

Therefore, rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith and will pay no

attention to Jewish myths or to the commands of those who reject the truth (Titus 1:13). author

unknown

10. Ray Stedman commenting on this subtle difference (are saved versus being saved) writingthat...Paul goes on to say that the gospel is doing a second thing -- by which you are beingsaved. ow he puts it in the present tense; that is why I translated it that way. It is not bywhich you "were" saved. That is past tense; or by which you "will be" saved, that is future. Itis by which you are now "being" saved. The present tense indicates that he is thinking hereabout our present, earthly experience of life.

There are three tenses of salvation simply because there are three parts of our human being,our human nature... ow, when you came to Christ that spirit was regenerated; it was madealive; it was indwelt by the Holy Spirit; it was linked to Jesus Himself so that you and He areone Spirit. That is salvation past; that is the past tense, by which you "were" saved, as certaintexts say.

Then there is the one in the future: you will be saved. Paul will be talking about these bodies;this is the theme of this great resurrection chapter. This body too has a part in God's plan. Godis not going to throw it away. I do not care if you grind it up and burn it up and scatter it to thewinds, God can gather it together. We are going to see how, and why, he does it in this verychapter. God has a purpose for your body. He is going to redeem it, and restore it, and it will beuseful to you all throughout eternity. That is salvation to come.

But now Paul is talking about the soul, about your life, about how you are living from day today. He says that is "being" saved according to how much you are resting on God at work inyou, and allowing yourself to be the instrument of his grace. In these terms, what he is talkingabout is buying you back from wasting your life. In these terms, he is telling us that as we walkwith him what we do becomes eternally profitable, not only profitable for this present time, buteternally so, so that you can use your money for eternal profit, you can use your time foreternal profit, you can lay up treasures in heaven and not upon earth. By the way you use yourmoments and your days, whether you employ them in the strength of God or from the energyof the flesh, you can determine what is going to be good and bad at the judgment seat of Christ,when "every one may receive the things done in his body, whether it be good or bad," {cf, 2Cor5:10}.

ow that is what the gospel is for. The gospel is to give us stability, to give us steadiness, to giveus an immovable foundation, to give us a place of recovery, to give us a place of healing and ofwholeness, and finally to redeem our present existence so that it has eternal meaning as we liveday by day. What a tremendous theme that is! What a marvelous thing that God has preparedfor us, in this solid place to stand!

Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture. He was buried. He rose again from the deadaccording to the Scripture, that we too might learn to die to our sins, to bury them, and to riseagain to the freshness and newness of life that we experience right now by faith in Jesus Christ.

11. Preceptaustin, Sozo is in the present tense (not past tense) which more literally can betranslated not as "you have been saved" but you are being saved. ote the passive voice whichindicates it is God Who does the saving. Here Paul is saying in essence that salvation is acontinual progression toward Christlikeness. Justification (declaration of righteous standingbefore God) by faith (past tense salvation) is a once for all transaction in the past, but it initiates aprocess referred to as sanctification (present tense salvation, cf 1Cor 1:18, 2Cor 2:15, 1Pe 3:21-note) which continues (just as we began -- "by grace through faith", a gift from God, thus

indicating the necessity of the believer's continual dependence upon the sanctifying power of theHoly Spirit) throughout our earthly life to one day be consummated in the glorification of ourbodies (future tense salvation), when faith and hope become sight. In the meantime we are asPaul states in this verse "continually being saved"! Praise God for so great a salvation, whichprovides for us from the inception to the consummation and then throughout eternity!

12. Preceptaustin, John MacArthur observes that the if...does not imply that the believers are indanger of losing their salvation, but it is a warning against nonsaving faith. So a clearerrendering would be, if you hold fast what I preached to you, unless your faith is worthless orunless you believed without effect. The Corinthians holding fast to what Paul had preached wasthe result of and an evidence of their genuine salvation, just as their salvation and new life werean evidence of the power of Christs resurrection. (MacArthur, J: 1Corinthians. Chicago: MoodyPress or Logos)

If you hold fast the word - Charles Hodge explains that hold fast..does not mean, "if you keep inmind." It simply means, "if you hold fast." Whether that is physically holding on or retaining inthe memory or retaining in faith depends on the context. Here it is evident that the condition ofsalvation is not keeping in mind, but persevering in the faith. "The Gospel saves you," says theapostle, "if you hold firmly to the Gospel that I preached to you." (Hodge, C. 1 Corinthians)

Utley has an interesting note observing that if...is a first class conditional sentence, whichimplies that they would hold fast to the truth of the gospel, which he preached to them, but itadds a note of contingency by a second ei (unless). This seems to parallel Jesus Parable of theSoils (cf. Matt. 13) and Johns discussion in 1John 2:19 of those who were in the fellowship, butleft. There were those factions in Corinth who by their actions, attitudes, and theology showedthey were never believers! They rejected Pauls gospel and Apostolic authority and merged thegospel into Roman culture, whereby the culture became dominant! Cultural Christianity isalways weak and sometimes not Christian! However, please note that contextually Paul isasserting his confidence that the Corinthian believers are true believers. (1) aorist tense, 1Cor15:1, received (2). perfect tense, 1Cor 15:1, in which also you stand (3) first class conditionalsentence, 1Cor 15:2, since you hold fast. (Utley, R. J. D. Volume 6: Paul's Letters to a TroubledChurch: I and II Corinthians. Study Guide Commentary Series. Marshall, Texas: Bible LessonsInternational)

Hold fast (2722) (katecho from kat = intensifies meaning + cho = have, hold) means to retainwhether by avoiding the relinquishing of something. It was used literally of holding one to keepthem from going (as in Luke 4:42).

Katecho was used figuratively with the idea of restraining or keeping someone (Antichrist) fromexercising power (see 2Thes 2:6-7). A closely related figurative use of katecho means to hold downor suppress as the ungodly do to the truth about God (see note Romans 1:18).

One T use of katecho means to take over or occupy, to have a place as ones own or to take intoones possession. (see Lk 14:9).

In the passive sense, katecho describes one as being bound by the law (see note Romans 7:6)

Katecho as used here in 1Corinthians 15:2 (see discussion below re Hebrews 3:6, 14) means toadhere firmly to traditions, convictions, or beliefs. ote that our salvation is kept by Christsholding us fast, not primarily by our holding Him fast. Our holding onto Him is evidence that Heis holding onto us.

Jesus used katecho with a this same meaning in the gospel of Luke declaring...Luke 8:15 And theseed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart,and hold it fast (present tense - refers to their continual attitude toward the word), and bear fruit (present tense - refers to their continual productivity) with perseverance (see study of hupomone).(Comment: The seed is the Word of God as revealed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They not onlyreceived this precious word but they allowed the word of God to perform its word in those whobelieved and were thereby molded into conformity with the image of Christ. They were teachableand obedient, developing true Christian character and producing genuine fruit of good works forthe glory of their Father. Their spiritual fruit is clear evidence of their spiritual life. In short, thisgroup manifested evidence of authentic salvation. J Vernon McGee writes "These are the hearerswho are genuinely converted by the Word of God." In this parable of the soils, Jesus point wasthat His disciples would sow much seed, but that they should not be distressed by seemingly poorresults including cases of apparent salvation which were in reality nothing but an outwardemotional experience as evidenced by the fact that they did not hold fast the word and bear fruit.)

Comment: "If" (in contrast to the if in 1Cor 15:2) in Hebrews 3:6 is a third class conditionalstatement which reflects uncertainty or doubt. In other words a person proves they are trulyGod's "house" if they do not desert He Who Alone is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Althoughthere are some who do not believe in the perseverance of the saints, verses such as Hebrews 3:6c