Christ Died for Our Sins (1 Cor. 15:1-4)

This sermon was preached on 30/6/2013

What is the gospel? No doubt several answers could be given from a theological point of view. We know that it is important to distinguish the true message of God from the false messages that have affected the church throughout history. After all, we have an enemy who hates to hear that the gospel is spreading and who knows that distortions are more effective than physical opposition in achieving that task.

Yet we also know that there is a basic gospel message, such as is encapsulated in John 3:16, at one time the best known verse in the Bible, and which contains the essential concepts a person needs to hear in order to be saved, such as the meaning of God’s love, God’s persons, God’s sacrifice, God’s wrath and God as the source of eternal life. This verse used to be called ‘the gospel in a nutshell’. In a sense, that famous verse describes the gospel from God the Father’s point of view.

Paul, here in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, summarises the gospel for his readers, and tells them and us that they had received it by faith when they heard it preached to them. Receiving is a very simple way of depicting faith in Jesus. It describes an acceptance, marked by eagerness because more is anticipated from experiencing the gift. That, of course, is the story of the Christian life.

At the same time, there is loyalty to the Saviour expected of those who accept the gospel. Lack of such loyalty was one of the problems in Corinth, perhaps the cause of all the other problems that are dealt with by Paul in this letter. They were expected to stand, to remain committed to it.

Paul also informs them that the gospel continues to save them. Maybe this is not an emphasis we hear often. Yet we have to remember that salvation is a threefold matter: we were saved, we are being saved, and we will be saved. Someone has said that in the past, when we believed in Jesus, we were delivered from the penalty of sin, that in the present, we are saved from the power of sin, and that in the future we will be saved from the presence of sin, either when we die or, if we live until Jesus returns, at the second coming.

The proof that we are standing is that we value the gospel. An essential way of experiencing the assurance that our sins have been forgiven is by thinking about the gospel; an effective way of dealing with the power of sin is by thinking about the gospel because usually sin is in our thinking before it is in our actions; and an expectant way of anticipating the future is by looking forward to what the gospel says about God’s people being removed from all contact with sin, whether in themselves or in their environment.

When did Paul receive the gospel?

The answer must be that he received it round about the time of his experience of Jesus on the Damascus Road, whether at the moment he encountered Jesus for the first time or shortly afterwards. Many things could be said about that occasion, but Paul clearly discovered that Jesus actually was who his followers said he was, that he had been crucified and now was risen from the dead. Paul already had a profound knowledge of the Old Testament scriptures, of what it said would take place in order for God’s salvation to be discovered. And as he thought about what was claimed for Jesus he would see how many Old Testament passages now made sense. So we should not be surprised to see his emphases here on the fulfilment of the scriptures.

Who is the gospel about?

Paul here says it is about Christ. We may not be struck by the use of this title because many people think it is merely the surname of Jesus. Yet we know that it is far more than that. It is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew Messiah. Now a lot could be said about what the Old Testament says about him. But here is a quick summary of what one book, Genesis says about him.

The Messiah is first mentioned in Genesis 3 as the Seed of the Woman, the champion who would come to deliver the human race, but who would be hurt in the process. Then in Genesis 10, we read about Enoch who predicted that the Messiah would judge the world. In Genesis 12, we discover that the Messiah would be a descendant of Abraham and through him the world would be blessed, and this line is further defined as being through Isaac, Jacob and Judah.

Moreover, the New Testament says Jesus is like the obscure priest called Melchizedek, mentioned in two verses in Genesis 14. This is not merely a New Testament idea because the author of Psalm 110 also noted the similarity. This otherwise unknown priest depicted the deity of Jesus (no beginning to his genealogy), combined two roles in one person (king and priest), and provided two blessings for others (righteousness and peace).

We could go through most books of the Old Testament and discover that many things are said about the future Messiah. The point is that a great deal is said about him, and no detail is unimportant. Truly he is a wonderful person. And the gospel is about him.

Christ died for our sins – six aspects

The first detail that can be connected to this statement is that the death of Jesus on the cross was a fact of history. It is interesting that no one seems to have disputed this fact. After all, the claim could easily be disproved by people of the time by merely saying where he was. Yet we cannot forget that the cross was physical.

Second, the Old Testament says why Jesus died. It was for our sins that he was crucified. Paul knew that Jesus a sacrifice on the cross and he knew several other features connected to it. To begin with, he would have known that every sacrificial victim had to be flawless, without even a mark as a defect. This emphasis was stressed in numerous ways such as the choice of animal for the daily sacrifice, or the Passover sacrifice, or by personal offerings a worshipper made. Jesus was perfect in thought, word and deed.

Third, the Old Testament predicted that there would be a sacrifice that would be punitive. The Sufferer would endure the anger of God against sin. The Lord had indicated that the main source of suffering would be through him punishing the Messiah because he was bearing the sin of his people and doing so lovingly.

Fourth, the Old Testament anticipated a sacrifice that would have permanent effect as a result. One of the obvious problems of the Jewish ritual was the necessity of constant repetition. It may have been the case that the hardest workers in Israel were the priests on duty at the temples because they offered numerous required sacrifices daily on behalf of worshippers. Yet all their hard work was pointless because those sacrifices could not take away sin or bear its punishment. Jesus' sacrifice has permanent effects.

Fifth, the Old Testament predicted that pardon would be given to the transgressors because of the Sufferer. It had predicted that when he was numbered with the transgressors he would make intercession for them. A literal example of this was when he prayed for the group of soldiers who crucified him, and they confessed later that he was the Son of God. The longing for pardon is one of the basic desires that people conscious of their sins have.

Sixth, the Old Testament indicated that there would be a dramatic ingathering of people into the family of God. Often this ingathering is depicted as a regathering of Israel, yet when we look at who will be included we find among them individuals from all nations, some of whom belonged to nations that showed great hostility to the people of God and tried to wipe them out.