History's Hinge: The Non-Negotiable Gospel Text: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Introduction: A Crisis of Foundations
We live in a soft age, an age that prefers its religion to be a sentiment, a feeling, a vague spiritual warmth in the cockles of the heart. The modern world is quite happy to have a "Jesus" so long as He remains a pliable metaphor, a stained-glass symbol of our highest aspirations. They will tolerate a Jesus who offers moral advice, but they will not for one moment tolerate a Jesus who walked out of His own tomb, leaving a trail of historical, verifiable, and world-altering facts in His wake. They want the ghost, but not the body. They want the principle, but not the person. They want a "resurrection" of their own personal hopes, but not the resurrection of the Son of God from a cold, stone grave in Judea.
The Apostle Paul will have none of this. To the Corinthians, who were sophisticated, urbane, and tempted by the intellectual fashions of their day to spiritualize away the hard realities of the faith, Paul does not offer a new philosophy. He does not offer a seven-step program for spiritual fulfillment. He brings them back, with the force of a hammer blow, to the bedrock. He reminds them that Christianity is not a good idea; it is good news. And news is the report of an event. If the event did not happen, the news is fake, and the faith is a fraud.
This chapter, 1 Corinthians 15, is the great resurrection chapter of the Bible. It is Paul's definitive, logical, and passionate defense of the central fact of all history. He is not arguing for a minor point of doctrine here. He is laying down the foundation upon which everything else is built. If this foundation is removed, the entire Christian faith collapses into a pile of pious rubble. It becomes, as he will say later, a pathetic and pitiable delusion. What Paul does here is establish the unchangeable content of the gospel, the irrefutable evidence for it, and the undeniable power of it. This is not a matter for negotiation.
The Text
Now I make known to you, brothers, the gospel which I proclaimed as good news to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I proclaimed to you as good news, unless you believed for nothing.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep. After that, He appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. For I am the least of the apostles, and not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
(1 Corinthians 15:1-11 LSB)
The Gospel You Received (vv. 1-2)
Paul begins by reminding the Corinthians of the nature of the gospel message itself.
"Now I make known to you, brothers, the gospel which I proclaimed as good news to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I proclaimed to you as good news, unless you believed for nothing." (1 Corinthians 15:1-2)
Notice the chain of events here. The gospel is something that is proclaimed. It is a declaration, a heralding of royal news. It is not something we discover through introspection or generate from within. It is an external word that breaks into our world. Second, it is received. The Corinthians accepted it, they took delivery of it. Third, it is the ground on which they stand. It is their foundation, their stability in a shifting world. Fourth, it is the means by which they are saved. This gospel is not just interesting information; it is God's power for salvation.
But then Paul adds a crucial condition: "if you hold fast the word." This is not to suggest that a true believer can lose their salvation. Rather, it is to define what true belief is. True, saving faith is a faith that perseveres. It holds fast. If someone receives the word with joy, but then abandons it when the historical resurrection becomes an embarrassment at a cocktail party, their initial "belief" was spurious. It was a flash in the pan. The phrase "unless you believed for nothing" means believing in a counterfeit gospel, a gospel stripped of its historical, factual content. A faith that is not in the Christ who died and rose again is a faith in a phantom, and it is a faith that saves no one. It is an empty belief.
The Four Pillars of the Gospel (vv. 3-4)
Next, Paul lays out the specific, non-negotiable content of the gospel message. This is the bedrock.
"For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures" (1 Corinthians 15:3-4 LSB)
First, note that Paul is a link in a chain. He "delivered" what he "received." He is not an innovator; he is a courier. He is passing on the sacred tradition, the apostolic testimony that was established from the beginning. And what is this message? He says it is "of first importance." This is not the periphery; this is the center. This is the main beam that holds up the entire house. If you get this wrong, everything else is wrong.
He gives us four pillars. One: "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures." His death was not a tragic accident; it was a substitutionary atonement. He died in our place, for our sins. And this was not God's Plan B. It was "according to the Scriptures," prophesied and prefigured throughout the Old Testament, from the animal skins in the garden to the sacrificial system to the suffering servant of Isaiah 53.
Two: "He was buried." This is a crucial, historical anchor. It is the definitive proof of His death. He was not mostly dead. He was not in a coma. He was dead and buried, sealed in a tomb. This fact demolishes any "swoon theory" that tries to explain away the resurrection. The burial confirms the death, which in turn magnifies the glory of the resurrection.
Three: "He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures." This is the pinnacle of the proclamation. The same one who was dead and buried is now alive. The resurrection was a bodily, physical event. And again, this was "according to the Scriptures." The Old Testament is filled with types and shadows of a third-day deliverance, from Jonah in the great fish to Hosea 6:2.
The fourth pillar is the evidence for the third, which Paul immediately begins to unpack: He was seen.
The Inescapable Witness List (vv. 5-8)
Paul now shifts from proclamation to proof. He does not ask us to believe in a vacuum. He presents a list of eyewitnesses, treating this not as a mystical experience but as a matter of public record.
"and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom remain until now... After that, He appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all... He appeared to me also." (1 Corinthians 15:5-8 LSB)
This is not the language of myth. This is the language of a man building a legal case. He starts with Cephas, Peter, the leader of the apostles. Then the twelve, the inner circle. Then he drops a bombshell: an appearance to more than five hundred people at once. And he adds a challenge to his contemporary readers: "most of whom remain until now." He is saying, "You don't have to take my word for it. Go to Jerusalem. Go ask them. There are hundreds of people still alive who saw Him with their own eyes." This is an audacious, falsifiable claim. If it were not true, Christianity would have been snuffed out in a generation by simply producing the witnesses to deny it.
Then he mentions James. This is most likely the Lord's own brother, who was a skeptic during Jesus' earthly ministry (John 7:5). What could possibly transform a skeptical brother into a leader of the Jerusalem church, willing to die for his faith? Only seeing his resurrected brother alive. Finally, Paul includes himself. He was not a grieving follower hoping for a vision. He was a hostile enemy, a persecutor, on his way to arrest Christians when the risen Christ appeared to him. The resurrection does not just comfort the faithful; it conquers its enemies.
The Grace that Re-Creates (vv. 9-11)
Paul's own testimony becomes the ultimate exhibit of the resurrection's power. It is a power that not only raises the dead but also transforms the living.
"For I am the least of the apostles, and not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am..." (1 Corinthians 15:9-10 LSB)
Paul's memory of his past sins is sharp. He does not hide his resume as a persecutor. He sees his former life as a profound disqualification. But this backdrop of his unworthiness serves only to magnify the glory of God's grace. "But by the grace of God I am what I am." This is one of the most potent statements in all of Scripture. His identity, his apostleship, his entire life, is a product of sheer, unmerited grace. The same power that raised Christ from the dead raised Paul from a state of spiritual death and murderous rebellion.
And this grace is not a passive, static thing. It is a dynamic, working power. "His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me." True grace does not lead to laziness; it fuels labor. Paul worked tirelessly, not to earn grace, but because he had received grace. He makes it clear that the energy for this labor was not his own, but the very grace of God working in and through him. The resurrection is not just a past event; it is a present power that enables the believer to live a new life.
He concludes by unifying the entire apostolic message.
"Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed." (1 Corinthians 15:11 LSB)
There was no "Peter's gospel" or "Paul's gospel" or "James's gospel." There was only one gospel. The message was unified, consistent, and unchanging because it was based on the same set of historical events. The personality of the preacher was secondary. The content of the proclamation was everything. This is the gospel that the apostles preached, and this is the gospel that the Corinthians, and we, are called to believe.
Conclusion: The Unmovable Foundation
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is not an appendix to the Christian faith. It is the foundation. It is the hinge upon which all of history turns. It is the ultimate validation of everything Jesus said and did. It is the guarantee of our justification, the source of our power for sanctification, and the certain hope of our own future resurrection.
To deny it, or to water it down into a mere spiritual metaphor, is to abandon Christianity entirely. It is to trade the power of God for a pathetic human sentiment. But to believe it, to receive it, to stand upon it, and to hold it fast, is to be saved.
This is the apostolic message, delivered to us as of first importance. Christ died for our sins. He was buried. He was raised on the third day. He was seen. This is the news that changed the world. This is the truth that changes us. So we preach, and so you must believe.