Back To Basics
BACK TO BASICS
1 CORINTHIANS 15:1-11
Jesus really rose from the dead.
The church of the New Testament era was a confessing church as well as a worshiping community. By “confessing” we mean the possessing of a body of authoritative doctrine which was the given, acknowledged and shared heritage of those who formed the early Christian church in the world of the Roman empire. Only on the assumption of a corpus of doctrine which was accepted as binding and authoritative can we explain first the Christian consciousness of the church’s being a distinct entity in the world over against the Jews and Gentiles (1 Corinthians 10:32), and secondly the church’s missionary zeal in proclaiming the gospel which was not offered as a tentative suggestion to be entertained along with other attractive possibilities but as God’s unique truth, demanding a full and unreserved commitment (Galatians 1:8-9; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Corinthians 11:4f.). It is with this background that we should approach verses 1-2.
The main tenets of the apostolic creed are clearly spelled out in what many scholars today recognize as a crystallization of the church’s teaching on the person and work of Christ (15:3-5). Certain telltale marks in this passage stamp it as a credal formulary: (1) the fourfold “that” introduces each line of the creed (15:3-5); (2) the vocabulary is unusual, containing some rare words and expressions which Paul never again employs (eg “in accordance with the Scriptures”); and (3) that we are in touch with a Christian confession of faith which takes us back to the earliest period is confirmed by Paul’s preface (15:3). What he had received as part of the instruction he had learned in the first days of his discipleship he now transmits as a sacred tradition which is in line with general apostolic practice (15:11).
What were the chief points of their belief? The cross as an atonement for sins, the reality of Christ’s death, shown by his burial; the real resurrection on the third day and the appearances of the living Lord as conqueror of death—these were the facts on which faith and salvation rested (15:1-2). All these events, rooted in history and confirmed by experience, were seen to be grounded in Old Testament Scripture (Romans 1:2-4). Which passages would be used?
Christ’s appearing to his disciples included a revelation to Paul (15:8), so calling him to the apostolic office. Paul is here defending his position, and warding off an insinuation made at Corinth that he was not truly qualified (15:8). He admits the unlikelihood from a human point of view of his ever becoming a believer, but sees in God’s grace the only explanation possible for such a transformed life (1 Timothy 1:12-17). And in that sense we can all share his conviction: by the grace of God we are what we are.