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“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:1-2 ESV)
There is a lot of spiritual meat packed into these two verses. So we will be looking into what this is teaching us today. And the first part of it is that Paul stated here that he would remind the brethren (the Christians, male and female) of the gospel that he preached to them. For we all need reminders, don’t we? I mean we all can be forgetful, at times, and with the busyness of life, sometimes our priorities can get out of order, and so it is good to have reminders, and this is one reason why the Scriptures repeat themselves.
So, the first caution that I see here is for us to be careful that we don’t get so busy with life that we forget that our lives are to be about Jesus Christ and about doing his will, and that they are not about us and what we want out of life. Jesus Christ is to be the central focus of our lives, and our desire should be for him to do his will. So we should be seeking his face daily to know what his will is for us for each day so that we are doing the will of God and so that we don’t drift back into living for self and not for God.
And what did Paul remind them about? He reminded them of the gospel that he preached to them, yet he didn’t give a summation of the whole gospel message in this context, but he hit upon certain points of it which were evidently under scrutiny and thus needed to be explained. So first he reminded the believers that Jesus Christ died for our sins, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day, and that he appeared to many. Then he went into a discussion on the resurrection of the dead.
So here is a summation of the gospel that he taught and that Jesus Christ and the other apostles taught: Jesus Christ died on that cross so that we would die to sin and live to righteousness (1 Peter 2:24). He died on that cross so that we would be crucified with him in death to sin and raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. For if sin is what we obey, it leads to death. But if we obey obedience, its end is eternal life (Romans 6:1-23).
And the gospel that Paul taught isn’t just about receiving Jesus into our hearts. We receive (accept and apply) the gospel, then we stand on (continue in) the truth of the gospel, then we are “being saved” (progressive salvation). For to receive Jesus Christ into our lives is not a formality, and it is not a one-time experience. We must daily choose to receive Jesus and his gospel into our lives, and we must be “believing” in him (continuous). For we must hold fast to the word of truth, in practice, or we believed in vain.
And now not many people these days are teaching the gospel that Paul taught, in truth, and that Jesus and the other NT apostles taught. Many are teaching a very diluted and altered gospel message which teaches a one-time belief that “seals the deal” and that they can go on with their lives of living for self and in sin and still have heaven secured for them. But the writers of the New Testament taught progressive salvation and that we must continue in walks of obedience to God or we will not inherit eternal life.
But what Paul taught was not just that we must continue in Christ and in his word and in his gospel, which requires that we deny self, die daily to sin, and walk in obedience to our Lord in holy living until the day we die or until Jesus returns to take his faithful ones to be with him for eternity, but that if we do not continue in Christ in walks of obedience and in surrender to the will of God, and in the forsaking of our sins, then we believed in vain. Our belief is worthless, and we will not inherit eternal life with God.
So, please take this to heart. And please read the Scriptures for yourselves, but please read them and interpret them in their true context, in the whole of the books in which they are written and in the whole of the teachings in the New Testament. For the Scriptures definitely teach progressive faith and progressive salvation which will not be complete until Jesus returns for his faithful bride and provided that we continue in those walks of obedience to our Lord, and not in sin, until the very end.
[Romans 6:1-23; Galatians 4:8-9; Colossians 1:21-23; Colossians 3:1-17; Titus 3:1-11; 1 Peter 2:9-12; 1 Peter 4:1-3; 2 Peter 1:5-11; Galatians 5:16-26; Ephesians 4:17-24; Titus 2:11-14; John 8:31-32; Romans 11:17-24; 1 Corinthians 15:2; 2 Timothy 2:10-13; Hebrews 3:6,14-15; 1 John 2:3-6,24-25; John 15:1-12; Romans 8:1-24; Romans 13:11; 1 Corinthians 1:18; 1 Corinthians 15:1-2; 2 Timothy 1:8-9; Hebrews 9:28; 1 Peter 1:5]
Near the Cross
Hymn lyrics by Fanny J. Crosby, 1869
Music by William H. Doane, 1869
Jesus, keep me near the cross;
There a precious fountain,
Free to all, a healing stream,
Flows from Calvary's mountain.
Near the cross, a trembling soul,
Love and mercy found me;
There the bright and morning star
Sheds its beams around me.
Near the cross! O Lamb of God,
Bring its scenes before me;
Help me walk from day to day
With its shadow o'er me.
Near the cross I'll watch and wait,
Hoping, trusting ever,
Till I reach the golden strand
Just beyond the river.
In the cross, in the cross,
Be my glory ever,
Till my raptured soul shall find
Rest beyond the river.
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