We are taking three weeks in this time between Easter and Pentecost to look at one chapter of Paul's first letter to Corinth.
This chapter fifteen is a library within itself of Paul's understanding of the Gospel message of Christ the Messiah who was crucified and is risen, Christ the King, Christ the victor over all enemies opposed to Him, and Christ who has and will finally conquer the curse of the Fall (Genesis 3) and death itself, and Christ who will unmistakably return.
To cover this comprehensive text in three weeks is, to radically understate it, ambitious. But our aim is not so much to cover all the doctrines and themes Paul raises, but to explore the reality of the hope we hold in the risen Christ, and the assurance of our faith in Him.
And we are dipping into the themes as we move through the text, with the aim of whetting our appetites to seek out God's Word in our own time, reading and exploring what Paul says and pursuing more knowledge in love that builds up, rather than trying to build our faith on false knowledge that puffs up (1 Corinthians 8).
There is a great message in 1 Corinthians 15, a message I believe every Christian would want proclaimed at their funeral. Our hope is not in this present age, but in the One who has come and defeated death. So we lift our voices and yell out:
"Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?" (1 Corinthians 15:55, quoted from Isaiah 25:8 and Hosea 13:14)
Along with the Law and the Prophets, and the Christian Church, we praise the living God for redeeming His people. We are twice His, created and bought.
"Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!" (1 Corinthians 15:57)
This chapter fifteen is a library within itself of Paul's understanding of the Gospel message of Christ the Messiah who was crucified and is risen, Christ the King, Christ the victor over all enemies opposed to Him, and Christ who has and will finally conquer the curse of the Fall (Genesis 3) and death itself, and Christ who will unmistakably return.
To cover this comprehensive text in three weeks is, to radically understate it, ambitious. But our aim is not so much to cover all the doctrines and themes Paul raises, but to explore the reality of the hope we hold in the risen Christ, and the assurance of our faith in Him.
And we are dipping into the themes as we move through the text, with the aim of whetting our appetites to seek out God's Word in our own time, reading and exploring what Paul says and pursuing more knowledge in love that builds up, rather than trying to build our faith on false knowledge that puffs up (1 Corinthians 8).
There is a great message in 1 Corinthians 15, a message I believe every Christian would want proclaimed at their funeral. Our hope is not in this present age, but in the One who has come and defeated death. So we lift our voices and yell out:
"Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?" (1 Corinthians 15:55, quoted from Isaiah 25:8 and Hosea 13:14)
Along with the Law and the Prophets, and the Christian Church, we praise the living God for redeeming His people. We are twice His, created and bought.
"Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!" (1 Corinthians 15:57)
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