Passage: 1 Corinthians 15:1-4
The Big Idea
The gospel is simple and historical: Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, was buried, and rose again the third day. This first part focuses on His death. Jesus suffered the horrors of crucifixion, but even worse, He bore the full judgment for our sin as our substitute. His death is God’s love letter to you. Receive it, stand in it, and hold fast to it.
Wait Till We Finish the Story
There’s a story told of missionaries who reached a remote tribe long ago. After learning their language, they began telling them about Jesus.
The people listened with rapt attention as they heard about the Man who was God and became a man. They marveled at His miracles and His words of wisdom and love.
But when the story reached the crucifixion, they recoiled in horror as their new hero was brutally killed. They stood up angrily and demanded to know why the missionaries would tell such terrible lies.
The missionaries said, “Jesus really did die. It’s all true. But wait until we finish the story!”
They barely managed to calm everyone enough to finish. And when they told them Jesus rose from the dead, the whole tribe fell to their knees to receive Jesus as their God and Savior.
The Gospel You Received (1 Corinthians 15:1-2)
Paul reminds them of the gospel he preached, which they received, in which they stand, and by which they are being saved, if they hold firmly to the message, unless they believed in vain.
The gospel. In verses 3-4, Paul describes the content of the gospel. Here in verses 1-2, he describes how it benefits us. It only benefits us if we receive it and stand in it.
Received. The message of the gospel must first be believed and embraced. Paul thanked God that the Thessalonians received the word they heard not as human words, but as it truly is, the word of God, which is at work in those who believe (1 Thessalonians 2:13).
Stand. Despite all their problems (carnality, lack of understanding, strife, divisions, immorality and weird spirituality), the Corinthians still stood on the gospel. That’s in contrast to the Galatians, who were quickly turning to a different “gospel” of legalism (Galatians 1:6).
Hold fast. Something is trying to pull you away. The enemy simply wants us to trust in self instead of the gospel. Today, the gospel is going to take a bazooka to our self-trust. Get ready.
The Gospel Itself (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)
Paul passed on to them, as of first importance, what he also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.
- Jesus is the Christ: the Messiah, the Savior, God Himself.
- Jesus died for our sins: as our substitute and sacrifice.
- Jesus was buried.
- Jesus rose again the third day.
- All of this was foretold in the Old Testament.
This is the good news, the best news in the whole world. People live and die by it. Billions of eternities hang in the balance.
Paul didn’t make it up
Paul passed on what he received, and not from people, but from Jesus Christ Himself (Galatians 1:11-12).
- These things really happened.
- It’s not religious fantasy or a human invention.
- There’s real historical evidence. Evidence that demands a verdict.
- Honestly, many people just don’t want to look at the evidence.
This is all about truth. Some say, “You have your view, and I’ll have mine.” But that’s not reality. There’s one truth that holds for all people at all times, and this is it.
Christ Died
The death of Jesus is the central message of our eternal victory. It’s completely counterintuitive.
How did Jesus die? The Roman government executed Him by one of the cruelest forms of capital punishment ever devised: crucifixion. The Romans didn’t invent it, but historians and physicians have noted that they refined it into a method designed to produce a slow death with maximum suffering.
What was crucifixion like?
The scourging. Before crucifixion, the victim was whipped. The Roman whip had several leather strands with pieces of metal and sharp bone woven in. The metal caused deep bruising, and the bone tore the flesh. The beating could be so severe that it exposed muscle and even bone, and some victims didn’t survive long enough to be crucified.
The cross. When the victim was thrown down to be nailed to the crossbeam, the wounds on his back were torn open again and ground with dirt. As he hung there, every breath scraped his raw back against the rough wood.
The nails. Nails driven through the wrists could damage the major nerve there, sending searing pain through the arms.
The breathing. Beyond the pain, crucifixion made it terribly hard to breathe. Hanging by the arms locked the chest in a position that made exhaling difficult. To get a full breath, the victim had to push up on his nailed feet and pull with his arms, scraping his back on the wood again. Every breath was agony and exhaustion.
Death could come from shock and blood loss, exhaustion and suffocation, dehydration, or heart failure. If a victim didn’t die quickly enough, soldiers broke his legs so he could no longer push up to breathe (John 19:31-33).
What happened to Jesus’ body?
Severe flogging often caused hypovolemic shock, a dangerous drop in blood volume. Its effects include a racing heart, fainting or collapse from low blood pressure, kidney shutdown, and intense thirst.
Scripture suggests Jesus experienced this:
- He began carrying His own cross (John 19:17), but a man named Simon was forced to carry it the rest of the way (Matthew 27:32; Mark 15:21; Luke 23:26), likely because Jesus collapsed.
- On the cross He said, “I thirst” (John 19:28).
Shock and a sustained racing heart can also cause fluid to collect around the heart and lungs. That may explain why, after Jesus died and a soldier pierced His side with a spear, blood and water flowed out, just as John recorded (John 19:34). Some have suggested that, in a sense, Jesus died of a broken heart, crushed under the weight.
How bad was crucifixion? Our English word excruciating comes from the Latin for “out of the cross.”
Bible commentator Adam Clarke wrote that we should consider how terrible sin must be in God’s sight, when it required such a sacrifice.
For Our Sins
Why did Jesus do all this? Why was this His mission?
- He loves you.
- You had a severe problem called sin.
- Every human has sinned and fallen short of God’s perfect, holy standard (Romans 3:23).
- Jesus knew our sin and chose to do something about it. The only solution was for Him to become our substitute.
- He had to suffer the death each one of us deserved.
How does His death deal with our sins?
At some point before He died, before the temple veil tore in two and before He cried, “It is finished,” an awesome spiritual transaction took place. God the Father laid on God the Son all the guilt and judgment our sin deserved, and Jesus bore it perfectly, fully satisfying God’s justice in our place (2 Corinthians 5:21).
As horrible as the physical suffering was, this was what Jesus really dreaded about the cross: being judged for sin in our place. This was the cup, the cup of God’s righteous wrath, that He trembled to drink in Gethsemane (Luke 22:39-46; see also Psalm 75:8; Isaiah 51:17; Jeremiah 25:15). On the cross, Jesus was treated as though He were God’s enemy, drinking the cup of judgment so we would never have to.
Isaiah described it centuries earlier: He was despised and rejected, a man of sorrows, familiar with grief. People hid their faces from Him and didn’t value Him. Yet He carried our griefs and bore our sorrows. We thought God was punishing Him for His own sin, but He was pierced for our rebellion and crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53:3-5).
For our sins. Our sins put Jesus on the cross. He didn’t die for a political cause, as an enemy of the state, or because someone was jealous. He didn’t die as a mere martyr. Jesus died for our sins.
It’s like Jesus threw Himself on a live grenade for us. He swallowed the explosion of our sin.
He Was Buried
We don’t often think of Jesus’ burial as part of the gospel, but it is. It matters for at least two reasons:
- It proves He really died. You don’t bury someone unless they’re really dead. Jesus’ death was confirmed at the cross before He was taken down (John 19:31-37).
- It fulfilled Scripture. Isaiah said His grave would be assigned with the wicked, yet He would be with a rich man in His death (Isaiah 53:9). Jesus was buried in the tomb of a rich man, Joseph of Arimathea (Matthew 27:57-60).
Will You Receive This Death?
Look back at verses 1-2. Will you receive this death? Will you stand in it?
This death is God’s love letter to you.
- Fix your eyes on His sacrifice.
- Turn away from every other interest that competes with Him.
- Turn away from your self-centered sin.
- Let His blood flow down from the cross and wash you white as snow.
The Lord invites us: come, let’s reason this out together. Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be white as snow. Though they’re red like crimson, they’ll be like wool (Isaiah 1:18).
- God is saying, “Use your head!”
- This is logic. You’re dying and guilty.
- But He offers grace. He offers to take your guilt from you. To die for you.
When a jailer asked Paul and Silas, “What must I do to be saved?” they answered: believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household (Acts 16:30-31).
And this is only the first part of the story. Wait till we finish it: He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.
Grace Takeaway
Jesus didn’t just suffer terribly. He suffered for you, taking the full judgment for your sin as your substitute. His death is God’s love letter, signed in blood. Receive it, stand in it, and hold fast to it. And remember: the story isn’t over yet.
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