We are bombarded with information – often touted as news- that too often is unsubstantiated. When we begin to research the information, it often turns up that facts are skewed, and opinions are presented as fact. The “so-called facts” are even made to seem to be the truth even though they are lies. Many people view Jesus Christ in the same way. Just like what happened to Jesus, the real reason for the skewed facts or lies are for their control and/or power for those presenting an untrue situation. The Pharisees were the example of what we are seeing today- a group today who want the power by illegal methods or don’t like the Christians or their lifestyle. What people hear presented as truth gets written off as opinion or simply what someone wants to believe. The resurrection of Jesus Christ, however, is solidly grounded in fact and validated by eyewitnesses. The fact that Jesus rose from the grave is a historical fact. I have written a 2 to 3-page article on these eyewitnesses, who they were and what were their evidences (on this website).
Read 1 Corinthians 15:1-3
Paul describes the content of the gospel. Here, he describes how the gospel can be of benefit to man. The gospel is only of benefit if it is received and if one will stand in it. The word gospel means, “good news.” As the word was used in ancient times, it didn’t have to describe the message of salvation in Jesus Christ. It could be used of any good news. But the best news ever is that we can be saved from the punishment we deserve from God because of what Jesus did for us.
The Corinthian Christians first received the gospel. The message of the gospel must first be believed and embraced. As Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica, For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe. (1 Thessalonians 2:13) The Corinthian Christians also did stand in the gospel. Despite all their problems with carnality, lack of understanding, strife, divisions, immorality, and weird spirituality, they still stood for the gospel. This is in contrast to the Galatian church, who was quickly being moved away to another gospel (Galatians 1:6).
By which you are also saved, if you hold fast that word, I preached to you: The Corinthian Christians had done well (they received the gospel). They were doing well (they did stand in the gospel). But they had to continue to do well Christian must take seriously their responsibility to not only have a good past, and a good present, but to determine to have a great future with the Lord also. Hold fast also implies there were some people or some things which might want to snatch the true gospel away from the Corinthian Christians. All the more, this is why they had to hold on! Unless you believed in vain: If the Corinthian Christians did not continue to hold fast, one day they might let go of the gospel. And if one lets go of the gospel, all their previous belief won’t do them any good. It was as if they had believed in vain.
The content of the gospel Paul preached.
For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. Paul did not make up this gospel. He received it (and not from man, but from Jesus Christ, according to Galatians 1:11-12), and he delivered it. This is not “Paul’s gospel” in the sense that he created it or fashioned it; it is “Paul’s gospel” in the sense that he personally believes it and spreads it.
“Notice that the preacher does not make the gospel. If he makes it, it is not worth your having. Originality in preaching, if it be originality in the statement of doctrine, is falsehood. We are not makers and inventors; we are repeaters, we tell the message we have received.” As Paul describes the gospel in verses 3-4, it is important to notice that this gospel is not insightful teaching or good advice. At the core of the gospel are things that happened, actual, real, historical events. The gospel isn’t a matter of religious opinions, platitudes, or fairy tales, but about real historical events. “Our religion is not based upon opinions, but upon facts. We hear persons sometimes saying, ‘Those are your views, and these are ours.’ Whatever your ‘views’ may be, is a small matter; what are the facts of the case?” The death of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, is the center- the heart- of the gospel. Though the idea of glorying in the death of a Savior was foolishness to the word, it is salvation to those who will believe. The first basic tenet of the gospel is that Christ died for our sins. The death of Christ was part of God’s sovereign plan for mankind’s redemption.
Read 1 Corinthians 15:4
And that he was buried; and that he hath been raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. This dogmatic declaration of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ was written while the majority of that generation in which it occurred were still alive (1 Corinthians 15:6); and the presence of many enemies who denied it but who were powerless to produce any evidence against it, makes this an argument of eternal power and dependability. In fact, all of the evidence in this chapter shows that even the enemies who were denying the resurrection (as a general thing) were compelled to admit the resurrection of Christ, because Paul adduced the latter as proof of the former!
Farrar extolled the apostolic witness of the resurrection in this passage by observing that:
It is a complete summary. It includes material which is not in the Gospels. It appeals to ancient prophecies. It shows the force of the evidence which convinced the apostles. It appeals to many eyewitnesses still living. It was written within 25 years of the events themselves. And that he was buried. This is one of three New Testament references to the burial of Christ, except in the Gospels, the other two being Acts 2:29 and Acts 13:29. “It blasts the swoon theory; he really died; and it leads naturally to the empty tomb, a witness for the resurrection which has never been effectively denied.”
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And that he should rise “on the third day,” but that he should rise from the dead. The particular passage- Hath been raised the third day- can be found in a few places. This Scripture affirms that Jesus would rise on the third day is Jonah 1:17 and also in Isaiah 53:9. (Matthew 12:40)
Read 1 Corinthians 15:5-8
And that he was seen of Cephas – Peter (also John 1:42). The resurrection of Christ was A fact to be proved, like all other facts, by competent and credible witnesses. Paul, therefore, appeals to the witnesses who had attested, or who yet lived to attest, the truth of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus; and shows that it was not possible that so many witnesses should have been deceived. As this was not the first time in which the evidence had been stated to them, and as his purpose was merely to remind them of what they had heard and believed, he does not adduce all the witnesses to the event, but refers only to the more important ones. He does not, therefore, mention the woman to whom the Savior first appeared, nor does he refer to all the times when the Lord Jesus manifested himself to his disciples. But he does not refer to them in general merely, but mentions “names,” and refers to persons who “were then alive,” who could attest the truth of the resurrection. It may be observed, also, that Paul observes probably the exact “order” in which the Lord Jesus appeared to the disciples, though he does not mention all the instances. For an account of the persons to whom the Lord Jesus appeared after his resurrection, and the order in which it was done, see the notes on the Gospels.
Then of the twelve – The apostles; still called “the twelve,” though Judas was not one of them. It was common to call the apostles “the twelve.” Jesus appeared to the apostles at one time in the absence of Thomas John 20:19, John 20:24; and also, to them when Thomas was present, John 20:24-29. Probably Paul here refers to the latter occasion, when all the surviving apostles were present.
Appeared to five hundred brethren at once – This was probably in Galilee, where our Lord had many disciples. See Matthew 28:16. What a remarkable testimony is this to the truth of our Lord’s resurrection! Five hundred persons saw him at one time; the greater part of whom were alive when the apostle wrote, and he might have been confronted by many if he had dared to assert a falsity
The greater part of these 500 remain unto this present and are now alive, and can be appealed to, in proof that they saw him. What more conclusive argument for the truth of his resurrection could there be than that 500 persons had seen him, who had been intimately acquainted with him in his life, and who had become his followers? If the testimony of 500 could not avail to prove his resurrection, no number of witnesses could. And if 500 people could thus be deceived, any number could; and it would be impossible to substantiate any simple matter of fact by the testimony of eyewitnesses.But some are fallen asleep. This is the usual expression employed in the Scripture to describe the death of saints. It denotes: (1) The calmness and peace with which, they die, like sinking into a gentle sleep and (2) The hope of a resurrection, as we sink to sleep with the expectation of again awaking; (John 11:11; 1 Corinthians 11:30).
After that, he was seen of James. This appearance is not recorded by the evangelists. It is mentioned in the fragment of the apocryphal Gospel according to the Hebrews, which is, however, of no authority. It is probable that the Lord Jesus appeared often to the disciples, since he was 40 days on earth after his resurrection, and the evangelists have only mentioned the more prominent instances, and enough to substantiate the fact of his resurrection. This James, the fathers say, was James the Less, the brother or cousin-german of the Lord Jesus. The other James was dead (see Acts 12:1) when this Epistle was written. This James, the author of the Epistle that bears his name, was stationed in Jerusalem. When Paul went there, after his return from Arabia, he had an interview with James (see Galatians 1:19, “But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord‘s brother”), and it is highly probable that Paul would state to him the vision which he had of the Lord Jesus on his way to Damascus, and that James also would state to Paul the fact that he had seen him after he rose. This may be the reason why Paul here mentions the fact, because he had it from the lips of James himself. Then of all the apostles. Perhaps the occasion at the sea of Galilee, recorded in John 21:14. Or it is possible that he frequently met the apostles assembled together, and that Paul means to say, that during the forty days after his resurrection he was often seen by them.
After all the other times in which He appeared to people; after He had ascended to heaven, He appeared to Paul. This passage proves that the apostle Paul saw the same Lord Jesus, the same “body” which had been seen by the others, or else his assertion would be no proof that he was risen from the dead. It was not a fancy, therefore, that he had seen him; it was not the work of imagination; it was not even a “revelation” that he had risen; it was a real vision of the ascended Redeemer. He was seen of me also – On the way to Damascus, see Acts 9:3-6, Acts 9:17.
As of one born out of due time. The expression, “as of one born out of due time,” would seem to imply that Paul meant to say that there was some unfitness “as to the time” when he saw the Lord Jesus; or that it was “too late” to have as clear and satisfactory a view of him as those had who saw him before his ascension. But this is by no means the idea in the passage. The word used here ( ἔκτρωμα ektrōma) properly means an abortion, one born prematurely. It is found nowhere else in the New Testament; and here it means, as the following verse shows, one that was “exceedingly unworthy;” that was not worth regard; that was unfit to be employed in the service of the Lord Jesus; that had the same relation to that which was worthy of the apostolic office which an abortion has to a living child. The word occurs (in the Septuagint) in Job 3:16; Ecclesiastes 6:3, as the translation of נפל nephelan abortion, or untimely birth. The expression seems to be proverbial, and to denote anything that is vile, offensive, loathsome, unworthy (Numbers 12:11). The word, I think, has no reference to the mode of “training” of the apostle, as if he had not had the same opportunity as the others had, and was therefore, compared with their advantages, like an untimely child compared with one that had come to maturity before its birth, nor does it refer to his diminutive stature, but it means that he felt himself “vile,” guilty, unworthy, abominable as a persecutor, and as unworthy to be an apostle.
Paul stressed the appearances of the risen Christ ( 1 Corinthians 15:5-9) because they prove that His resurrection was not to a form of “spiritual” (i.e, non-corporeal, not physical or material) existence. Just as His body died and was buried, so it was raised and many witnesses saw it, often many witnesses at one time.