1Now
I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which
you received, in which you stand, 2and by which you are being saved, if
you hold fast to the word I preached to you— unless you believed in
vain. 3For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also
received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the
Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in
accordance with the Scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Cephas, then to
the twelve. 6Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one
time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.
7Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8Last of all, as
to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9For I am the least of the
apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the
church of God. 10But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace
toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of
them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
News
The
gospel is not advice about what we must do but good news about what
Jesus has done. The gospel is not a list of instructions to be acted on,
it is a message that is preached (v1, 2) and received (v2). This is
good news because our acceptance by God doesn’t depend on our
performance but on Jesus’ performance in our place.
Substitution
Paul
describes this news of first importance: that Jesus died [in our place
for our sins] and was raised from the dead. Our sin is that we try to
substitute ourselves for God. God responded by substituting himself for
us
Biblical
The
message of the gospel is “according to the scriptures” (v3&4). It
is the primary theme of the entire bible, from God’s response to Adam
and Eve’s sin in Genesis 3:15, to the crowds singing about the Lamb who was slain in Revelation 5:12. Christianity is not about shaping God in our own image. God has told us what he is like. We respond to that revelation.
Transformational
This
gospel changes people, including those people mentioned in this
passage. Cephas (Peter) was transformed from denying Jesus to a bold
preacher of Jesus death and resurrection. The 12 were changed from an
uncertain group in hiding to fearless martyrs for the faith. James
started off thinking is brother was mentally unstable and ended up
worshipping him as God. Paul set off on a journey to arrest and
persecute Christians and spent the rest of his life planting churches.This gospel transformation is not just a one-off change but continues through our entire lives. Paul is writing this to Christians. He is reminding them of the gospel v1. He says it is the message “by which they are being saved” v2. Our failure to grow is down to our failure to remember and believe the gospel.
Grace
We
contribute nothing to this other than our sin. It is a total gift of
God’s grace. We don’t need to clean ourselves up first, which is good
news because we wouldn't be able to! This unconditional love seems to be
too good to be true, but if it leads us to think we can live in any way
we want, we do not understand it. God’s grace changed Paul so that he
could say “I am what I am” v10 (an apostle that didn’t deserve to be),
and that “God’s grace to me was not in vain”v10. We don’t obey in order
to be loved by God. He loved us first, and that love motivates us to
obey.Paul is writing this to remind Christians of the gospel. The gospel is not just for non-christians. We don't respond to the gospel once and then move on, we move on in the Christian life by our ongoing response to the gospel.