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Pathways Through Paul
Daily Devotional
September 3
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Today's Pathway:
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In chapter 15 Paul teaches the Corinthian church the doctrine of the resurrection. There is no evidence in the chapter that they had asked him any questions about this subject, but verse 12 asks,
"how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?".
This thinking would have been very common at that time. Those Jews who held to the beliefs of the Sadducees would have denied that there was any life after death at all. The Greeks believed that the body was the source of man’s weakness and sin, so there would be no purpose in its resurrection. The Gnostics believed that flesh and spirit were incompatible because matter was evil and only the spirit was good, thus a bodily resurrection would be impossible, for they thought that the ultimate goal was to free the spirit from the body in which it was imprisoned. Apparently Paul had heard along the way that some in the church were denying that there would someday be a bodily resurrection for believers, and he responds to this by explaining that if believers will not have a bodily resurrection, then Jesus did not have one either.
Paul begins by reminding them of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In verses 3-4 he defines the Gospel this way: it is the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The word "Gospel" means "good news", and the good news for sinners is that the Son of God became flesh, shed his blood and died on the cross, was then buried in a tomb, and on the third day rose from the dead. Going back to verse 1, Paul writes that the Gospel message was the one that he had preached to them from the beginning, and the one that they had chosen to receive. The word "receive" carries the idea of seizing something, or taking something to one's self, or taking something into one's possession. In other words, the Corinthian church members had not just listened to the Gospel; they had believed it and personally accepted it. It is one thing to believe that something is correct. It is something else to take it to yourself and receive it. For example, it is possible to believe that you can go skydiving and arrive safely back on earth. We have all seen numerous people do that very thing. However, that knowledge doesn't do a person any good until he is willing to put on the parachute and jump out of the airplane. The Corinthians had "jumped" into salvation by believing the totality of the Gospel message. And they took their stand on it. They knew that their salvation was based on it, and it was the foundation of their church. The verb tense used indicates that their belief had continuing results. They had believed, and they were still believing. In spite of all their problems with carnality, ignorance, divisions, selfishness, and immorality, they still stood for the gospel.
Ray Steadman defined "standing" this way:
"You have a foundation; you have a place to handle life; you have a security to which you can resort at any time of pressure and problem and you can stand steady, no matter what kind of force comes against you. When you believe that God has forgiven your sins for Christ's sake, when you believe that God loves you and has accepted you as His child, when you believe that He is working in you by the power of His resurrected life to enable you to love and to live as you ought and to give you power to say 'No' when you need to say 'No,' you have a place to stand that can handle anything that comes. That is what Paul said these Corinthians had."
Are you taking YOUR stand on the Gospel?
Pastor Mark J Montgomery
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