1st Corinthians 15, we break into this wonderful chapter of resurrection and Paul is addressing some issues that were going on in the church in Corinth that were rather difficult and disturbing and unsettling, at least to Paul, didn't quite understand the implications of the gospel in a particular area. And what we have as 1st Corinthians 15 is a majestic chapter in many ways, similar to what we saw in chapter 13, the majesty of love and how wonderful and persevering and absolutely stunning is the proper expression of love. Well, we see in chapter 15, resurrection, and not just Christ's resurrection. If Christ is raised, then everybody else is going to be raised. Now, some to eternal life and some to eternal death, even as we read in there in Revelation 20. So there are two issues, though. Paul is addressing this issue about the gospel and resurrection and all this wonderful thing. But it's because of some issues, some questions, some uncertainties, maybe, in the Corinthian church such that you could even look at verse 12, 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 12, the implication of the gospel, the question that they had. Now, if Christ is preached that he's been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If your faith is built on the truth, the reality that Christ himself has been raised from the dead, then where do you get the idea that there is no resurrection of the dead? And he goes on and addresses that issue even more carefully in the subsequent verses after verse 12. So if Christ has been raised, then there is a resurrection for other people as well. There's another question they have. Well, OK, so if there is a resurrection, how are the dead raised? How does it happen? Tell me the mechanics of it. And with what kind of body will they come? And it's almost, I don't know if they had like a gotcha moment where, OK, tell us that, Paul. Riddle me this, mister. And how do you answer this? And I don't know if it was so antagonistic as I make it sound, but they did have some serious questions, reservations, and uncertainties about all this resurrection stuff. And it somewhat comes back to their false understanding of what it means to be a spiritual person. Remember, that goes back even into time. earlier chapters and particularly the last three chapters 12 13 14 what does it mean to be spiritual what does it mean to have spiritual gifts and they weren't quite as bifurcating is the word, dividing into two, the idea of spirit is good and matter is evil. That's a very Gnostic viewpoint. No, it's not that. But they did view that this body was rather a nuisance. It was rather something that, boy, we'd really like to get rid of it so we can be in wonderful, pure fellowship with God. And they really emphasized the spiritual aspect of it. the spiritual nature, and Paul will address that very carefully in this wonderful chapter, not quite yet, but he's going to address these two issues. If there is a resurrection of Christ, then there's a resurrection of other people, too, and then addressing, well, okay, the mechanics of it, how and when and by what means and all these questions, he'll get to later in the chapter, but he's addressing these two ideas that are a faulty thing, not that disqualified these people from being saved, he calls them brothers, he calls them beloved, he calls them, I know you received this message I gave to you, let me help you be consistent in your understanding of it. And so in this chapter, to maybe help you give them some coat hooks to arrange or organize the data that we'll see in this very long chapter, but very, very helpful, that we will see the reality of the resurrection. And we focus largely the gospel and the hope of resurrection, but particularly the reality of the resurrection of Christ and how that then influences the rest of us. There is the necessity. We need a resurrection. We can't just assume, well, when we die, we're done. Or when we die, we don't need the body anymore. Like a butterfly shuffling off the whatever you call it. Chrysalis. You don't need that anymore. It's done. It served its purpose and its time, but now we are free from that. Now, we need the resurrection. And we'll go into why that is so. And then the effect. What does Christ's resurrection, how does that affect, with an A, affect us? What is the effect of that resurrection upon each of us? And then the value, the glorious value of the resurrection, particularly in ethics, morality. If there is no resurrection of the dead, then hey, just do whatever you want, because this is the life, right? You only live once, you only go around once, this is it, so make the best of it. And Paul says, that's not the case. And many who are planning that, banking on that reality that you live right now, live large now, and then you'll be done, that's not so. There is a judgment to come, even as we read in Revelation 20 again. By what body? How does the body? What is the body of resurrection? We'll see what that is like. And then finally, the victory of resurrection at the very end with a final summary exhortation in verse 58. So the reality, necessity, effect, value, body, and victory of resurrection as we look forward here. Let me read these opening just a few verses. We're going to read through verse 4 and pick up the rest of that the next time. Paul says in verse 1, Now I make known to you, brothers, the gospel, which I proclaimed as good news to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I proclaimed to you as good news, unless you believed in vain or for nothing. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received. Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and he was raised in the third day according to the scriptures and that he appeared to Cephas and then to the twelve. I said I was going to read through verse four just to complete the sentence if you don't mind. Verse five. So there we go. We have these wonderful truths that he is celebrating and it's almost like For the first time, Paul, are you telling the gospel to the Corinthians? I thought they were saved people. People get saved by believing the gospel. And now he says, I make known to you brothers the gospel. Is this the first time Paul is sharing the gospel with these brothers in the Corinth? No, he is bringing to their mind, he is maybe correcting their misremembering of the gospel. or helping to make a consistent understanding or a consistent application. You know the gospel. Let me just emphasize it, not reframe it, not restructure it, but to restate it to you in a very bold, very clear method so that you will understand the implications of that in terms of your misunderstanding of resurrection, general resurrection perhaps. So he is making known to them this whole issue because of their confusion, because of their, somehow that report of it came to Paul, whether it was through word of mouth, remember chapter one that he received word from some other folks that had been visiting the church, or the letter perhaps that they had written to him, the Corinthians as a church wrote to Paul. However he found out about it, as he found out about the other issues we've discussed and discovered in chapter all the chapters of 1 Corinthians. We don't know, but he says, look, this is an issue, and this is almost the last issue he's going to address with the church. There's more in chapter 16 about a collection and helping missionaries, you know, traveling workers make sure that they have what they need. But here, this is almost the grand conclusion of all the things, and he emphasizes the reality of a crucified Christ, which, you remember, back in chapter one, so many months, almost a year ago, more than a year ago, probably, that we studied in chapter one, but he says, I preach Christ crucified. To the Jews, a stumbling block. To Gentiles, foolishness. What's this about? But to us who are being saved, it's the wisdom and power of God. This is where it starts. This is the gospel. And it's not like he is making known a new thing to the Corinthians, this new gospel. He just says, I'm reminding you of these things, the wonderful good news, this gracious provision of God for the salvation of lost and ruined sinners. This is the gospel. that he preaches. This is the gospel that has been entrusted to Paul and now giving on to the various churches that he serves in the, you know, the Mediterranean Sea area. And he says, for example, back in chapter 4 and verse 15, if you were to have countless tutors in Christ yet you would not have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. So again, it's not introducing a new subject, a new stuff. He's saying, look, I gave you the gospel to start you, and you know that. And he emphasizes the fact, the certainty that they had, the reality of the power of the gospel to change their lives, to give them hope and assurance of salvation and assurance even that their sins have been forgiven. This is good news for people who can't save themselves. It's not, you know, when we talk about total depravity, It's not that everybody is bad as they could be. Thank God for that. Can you imagine what the world would be like if everybody were as bad as they could be? How horrible. But everybody, everybody born into this world, except our Lord Jesus Christ, of course, everybody born in this world is sinful by nature, sinful to the full extent of our being, that is to say every aspect of our being, physical, mental, relational, social, spiritual, every aspect of that is subject to that depravity, that fallenness, that falling short of God's glory. And the implication then is we're not able to do anything about it. Ephesians 2 talks about us being dead in our trespasses and sins. We're dead in that. We can't save ourselves. We need God to save, and that's what the gospel message is about. How do people get made right with God? How do people have this change, this transformation from what we are, at least what we can see in other people? Oh, that's a sinner over there, but me, I'm pretty good. Compared to that person, man, I've got it made. No, compared to Christ, compared to the Holy God, we are two thumbs down. We are just horrible. We need a savior every day. And so Paul says, I make known to you, I remind you of this gospel. This is a powerful word. And he gives us four different descriptions, qualifications. What do you mean this gospel? Well, here in verses one and two, he has four different statements, each of which have which, W-H-I-C-H, a clause that identifies what kind of gospel is this? Is it a powerful gospel? Where did it come from, Paul? And what does it do for us now? And what is it going to do for us in the future? Or what's the big deal about this gospel? What's the big deal about having a consistent understanding of it? Paul says here, this is the gospel which I proclaimed as good news to you. In fact, the way that he says it here, I preached the gospel. This is the gospel that I preached the gospel to you. In fact, it's that same word from which we get the word evangelical or evangel. The good news is used both in a noun form and on a verb form. I proclaimed, I preached the gospel. And he says, this is what I did. I didn't come, as he said back in chapter one and then to chapter two, I didn't come with all this superiority of wisdom and talking about this philosophy and Plato and Socrates and Aristotle or other philosophers, I came preaching Christ and Him crucified. I came preaching the gospel. I came not with all this superiority of wisdom, all the, you know, with the entourage or whatever. I didn't do it. I came humbly. I came with you with this message which I have been entrusted. In fact, he says that in verse 3, I believe, I delivered to you as a first importance what I also received. It's not something that he made up. I am proclaiming this as an authoritative even witness. And we'll see this. We're not going to focus on it this time. But next time, Lord willing, all the different appearances. Verse 5, he appeared to Cephas, which is Peter, then to the 12, and then more than 500, and so forth. And in verse 8, last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared to me also. Why is that important? Because an Apostle, a capital A Apostle, is one who had eyewitness testimony of the risen Christ. The 12 did. Peter, and James, and John, and the others. Not Judas, of course, because he died before that resurrection. forsook the Lord anyway. But Matthias, remember, Matthias, who was chosen as his successor, he was an eyewitness of the resurrected Christ. And so as an apostle, he is proclaiming this good news. And he's going to identify exactly what the content of the gospel is here. He says, when I came, this is the gospel I preached to you. So it's not like they can claim, well, Paul, you didn't tell us all the ins and outs of the gospel. We didn't know all what the resurrection meant. He says, no. That's exactly what I told you when I was with you for a year and a half preaching the gospel. So Paul, you know, bless his little heart. He's getting perhaps a little exasperated, but not to me. He says, you're my brothers. I'm for you. But listen, you're wrong. You're deficient in this area. Let me help you in this way. because he identifies a second statement, which gospel you also received. And it's not like they could claim, well, you may have preached it, but we didn't. That's not the gospel we believed. No. Paul says, I was there. I heard you. I didn't baptize all of you, because he mentioned that in chapter 1. But he says, I know that you received this. You took this to heart. You accepted this as God's own word, not something that I made up. This is something that you received as somebody does a tradition, a story, not a made up story, but a reality, some history that has happened. You receive that retelling of it. And so that's right. You acknowledge its propriety, its rightness. And you say, yeah, that affects me now. And so Paul underscores the fact This is what I told you and you received it. You didn't question it then. You didn't somehow find fault with it or find it insufficient. You found it to be that which, as it goes on, where you stand. This is where you place your faith and it's by which also you are saved. It's almost like Paul In these last three elements here, he says, it's something that happened in the past, this reception of the gospel. You received it in the past. It is by which right now you stand in the hope of the gospel. And it's by which you are saved. Now, it's a present tense verb, you are saved. But it's almost like you could say, you are being saved. In fact, somebody asked. I think it was a bishop, maybe an Orthodox bishop one time, are you a saved person? And he came back with an answer, or a question I guess, do you mean have I been saved, am I being saved, or will I be saved? And the answer was, Yeah, all those. Because that's what it is. Have you been saved? Have you been justified? Have you been declared righteous? Are you being saved right now, free from the power of sin and walking in the Spirit? Yes, I am right now. Will you be saved from the wrath to come? Yes. So you can see a past, present, and future aspect of the gospel and all these things. He says you received it. You received that. You were justified by grace through faith. Right now you are standing in it. You have this assurance. the promises of God that he is a faithful God, you are the one who is able, God is the one who's able to make us to stand, and then we are being saved by him, we are the saved people. He says, that this standing has some connotation regarding tradition. You receive this, and now you stand in that. You keep that tradition. It's not something that you kind of hold loosely over there, you know, every Sunday, maybe twice a Sunday if you had, you know, couple different meetings of the church, then you bring that whole gospel out and you'd say, yeah, that's good. And then put it back on the shelf and forget about it until next Sunday. No, it's something that characterizes every aspect of your life. It is your hope. It is your confidence. It is on your lips. It is in your mind thinking about, I'm a sinner, but Jesus is a wonderful Savior and he wants me to live a life that pleases him. to serve him. He wants me to tell other people about the glory of the gospel, the provision that God has made for the people lost and ruined sinners. And so it's in which you stand. You have a great confidence in this. You have a great commitment to it. It's not a haphazard or willy-nilly commitment. It's like, oh, I could take it or leave it. No, it's where you stand. It is your only hope of the gospel. And as he says here, by which you're also saved. Save from what? And that's part of the issue now. Do you think preaching the gospel is pretty easy? You just tell people God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. which is true if you're in Christ. Now, he's made wonderful provision for sinners to repent and to place their faith in the Lord, but the question comes, saved from what? What's the big deal? God is so good, God is so loving, surely, you know, I think I'm a pretty good person. I'm not so bad as that person over there, obviously, because you've seen what he did recently, but I'm, you know, Comparatively pretty good. So saved from what? God is a gracious God, a forgiving God. Surely he would, you know, have mercy. Well, he does have mercy on those whom he has mercy, and he has judgment or wrath even on those upon whom he has wrath. And the thing is, Every single person born in this world is subject to God's wrath, except our Lord Jesus Christ, of course. We are all subject to that total depravity, subject to that enmity, the hatred, the animosity we have, the warfare, you know, against God. We hate him. We are treacherous traitors. We're treacherous rebels against his word. And yet those who receive the gospel Remember how Paul says in Romans 1.16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ because it is the power of God unto salvation for those who believe. To the Jew first and also to the Greek. So it's that confidence. The gospel is that power of God to save people. That is what we're talking about. Save people in what way? Saved from God's wrath. Saved from God himself. God has made a way for our sins to be taken from us and to be granted righteousness in its stead. We are saved. We are reconciled to God. And Paul says, look, you know this gospel, I'm reminding you of it, but it's something you, excuse me, something I proclaimed, you received, it's your confidence, your commitment, and it is your hope of, or the assurance rather, of your salvation before the Lord. Now he has this statement at the end of verse two, it's an if, it's a conditional statement. And he says, if you hold fast the word which I proclaimed to you is good news, unless you believed for nothing. And so the question is, oh, so maybe, well, they had received it, right? But now somehow they don't have it anymore. They don't hold fast that word. They don't maintain their commitment to receive this wonderful gospel message, this word which I proclaim to you as good news. And somehow they've maybe fallen away from it. Is it possible then to lose your salvation? Is it possible then for faith, even genuine faith, to result in nothing? unless you believe for nothing, is there then this question that, oh, I guess salvation isn't as secure as I thought. Because it's interesting for those who claim that, yeah, Christians can lose their salvation, somehow then to claim, well, I wouldn't lose my salvation. Actually, I'm pretty got my ducks in a row, got my act together, and whatever. Wait a minute, if you think other people can lose their salvation, how is it that you're so boastful in yourself that you think you can't lose yours? And truly, some other people would say, well, yeah, I live in fear of that too, and I don't have any assurance of salvation. I can just as well fall away from the gospel as other people. No, that's not what is being claimed here, if you hold fast the word, unless you believe for nothing. John, in his wonderful text, talks about the reality that some people, they're not saved. They are not saved. They go out from us. This is 1 John 2, verse 19. about some who had left the church, I thought they were good brothers, I thought they were my people. Well, John says, they went out from us, but they were not really of us. For if they were of us, they would have remained with us. But they went out so that it would be manifested that they all are not of us. That's a lot of words there. What was he saying? If they were truly saved, they're gonna be truly saved eternally. If they're not saved, it's gonna come out one way or another. And even people who claim Christ and even die with that proclamation, and we say, boy, I wish I could see some proof of that in their lives. I wish I could see just even a little bit of appetite for reading God's word and being with God's people. Never saw that, but they say they were, they claim that they were saved back whenever it was. Leave that to the Lord, just trust that God will, not will, he knows, he knows who he is, and we can rest in that knowledge. Even when I'm preaching a funeral that, I don't know, nobody really knows if this person's saved or not, I don't put the person, the man or the woman or the boy or girl in heaven or hell, I just say, this is the gospel that brother, mister, sister, whatever, so and so would want you to know. They want you to know this gospel. Remember how the rich man and Lazarus, hey, go tell my brothers. The rich man said, go tell my brothers that they can escape this horrible, horrible fate. And you can read about that in Luke's gospel. But we recognize the gospel is that power of God unto salvation. I just used gospel in two ways. Did you catch that? The gospel, capital G, of Luke, Matthew, Mark, and John. Did I get all four of them? Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Let me do it in order. That's the telling of Christ's life. The gospel, lowercase g perhaps, is the retelling of the implications of that life, which the other gospels would do as well. But anyway, we have this reality then. It's not that faith can somehow result in nothing. It's that you are mistaken in certain ways. You've been saved, there's no question about that, but is there a consistency in your understanding? For example, if I were to ask this question. Did dinosaurs and humans live at the same time? And what in the world, what's this guy bringing dinosaurs in? Because dinosaurs are, as various people say, just a gateway to creation science. Because you've got to talk about dinosaurs somehow. But did dinosaurs and humans live at the same time? And to the untrained here, which I would, well, To be untrained here, the answer would be, I don't know. Because as science says, they lived 65 million years ago. And humanity didn't come until 300,000 or so years ago. And so no, they didn't live at the same time. Well, wait a minute. When were dinosaurs made according to the scriptures? Well, they're land animals, right? So they were made on day six. What about humans? Humans are humans. They're not mammals, right? We're humans. Also created on day six. Six, so that's like millions of years apart? No, it's the same time. And so the implication is, did really dinosaurs and humans live at the same time? A consistent understanding of the scripture would say, yes, they did. And they had a good time. until the fall, of course, and then all things kind of fell apart after that time, of course, no pun intended, or maybe pun intended, I don't know. But we see that there is a consistency issue. If, in fact, the scripture claims this, but we somehow, either in a misunderstanding or just not fully getting the consistent, well, if this is true, then my thinking in this way needs to reflect that. So in the Corinthian situation, if, in fact, Christ has been raised, then the Corinthian claim that there is no resurrection, well, that's not true at all. And so Paul is focusing back, bringing the Corinthian attention back on the gospel. You know, it's what I preached, what you believed. Christ died, was buried, and he rose again. That is your faith. That is the basis of any expectation of life, of forgiveness, of the assurance of salvation in Christ's resurrection. So how can you say there is no resurrection? You see the implication, the consistency. If they were to believe in vain, that somehow this whole issue of resurrection, that's just for Jesus, and it really doesn't affect us. No, I didn't teach you that. That's not what you should get out of this whole idea. So again, the correction is very kind, but very forceful, very intentional. Paul says, you be consistent in your understanding, consistent in your application of the truths of the gospel for your own sake. And so we recognize, wow, we have a wonderful telling of this gospel here. as it's rehearsed, but then in the first couple of verses, but here as it's deliberately explicated, detailed. built out? What are the necessary components? What must you believe to be saved? Well, at least these things. And the gospel, by the way, is larger than these things, because again, it says that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. Well, I mean, you have to really back up, who's Christ again? What sins? What are sins? What are the scriptures? So you really have to back up out of these things. The Corinthians knew all these truths as Paul had detailed them to them. And Paulus, of course, preached in the Corinth as well. But Paul says in verse 3, I delivered, again the whole idea of something Paul received and now he passed it on to the Corinthians. I delivered to you as of, and notice it says, first importance. Not chronologically first, because it's not that Paul didn't preach the gospel, you know, having been saved and went right to Corinth. No, he preached the gospel elsewhere. But these are the key things you need to know about salvation doctrine. This is what you need to understand to be saved. I gave that to you. You received it. It is the transmission from Jesus himself to Paul and now to the Corinthian people because he says, I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received. Paul makes that point in Galatians chapter 1. You know, if you were to believe a gospel, even hear a gospel contrary to the one that we already preached to you, no, don't listen to that. That is a false gospel. Even if I were to come, Paul says, or an angel from heaven were to come and preach to you a gospel contrary to what you've already received, don't listen. That is a false gospel. there is the great necessity of proper transmission, proper communication of this gospel from generation to generation to generation, the faithful proclamation, preaching of the gospel, but also living that gospel. Paul, again, remember back in chapter 11, verse 1, follow my example as I follow Christ's example. And so we see that not just the words that we speak, but the life that we live needs to be conformed to that beautiful gospel message. I gave to you, it's the primary thing. You receive this as, if you don't mind, gospel truth. This is important, he says. And then he lists several things, four things particularly here, and they're all introduced with this phrase that. You see it there in verse three. that he died, that Christ died in verse four, that he was buried, and that he was raised, and then verse five, and that he appeared. So you see those four different aspects, the death, burial, resurrection, and appearances, the manifestations, not just in a weird woo-woo kind of way, but there he is, and you touch him, and you give him food, and there he is physically present. So these four key aspects of the gospel, Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, This is Christ, the Messiah, Jesus, and again, Jesus Christ. Christ is not his last name, it's a title. Jesus the Christ, you could say, or Jesus, you know, Christ is the Greek word, Greek word for what is translated from the Hebrew Messiah, Messiah, Messiah and Christ, Hebrew and Greek means the same, anointed one, that one who is useful to God in particular ways. It's Christ, Jesus Christ himself, the Son of God, the second person of the triune Godhead, the one who was born of the Virgin Mary, the one who lived a wonderful, perfect life, always abiding, always pleasing the Lord, always doing exactly what God the Father wanted him to do, who died. And you think, you know, usually when we talk about good news, it's not, hey, good news, Jesus died. You think, wow, Jesus died? Or your family member, your loved one, or, hey, good news, If we say, hey, good news, some evil, nasty terrorist person over here, he died. Well, that might be cause for celebration in a somber kind of way, knowing that he's going into his eternal ward. Even as you read Revelation 20, right? All those armies that rise up to fight against the Lord and his people, God will judge. And he will take the devil and all the people that followed him and cast them into that lake of fire, which burns forever and ever. There is judgment. But here, the good news is, in fact, Jesus died. And we think, well, why'd he have to die again? I thought Jesus was going to come and reign and do all that. He is, yes, no question about that. But first, he had to come and suffer. He had to come and give himself as a ransom, a payment, in fact, for our sins. He had to satisfy God's wrath. Why? Because the wages of sin is death. death. Either you die for your sins, which I don't recommend, because it's not like you can get out of that. It's not like there's something after death. Hey, I died for my sins, where's my reward? You don't get a reward. You did what is just. You died for your own guilt, your transgression, your violating God's righteousness and God's law. And there's no reward, no answer for that. You died justly. But for Christ to die for our sins, Jesus, who did nothing wrong, always was pleasing to the Father, three different times by Pontius Pilate himself says, I find no guilt in this man. There's no reason that he needs to be put to death, and other people as well would say, there's no reason for him to be put to death, except other people said, no, put him to death, because he claims to be king, and we have no king but Caesar, and all this nonsense going on. Jesus was born to die. It's very similar. And notice it says here, according to the scriptures, it's not a new thing. It's not a surprise. Oh, Jesus died. How'd that happen? Oh, God forbid that that should happen. Which is what Peter said back in Matthew 16. Remember? No, Lord, that's not going to happen to you. Go to Jerusalem and die and all the resurrection and all that nonsense. No, you're not going to die. You're going to live. Jesus responds, of course, get behind me, Satan. You are setting your mind on man's interest, not God's interest. God's interest, God's promised from the beginning, even Genesis 3.15, that he would raise up a redeemer from the seed of woman, and that is our Lord Jesus Christ. We see, according to the scriptures, not an accident, didn't come to Jesus by, oh, surprise, that, oh, they're gonna kill me? How could that? I thought I've done good for them. I've been healing their people. I've been preaching good things, and they're gonna kill me? Why would that ever happen? This is according to the scriptures. It is written to be fulfilled. And we can go back to Genesis, we can read other places, Psalm 16, Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, key texts about the suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ for our sins. He bore in His body Our sins died on the tree. As the scripture says, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. That's our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for our sins according to the scriptures. He didn't die for his own sins. He didn't have any sins to suffer for. He was unjustly, humanly speaking, unjustly entrusted to that cross and yet he bore the sin of many. He died a sacrificial substitutionary death. He died in our place and his death is then counted as our death such that we can have the reality of justification. Now there are a lot of terms in here that I might use and two words that kind of relate to each other, but they're under the category, I would say, of justification, being declared righteous. It is that idea that we are justified by grace through faith. And there is an issue, though, with this reality of, well, Jesus died for our sins, but we really have to add to it. We really need to add to Christ's grace, the grace that he gives to us, we need to add to it even from a treasury of merit, as a Roman Catholic Church would teach, and others as well would teach works righteousness. And it really confuses the issue. If we're justified by grace through faith, if we are declared legally righteous before God, then what is there to add to that? If God accepts us in the Beloved, what is there to add to it? Are we somehow, is Christ's offering of himself insufficient to accomplish his intention to save sinners? These two words that are related, expiation and propitiation, both Latin-based words, but they have the idea of To exit a building is to go out, right? So when we talk about expiation, it is taking away something. It's removing guilt. It is removing that rightful status as guilty, guilty, guilty sinners before a holy and righteous God. expiation, the implication, the reality of Christ dying for us, for our sins, it means the guilt. Our guilt has been taken away. We are no longer guilty. Psalm 32, just a wonderful telling of that. How blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven, whose transgressions are covered. I think it may be reverse those issues, but wow, it's so wonderful. And keeping silent, Psalm 51, keeping silent about a sin, that's no good. That's horrible, that's death in a pot. We just, we don't like that. But to remove guilt, to be expiated, to have our guilt taken away by Christ's resurrection, death, burn, resurrection, and appearances. Well then there's this related word, propitiation, to be not just taken, the guilt taken away, but okay, what's left? Just neutral person? No, we are granted favor, we are granted righteousness. Second Corinthians five, 21, He made Him, God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. He took the sin of ours, put it on Christ. We're no longer guilty for our sin. But then He granted us, He propitiated righteousness to us, granted that by grace. So now we have favor. Well, if these two aspects of salvation are part of justification, being declared righteous, and we have our guilders removed, and we have favor with God, then what is there to add to that? Salvation is based on Christ's death. resurrection. Our faith in that. We put our faith in that. We stand in that truth. Now we want to please Him in our lives, but that's not a basis of our salvation. That's not something that we say, you know, Jesus got me started. I'm doing, you know, I'm thankful for His kind of getting me on the road to glory, and I can take it over from here kind of thing. That's the Galatian heresy. Having begun by the Spirit, do you think you now can be perfected by the flesh? What kind of foolishness is that? You are Christ all along. And if Christ's sacrifice of himself is not sufficient, then nothing you can do or not do is going to add to that. You are cooked, your goose is cooked, and it's, you know, Thanksgiving evening. Does that even make sense? I have no idea. Forget about that. But the whole idea of somehow we can make God more happy with us by our own actions or, you know, I didn't do this or I did do that. No. Our guilt has been removed and we have the favor, we have God's pleasure. upon us because of what Christ has done. So those two elements are very important to recognize about what Christ has done. That it says, He died for our sins. Remember back in chapter 11, speaking about the Lord's Supper, Jesus says, this bread is my body, which is for you. And then the cup, This cup is the blood of the new covenant, my blood of the new covenant, which is given for you, this whole death idea. He secures our salvation. It's not something that we can say, thank you, Jesus, for that good start or that head start toward glory. No. Christ is our salvation. Christ is our righteousness. Christ is our life. And Paul says, look, you know this. I'm not telling anything new. You know this. Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. So many different scriptures we could look at. I mentioned several. But even as Luke summarizes in Luke 24, when Jesus is walking with the two guys in Emmaus, or to Emmaus, just west of Jerusalem, and they talk about the sadness that we thought Jesus, this guy from Nazareth, was gonna do this. And Jesus says, you guys are just slow of heart to understand. Everything the prophets have written, was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer and then to enter into his glory? Haven't you read the scriptures? And then, right, beginning from Moses and all through the rest, he explained to him everything concerning himself in all the scriptures. So again, this is not something new. It's not something that took God by surprise. Oh no, Jesus is dead. What am I going to do about that now? It was always the plan that Jesus was going to die for sinners. Christ died for sins, for our sins, according to the scriptures. He accomplished a purchase of salvation. Now, it says in verse 4 that he was buried, a second reality. You think, what's the big deal about him being buried? Well, it is a confirmation of his death. In fact, Christ had to die. Somebody has to die for sin. Christ did in the most publicly demonstrable or provable way possible. In that first century world, crucifixion Again, and there is only one example that I have found in all the thousands, if not more than that. Just so many crucifixions that the Romans did, and other Persians did similar things too. But the Romans were very, almost perfected the art of execution. And it was a publicly demonstrable, there's no question, whoever's on that cross, the only way they're coming down is dead. Now, there's one exception you can read about in history where a one person, a criminal type, or it was a soldier, I forget who it was, but he was a friend of a Roman general or something and says, well, get him down, give him my best medical care, surgeons and all this, but he still died. He came down from the cross alive, which nobody comes down from the cross alive unless they have friends, right? But even so, he died. In other words, that is the most publicly verifiable death possible, and he was buried. Are you serious? Cause again, get back into the Corinthian mindset. Oh, you mean, oh, dead body and everything. And they buried them. Good for that. They put that body in the grave. That's good because now we're going to, he's going to be a spiritual person, right? Christ is, spiritual body. No, he was buried to prove that he was alive, but then he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. And you think, well, raised to spiritual life, right? And Paul's gonna get into that. How does the body come? What's the resurrection like? And we'll get into that here in just a moment. But this idea of taking a corpse, a dead body, and then raising that back to life, how gross is that? No, this is life. And it's not like the resurrection of Christ is similar to other raising up, for example, of Jesus' friend Lazarus or Jairus' daughter who was resurrected, raised back to life. They didn't receive a resurrection body. They received the same body they were. They were revived, maybe would be a better way to understand it. In other words, Jesus alone, at this point in history, is the only one who has a resurrection body. Later on we'll see in chapter 15, he is the first fruits of those who believe. He is the first one to receive that, not flesh and blood, but that glorified, wonderful, incorruptible body. And so he says here, Jesus is raised. And it says on the third day, according to the scriptures. He could have said, according to the scriptures, with burial. It's not as prevalent. Reading about the burial, Psalm 16 may be referencing that. You do not allow your holy one to see corruption. And even Isaiah 53, his lot was assigned with wicked men. Normally, Jesus, his body would have been taken down, dead body, along with the other two people, his body would have been taken down and thrown into a common grave. or just let for the dogs to go and, or the birds of the air to come and feast on their flesh. So Jesus was, you know, if things had, if Joseph and Nicodemus hadn't intervened and taken Jesus' body, he would have been left alone. And Isaiah 53 speaks about that entirely. His lot was assigned with him, but he was with a rich man in his death, and he did not suffer that same fate. So you get the idea of burial also being, according to scriptures, but being raised on the third day. And Jesus himself mentions this. Remember how he referenced Jonah? These people, he says, they want a sign. The only sign going to be given to them now is the sign of the prophet Jonah. What sign is that, Jesus? Three days and three nights in the belly of the earth. And you think, OK, three days and three nights, because that's what Jonah was in the belly of the fish for that long. And you think, OK, Jesus, as we understand, crucified on a Friday. died and buried on Friday. So Friday night, Saturday, Sunday. That's three days, but only two nights. So how does that work? There's an explanation. You can come and ask me about that. But my point is, Jesus, when he's talking about a third day, it's the day after tomorrow, as we would understand it. the third day. And so he says, just like the prophet Jonah, this is how this same happened. He was raised on the third day. Notice it's a passive idea. It's not something, even though the scripture does make both claims, I have, Jesus says, I have the power to lay down my life and the power to take it back up. That power is given me by the, by my father. Here he says, God raised him on the dead. It's a passive voice. He was raised. By whom? Not the, the guards around the tomb, not the lady, they didn't come to resurrect Jesus, not his apostles coming to have a little resurrection service, it's God himself who raised Jesus from the dead. And that is the reality. According to the scriptures, exactly what God had promised, this is what's going to happen. Why did Jesus need to be raised? To prove that his salvation, excuse me, to prove that his death was satisfying, accomplish exactly what God says. If it was not satisfying, do you think God the Father would raise him back from the dead? You know, if his sacrifice was insufficient, ah, he's an embarrassment to me. This Jesus, yeah, he didn't do exactly what I wanted, so I'm gonna disown him. I'm gonna, you know, persona non grata, he's not welcome. I'm gonna find somebody else. But God raised him from the dead to prove that his death was sufficient, that it accomplished exactly what he wanted to have happen. such that, you could read in Philippians 2, therefore God also highly exalted him, God the Father highly exalted Christ, and gave him a name, which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, and not just you say the name Jesus and people shake, that could happen, but the power, the authority, the identity, the character, the reputation of Jesus, at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, in heaven, on earth, under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Amen. Wow, Philippians 2, 9 through 11. He was raised, God raised him to prove that he is, in fact, king of kings, Lord of lords, sufficient savior for those who put their faith in him. He is the one who accomplished salvation. And he says, this is the gospel I preach to you. This is the gospel that you receive, that you stand in right now, and it's saving you. And OK, let me push your understanding. Next time we're going to do this. But Paul says, let me help you understand the implications of this. because when Christ appeared in his resurrection body, he wasn't a spirit, he wasn't a phantasm, he wasn't something that people just catch a glimpse of in the corner of their eye and then they look and he's gone. He was with them, and not just one person, not just one time, multiple people, and not just one at a time kind of situation, but over 500 brothers at one time. And then even to me, why does Paul list himself last? We'll see about that, just a glorious retelling, and again, the idea that Paul is so grateful for the salvation that he received, because he was a persecutor of the church. You understand that? The other people who saw Jesus, I mean, they had a reason to want to see Jesus. But Paul, I want him dead. This Jesus of Nazareth, curse his name, what his idea was. So he was an antagonist, wholly opposed to what Jesus was about. But he saw him. And how that even works together is just a wonderful way. You can read ahead, of course, in the next several verses. But we see this gospel that has implications for every aspect of our lives. It is that wonderful faith in which we stand. We have that assurance. We have that confidence that Christ did die for our sins, that he was raised for our justification, that he is the one who accomplished, purchased salvation for us, and we will see how that affects even how we understand our own personal future, resurrection from the dead and so forth. So we rejoice in that knowledge, we Please do read ahead in chapter 15. Become very familiar with this text because it is powerful. It is hope-giving. It is victorious. It is transcendent in so many different ways. And it gives us hope each day of our lives. Our Father in heaven, we're so grateful for your message and the truth of your word. We pray that it would be powerful. in the here's even this morning that you would save and sanctify us for your glory we're so grateful that you are the saving god you're the merciful god and you are the one who saves any who would call upon you we pray that that would be true of each one Whatever our age or stage or situation, we pray that each one would be right before you, justified by your grace through our faith, our turning away from sin, turning to Christ and his righteousness. We are grateful for the Apostle Paul and his burden to see Christ formed in his his brothers in the Corinthian church and the church in Colossae and Ephesus and other churches as well. We pray that that would be so in Liberty Bible Church. Please help us to grow and become mature in our understanding of who Christ is, what he has accomplished for us, and to rejoice in that, be confident in it, and to give that wonderful good message to others who also need this message of salvation. We are so thankful. Please save and sanctify by your grace. We pray in his name. Amen.