THE KING’S BUSINESS
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had seen with his own eyes was confirmed by the testimony of many others up to the number of 500, most of whom were still living when Paul wrote. The Gospel that Paul preached is therefore a positive cer tainty. Let us look at this Gospel more closely. (1) “Christ died for (more lit erally, on behalf of) our sins.” That is to say, our sins made Christ’s death neces sary (cf. Rom. 4 :25; Isa. 53: 6 ; Heb. 9 :22). But that is not all, by His death on our behalf all our sins were forever atoned for and settled (Gal. 3:13; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 John 2:2; 3:5). This is what Christ Himself claimed (Matt. 20:21; John 3:16) and God set His seal upon this claim of Christ by raising Him from the dead (Rom. 4:25). The first great truth of the Gospel then is that Christ has made a perfect atone ment for sin, and that, on the ground of His atoning death, full and free forgive ness is offered to everyone who believes on Him (Acts 10:43), and that everyone^ who does believe is justified from all things (Acts 13:38, 39). (2) “He was buried.” We were buried with Him. In His burial our sins were buried, our old self is buried and the way is opened for us ta be raised to an entirely new life (cf. Rom. 6:4; Col. 2:11, 12; 3:3).- The burial of Christ is not merely incidental to His death, but an essential and deeply significant part of the Gospel. In the passage before us and in experience, His burial is more closely associated with His resurrection than with His death. Thank God for the grave of Christ into which we go down with Him and leave our sins and our past and our old self behind, that we may be raised into newness of life with Him and put on the new man, even Christ Jesus Himself (Rom. 6:6 R. V., 6:11; Eph. 4:22-24; Gal. 3:27). (3) “He hath been raised.” That He hath been raised is a fact and it is a fact full of meaning. It proves His Deity (Rom. 1:4). It proves that God has accepted the atonement He made (Rom. 4:25). It proves that we too shall rise, and so we have no longer a merely spec ulative hope of immortality, but a certain
gances must be checked; God commands it.- In the rightly ordered assembly there will be liberty coupled with orderliness. S aturday, D ecem ber 22. i Corinthians 15 : 1 - 4 • Paul now sets forth the nature and cer- tainty of the Gospel. He begins by giving a very simple arid yet at the same time a very full definition of the gospel which he preached. He says, “I make known unto you, brethren, the Gospel which I preached unto you.” The word translated “gospel” means “good news" or “glad tidings.” The good news that Paul preached was simply this: (1) “Christ died for our sins.” (2) “Christ was buried.” ((3) ‘Christ hath been raised on the third day.” These are the three facts, fully certified, that consti tute the gospel that Paul preached. Note carefully the Gospel is not theories, nor doctrines, but facts; the fact that Christ died, the fact that He was buried, the fact that He rose again. The Gospel is not theological guesses but clearly observed and accurately reported facts. Our faith and our salvation does not rest upon the insecure foundation of anybody’s reason ings; it does not rest upon the insecure foundation of the reasonings of great the-' ologians or philosophers; it does not rest upon the insecure foundation of the dog mas of Pope or priest or preachers; it does not even rest upon the foundation of the reasoning of the inspired apostle; our faith and our salvation rests upon the solid and absolutely immovable foundation of facts about which there can be no honest question. Paul in preaching this Gospel was not guessing. He knew that Christ died for our sins, he knew that Christ was buried, he knew that Christ had risen again. Of this last fact, the fact that He had risen again, the fact which confirmed all the rest, he had the very best evidence possible, viz., he had received it from those who had been eye witnesses of the resurrection,* not one but many, and fur thermore, he himself had seen Jesus after His resurrection, had seen Him in the glory with his own eyes. What he himself
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