THE KING’S BUSINESS
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hope resting upon a solid fact (cf. 2. Cor. 4:14; 1 Thes. 4:14). It presents to us a Saviour who not only save's from the guilt of sin by His atoning death, but who also saves from the power of sin by His resurrection life (cf. Rom. 6:4, 11-13; 7:4; 5:10; Heb. 7:25). All believers are identi fied with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection (2 Cor. 5:14 R. V.; Rom. 6:1, 2, 4 R. V. ; Eph. 2 :5, 6 ). This, then, says Paul, is “the Gospel which I preached unto you.” It is not a lot of theological propositions but three simple but great land significant facts, and any man who really believes these facts will be saved (Rom. 1:16; 10:9, 10). If anyone believes that Christ died for his sins and shows the .reality of his faith by believing that God forgives his sins because Jesus died, died in his place, that one is forgiven every sin he ever committed and they are blotted out forever (Acts 13:38, 39). Such an one will have an heart full of love to his Sav iour and yield his whole life to Him (2 Cor. 5:14, 15)., Furthermore if anyone believes that Christ rose again and shows the reality of his faith by looking to this resurrected Christ to save him from the power of his sins and tó give Jhim power to bring forth fruit unto God, such an one will not only be saved from the guilt of sin, but from the power of sin and will bring forth fruit unto Gbd. To enjoy the fulness of the saving power of this Gospel we must* “ hold fast the Word (v. 2 R. V.),” that is, thè word Paul preached, the word that Christ died, was buried and rose again. God’s Word con- of Christ, held fast in the mind and heart cerning the death, burial and resurrection is what keeps us fully saved (cf. Ps. 19:11). If we do not hold the word fast we have “believed in vain (cf. Luke 8:12- 13 R. V.).” Anyone who really believes and is therefore really saved will hold fast the word: the decisive proof of the reality of faith is thus holding fast (Heb. 10:39 R. V.). Paul is about to summarize the testimony of the living witnesses of the revelation to prove the reality of the death
of Christ for our sins and His resurrec tion ; but before he does so he tells of a more sure word of Scripture: he says, “Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture,” (see Isa. 53:8, 10, 12; Dan. 9:26 and all the typical sacrifices of the O. T.). He says further, He was “raised on the third day according to the Scrip ture” (Ps. 16:10; cf. John 11:39 and Acts 2:24-32). Sunday, December 23 . 1 Corinthians 15:5-8. Paul now proceeds to give some of the conclusive proofs of the third part of hi? gospel, namely, that He was raised on the third day. He does not give all the instances in which Christ appeared to peo ple after His resurrection, but the lead ing and typical instances. .There were enough of these to prove the fact of His resurrection beyond the possibility of an honest doubt. Before taking up the instances here related it is well to bear in mind that the First Epistle to the Cor inthians is one of the epistles of which the Pauline authorship has never been denied, even by the rationalistic critics who are so fond of pulling the Bible to pieces and saying that its various books were written by other men than those whose names they have borne from the earliest times. It is admitted by all that Paul wrote this book. Its testimony, therefore, has .very great weight. In the fifth verse Paul tells us that Jesus was seen after His resurrection by Cephas (i.e., Peter). This appearance is recorded in Luke 24:34. Peter’s own tes timony to the resurrection of Jesus we find in the Gospel of Mark, which is Peter’s gospel, Mark writing for him. With that custom, which was so characteristic of the gospel writers, of putting themselves to the background, this appearance to Peter of Jesus after His resurrection is not related in Mark. Peter’s direct testimony to the resurrection of Christ is also found in his epistle (1 Peter 1:3). As Paul was intimately acquainted with Peter, meeting him on various occasions, his testimony here given that the risen Lord was seen
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