(1) Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; (2) By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. (3) For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; (4) And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures: (5) And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: (6) After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. (7) After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. (8) And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. (9) For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. (10) But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. (11) Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed.
The great and leading point, to which, by God the Holy Ghost, the Apostle's mind was here directed, was to teach the Church the glorious doctrine of the Resurrection. And never can the Church of God be sufficiently thankful to the Lord the Spirit, for his servant's ministry on this momentous truth, as here set forth in this blessed chapter. Reader! let us both look up, and bless God for it, as we enter upon the perusal of it; and beg for grace, so to read, and understand, as to have that blessedness of participation, promised to the members of Christ s body, on whom the second death had no power, Revelation 20:6
The Apostle begins the subject, with calling the doctrine of the resurrection, in a comprehensive manner, the Gospel. And, in fact, so it is. For it forms the key-stone of the arch. On the troth of which, the whole building is knit together. And, it is worthy the Reader's observation, that after Christ's return to glory, and the descent of God the Holy Ghost upon the minds of the Apostles; their whole preaching was called, a witness of Christ's resurrection, Acts 1:22. And the most galling part of the Apostles' ministry to the Jews was, that they preached, through Jesus, the resurrection from the dead, Acts 4:33; Acts 4:33. Paul's preaching at Athens, was considered as a setter forth of strange gods, because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection, Acts 17:18. Reader! you may learn from hence, the infinite importance of the doctrine itself. It is, as Paul here told the Corinthians, the very source of salvation, from death and the grave; By which, said he, ye are saved: that is, in the resurrection of Christ. Not by our memory of it, or even by our stedfastness in the faith of it; for the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is a sure, certain, and unquestionable fact in itself, whether believed in or not. And blessed be God, the salvation of Christ's Church, is founded in Christ himself; not in the highest act of belief in his people. But the Apostle's meaning, when he saith: By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you; that is, your joy in it, and your comfort from it, shall be unbroken, and become to you an evidence, that ye are saved in Christ, with an everlasting salvation, by this holding fast, and retaining the cordial belief of it, in a practical use of it, upon your heart and conscience. To the same purport is what the Apostle adds, when he saith: unless ye have believed in vain. There can be no such thing as true believing in vain: For that faith which is of the Spirit of God, the faith of God's elect; Titus 1:1, is a living principle in the soul, inwrought by the Holy Ghost at regeneration : and being from Him, and kept alive by Him, who is the Author and Finisher of faith, liveth and abideth forever. So that the Lord's redeemed ones, whom Christ himself calls, the children of the resurrection, Luke 20:36, cannot but believe; neither can they believe in vain. The resurrection itself is in them a principle giving life. They have, by virtue of their union with Christ, part in the first resurrection; being by regeneration begotten to this lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, 1 Peter 1:3. Hence the principle is secured in Christ their Head, who hath said : Because I live, ye shall live also, John 14:19. Their comfort, their joy, their happiness, will indeed be more, or less lively, according to the greater, or less degree of their daily actings of faith, upon the Person and finished work of Christ. But, their security is not in their views of Christ, but in Christ himself. That faith, or belief, which is vain, and floats but in the memory, can be nothing more than what is historical. If there were any of this description, which had crept into the Church at Corinth; the Church itself, from what the Apostle here said, might detect such characters, and mark the difference in themselves.
The Apostle, having paved the way for the great subject he had in view, now proceeds to remind the Church of the outlines of all his preaching, in relation to the Person, offices, character, royalty, perfections, and glory, of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul demands the attention of the Church yet more, because, what he had delivered unto them, he had received himself from the Lord. Reader! I pray you everlastingly to keep in recollection, this grand feature of Paul's ministry. From whom was Paul taught what he delivered to others? Nay, let himself answer the question. I certify to you, brethren, (said Paul, in his Epistle to the Church of Galatia), that the Gospel which was preached of me, is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. See Galatians 1:10-16. And, as Paul was miraculously converted by the Lord, from Heaven : Acts 9:1-22, so was he specially ordained to the ministry, by the ordination of God the Holy Ghost, Acts 13:1-4. Reader! you would do well, when at any time, Satan or the world tempt you, to pause, at any of the precious truths of God, delivered by Paul, to have these things in remembrance!
I do not think it necessary to swell these pages, in making observations on this sermon of the Apostle's, the heads of which he hath here given, of what he had before preached to the Corinthian Church. Of the death Of Christ, according to the prediction of the scriptures of the Prophets; the Evangelists have very fully related. The Reader would find it profitable, as he peruseth the wonderful history, to compare the one with the other: Genesis 3:15; Psalms 22:1; Psalms 69:1; Isaiah 53:1; Daniel 9:1; Zechariah 13:7; Zechariah 13:7. And let him also consult the typical representations, under the law : Exodus 12:1; Leviticus 16:1; Numbers 21:9 with John 3:14. So again, of the resurrection of Christ, which Paul also noticeth, that it was according to the Scriptures, Psalms 16:10; Isaiah 26:19; Hosea 6:2
We cannot sufficiently admire the air of holy triumph, with which the Apostle here speaks, of the many appearances of Christ to his disciples, after he arose from the dead. Five hundred brethren at once, and which, saith Paul at the time he wrote this Epistle, (which was not above five and twenty years from the period of Christ's resurrection), the greater part remain unto this present. As much as to say, whoever doubts the fact, may get full assurance of its truth from the persons themselves. Paul's personal knowledge of Christ's resurrection arose from no less than four distinct manifestations, which the Lord Jesus made of himself to the Apostle. See Acts 9:1; Acts 18:9-10; Acts 22:17-21; Acts 23:11. I might have included also those other two instances recorded, Acts 27:23-25, and 2 Corinthians 12:2-4, for it would be difficult, if not impossible, to prove that Christ, who, in his mediator-office and character, is frequently called the Angel of the Covenant, (Malachi 3:1.) was not in the one, and did not manifest himself to his servant in the other, Luke 23:43
I must not detain the Reader in a long notice of Paul's humbleness of soul, in the account he here gives of himself. The chief object of this chapter is to be contemplating what Paul saith of our Lord, and not the servant. But by the way, let not the Reader overlook how much grace humbles, when the greatest of all the Apostles calls himself the least of all saints. Reader! what are we, what is every man in his highest attainments, if considered but for a moment, without Christ. And, oh! what a blessed thing must it be for you, for me, for all the chosen seed, when we can say as Paul here did, by the grace of God I am what I am! Yes! it is all of grace, God's original choice, our regeneration, calling, redeeming, justifying, sanctifying, adopting, and ultimately being glorified; the whole Church trace all their mercies to grace, from one eternity to another, and every step in the way, during the present time-state in which the Church is conducting home to glory, hath this inscription marked as we go, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved, Ephesians 1:6.