Paul's Gospel.
I. We have here Paul's gospel in its substance. "How that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures." (1) The great peculiarity, and the great blessedness and sign of the universal adaptation of Christianity, is, that it tells the story of things that happened on this green solid earth of ours. (2) Paul's gospel fastened, as its central fact, on the death and accompanying burial, and the consequent resurrection, of Jesus Christ. There is the vital centre of the gospel.
II. Note what we learn here of Paul's gospel in its power. He specifies two of its mighty influences upon men "wherein ye stand," "by which also ye are saved."
III. Note what our text tells us of Paul's gospel in its conditions. (1) There must be a solid faith, not a faith which is lightly and without due cause taken up. (2) The other condition is that continuous grasp of the truth which makes the essence of the gospel. It is whilst you believe that the gospel is saving you.
A. Maclaren, Christian Commonwealth,May 27th, 1886.
References: 1 Corinthians 15:1-4. C. Kingsley, National Sermons,p. 285. 1 Corinthians 15:1-11. Homilist,vol. vi., p. 190. 1 Corinthians 15:2. J. Edmunds, Sixty Sermons,p. 335. 1 Corinthians 15:3. Preacher's Monthly,vol. vii., p. 261; W. J. Knox-Little, The Mystery of Sorrow,p. 1. 1 Corinthians 15:3; 1 Corinthians 15:4. Preacher's Monthly,vol. iv., p. 105.