1 Corinthians 15:3, commentary and pictures

Christ died for human sin exactly as the Scriptures foretold, was buried and rose again the third day, and this was first among what Paul had received and passed on. He died because humanity had transgressed God's holy law, giving His life as substitute and sin-bearer to satisfy justice and vindicate the law, which His death magnified and honored rather than abolished. No one can earn God's favor by merits, works or religious observances, but helpless sinners are saved solely by trusting the merits of His blood and His resurrection. He did not remain in the grave but rose as conqueror and ascended to intercede, bringing life and immortality to light and settling the future resurrection of the just. This crucified and risen Savior is therefore the center of preaching and living faith, to be proclaimed for forgiveness and followed in self-denial and holy living.

Gospel Paul Received Delivered

The first thing handed on exactly as it had been received is that Christ died for sins in fulfillment of the Scriptures, was buried, and rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures. That death and resurrection were confirmed by witnesses seen in order: first Cephas, then the twelve, then above five hundred brethren at once, most of whom were still living while some had fallen asleep, then James, then all the apostles, and last by Paul himself as one born out of due time.

Christ's death for human sin in fulfillment of the Scriptures belongs to the gospel that was both received and preached. It stands at the center of proclaiming Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah and as the crucified and risen Savior.

This gospel was boldly preached in Damascus, where arguments drawn from prophecy showed Jesus to be the promised Messiah. It was presented in Lystra with His rejection, trial, and death set together with His resurrection and ascension as the story of the Son of God who came because He loved humanity. Proclaiming the crucified and risen Savior before a vast audience was a victory for truth that began a work powerful enemies could not stop.

Christ Died for Sins

Christ died for the sins of the whole world as a ransom planned beforehand and accepted by the Father. He willingly stood between the wrath of the Father and guilty people to bear iniquity and scorn with the weight of the sins of the whole world upon Him. He left all His glory in heaven to appear on earth as a man, humbling Himself and taking fallen human nature with strength lower than angels. By His own experience He became acquainted with the temptations besetting people so that He knows how to help those who are tempted.

Though He was the Son of God, few would receive Him and nearly all would hate and reject Him. After His work as a teacher He was delivered into the hands of men to endure almost every cruelty and suffering that Satan and his angels could inspire wicked men to inflict. He died the cruelest of deaths, hung between heaven and earth as a guilty sinner. His suffering was dreadful bodily agony and still greater mental agony under that weight of sin, which even angels could not look upon but must veil their faces from.

No angel's life could pay the debt; His life alone is accepted as a ransom, and by His death He saves many. He died and rose again the third day and ascended to His Father to intercede for wayward, guilty humanity. Angels were appointed as witnesses who strengthened Him and shared in His resurrection without preventing His sufferings.

His death was the crowning, voluntary sacrifice that completed His mission to save fallen humanity. As the antitypical Passover Lamb He offered Himself as an oblation for human sin. His entry into Jerusalem called attention to that coming sacrifice. The events of His final days were made publicly visible so that His death and its meaning could not be forgotten, and its facts are to be firmly established as a subject of deep thought and study for the church in every age.

Fulfilled According to Scriptures

His death was part of the scriptural prophecies of His first coming, foretold in Scripture as dying for human sin. That foretelling stands together with His resurrection and His work as intercessor as central to the message of salvation. Recognizing Him as the promised Messiah opens the meaning of prophecies once failed to be understood. The cross is therefore to be central in presenting the broken law to fallen people, because Christ is the sin-pardoning Savior and the sinner's hope, with unlimited power to forgive, and preaching the crucified and risen Christ gives new power and effectiveness to the message of truth.

His rejection as Messiah, His humiliation and death were ordained in heaven in the councils between the Father and Himself and foretold by men inspired by the Holy Spirit. He opened the Scriptures to prove that all He had told beforehand had come to pass, teaching diligent searching to see that every specification of prophecy concerning Him had been fulfilled. This proves His kingdom was not meant to be temporal and He was not to reign as an earthly king on David's throne, but a spiritual kingdom. He offered up His life for the sins of the world in fulfillment of prophecies referring to His future sufferings and death, so that those events would not come as new and unexpected to His followers. His being separated from His parents and lost to them and sought sorrowing for three days after the Passover foreshadowed that when slain for the sins of the world He would be separated from them and lost to them for three days. After those three days He would reveal Himself to them and be found of them, so their faith would rely upon Him as the Redeemer of the fallen race, the Advocate with the Father in their behalf.

Law Honored by Death

Christ died for sins because of transgression of God's holy law, becoming the sin-bearer for man. The only-begotten Son of God gave His life to satisfy justice and to vindicate the honor of the law, giving Himself as substitute and surety. Though Himself undeserving He took the punishment the guilty deserved, so that the fallen degraded by sin might be uplifted, set free, pardoned, made pure, given peace, and brought back to allegiance to God and reconciled to Him through faith in the crucified and risen Saviour. It was impossible for God to alter or change His law to save lost, perishing man, so He suffered His beloved Son to die for man's transgression. Forgiveness with God is thereby revealed to the universe, and those now on probation who repent, become contrite in heart, and believe in Christ as the atoning sacrifice receive pardon and reconciliation, for He is now in the sanctuary as interceding High Priest pleading the efficacy of His blood and He is the only hope of salvation.

His death was necessary because people had transgressed God's holy law, and if the law could have been abolished they could have been saved without His death. His death therefore did not abolish the law but magnified and honored it and upheld obedience to its precepts. The crucifixion for sins and rising again the third day belong to the plan of salvation that Satan could not hinder. Yet Satan seeks to make even the crucifixion and resurrection serve his advantage by allowing those who profess faith in Jesus to believe that the laws regulating the Jewish sacrifices and offerings ceased at Christ's death, in order to push them further into believing that the law of ten commandments also died with Christ.

His death at Calvary was caused by sin, and recognizing this leads people to humility rather than boasting of freedom from sin. That same truth points to hope in the merit of the crucified and risen Savior.

Buried Risen Ascended Lord

He was buried, and His burial and resurrection confirm that death did not hold Him or defeat Him. He died on Calvary for human sin, showing His bond with humanity as part of the good news of salvation. Satan's power over fallen man laid the Lord of life in the grave, yet Satan's triumph was brief, for Jesus was not overcome by all Satan's efforts and power but walked forth from His prison house as a majestic conqueror. In rising as conqueror He laid open a way of salvation in which whosoever will may walk and be saved, and His victory means Satan must die after a season and his kingdom pass to Christ whose right it is.

Christ crucified for our sins, Christ risen from the dead, and Christ ascended on high together are the science of salvation to be learned and taught. This truth belongs to the gospel to be taught to children and youth, and Christ crucified humbles each person before God. The cross is the center of the revelation of God's love, whose full significance tongue cannot utter, pen cannot portray, and mind cannot comprehend. In this death, resurrection, and exaltation appear infinite wisdom, infinite love, infinite justice, and infinite mercy.

Through Jesus Christ life and immortality were brought to light, so those who accept Him as the world's Redeemer see the future life of the resurrected dead more clearly than before. His passing through death, coming forth from the grave, appearing again to men in His own person, and ascending in that person to the Father forever settles the resurrection and the future immortal life of the just in the minds of all who believe. He was sent into the world and crucified in the most cruel manner, but was not left in the grave; He came up and proclaimed the resurrection over the sepulcher. Through obedience in His humanity He is life and strength and grace, never losing His divinity but holding it fast so that humanity and divinity were seen combined in Him, a combination God wants in His people today. He is not a Savior left in the tomb but a living, risen Savior who guards His people amid the turmoil of nations. The resurrection is a central gospel doctrine whose importance is shown in apostolic teaching.

Saved by Merits Alone

Christ's death for sins is the necessary atonement that paid the price for humanity's ransom and stands as the foundation of Christian hope. No one can do without the crucified and risen Savior, and no one can earn God's favor by personal merits, religious practices, good works, fasting, or prayer, for attempting to earn heaven in that way is self-made righteousness rather than true godliness. Salvation rests on Christ who died and rose again, and rejecting the crucified and risen Savior destroys hope. That same Christ and true godliness bring health to the body and strength to the soul.

His death for human sins in fulfillment of the Scriptures, together with His resurrection, is the basis of the merits of Jesus' blood on which helpless people depend for salvation. The helpless sinner must rely on those merits and claim saving strength through faith and personal trust even in despair. That death makes peace and joy possible and brings the blessings of atonement, without which only darkness and despair would remain. His sacrifice is the ground of salvation as people turn from sin, and a reason for gratitude rather than complaint amid trials.

Christ crucified for our sins is a central theme shining light on justification by faith and the imputed righteousness of Christ. It is the wisdom and power of God in the conversion of souls, bringing them back to loyalty to Christ. This truth stands closely connected with Christ risen from the dead, Christ ascended into heaven as Advocate and Intercessor before God, and the office work of the Holy Spirit as Christ's representative sent forth with divine power and gifts for men. He came to pay the redemption price to save every soul from eternal ruin, so each person belongs to the Lord by both creation and redemption and is not free to do as he pleases with himself. He knows the case and value of every soul He came to save, obedience brings immortal life and imperishable treasure, and every individual has heavenly resources at command by faith laying hold on the merits of the crucified and risen Savior.

Accepting the crucified and risen Savior is not a lowering of standing but the highest exaltation, because He is the only way given from heaven for people to grasp and receive salvation. The crucified Savior provides the atonement and the risen Savior continues its merits, while helpless unworthy sinners can do nothing of themselves but must depend solely on those merits with self-surrender and confiding faith rather than conflict in their own strength. God will not cast off those betrayed into sin who return with true repentance, and none who trust in those merits will ever perish. This is the trust those living in the last days must exercise when dangers surround them and despair seizes the soul, for though the complete catalogue of delinquencies stands before the Infinite with none forgotten, He hears the prayer of faith, pardons transgressions, fulfills His promised word, and by divine power and grace alone gives the blessing craved.

Proclaim and Live Message

Christ's death for human sin and His resurrection are central truths to be presented to unbelievers, for He is the anointed, crucified and risen Saviour witnessed to by the prophets and testified of by believers, through whose name forgiveness of sins is received. The gospel is the good tidings of this crucified and risen Saviour who died for sins, and the work of His followers is to educate and train men and women to publish it, with every soul converted under solemn obligation to teach others the way of salvation. The merits of the crucified and risen Saviour are to be preached as the means by which people find forgiveness and experience God's love. A crucified and risen Saviour is to be told even to wealthy men when asking their help for sanitariums and missionary work, and when the heart is guided by the Holy Spirit the words make a deep impression, arouse hope, and awaken courage and faith.

Preaching Christ crucified — His love, forgiveness and grace, with justification by faith received as living truth and not a lifeless dead idea — is the great life-giving, Heaven-sent instrument in conversion of souls, the awakening power of ministry, and the way to lead to the high standard of holiness that makes a church living. His humiliation, meekness, lowly life of poverty, miracles, self-denial, self-sacrifice, sufferings, crucifixion, resurrection and triumphant ascension are inspiring themes to be presented before the people, exhibiting Him as the divine object of faith and love to be talked of, prayed to and about, and praised, awakening love and intense fervor in every heart. They contain inexhaustible treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and through power and baptism with the Holy Spirit forming Christ within as the hope of glory, the more this experience is sought with diligence and earnest faith the greater the value of life. The cross is to be central in presenting the broken law to fallen people, because Christ is the sin-pardoning Saviour and the sinner's hope with unlimited power to forgive, and preaching the crucified and risen Christ gives new power and effectiveness to the message of truth. Dwelling constantly on law without this misleads souls and leaves professed believers without experiential faith, still dead in trespasses and sins and needing conversion.

The merits of a crucified and risen Saviour are the center of preaching and of living faith, and believing and preaching Christ crucified and risen gives an education in faith, makes Jesus precious to the soul, and gives an experimental knowledge of the love of God. Received by faith this brings new conversion, freedom of soul, forgiveness of sins, the indwelling peace and love of Jesus in the heart, and the tenderness of heart and contrition of spirit that show the work of the Holy Spirit and the grace of Christ in the soul. Yet professing belief in Christ's crucifixion, even together with belief in His resurrection, is not by itself a change of heart, for such profession can coexist with corrupted faith.

Loyalty to the crucified and risen Saviour is shown by holy living, fervent prayer, and painstaking effort to discharge duty, with ministers working by personal contact as well as by preaching to save souls from perdition and to build up those just entering a new experience in truth and righteousness, seeking results and not praise. God wants a grieving person to keep this Saviour in mind instead of keeping the dead ever present in mind. Refusing to see the crucified and risen Saviour displeases God, allows the destroyer to extinguish the light God would have burning to show the beauty of His precepts, weakens physical and moral power, and causes life to set in darkness. What families need is a crucified and risen Saviour, and what young men need is to become acquainted with Him, and this true religion is to be presented plainly with good common sense and to be put into schools built on the highest principles so that education builds up instead of destroying, because heaven and eternal life, the life that measures with the life of God, are obtained by following on to know the Lord whose goings forth are prepared as the morning.

Jesus died because of human sins and rose again, and without that death and resurrection only darkness and despair would remain. His death was cruel and shameful, a bitter cup mixed by human sins that pierced Him, endured after leaving the glory of heaven for poverty and affliction in order to reconcile the world to Himself and to provide holiness and heaven and the water of life freely to all who will come. Because He gave so much, those He died for cannot seek a better portion in this life than was given their Redeemer but must follow His example by bearing the cross, suffering tribulation, and willingly drinking with Him the cup of humiliation and sorrow.