Grace for the Sinner- A Look at the Corinth Church
We might think it's strange that a church with so many problems like Corinth would be worth the time and effort of the Apostle Paul to correct. Those of you who own your own homes or work on your own vehicles know sometimes it's cheaper to rebuild than to repair. Why not tear down this church in Corinth and start again? Or leave it to its own devices and then go somewhere else. Why spend the effort and the time to correct such a church? If there ever was a church that was too far gone, it was the church in Corinth. They had awful leadership. They had terrible teachers and terrible teachings. They had infighting, unfaithful spouses, horrible doctrine, and a severe absence of love for God and love for one another.
“Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. 3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance[a]: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas,[b] and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. 9 For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve 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 to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 11 Whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed. 12 But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15 More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For he “has put everything under his feet.”[c] Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. 28 When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.” 1 Corinthians 15:1-28
First Importance
The church in Corinth was an awful church that deserved to be left to its own demise, but it was not left to its own demise. The Apostle Paul explains why not in verse 3 of chapter 15. He says, “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance”. He then passed on to Corinth because of what Paul himself had received. Paul had received the truth of God by the grace of God. The solution for a torn apart, gossip-ridden, ridicule-obsessed, sexually immoral, unspiritual, malice-ravaged church was the grace of God poured out through the Son of God in His death on the cross for the sins of His people and His promised resurrection on the third day. That was the solution. Paul knew this because he himself was a person who was too far gone, just as the Corinthian church was too far gone. Paul himself was a corrupt murderer. A murderer of Christians. And he knew and had experienced that the truth of Christ's life, death, and resurrection was the foundation of redemption. So why did Paul use his time in a far too miserable church in Corinth? Because the Lord used his time on a far too miserable sinner in Paul.
Grace of God
In verse 10, we're told, “By the grace of God, I am what I am.” This is Paul declaring that what he is now, as a believer in the resurrection and as a proclaimer of the resurrection, that he is by God's grace a believer and a proclaimer. Paul had received grace and shared that grace with the Corinthian church. But Paul was a murderer. He didn't deserve Christ's grace or Christ's favor. And the people of Corinth didn't deserve Christ's love either. What Paul deserved and what the people of Corinth deserved, and what we here gathered today deserve, is the full and unchecked wrath of God. The holy God who has revealed Himself in time through Scripture cannot abide sin.
The genuine mystery of God is not that God could send anyone to eternal separation from Himself. The mystery of God is how is it that He could allow any of us who deserve the full, unchecked wrath of God, how is it that He could allow any of us into His presence at all? It's by this Gospel. It's by this good news. It's by this grace. This is the mystery of God. That God who cannot abide sin in His grace has given to undeserving, corrupt, sinful people like Paul, like the people of Corinth, and like you and me, His grace and His favor.
Now, this is tremendous news for those of us who are undeserving and sinful people. For people who are broken. Who have in their lives been sinful and rebellious against God's Word and God's ways. There is a path to forgiveness. There is a path to restoration with your God. There is a path to being made whole with your Creator to take delight in you and you in Him. It is not the path of living your best life now. It is not the path of living a purpose-driven life. It is not the path of unlocking the best version of you. It is a path that you don't walk on.
It is a path that was walked on by a Jewish man who was proclaimed as the Son of God 2,000 years ago. It is a path that was walked on from Jerusalem to Calvary. It was on that path that the King of the Universe, the God of creation, the One of whom our music says, crown Him with many crowns. It's that One. He submitted Himself to be crucified for the atoning death of all who place their faith in Him.
Gospel Received
This Gospel that Paul received is of first importance. He is risen. As Christians, this is the sum of our faith. You can take away everything else that's a part of our faith. We can take away music. We can take away youth groups, Bible studies, and Sunday school. We can take away fellowship. We can take away all the charitable things that we do as Christians. If you take all of that away, but you keep the Gospel, you're still Christian. The Gospel, the good news that God sent His Son to live, die, and rise again.
Our faith is not bound up in moral teaching. Go to Islam or Mormonism for that. Our faith is not bound up in spiritual connectionism to a different plane of existence. You can go to Buddhism, Confucianism, or Taoism for that. Our faith is not bound up in the service of countless deities, rites, rituals, incantations, or reincarnations. Go to Hinduism or Pantheism for that. Our Christian faith is bound up in God Himself taking our treason, and our offenses so seriously that He allowed His Son to be sacrificed to pay for that treason and for those offenses. That's how seriously God took our situation, our sin.
Now, if the death of Christ was where Paul ended his letter to the Corinthians, then Christianity would be a miserable confusion and would contain almost no truth whatsoever. If God's power and justice, wrath, grace, and mercy ended at the cross in the death of Jesus, then there would be no Gospel and there would be no good news. A man dying on a cross isn't worth talking about. A God who is willing to die on the cross for you and for me, that's worth talking about. That's worth living about.
Paul himself writes this position that the Gospel wouldn't be a Gospel. It would be false. It would be in vain. He says in v. 12-17, “But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless. And so is your faith.” Everything else would be useless. All the trappings of religion, whether they're in the gym, the sanctuary, in your home, in your devotions, would all be useless if Christ is not raised from the dead. If Jesus only died for the sins of His people and remained dead, then none of us would have any hope.
Paul puts it plainly in v. 19, He says, “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” The payoff of the Christian religion is not in living our best lives now. The payoff of the Christian religion is not in experiencing all the joys and benefits of God's blessing in the present. That is not what Scripture says. And I don't want you to let anyone on the radio, on television, in books, or even in pulpits, or in one-on-one conversations, whether they're bald or whether they're bearded, to deceive you on this topic. Our lives are the most miserable lives of all and our faith is the most miserable of them all if Christ did not rise from the dead.
If Christ died but didn't then also live, we can all pack it up and go home and live however we want. We're just another social club at that point. Christ is risen.
Since Christ was raised, we are different.
There is something different about these people. About this faith. There's something unique. There's something truthfully true about this. This is why Christians make a big deal about Easter. It has nothing to do with eggs or rabbits. Daylight savings time. Spring. Harvest season.Planting season. It has to do with a person who was dead being alive again. Jesus Christ's resurrection is the most scandalous thing in the entire universe.
Death doesn't get robbed. Death robs all of us. But on Resurrection Sunday, death wasn't just robbed, it was defeated and sealed forever.
Death doesn't get robbed. Death takes us all. Not a single person you've ever known has escaped death.
Death takes us all. Death is the one problem that none of us can solve no matter what we try or how hard we try
As Christians, we can look forward to with great anticipation when death is in the rearview mirror and we will be changed to be like Christ. That is the hope that Paul delivers to this miserable Corinthian church. That there's hope. That one day, we will be as Christ. We will be like Him. Since He was raised, we who have faith in Christ will be changed and raised.
What Paul received, he passed on to them. And that is the same hope that I delivered to you That Christ Jesus died accepting the full wrath of the righteous, holy, perfect God the Father. And then He rose from the dead on the third day just as had been prophesied. His life, His death, and His resurrection secure for us, those who have faith in Him, a hope that extends beyond this life. Beyond our cares, beyond our concerns, and beyond our catastrophes.
Christians accept that death is the way how things have been. But we Christians deny that death is the way things will always be. We utterly reject that.
Let me say that loud and clear to you today. If you've never held to that conviction, then maybe today is your first day worshiping a risen King. We hold to a belief that there is an expiration date on death. Death does not have an invitation to eternity. Death is on the way out. Death is going the way of the dodo bird. Death is not on the guest list for the everlasting celebration. Paul writes in v. 26 of 1 Corinthians 15, he says that “death is the last enemy to be destroyed.” Death itself has been conquered by the risen Lord of creation. Christ is risen. The Lord has taken a seal and He's postmarked death with an end date.
There is a great day that is coming. When death itself will be done away with thanks to what Christ Jesus accomplished on resurrection day. This was the hope that Paul gave to the Corinthian church. It was the hope of eternal life. A life beyond this life. A life beyond death. And that's the hope that I have to share with you. This life is filled with problems pain and temporary pleasures. But through faith in Christ Jesus, life, death, and resurrection, there is the promise of a life absent of all problems, all pain, and filled with eternal pleasures.
