1 Corinthians 15:1 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 sig... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:1 I. "I declare unto you" I.would recall to your remembrance "the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received." There is an affecting allusion here to past times. There is a touch of tenderness, as the Apostle delicately recalls his own early ministry among the Co... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:3 I. The gospel which Paul preached was very simple. (1) The articles of his creed were few and plain. "Christ died; He was buried; He rose again." (2) He delivered them "first of all." They were among the first things of which he spoke. He put them in the van and forefront of all... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:10 Sudden Conversions. The conversion of St. Paul was a wonderful conversion, as our church in one place calls it, because it was so unexpected and (as far as the appearance went) so sudden. It may be useful to mention one or two kinds of what may be called sudden conversions, and... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:12 The Certainty of the Resurrection Demonstrated. There are two propositions furnished by the Apostle in our text each is comprehensive of many truths, and may be divided into more. The first is, that if there be no resurrection from the dead then Christ is not risen a propositio... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:12 The fact of the resurrection of Christ and the belief in a general resurrection are intimately and inseparably connected. So the Apostle Paul here, as elsewhere, teaches. The resurrection of Christ and the general resurrection are so related to one another that they stand or fal... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:14 This is the Apostle's way of saying, as strongly as he can, that there is no doubt whatever about the fact of our Lord's resurrection from the dead. He tells his readers that Christ is risen, because if He is not risen consequences must follow which he knows they will treat as p... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:14 What Comes of a Dead Christ? I. The first point the Apostle makes is this: that with the resurrection of Jesus Christ the whole gospel stands or falls. II. Secondly, with the resurrection of Jesus Christ stands or falls the character of the witnesses. III. Again, with the res... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:16 The Resurrection of Christ. I. When Christ died, all died. His death was not for Himself, but for mankind. And by all being thus subjected to the punishment of sin in Him the sin of the world was taken away. But it remained that the positive results of redemption should be assu... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:18 I. "Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished." They have perished. This does not mean that upon the supposition made they have ceased to exist. The question of the continued existence of men after death is not raised in the argument What the Apostle has in hi... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:18 Moral Certainty of the True Christian's Resurrection. I. The Apostle means the words of the text to express what is most shocking and most impossible. If they who had lived all their days in patience and self-denial and love, had done all this for nothing; if they had set their... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:19 What is the exact hope respecting the future that we owe to our risen Lord? Is it the hope that we shall exist for ever? Is our continuous existence hereafter altogether dependent upon faith in communion with the risen Christ? No, this is not what the Apostle meant; our immortal... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:20 I. The principle upon which the Apostle proceeds is the same when he reasons on the assumption of Christ's resurrection being admitted, as when he argues on the hypothesis of its being denied. That principle is the substantial oneness of Christ and His believing people. Your fai... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:22 The Christian's Life in Christ. I. "In Christ shall all be made alive." We shall live then, not only as having our souls restored to our bodies, and our souls and bodies living on in the presence of Almighty God; great and unutterable as were this blessedness, there is a higher... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:24 The Certain End. It is not possible to rule these words out of life. They are perpetually recurring. You tell of any process, you trace out how it is going to work on from step to step, you. see how cause opens into effect, and then effect, becoming cause, opens into still furt... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:24 I. There is a remarkable and significant transaction between the Son and the Eternal Father. "Then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father." Plainly, the kingdom here means, not the realms or territories over which kingly authority is e... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:25 The Quantity and Quality of the Evidence for the Resurrection. Look: I. At the amount of evidence afforded. St. Paul sums it up (1 Corinthians 15:1). Can anything be more conclusive, within the limits which, for the very highest reasons, it seemed important to observe? Here was... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:28 Our Relations to Christ in the Future Life. I. Going forward into the future life, so much appears to be determined, that we shall there know God unalterably and for ever as trinity Father, Son, and Spirit. The Son, therefore, as discovered in trinity, is of course never to be... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:29 I. The first and chief puzzle of this passage is in the twenty-ninth verse. What is meant by being baptized for the dead? The meaning which most commends itself at least to the fancy and the heart is the one which, retaining the idea of substitution, makes it not a vicarious rep... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:33 I. We sometimes feel a difficulty in understanding why Paul should be so very earnest in insisting on the resurrection of the body. It seems as if he thought that without that element the belief of immortality might not only fail to exercise a good influence, but might even exerc... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:34 Who then are these Corinthian disciples, that they have not so much as the knowledge of God? Plainly enough our Apostle is not charging them here with ignorance, but with some lack of the Divine illumination which ought, if they are true disciples, to be in them. They certainly... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:35 I. Death, dissolution, decay, decomposition whichever may be the body subjected to that process is not only no obstacle in the way of that body living again, but affords a presumption that if it is to live again at all, it may be to live in a superior condition; it may be to liv... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:39 Pursuing the line of thought indicated in the previous verses with reference to the question "How are the dead raised up?" the Apostle may be supposed to ask, "Is not the question answered now? If not, there are still three other facts, or analogies founded on facts, which may r... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:41 This is part of St. Paul's great argument for immortality. The reasoning is quite clear. He speaks of the splendour of heavenly things. He has been claiming man's resurrection on the strength of Christ's resurrection. Christ has risen and entered into His glory; man, because he... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:42 I. This body of ours is a body that, whenever and however sown, is sown in corruption, in dishonour, and in weakness. These are the three capital faults of our present mortal bodies. And the three faults are intimately connected and mutually related. They grow into one another; t... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:44 We dare not even imagine the full meaning of this phrase a spiritual body. But there are three ideas with regard to it which we may venture to indicate. We hint at three of its probable characteristics. I. In the first place, it takes the impress or stamp of the higher spiritua... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:45 The two bodies, the natural and the spiritual, are connected with the first Adam and the second Adam respectively. That is the teaching of these verses. The Apostle is anxious to strengthen in the minds of those to whom he is reasoning the conviction that there is a spiritual bo... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:46 Consider: I. The dispensations of revealed religion. "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." The gospel is more excellent than the law. The law was the shadow; the gospel is the substance. The law was bondage; the gospel is liberty. That was not... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:47 God always looks upon men as placed under some federal or representative head. There is no doubt it is so in a degree now in every family: God deals with the family through the father, and according to the character of the father. But the principle is true on a much larger scale... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:50 The two main propositions contained in this verse are the following the first, Flesh and blood is corruption; the second, The kingdom of God is incorruption. I. Flesh and blood is corruption. To say that bodies corrupted by sin, or by the fall, cannot enter heaven would be simpl... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:51 The Commemoration of the Faithful Departed. I. The early Church commemorated the dead, (1) out of love to them and to their image. She could no longer behold them and break bread with them; but she could prolong their presence by the vivid recollection of their beloved image, an... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:53 What the change is to be of which the Apostle speaks, and how it is to be effected, it is needless to inquire particularly. It may be more profitable to notice some lessons which it suggests. I. By an irresistible argument, _a fortiori_it bars the door against whatever is unhol... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:54 I. Death in this world is the great devourer. He swallows up all living things. Power has no weapon to resist his onset. Worth has no protection against his rancour, nor wisdom against his rules. None are humble enough to be overlooked and pitied. None are good enough to be reve... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:55 , 1 CORINTHIANS 15:56. The Triumph over Death. I. The most remarkable feature of the triumph over death is the acknowledgment of death's victory and of the manner of it. The triumph is thus seen to be a triumph of a humbling and mortifying character. The triumphal song is chiefl... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:55 , 1 CORINTHIANS 15:56. The Triumph over Death. I. The most remarkable feature of the triumph over death is the acknowledgment of death's victory and of the manner of it. The triumph is thus seen to be a triumph of a humbling and mortifying character. The triumphal song is chiefl... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:57 St. Paul speaks in this chapter as if the resurrection of Christ were the victory over the grave. Was it impossible then, for men, before the resurrection of Christ, to look beyond the grave? I. The apostles unquestionably speak of our Lord's resurrection as an unprecedented fac... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:58 I. The duty which is connected with our being steadfast and unmovable in the faith of the resurrection, and of the resurrection life, is (1) to be about the work of the Lord; (2) to abound in it; (3) to abound in it always. II. The motive your labour is not in vain. It is in the... [ Continue Reading ]