1 Corinthians 15:3-11

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 his teaching. (3) He delivered them as that which he also received. They constituted his message and his mission, both of which came to him directly from the Lord.

II. Having described the gospel which he was accustomed to preach at Corinth, Paul indicates the character in which he preached it. He preached it as an apostle, as one who had actually seen the risen Lord. For it was their having actually seen the Lord after His resurrection that qualified the apostles for declaring that doctrine of the atonement which depends on the truth of it. Hence, Paul reminds the Corinthians how, in delivering to them that which he received concerning the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, it was his practice to appeal to the testimony of the original apostles. It was his practice also to associate himself with them, as competent to bear the same testimony that they bore. He was consequently authorised to preach the same gospel that they preached, and to preach it in the same character in which they preached it that of an eyewitness of the resurrection of Christ.

III. In what we testify and in what we teach we are all at one. This is the last consideration which Paul urges on behalf of the old doctrine, which some were for improving upon by their innovations. It has, he argues, this great recommendation, that, in declaring it, and in bearing witness to the great fact on which it rests, the apostles of the Lord are united and unanimous. "So we preach, and so ye believed."

R. S. Candlish, Life in a Risen Saviour,p. 13.

References: 1 Corinthians 15:5. J. N. Norton, The King's Ferry Boat,p. 255. 1 Corinthians 15:6. Homilist,2nd series, vol. iv., p. 191; T. Arnold, Sermons,vol. v., p. 1. 1 Corinthians 15:7. T. Gasquoine, Christian World Pulpit,vol. x., p. 20 1 Corinthians 15:9. G. Dawson, The Authentic Gospel,p. 205; H. Wonnacott, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xvii., p. 238.