To the One WHo Trusts in Himself, the Judgment of God
Notes
Transcript
What is the Good News?
How might you concisely articulate the hope of Jesus Christ that you put your faith in?
Simply put:
Man rebelled against the holy God and deserves the just wages for their sin. But in God’s love, he decided to save sinners by sending his sinless and perfect Son into the world, who lived a perfect life and died on the cross to pay the penalty of sin. This Son, the Lord Jesus, was buried in a tomb and was raised victoriously on the third day defeating the effects of sin and death on this sin cursed world. He ascended to heaven and one day will return to rule and reign over his kingdom for all eternity.
If it is good news to us then we have reason to rejoice. If its good news to us, then we will not have any desire to changes the message.
Some people want to change the message.
Some want to minimize the sin
Some want to minimize lordship
Some want to minimize God’s sovereign choice in salvation.
Review:
We come now to the second to last chapter of first Corinthians in our study of this glorious book for the church. This letter from the apostle Paul to the church in Corinth has been a help for the New Testament church as we seek to be a biblical church in the midst of an evil world. As a reminder, Paul has been addressing issues in the church at Corinth and chapter 15 will address the next issue to be faced by the apostle to his people. up to this point Paul has mainly dealt with ethical and practical issues in the church in, but now he will deal with a doctrinal issue.
Look with me in verse 12 of chapter 15
12 Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
As you can see the issue with some of the Corinthians was the denial that there would be a resurrection from the dead. Paul will make his case that the very foundation of the Christian life is to believe in a resurrection from the dead, both in Christ, and all humanity, because of his work up on the cross and his resurrection. Therefore, Paul will argue the legitimacy and reality of the resurrection of the dead that is seen most chiefly in Christ.
What will become clear is how important the doctrine of Christ resurrection becomes for the Christian faith. As Paul lays out for the Corinthians, it is the one of the foundational elements of the gospel. If you remove resurrection, you make the gospel and Christianity meaningless.
Charles Spurgeon writes,
When those outside the church deny that Christ is the Son of God, deny His atoning sacrifice, and deny His resurrection, we are not at all astonished, they are unbelievers, and they are acting out their own profession. But when men, inside the church of God, call themselves Christians, and yet deny the resurrection of the dead, then is our soul stirred within us, for it is a most solemn and serious evil to doubt those holy truths.
Paul will spend the entire chapter of this first letter to the Corinthians giving the church a hearty argument for the resurrection of Christ, its effect in this life and into the life to come. To begin his argument, Paul steps back from the resurrection of Christ and he focus instead on the reality of the good news of Jesus Christ. This glorious gospel cannot be divorced from Christ’s atoning death or his victorious resurrection. These truths are forever wed and incapable of separation. Paul then will begin with…
The good news proclaimed (1-2)
The good news proclaimed (1-2)
A. Remember the good news
A. Remember the good news
Receive
Paul initially took the good news message to the Corinthians when he visited Corinth in acts chapter 18 on his second missionary journey. It was then that Paul shared the gospel with the Corinthians and spent years remaining in the city discipling those who would repent of their sin, and put their faith and trust in Christ alone. Now that the church in Corinth, what is established, Paul had to rewind his audience and current of the faith that they had in Christ, which included a belief in the gospel or good news in Jesus Christ.
The apostle Paul is, reminding the Corinthians of their faith in the good news of Jesus Christ, so that they will not allow such a heresy, as the denial of the resurrection, to infiltrate their belief in him. He is warning them through this chapter to remember the good news of Jesus Christ. Notice what he says, in verses one and two.
1 Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.
He reminds them the message that he delivered to them previously at the inception of their faith in Christ is the same message that he preaches to them now regarding Christ and his resurrection. He also wants them to remember this gospel message they received. They did not just hear the gospel proclaimed but the Spirit of God so changed their hearts that they committed their lives to Christ. Everything about their lives was transformed by God through the message of the gospel. This is what Paul means when he tells the Corinthians that they received the gospel. They are being exhorted to remember their commitment to Christ and their continual belief in him.
When you share the good news with someone, we must engage them enough to call them to action. You are not just passing off information but prompting them to respond to the glorious good news of Jesus Christ. No response to the gospel proclaimed is still a response. Notice in Acts 2 the response of the crowds when Peter proclaimed the good news:
18 Now as Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon who was called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. 19 And He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed Him.
34 The eunuch answered Philip and said, “Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him. 36 As they went along the road they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?” 37 And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” 38 And he ordered the chariot to stop; and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him.
When we hear the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ proclaimed, the one proclaiming must invite the audience to respond. In addition, the hearer is obligated to respond by believing. Some do believe and some reject the invitation from Jesus to follow him. The Corinthians received the good news by believing by faith in Christ alone for the source and hope of their salvation.
Have you received the gospel message personally in your life? Have you put your trust in Jesus or is it a message you just listen to, maybe admire, but never have responded in faith?
Remember
Now notice Paul is looking back to the past with these believers. He is reminding them that they already received the gospel message. This decision was part of their journey of their Christian lives. But in the context, Paul is recalling their reception of the gospel because by remembering the gospel call, they can fight against the heresy of the church. This heresy was contrary to the message of the gospel and the hope that they had in Christ. For them to remember their commitment to the Lord was in essence to fight against the error of the day.
Amy always told our girls as they left for their soccer games: Remember who you are and whose you are. They had not forgotten their identity but she was equipping them for the physical and spiritual battle on the soccer field. They had an opportunity to resist the worldly attitudes in athletic competition and reflect the goodness and grace of Christ.
Paul is fighting against the heresy of Corinth by pointing the Corinthians to the past….so they could fight the spiritual battles of the present.
Remembering their reception of the gospel is similar to the message that Jerry Bridges communicates to his readers when he exhorts them to “Preach the Gospel to Yourself.”
He explains what he means in his book, The Discipline of Grace,
"To preach the gospel to yourself, that means that you are continually facing up to your own sinfulness, and then fleeing to Jesus through faith in his shed blood and righteous life. It means that you are that you appropriate, again by faith, the fact that Jesus, fully satisfied the law of God, that he is your propitiation, and that God's holy wrath is no longer directed towards you.” Pg 59
Bridges is communicating that one aspect of remember the gospel in our spiritual battle of faith is keeping its foundational truths about what Christ accomplished for us consistently on our mind. These truths of salvation, forgiveness, justification and adoption must be daily meals of God’s grace that we partake in as we live in this world.
We could also say that when Peter says in 1 Peter 1:13
13 Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Peter uses the GK (ANAZONOMEE) which actually means to gird up your loins. It was a term for men, who were preparing for battle or for a race and they had to do something with the long clothing they wore, so they would use a belt to gird up their loose clothing in order that it would not hinder them for the task ahead. Peter uses this to say that we must gird up the mind… or remember the gospel we received, especially when we stand on the battle field with evil forces. There is always opportunity for Satan to seek to destroy us and our remembering the gospel, girding up the loins of our renewed minds by preaching the gospel to ourselves is the best way to prepare for war!
b. Remain in the good news
b. Remain in the good news
Secondly, Paul reminds them that the gospel message is not only something that they believed in the past but they stand firm in that gospel truth in the present , which produces in them a steadfastness. The same word for “standing firm” is used in Eph 6:11
11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.
This is a present day reality that Paul is reminding the Corinthians of in their faith. You did receive the gospel and now you stand firm in it during opposition. All Christians strive to stand firm and now waver in our faith in the midst of adversity. The reality of our fallenness and the struggle with sin is that we will stumble in our walk with Christ at times. We are not going to live the perfect Christian life.
But steadfastness in our faith is like the ridgeline of a mountain. It ascends and occasionally descends before it ascends even higher. If you are standing on that ridgeline, the extent of the descent seems extreme, but if you were on the ground, that would appear as just a small divot compared to the continual increase in height of the mountain’s profile.
Our faith journey will have their descending moments but those do not compare to the overall increase in spiritual maturity we will by the power of God’s Spirit.
12 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
God is the source of our power and any spiritual change in us. He is bringing about a continual work in us and therefore we give him praise.
But listen to this verse again (Phil 2:12)
Paul first commands us to work out our salvation…. which means that our steadfastness in Christ comes when by the power of God we are obedient. Notice with me back in 1 Cor 15, how Paul relates “standing firm” with the end of verse 3, “if you hold fast.” The Corinthians were being reminded not to abandoned their faith but to remain day by day committed to the Lord whom they swore their allegiance.
This communicates that the gospel received by the Christian initially by faith is a daily part of their Christian lives and therefore those lives we live, we live in obedience.
15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
For the Corinthians, there were not living in obedience to Christ’s commands if they were doubting the core tenets of their faith in the resurrection of Jesus. Instead, they were on a downward slope if they did not rid themselves of those deny Christ rose from the dead.
Therefore, Paul is proclaiming the doctrine of perseverance of the faith in v 2. Our faith in Christ is final but also fluid. In other words, when we belong to Chris through faith, then nothing can remove us from the love of God and his saving hand. But our faith is also fluid because we are called to daily walk in obedience as a fruit that our faith in Christ is genuine. We will not always be perfectly obedient, that is why we rest in the perfection of Jesus our Lord. But we stand daily in the gospel and walk in obedience to GIVE EVIDENCE that Christ is truly our king.
Again looking at Phil 2:12-13
12 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
Our obedient lives where we live day by day resting in Christ and seeking to obey what he commands, then we are working out our salvation. Our spiritual maturity is like a muscle that is growing as the effort is put in place to put in the effort to lift weights and make it grow.
c. Rest in the good news
c. Rest in the good news
When we walk day by day in obedience, we then can see that we “are being saved” as Paul writes. Paul writes to the church to say that salvation is a process that works itself out until the end by the power of God to all who believe. If you doubt your salvation, if you wonder if you are truly a Christian, Paul wants to give assurance of faith in Jesus Christ.
2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.
The gospel was the message that God used to lead you to salvation in Christ alone. Salvation is rescue from the wrath of God where we find forgiveness and grace in His name. Paul recalls the rest that the Corinthians can in the gospel that they believed in. He affirms “they are saved” but with a caveat. The caveat is “if they genuinely believed.” Genuine faith in Christ is evidenced by an obedient life in Christ. In other words steadfastness in our faith is the proof and assurance we need that we truly belong to the Lord.
We all know those who loved ones in our lives that
“believed in vain.”
19 They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.
Perhaps Paul is referencing those who question the key tenet of the Christian faith, the resurrection. It would make sense that Paul would make such a bold statement so that the Corinthians would understand that a person does not lose genuine faith in Christ. But while one does not lose it, standing firm in the hope of the Gospel does show whether a person really possessed genuine belief to begin with. Sadly, those evidences of genuine faith are manifested over time.
But when it becomes clear that a person does not believe genuinely in Christ, let us as the church do as Paul does, and not skirt around the issue. He makes clear the reality of false conversion in his statement here in v 3, “if you believed in vain.”
Vain confessions dishonor the Lord. Vain confessions to our spouses, to our children, but especially to the Lord. Jesus said, “let your yes be yes and no be no. May our our yes to Jesus be heartfelt and true.
If indeed it is, then you are saved friend. Saved because the Lord Jesus died as a substitute for sin. Saved because his life paid the penalty for sin that was necessary for you and I to be rescued. Saved because he was buried and rose again. His resurrection proves that God accepted the sacrifice that was mad. His resurrection proves that death has been defeated. His resurrection proves his power is greater than any rebellion we have committed against Him.
My prayer today is that you consider if you have received, remain and rest in the finished work of Christ for the salvation of your sin.