Verse of the Day 9/17

Through the Bible - Ecclesiastes 5-6, 2 Corinthians 11:16-33

 

Good morning,

The desire to make the "gospel" more presentable is something that is not just occurring today.  It has happened through the ages.  Paul at various times had to remind the churches of the time to get back to the basics.  If you read through 1 and 2 Corinthians you may see many similarities of the church of then and today and our common struggles.

For today's verse we'll go to 1 Corinthians 15.
 

1 Corinthians 15:3-5 (Amplified Bible)  For I passed on to you first of all what I also had received, that Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) died for our sins in accordance with [what] the Scriptures [foretold], 

 ⁴That He was buried, that He arose on the third day as the Scriptures foretold, 

  ⁵And [also] that He appeared to Cephas (Peter), then to the Twelve

The apostle Paul in verse 1 has to "remind" the Corinthian church of the "basic tenets" of the gospel.  Then, as today, in efforts to reach more or be more attractive the gospel had lost focus on at least one of these building blocks.  He had to remind them that salvation begins with the soul's relationship to the God who created us.

 

D.G. Barnhouse writes, "The great good news of the gospel is that God did the work of reconciling the world to Himself; that He came in Christ, the Word made flesh, and dwelt among us in order to complete the three historical events which make salvation possible.  He died for our sins according to the scriptures, He was buried, and He rose again from the dead according to the scriptures.  The entire work of salvation was thus accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ, and now it can be applied to the individual.  This is the good news which we bring to men, and this work is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth."

 

We need to remember the fact that it all begins and ends with God.  We also need to keep our ears open to the "gospel" as it is presented, somewhere in it we should here that Jesus came to save us from sin, that He died, was buried and rose again to conquer death once and for all.  Read it again from the NLT below.

Blessings,
Mike

mikevw@bellsouth.net
mikesvotd.blogspot.com

1 Corinthians 15

The Resurrection of Christ

 ¹ Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it. ² It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place.

 ³ I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. ⁴ He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. ⁵ He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. ⁶ After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. ⁷ Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles. ⁸ Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw him. ⁹ For I am the least of all the apostles. In fact, I'm not even worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecuted God's church.