Chapter 7 begins the section of the letter that deals with all the questions raised by the member of the church in Corinth. It begins with the phrase: Now concerning the things you wrote about, followed by a quote from their correspondence. The more recent translations under the NIV banner have moved away from the rather misleading translation: It is better for a man not to marry. Such a translation of Paul's original phrase cannot be sustained, and worse still causes confusion about Paul's attitude towards marriage as a whole. Literally Paul says, or rather quotes what the Corinthians are saying as: It is better for a man not to touch a woman.
This is a Greek idiom that is better translated as: It is better for a man not to have sexual relationships with a woman.
Marriage is not the issue, sex is.
What's going on in Corinth?
From the context the first thing we should note is that this question is not about sex in general, but specifically about sexual intercourse in the context of marriage. Hence, the question being asked in Corinth is this: Now we are Christians, should married couples continue to have sex or is it better for them spiritually speaking to abstain?
Where does this come from?
"Spiritualised eschatology". In other words, they saw themselves as "above physical things" because they were now spiritual. Perhaps they even thought of themselves of as having already attained the resurrection (in 2 Tim.2 Paul refers to those who taught that resurrection had already happened) This may have led them to believe that they were already like the angels neither marrying nor giving in marriage (Were some Corinthian parents refusing their children the right to marry or rejecting marriage for themselves on the same basis?)
For others, the physical side of life was unimportant, an idea imported by some from Greek philosophy. This meant that they saw sex as something non-spiritual and therefore it simply didn't matter. Whether with your wife or a prostitute, sex did not affect you because your spirit and your body were two separate things. This might go some way to explaining the other issue of immorality among the congregation at the time.
There's also the possibility that they see marriage as a distraction. Certainly it's possible to draw that implication form what Paul has to say (26, 32). If he's their example then he is either single, or married and celibate for the kingdom.
And if they were married, then sex was either a distraction, or at worse a submitting to someone else's control and therefore working against their new found freedom in Christ. Consequently its possible that they are refusing to fulfil their marital duties as Paul describes it, in favour of a higher purpose and that's causing the knock on effect of immorality.
The human mind is a complex thing!
What is certainly true is that there was:
1. Pressure to not marry
2. Pressure to abstain from sex within marriage
3. Pressure to dissolve marriages, whether to a Christian or a non-Christian
Their spiritualised, sex-free marriages, rather than making them more spiritual had in fact had the opposite impact, and had even increased sexual immorality with prostitutes (6:16)
How does Paul answer them?
Overriding point is: Don't seek a change of status (v17)
The focus of his argument
Paul's background is Jewish. One of the basic texts on human relationships that Paul would have known is: "It is not good for man to be alone". (Gen.2:18) It's doubtful therefore that any prohibition of marriage (or rather a preference for singleness) from Paul comes from a viewpoint of what it means to be holy. Later Paul makes the point that singleness is preferred because of:
1. the ability to focus (32), a married person has responsibilities and ties and that limit his or her availability for ministry and mission.
2. the current crisis (26) [not identified]
Because of this, Paul states a preference for being single.But he's not saying become this, he's simply stating a preference.
Paul's' answers
1. Don't abstain except by mutual consent. This is a concession Paul is willing to make. Maybe he sees some value in terms of self-control and purpose, but I think he's just saying "if that's how you feel you can make progress as Christians, then do it, but it's not the best choice (but would Paul really think like that?)
2. Don't seek a change in status for the sake of change. In other words don't make getting married the focus of your attention and certainly don't make getting unmarried the ficus either.
3. Don't force yourself into a pattern of life for which you are not suited. Paul sees himself as suited for celibacy, he even sees it as a gift. Others are not like Paul and he recognises that, so he says, "Go get married, it's okay, it's not a sin."
4. Don't make rules for other people.
But what about a mixed marriage?
Again Paul says, "Stay as you are", but this time he adds a caveat: if the unbelieving partner is willing. Paul is talking to those who have come to faith whilst married to a partner who hasn't yet come to faith. He isn't addressing the thorny issue of whether a Christian should marry a non-Christian. The question that arises in this part of the argument is one of sanctification.
In this instance "sanctified" does not equate to "saved" in the way we understand it. No-one becomes a believer just by being married to a believer. Rom 11:16 If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy.
Paul's argument here is that the unbeliever is not saved but that the believer is not tarnished by having a physical relationship with their unbelieving spouse. Furthermore the children are not impacted either. It would seem that the Corinthians had got themselves into a position where contact, especially physical, with an unbeliever was a dangerous thing.
Conclusion
Paul's view of marriage is quite clear:
It's okay to marry.
There are reasons to not marry in the first place, but there are no reasons to dissolve a marriage because it's more spiritual to be single. Furthermore, if you are married, healthy sexual relationship is the norm, it's something you work out as a couple. The only concession Paul makes is that there may be short periods of time when you choose, mutually, to abstain for a spiritual reason, but it's only a concession, not a rule.
Singleness, as a way of life, can only be a blessing by grace, it's a gift says Paul, a gift not everyone has.
Perhaps Paul's overall point is simply this:
Don't over spiritualise yourselves, and don't seek to change your circumstances in order to become more spiritual, learn to be more spiritual in the situation in which you live day-to-day.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Living with your head up
The Bible opens with a simple, yet profound, statement of faith.
In the beginning God created…
It offers no logical explanation, no complex philosophical argument, no scientific thesis. It simply makes a statement of faith.
In the beginning God created…
It’s profound because it tells us that we are not the centre of the universe, but we are the focus of attention. God’s attention. God did the creating, we are the created, but that doesn’t mean that we are insignificant creatures n some vast expanding universe.
As the story unfolds we discover that everything God made was good. The sky was good, the oceans were good, the animals and plants were good and humanity was good too. God was pleased with what he made. And as for humanity, they were given the job of looking after everything else that God had made.
Now fast forward.
Sadly humanity has made mistakes, big mistakes. Taking destiny into their own hands they have broken the bond of relationship with God. They’ve gone solo and the world is suffering as a result. Selfishness and greed creep in and the environment begins to suffer because of humanity’s failures.
Fast forward to the time of the prophets. Men and women who’s job it is to call the people back into a relationship with the God who loves them, who created them, and cares for them.
Enter Micah, one of those prophets. A question gets asked:
With what shall I come before the Lord… shall I come with burnt offerings... with thousands of lambs… with rivers of oil?
This, after all, is what the people of Israel had been doing for years.
Here come the answer:
He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with the Lord your God
Today is Micah Challenge Sunday. Picking up on these words, today is a day to focus on the challenge to meet the Millennium Development goals. A day to remind ourselves that we are not alone in the world and that we are not the centre of this universe in glorious isolation, but that we are part of a bigger family.
Fast forward to the days of Jesus. Cue the story of the rich man and his bigger barn.
Is Jesus saying that it’s wrong to be rich? I don’t think so. Is he saying that it’s wrong to look forward to a long and happy retirement? I sincerely hope not!
There are those here this morning who are wondering how long it would take me to mention the rugby. Well here’s the mention. Perhaps, just as Brain Ashton, the head coach of the victorious England team, talks about playing rugby with your head up, looking around and seeing the bigger picture, perhaps the failure of the rich man in Jesus’ story is his failure to live a “head’s up” life.
Fast forward to the early 21st century. Cue your story and my story.
Today as part of our celebration we’re also reminding ourselves that we are part of bigger family. Part of a family that deserves to enjoy creation’s provisions wherever the family finds itself.
Perhaps the challenge we face is learning to live a “heads up” life in our time.
There’s much about which we could be selfish. But the challenge that Jesus brings to us is a simple one. It’s often summed up in these words:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, strength, soul and mind. Love your neighbour as yourself.
In other words: Love God, love others like you want to be loved.
The truth is some people are good at one and not the other, but we’re called to be good at both.
You can love everyone around you, you can give everything you have to meet the needs o the poor, but unless you love God the eternal context is lost.
And you can love God wholeheartedly, but unless that spills over into your love for others, it’s an empty religious philosophy.
Love for others, according the Bible, arises best out of our relationship with God, won for us through the death of Jesus on the cross.
This then is the challenge:
Live a heads up life.
Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly with the Lord your God.
In the beginning God created…
It offers no logical explanation, no complex philosophical argument, no scientific thesis. It simply makes a statement of faith.
In the beginning God created…
It’s profound because it tells us that we are not the centre of the universe, but we are the focus of attention. God’s attention. God did the creating, we are the created, but that doesn’t mean that we are insignificant creatures n some vast expanding universe.
As the story unfolds we discover that everything God made was good. The sky was good, the oceans were good, the animals and plants were good and humanity was good too. God was pleased with what he made. And as for humanity, they were given the job of looking after everything else that God had made.
Now fast forward.
Sadly humanity has made mistakes, big mistakes. Taking destiny into their own hands they have broken the bond of relationship with God. They’ve gone solo and the world is suffering as a result. Selfishness and greed creep in and the environment begins to suffer because of humanity’s failures.
Fast forward to the time of the prophets. Men and women who’s job it is to call the people back into a relationship with the God who loves them, who created them, and cares for them.
Enter Micah, one of those prophets. A question gets asked:
With what shall I come before the Lord… shall I come with burnt offerings... with thousands of lambs… with rivers of oil?
This, after all, is what the people of Israel had been doing for years.
Here come the answer:
He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with the Lord your God
Today is Micah Challenge Sunday. Picking up on these words, today is a day to focus on the challenge to meet the Millennium Development goals. A day to remind ourselves that we are not alone in the world and that we are not the centre of this universe in glorious isolation, but that we are part of a bigger family.
Fast forward to the days of Jesus. Cue the story of the rich man and his bigger barn.
Is Jesus saying that it’s wrong to be rich? I don’t think so. Is he saying that it’s wrong to look forward to a long and happy retirement? I sincerely hope not!
There are those here this morning who are wondering how long it would take me to mention the rugby. Well here’s the mention. Perhaps, just as Brain Ashton, the head coach of the victorious England team, talks about playing rugby with your head up, looking around and seeing the bigger picture, perhaps the failure of the rich man in Jesus’ story is his failure to live a “head’s up” life.
Fast forward to the early 21st century. Cue your story and my story.
Today as part of our celebration we’re also reminding ourselves that we are part of bigger family. Part of a family that deserves to enjoy creation’s provisions wherever the family finds itself.
Perhaps the challenge we face is learning to live a “heads up” life in our time.
There’s much about which we could be selfish. But the challenge that Jesus brings to us is a simple one. It’s often summed up in these words:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, strength, soul and mind. Love your neighbour as yourself.
In other words: Love God, love others like you want to be loved.
The truth is some people are good at one and not the other, but we’re called to be good at both.
You can love everyone around you, you can give everything you have to meet the needs o the poor, but unless you love God the eternal context is lost.
And you can love God wholeheartedly, but unless that spills over into your love for others, it’s an empty religious philosophy.
Love for others, according the Bible, arises best out of our relationship with God, won for us through the death of Jesus on the cross.
This then is the challenge:
Live a heads up life.
Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly with the Lord your God.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Simply Love
Setting the scene
Paul's ongoing concern in 1 Corinthians is to underline the close connection that Christians should have with one another and to point out how the eagerness of the Corinthian Christians is in danger ofworking against that very principle.
In chapter 12 he explores the place of spiritual gifts in the context of being the body of Christ as the picture for the church. He finishes with a series of rhetorical questions, all of which demand the answer "no". After that he encourages the Corinthians in their eager desire to have spiritual gifts, a discussion he will pick up again in chapter 14, but for now there is a more important context for him to set for these gifts.
Paul steps aside from the debate about who has what gift, which gift is the best gift or how many gifts a person might have, to draw our attention to the lifestyle in which all gifts should operate. Notice this, love is not a gift, it’s a way of life, it is the context of life for the follower of Christ. This, for Paul, is the most excellent way of love.
Gifts without love are worthless
If I speak with the tongues of men and of angles, but do not have love, I am only a resounding going...
If you base your spirituality only on the gifts you have, then your spirituality is flawed. In Corinth it was or better or worse than anywhere else, but it was the subject of Paul's concerns. Their spirituality had become based on tongues, wisdom and knowledge. But look what it had done!
Their knowledge had lead to pride and a disregard for those who struggled over some issues. Their wisdom had produced seemingly endless arguments and quarrels over all sorts of things. Their tongues had neither edified the church nor opened the way for the unchurched to grasp the message and respond to it.
And the sad outcome of all this is that if you base your spirituality on any of these things, on this gift or that gift, this bit of knowledge or that bit of knowledge, this leader or that leader, then you are almost certainly destined to do so without love.
What is love?
RT Kendall defines the love described by Paul as:
#1 A demonstration in words
Not just any words, but Holy Spirit inspired words. As Paul lays out the essentials of love there is no room for sentimentality, there is only room for the love that lies at the heart of God. It’s his essential character.
When Paul talks of love that keeps no record of wrongs, he’s pointing us towards the grace of God. When love always protects, always hopes, always trusts, always perseveres, Paul points us to the consistency of God who is the same yesterday, today and forever. When Paul says that love never fails he points us to the eternal nature of God’s love for us: I have loved you with an everlasting love.
But words are not enough.
#2 A demonstration of works
Throughout history God has both spoken of his love and demonstrated it. Paul said that the ultimate demonstration of his love for us is seen in the sending of his Son, Jesus Christ, while we were still rebels.
Jesus lived out the love of God, and we are called as his followers to do the same.
If you live this way, this way of love demonstrated by Jesus, then you will dazzle the word. “Let your light shine before men,” not to impress them but so that they might “praise your Father in heaven.”
#3 A demonstration of wisdom
What Paul calls love, James calls wisdom. There were two important aspects to living a life that pleases God in the Old Testament.
1. Keep the covenant. Not to get God on your side, but to demonstrate your commitment to him.
2. Choose wisdom as a pattern for life. Without wisdom keeping the covenant becomes a blind act of religious obedience. It has no meaning further than rule keeping. Wisdom shapes a life to walk in the light of the covenant promises. Wisdom forces you to take responsibility.
#4 Demonstration of the will
If you wait until you feel like it, you probably won’t live a life of love that often. RT Kendall says:
We must never wait for a mood or a feeling to overwhelm us.
Our moods and feeling can mislead us. We don’t find some people easy to love. If we wait until our hearts towards them change before we love them, the truth is we may never love them. On the other hand if we chose to love them in obedience to God’s will, then maybe we’ll make room for the work of the Spirit in us as we learn to love them as Jesus has loved us.
How did Jesus love?
When Jesus spoke of love, he did not speak about something sentimental, he didn’t follow a Hollywood script. He spoke instead of the cost of love, the price that might have to be paid by those who live by the rule of love. He spoke also of love as the unmistakable mark of those who claimed to be his followers. This, he said, was how people would spot the difference. Not by the clothes you wear or the books you’ve read. Not primarily by the way you spend your money or your time, although these will be affected. Rather he said that it would the nature of our relationships with each other that would be the clearest sign of our commitment to live out the lifestyle of a follower of the one who lived for and died for others.
If you have love for one another, he said, then people will know you’ve been with me.
How did Jesus love?
#1 Unconditionally
He was known as the friend of sinners. There isn’t a single person in the whole of the gospels that Jesus encountered and didn’t love.
#2 Sacrificially
You don’t need me to remind you about the cross. A symbol of the most violent and cruellest forms of punishment ever devised by human beings. And yet the symbol of the church. The symbol of the unending love of God for the same human beings who devised its cruel use.
Is there a greater sacrifice that choosing to die for someone else? You might die for a righteous man the Bible says, but surely never for an unrighteous one. But that’s what Jesus did.
God could have wiped us out and started over again with a new universe. If he can create it, he can restart it. But he didn’t. He chose rescue over restart. He chose to pay the price of redemption rather than begin again.
#3 Courageously
Jesus believed you were worth the sacrifice. He believed you were worth all that pain and suffering, He believed it was worth his while to give you the choice of where to spend your eternity. But he left the choice to you.
#4 Bravely
Jesus loved bravely.
In Corinth there were issues, issues that needed a firm hand and clear line. But that doesn't happen outside of the context of love. The difference between self-righteous judging and discipline is surely love. When we seek to point each other towards a better way of following Jesus, towards a more godly way of making choices, then we do so in the context of love. James: If you see a brother (or sister) falling into sin, rescue them. This is “tough love”. It doesn’t shirk the responsibility to say what needs to be said, to challenge patterns of behaviour that need to be challenged.
The challenge to love
Jesus said that we were to love as he loved. Love becomes the practice of our lives. As you seek to practice the love of God, these three steps might help.
1. Put others before yourself.
2. Accept your part in his plan.
3. Be quick to applaud the success of others.
It’s remarkable to think that the creator of the universe is your greatest advocate. He’s your personal cheerleader in life. He was willing to be misunderstood, mistreated and misquoted in order to give the chance to shine for him.
When you step out to serve him, to do something in his name, to honour him, then Jesus shouts from heaven, “Way to go!” Of course if he’s more British, he’s more likely to say “Well done, nice try.” But then again, I suspect his enthusiasm for you will get the better of him and he’ll dance and sing and cheer with the best of them.
To love as Jesus loved will transform our relationships. It will transform our relationship both inside and outside the church. It will change the way we relate to each other and it will change the way we relate to the God who loved, who gave his Son for us, who came to die for us and who cheers for us in heaven.
Paul's ongoing concern in 1 Corinthians is to underline the close connection that Christians should have with one another and to point out how the eagerness of the Corinthian Christians is in danger ofworking against that very principle.
In chapter 12 he explores the place of spiritual gifts in the context of being the body of Christ as the picture for the church. He finishes with a series of rhetorical questions, all of which demand the answer "no". After that he encourages the Corinthians in their eager desire to have spiritual gifts, a discussion he will pick up again in chapter 14, but for now there is a more important context for him to set for these gifts.
Paul steps aside from the debate about who has what gift, which gift is the best gift or how many gifts a person might have, to draw our attention to the lifestyle in which all gifts should operate. Notice this, love is not a gift, it’s a way of life, it is the context of life for the follower of Christ. This, for Paul, is the most excellent way of love.
Gifts without love are worthless
If I speak with the tongues of men and of angles, but do not have love, I am only a resounding going...
If you base your spirituality only on the gifts you have, then your spirituality is flawed. In Corinth it was or better or worse than anywhere else, but it was the subject of Paul's concerns. Their spirituality had become based on tongues, wisdom and knowledge. But look what it had done!
Their knowledge had lead to pride and a disregard for those who struggled over some issues. Their wisdom had produced seemingly endless arguments and quarrels over all sorts of things. Their tongues had neither edified the church nor opened the way for the unchurched to grasp the message and respond to it.
And the sad outcome of all this is that if you base your spirituality on any of these things, on this gift or that gift, this bit of knowledge or that bit of knowledge, this leader or that leader, then you are almost certainly destined to do so without love.
What is love?
RT Kendall defines the love described by Paul as:
#1 A demonstration in words
Not just any words, but Holy Spirit inspired words. As Paul lays out the essentials of love there is no room for sentimentality, there is only room for the love that lies at the heart of God. It’s his essential character.
When Paul talks of love that keeps no record of wrongs, he’s pointing us towards the grace of God. When love always protects, always hopes, always trusts, always perseveres, Paul points us to the consistency of God who is the same yesterday, today and forever. When Paul says that love never fails he points us to the eternal nature of God’s love for us: I have loved you with an everlasting love.
But words are not enough.
#2 A demonstration of works
Throughout history God has both spoken of his love and demonstrated it. Paul said that the ultimate demonstration of his love for us is seen in the sending of his Son, Jesus Christ, while we were still rebels.
Jesus lived out the love of God, and we are called as his followers to do the same.
If you live this way, this way of love demonstrated by Jesus, then you will dazzle the word. “Let your light shine before men,” not to impress them but so that they might “praise your Father in heaven.”
#3 A demonstration of wisdom
What Paul calls love, James calls wisdom. There were two important aspects to living a life that pleases God in the Old Testament.
1. Keep the covenant. Not to get God on your side, but to demonstrate your commitment to him.
2. Choose wisdom as a pattern for life. Without wisdom keeping the covenant becomes a blind act of religious obedience. It has no meaning further than rule keeping. Wisdom shapes a life to walk in the light of the covenant promises. Wisdom forces you to take responsibility.
#4 Demonstration of the will
If you wait until you feel like it, you probably won’t live a life of love that often. RT Kendall says:
We must never wait for a mood or a feeling to overwhelm us.
Our moods and feeling can mislead us. We don’t find some people easy to love. If we wait until our hearts towards them change before we love them, the truth is we may never love them. On the other hand if we chose to love them in obedience to God’s will, then maybe we’ll make room for the work of the Spirit in us as we learn to love them as Jesus has loved us.
How did Jesus love?
When Jesus spoke of love, he did not speak about something sentimental, he didn’t follow a Hollywood script. He spoke instead of the cost of love, the price that might have to be paid by those who live by the rule of love. He spoke also of love as the unmistakable mark of those who claimed to be his followers. This, he said, was how people would spot the difference. Not by the clothes you wear or the books you’ve read. Not primarily by the way you spend your money or your time, although these will be affected. Rather he said that it would the nature of our relationships with each other that would be the clearest sign of our commitment to live out the lifestyle of a follower of the one who lived for and died for others.
If you have love for one another, he said, then people will know you’ve been with me.
How did Jesus love?
#1 Unconditionally
He was known as the friend of sinners. There isn’t a single person in the whole of the gospels that Jesus encountered and didn’t love.
#2 Sacrificially
You don’t need me to remind you about the cross. A symbol of the most violent and cruellest forms of punishment ever devised by human beings. And yet the symbol of the church. The symbol of the unending love of God for the same human beings who devised its cruel use.
Is there a greater sacrifice that choosing to die for someone else? You might die for a righteous man the Bible says, but surely never for an unrighteous one. But that’s what Jesus did.
God could have wiped us out and started over again with a new universe. If he can create it, he can restart it. But he didn’t. He chose rescue over restart. He chose to pay the price of redemption rather than begin again.
#3 Courageously
Jesus believed you were worth the sacrifice. He believed you were worth all that pain and suffering, He believed it was worth his while to give you the choice of where to spend your eternity. But he left the choice to you.
#4 Bravely
Jesus loved bravely.
In Corinth there were issues, issues that needed a firm hand and clear line. But that doesn't happen outside of the context of love. The difference between self-righteous judging and discipline is surely love. When we seek to point each other towards a better way of following Jesus, towards a more godly way of making choices, then we do so in the context of love. James: If you see a brother (or sister) falling into sin, rescue them. This is “tough love”. It doesn’t shirk the responsibility to say what needs to be said, to challenge patterns of behaviour that need to be challenged.
The challenge to love
Jesus said that we were to love as he loved. Love becomes the practice of our lives. As you seek to practice the love of God, these three steps might help.
1. Put others before yourself.
2. Accept your part in his plan.
3. Be quick to applaud the success of others.
It’s remarkable to think that the creator of the universe is your greatest advocate. He’s your personal cheerleader in life. He was willing to be misunderstood, mistreated and misquoted in order to give the chance to shine for him.
When you step out to serve him, to do something in his name, to honour him, then Jesus shouts from heaven, “Way to go!” Of course if he’s more British, he’s more likely to say “Well done, nice try.” But then again, I suspect his enthusiasm for you will get the better of him and he’ll dance and sing and cheer with the best of them.
To love as Jesus loved will transform our relationships. It will transform our relationship both inside and outside the church. It will change the way we relate to each other and it will change the way we relate to the God who loved, who gave his Son for us, who came to die for us and who cheers for us in heaven.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Resurrection
Chapter 15 (of 1 Corinthians) opens with Paul defending his position and authority as an apostle. Crucial to his argument is his personal encounter with the risen Lord Jesus. Acknowledging the unusual nature of the circumstances, Paul nevertheless points out that he share a common authority with the other apostles because he too has seen the risen Jesus.
However this authority is meaningless if the resurrection didn't happen. The resurrection of Jesus is not only pivotal for Paul's apostleship, but it is also pivotal for the foundations of the faith of the Christians in Corinth and of course for the foundations of our faith too.
Resurrection and faith
The resurrection is crucial to Christian faith. As one writer puts it: The resurrection is God's Amen to Christ's statement that, "It is finished!"
Without the resurrection, none of the rest makes sense. So it is that while Paul asserts we preach (and know) nothing but Christ crucified, he is also determined that the early church in Corinth should understand the importance and significance of the resurrection to the faith.
That some were suggesting that whilst Christ had been raised that there was no general resurrection awaiting humanity, Paul defends the principle of the resurrection for all as central to faith alongside the cross.
#1 No resurrection; no faith
Without the resurrection, Christian faith crumbles and falls apart. We are to be pitied above all people. But it is true. And it's not just true because we say it is, it's true because the testimony of history tells us it is true.
a. The testimony of the early believers, what they saw and experienced. (Acts 1), 1 Cor.15:5ff Peter, the twelve, and then 500, then James, then Paul.
b. The implication of their changed attitude: Afraid and in hiding, boldly proclaiming the message on the streets.
c. Their willingness to die for it: Would you die for a lie? If the disciples had stolen the body as some have said, would they have died to perpetuate the lie?
d. the lack of evidence to the contrary. Where is the body of Jesus if he died?
e. The unusual lengths that the authorities went to to cover up what had happened.
#2 The importance of the resurrection
Therefore, the resurrection of Jesus is not some “add on” to a “more important” work on the cross. If the cross is the payment for our sins, the empty tomb is the receipt, showing that the perfect Son of God made perfect payment for our sins. The payment itself is of little good without the receipt! This is why the resurrection of Jesus was such a prominent theme in the evangelistic preaching of the early church (Acts 2:24, 3:15, 4:10, 13:30-39).
The importance of the resurrection is that, although Jesus "became sin for us" he did not succumb to the ultimate consequence of sin, death. In fact, because the "sinless one" died he fully dealt with sin, and the resurrection proves it.
When you know what rests on the resurrection, you know why if for this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.
Five core beliefs that rest on the resurrection
One writer identifies the following five core beleifs that rest on the resurrection.
i. The divinity of Jesus rests on the resurrection of Jesus (Romans 1:4).
and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.
ii. The sovereignty of Jesus rests on the resurrection of Jesus (Romans 14:9).
For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.
iii. Our justification rests on the resurrection of Jesus (Romans 4:25).
He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
iv. Our regeneration rests on the resurrection of Jesus (1 Peter 1:3).
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
v. Our ultimate resurrection rests on the resurrection of Jesus (Romans 8:11).
And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
“The fact is, that the silver thread of resurrection runs through all the blessings, from regeneration onward to our eternal glory, and binds them together.” (Spurgeon)
The significance of the resurrection
a. Gives a reason and basis for a committed life. In other words, because we have a resurrection life to forward to, we have a reason to live out that resurrection life in the present.
Death is no longer the end, this life has implications for eternity.
b. We bear the likeness of Christ.
What does this mean?
A sacrificial life
An obedient life.
The resurrection encourages us to persevere. This life is not all there is, there is a life beyond it.
c. We have an inheritance (the Kingdom of God)
The resurrection body
1. 15:38 it is of divine origin.
In answer to the question "someone may ask": What kind of body? Paul answers:
God gives it [the seed] a body, just as he has determined.
2. 15:44 it is spiritual.
This does not mean a spirit in the way we tend to see the word used today, but spiritual in the sense that it is "animated and guided by the spirit". It is a physical body. Jesus had a physical body, he has a physical body in heaven.
The resurrection body of the believer is therefore a physical body subject to the perfected spirit of the believer.
3. 15:42-44 it won't perish.
So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
So what does this mean for you and me? How do we live in the light of the resurrection that Jesus has experienced and in the light of the resurrection that is to come?
This life is not the only life.
If we live as if this life doesn’t matter, as if we can do exactly what we please, then we are denying the work of Jesus on the cross and the resurrection because we are living as if the future doesn’t exist.
That is Paul’s point.
You cannot life this life without reference to the future life to come. You cannot live this life as if there are no eternal consequences. To paraphrase Paul elsewhere, there are those who will get into heaven by the skin of their teeth.
We live life with hope
If we only lived our present lives in fear of what it might mean for the future, we’re as bad a place as those who live as if it doesn’t matter.
We’re in danger of being sucked into a pattern of life were we need always to do the exact right thing with no room for error. In the end we become bound by rules and regulations because we’re afraid that we’ll miss the mark if we don’t behave.
The flip side of this is that we give up trying to live a fully devoted life because it’s just to hard and we’ve messed up our eternity anyway through the last thing we did wrong!
But the resurrection brings hope into our present lives.
The hope that things will not always be this way, that this life won’t always set the agenda for our lives.
It’s a hope too that is rooted in the forgiveness won for us through the cross. Remember the resurrection as the amen to the finished work of the cross.
All of a sudden it’s worth the effort. It’s worth living a God-honouring life this side of eternity because it’s all going to be worth it in the end.
We’ll have a new body that is no longer torn apart by sickness, no longer driven by sinful desire, but a body that responds to our deepest desire to live for God.
However this authority is meaningless if the resurrection didn't happen. The resurrection of Jesus is not only pivotal for Paul's apostleship, but it is also pivotal for the foundations of the faith of the Christians in Corinth and of course for the foundations of our faith too.
Resurrection and faith
The resurrection is crucial to Christian faith. As one writer puts it: The resurrection is God's Amen to Christ's statement that, "It is finished!"
Without the resurrection, none of the rest makes sense. So it is that while Paul asserts we preach (and know) nothing but Christ crucified, he is also determined that the early church in Corinth should understand the importance and significance of the resurrection to the faith.
That some were suggesting that whilst Christ had been raised that there was no general resurrection awaiting humanity, Paul defends the principle of the resurrection for all as central to faith alongside the cross.
#1 No resurrection; no faith
Without the resurrection, Christian faith crumbles and falls apart. We are to be pitied above all people. But it is true. And it's not just true because we say it is, it's true because the testimony of history tells us it is true.
a. The testimony of the early believers, what they saw and experienced. (Acts 1), 1 Cor.15:5ff Peter, the twelve, and then 500, then James, then Paul.
b. The implication of their changed attitude: Afraid and in hiding, boldly proclaiming the message on the streets.
c. Their willingness to die for it: Would you die for a lie? If the disciples had stolen the body as some have said, would they have died to perpetuate the lie?
d. the lack of evidence to the contrary. Where is the body of Jesus if he died?
e. The unusual lengths that the authorities went to to cover up what had happened.
#2 The importance of the resurrection
Therefore, the resurrection of Jesus is not some “add on” to a “more important” work on the cross. If the cross is the payment for our sins, the empty tomb is the receipt, showing that the perfect Son of God made perfect payment for our sins. The payment itself is of little good without the receipt! This is why the resurrection of Jesus was such a prominent theme in the evangelistic preaching of the early church (Acts 2:24, 3:15, 4:10, 13:30-39).
The importance of the resurrection is that, although Jesus "became sin for us" he did not succumb to the ultimate consequence of sin, death. In fact, because the "sinless one" died he fully dealt with sin, and the resurrection proves it.
When you know what rests on the resurrection, you know why if for this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.
Five core beliefs that rest on the resurrection
One writer identifies the following five core beleifs that rest on the resurrection.
i. The divinity of Jesus rests on the resurrection of Jesus (Romans 1:4).
and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.
ii. The sovereignty of Jesus rests on the resurrection of Jesus (Romans 14:9).
For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.
iii. Our justification rests on the resurrection of Jesus (Romans 4:25).
He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
iv. Our regeneration rests on the resurrection of Jesus (1 Peter 1:3).
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
v. Our ultimate resurrection rests on the resurrection of Jesus (Romans 8:11).
And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
“The fact is, that the silver thread of resurrection runs through all the blessings, from regeneration onward to our eternal glory, and binds them together.” (Spurgeon)
The significance of the resurrection
a. Gives a reason and basis for a committed life. In other words, because we have a resurrection life to forward to, we have a reason to live out that resurrection life in the present.
Death is no longer the end, this life has implications for eternity.
b. We bear the likeness of Christ.
What does this mean?
A sacrificial life
An obedient life.
The resurrection encourages us to persevere. This life is not all there is, there is a life beyond it.
c. We have an inheritance (the Kingdom of God)
The resurrection body
1. 15:38 it is of divine origin.
In answer to the question "someone may ask": What kind of body? Paul answers:
God gives it [the seed] a body, just as he has determined.
2. 15:44 it is spiritual.
This does not mean a spirit in the way we tend to see the word used today, but spiritual in the sense that it is "animated and guided by the spirit". It is a physical body. Jesus had a physical body, he has a physical body in heaven.
The resurrection body of the believer is therefore a physical body subject to the perfected spirit of the believer.
3. 15:42-44 it won't perish.
So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
So what does this mean for you and me? How do we live in the light of the resurrection that Jesus has experienced and in the light of the resurrection that is to come?
This life is not the only life.
If we live as if this life doesn’t matter, as if we can do exactly what we please, then we are denying the work of Jesus on the cross and the resurrection because we are living as if the future doesn’t exist.
That is Paul’s point.
You cannot life this life without reference to the future life to come. You cannot live this life as if there are no eternal consequences. To paraphrase Paul elsewhere, there are those who will get into heaven by the skin of their teeth.
We live life with hope
If we only lived our present lives in fear of what it might mean for the future, we’re as bad a place as those who live as if it doesn’t matter.
We’re in danger of being sucked into a pattern of life were we need always to do the exact right thing with no room for error. In the end we become bound by rules and regulations because we’re afraid that we’ll miss the mark if we don’t behave.
The flip side of this is that we give up trying to live a fully devoted life because it’s just to hard and we’ve messed up our eternity anyway through the last thing we did wrong!
But the resurrection brings hope into our present lives.
The hope that things will not always be this way, that this life won’t always set the agenda for our lives.
It’s a hope too that is rooted in the forgiveness won for us through the cross. Remember the resurrection as the amen to the finished work of the cross.
All of a sudden it’s worth the effort. It’s worth living a God-honouring life this side of eternity because it’s all going to be worth it in the end.
We’ll have a new body that is no longer torn apart by sickness, no longer driven by sinful desire, but a body that responds to our deepest desire to live for God.
One People
David Watson once described the Christian community as being like a group of porcupines huddling together for warmth. In other words, the closer they got to each other, the more likely they were to cause each other pain! He wasn't being cynical about the church, he was just trying to describe the reality that we're an imperfect people and that this causes problems from time to time.
John Stott of course is credited with the quote: "if you find the perfect church, don't join it, you will only spoil it." And then there is my favourite quote about the church from Bill Hybels: "There is nothing like the local church when it's working right..."
The church in Corinth was no different. In 1 Corinthians chapter 1, Paul dives straight into some of the issues that have surfaced in this multi-cultural, multi-dimensional expression of the local church. It seems that the church has become almost tribal, identifying allegiance to a particular leader as a defining characteristic of how to do things "the right way".
Later in the letter we discover that leadership is not the only basis for division in the church.
· Wealth and status is a factor
· Disagreements and law suits
· Different teaching methods, or teachers
· Arguments about marriage
Paul's call is simply this: I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you...
The question is: Is this ever possible?
What is Paul addressing:
When Paul talks about divisions, he is addressing the issue of the arguments that are raging within the community. The word translated division is translated elsewhere in the New Testament as tear, like a torn garment or wineskin. On the other hand the phrase perfectly united is about restoration (the same word is used in Mark's gospel to describe the process of repairing the fishing nets).
So these are tears, they’re not fatal unless they become too big. So they need attention now, and Paul’s solution is a reminder that we are called to become one people.
How do we become one people?
#1 Christ the centre
For Paul the answer to this question rests fairly and squarely on one principle: Christ is not divided. In other words, Jesus is the answer to the question of church unity. Or to put it another way: What unites us is Christ and the cross, and this is greater than anything that divides us. What makes the church "work" is Christ at the centre. What makes the church not work is when Christ is forced out of the centre of things.
The gospel is the reconciling work of God in our midst.
#2 Celebrate a common faith
One faith, one Lord, one baptism.
The problem, or rather the challenge is that we have a seemingly ever-increasing diversity of churches. Can they all be right? And if not, which one is wrong and which one is right?
These kinds of questions presuppose that our eternal destiny rests on choosing the right church! But we know it doesn't, and Paul knows that too. As we've already seen, his argument for unity is based upon the centrality of Christ and the work of the cross.
#3 Share a common vision, values and purpose
From local to national to international, we share some things in common. The more local we are, the more closely we need to share. But that does not mean that we have always to agree in every detail of the "how", but we will agree on the fundamental "what". In other words there is room for diversity, but no room for division.
Our common vision is expressed on the weekly newssheet as:
To build a church that honours and glorifies God; built on biblical principles; teaching biblical truth; influencing its community; where personal relationships are deep.
Our mission is: To know God and to make God known
Our values are:
• A clear commitment to Christ
• Authentic Christian lifestyle
• Commitment to one another
• Committed to our community
• The centrality of prayer and worship in everything we do
And our common purpose is: To love people into a deep and growing relationship with God through Jesus Christ
On the weekly newssheet we end with one last thing: a common heart.
It says this: We want to share God’s heart for the marginalized and play our part in fulfilling God’s call to preach good news to the poor and freedom to the oppressed.
None of this presupposes that we all do the same things in the same ways. In fact I would suggest that it would be impossible to do that. Instead we are united in these things as our core values, our core vision, our core purpose. But we fulfil them in a diversity of ways.
#4 One body
Diversity comes through form and function. Unity comes through purpose and authority (Christ is the head of the church)
#5 Live a common life
One of the characteristics of the early church was its common life. In Acts 2 we see the church sharing a common life through common worship, common commitment, common possessions.
So here’s a final question: What might a common life look like in the 21st century?
Answers on a postcard please...
John Stott of course is credited with the quote: "if you find the perfect church, don't join it, you will only spoil it." And then there is my favourite quote about the church from Bill Hybels: "There is nothing like the local church when it's working right..."
The church in Corinth was no different. In 1 Corinthians chapter 1, Paul dives straight into some of the issues that have surfaced in this multi-cultural, multi-dimensional expression of the local church. It seems that the church has become almost tribal, identifying allegiance to a particular leader as a defining characteristic of how to do things "the right way".
Later in the letter we discover that leadership is not the only basis for division in the church.
· Wealth and status is a factor
· Disagreements and law suits
· Different teaching methods, or teachers
· Arguments about marriage
Paul's call is simply this: I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you...
The question is: Is this ever possible?
What is Paul addressing:
When Paul talks about divisions, he is addressing the issue of the arguments that are raging within the community. The word translated division is translated elsewhere in the New Testament as tear, like a torn garment or wineskin. On the other hand the phrase perfectly united is about restoration (the same word is used in Mark's gospel to describe the process of repairing the fishing nets).
So these are tears, they’re not fatal unless they become too big. So they need attention now, and Paul’s solution is a reminder that we are called to become one people.
How do we become one people?
#1 Christ the centre
For Paul the answer to this question rests fairly and squarely on one principle: Christ is not divided. In other words, Jesus is the answer to the question of church unity. Or to put it another way: What unites us is Christ and the cross, and this is greater than anything that divides us. What makes the church "work" is Christ at the centre. What makes the church not work is when Christ is forced out of the centre of things.
The gospel is the reconciling work of God in our midst.
#2 Celebrate a common faith
One faith, one Lord, one baptism.
The problem, or rather the challenge is that we have a seemingly ever-increasing diversity of churches. Can they all be right? And if not, which one is wrong and which one is right?
These kinds of questions presuppose that our eternal destiny rests on choosing the right church! But we know it doesn't, and Paul knows that too. As we've already seen, his argument for unity is based upon the centrality of Christ and the work of the cross.
#3 Share a common vision, values and purpose
From local to national to international, we share some things in common. The more local we are, the more closely we need to share. But that does not mean that we have always to agree in every detail of the "how", but we will agree on the fundamental "what". In other words there is room for diversity, but no room for division.
Our common vision is expressed on the weekly newssheet as:
To build a church that honours and glorifies God; built on biblical principles; teaching biblical truth; influencing its community; where personal relationships are deep.
Our mission is: To know God and to make God known
Our values are:
• A clear commitment to Christ
• Authentic Christian lifestyle
• Commitment to one another
• Committed to our community
• The centrality of prayer and worship in everything we do
And our common purpose is: To love people into a deep and growing relationship with God through Jesus Christ
On the weekly newssheet we end with one last thing: a common heart.
It says this: We want to share God’s heart for the marginalized and play our part in fulfilling God’s call to preach good news to the poor and freedom to the oppressed.
None of this presupposes that we all do the same things in the same ways. In fact I would suggest that it would be impossible to do that. Instead we are united in these things as our core values, our core vision, our core purpose. But we fulfil them in a diversity of ways.
#4 One body
Diversity comes through form and function. Unity comes through purpose and authority (Christ is the head of the church)
#5 Live a common life
One of the characteristics of the early church was its common life. In Acts 2 we see the church sharing a common life through common worship, common commitment, common possessions.
So here’s a final question: What might a common life look like in the 21st century?
Answers on a postcard please...
The message of the cross
In 1968 an author by the name of Erich von Däniken published his first book The Chariots of the Gods. Since then he’s written 26 or so books, continuing to work out his theory that our planet was visited by extra-terrestrials in it’s ancient past.
Sound crazy to you?
Try a Google search for “crazy theories” and you’ll get almost 2 million hits. The world is full of conspiracy theories, alien visit theories and many more.
So imagine what it must have been like for the average intelligent person in the first century to hear, for the first time, the theory that God had become a human being, lived in almost total obscurity, never appeared to speak openly about who he was, did nothing to stop himself from being arrested, tried, convicted, abused, and eventually executed, only to come back to life and instead of raining down judgement, continued to teach a pattern of love and reconciliation through his followers.
Just imagine how crazy that probably sounded.
Surely, they might have said, “A real God would have nothing to do with crucifixion, let alone allow himself to suffer it.”
But, says Paul, this is the very heart of our message.
We preach Christ crucified
It is:
Foolish to those who don’t believe but the power of God to those who do.
The core of the message
In 1Cor.15, Paul sets out the core of the message:
Christ died for our sins (according to Scripture); He was buried; He was raised on the third day (according to Scripture); He appeared
In chapter 1, this is the gospel he preaches.
Faith versus human wisdom
In Corinth there was an issue with knowledge. There were those who thought they had access to some special, secret knowledge, that made them a better class of Christian. But Paul cleverly dismantles the notion of secret knowledge and does away with the importance of what we might know in contrast with the significance of what we do know.
It is the power of God, not human wisdom or secret knowledge that sets us free. And this freedom comes through faith not knowledge. We should not confuse at this point, knowledge and understanding. Paul is not saying that in order to believe, we should ditch any idea of ever understanding. In fact Paul says that the message of the cross is indeed a message of wisdom among the mature.
The nature of faith
Faith does not depend upon human wisdom but upon God’s power.
This means that faith is not rational, at least not in the conventional sense of the word. It cannot be worked out by careful thought and analysis alone. But neither is it irrational, because it depends on the external power of God. It is no blind leap. In other words faith bridges the world of the rational, of cause and effect, and the world of miracles, the seemingly irrational.
Responding to the gospel
Paul sets out three responses to the gospel.
#1 Scandalous
The first response is to be offended. Knowing his world as he does, Paul knows that best example of this is his own people, the Jews. He knows what the cross looks like through eyes of faithful followers of Judaism. He knows, because he’s been there.
The Old Testament curses anyone who hangs on a tree. He knows the stigma, the theological inconsistency of any argument that would suggest that not only would God take human form, but that he would put his life in the hands of Gentiles.
He knew that religious people, of all people, would be scandalised by such a notion.
#2 Foolishness
On the other hand, if you didn’t see the scandal in it, you most probably saw the foolishness. The almighty, all-powerful creator God, suffers the ignominy of crucifixion with barely a whimper.
But to those who will suspend human wisdom and judgement for a while, who are willing to think through the implications of God’s self revelation, it’s possible to see things differently.
Paul’s third response is:
#3 Power
Not our own power, but a realisation that this crazy theory of incarnation and sacrifice is the very work of God as he reaches into our world and rescues us from it.
The gospel that enriches
This gospel this good news, not only rescues from the sin that separates us from God, it not only reconciles us to God, a point Paul makes in his second letter to the Corinthians, but it also enriches our lives.
According to Paul, the grace of God enriches our lives in every way. In all our speaking, in all our knowledge. No longer do we need secret or special knowledge because have an enriched knowledge.
We are also enriched through spiritual gifts.
And as if that were not enough, this grace presents us strong and blameless before God himself. We are truly brought back to where we belong, in relationship with the God who loves us.
Conclusion
So, crazy and scandalous at it might be to the rest of the world, it remains the message of hope, faith and love that we find in Paul’s letters and throughout the Bible.
Sound crazy to you?
Try a Google search for “crazy theories” and you’ll get almost 2 million hits. The world is full of conspiracy theories, alien visit theories and many more.
So imagine what it must have been like for the average intelligent person in the first century to hear, for the first time, the theory that God had become a human being, lived in almost total obscurity, never appeared to speak openly about who he was, did nothing to stop himself from being arrested, tried, convicted, abused, and eventually executed, only to come back to life and instead of raining down judgement, continued to teach a pattern of love and reconciliation through his followers.
Just imagine how crazy that probably sounded.
Surely, they might have said, “A real God would have nothing to do with crucifixion, let alone allow himself to suffer it.”
But, says Paul, this is the very heart of our message.
We preach Christ crucified
It is:
Foolish to those who don’t believe but the power of God to those who do.
The core of the message
In 1Cor.15, Paul sets out the core of the message:
Christ died for our sins (according to Scripture); He was buried; He was raised on the third day (according to Scripture); He appeared
In chapter 1, this is the gospel he preaches.
Faith versus human wisdom
In Corinth there was an issue with knowledge. There were those who thought they had access to some special, secret knowledge, that made them a better class of Christian. But Paul cleverly dismantles the notion of secret knowledge and does away with the importance of what we might know in contrast with the significance of what we do know.
It is the power of God, not human wisdom or secret knowledge that sets us free. And this freedom comes through faith not knowledge. We should not confuse at this point, knowledge and understanding. Paul is not saying that in order to believe, we should ditch any idea of ever understanding. In fact Paul says that the message of the cross is indeed a message of wisdom among the mature.
The nature of faith
Faith does not depend upon human wisdom but upon God’s power.
This means that faith is not rational, at least not in the conventional sense of the word. It cannot be worked out by careful thought and analysis alone. But neither is it irrational, because it depends on the external power of God. It is no blind leap. In other words faith bridges the world of the rational, of cause and effect, and the world of miracles, the seemingly irrational.
Responding to the gospel
Paul sets out three responses to the gospel.
#1 Scandalous
The first response is to be offended. Knowing his world as he does, Paul knows that best example of this is his own people, the Jews. He knows what the cross looks like through eyes of faithful followers of Judaism. He knows, because he’s been there.
The Old Testament curses anyone who hangs on a tree. He knows the stigma, the theological inconsistency of any argument that would suggest that not only would God take human form, but that he would put his life in the hands of Gentiles.
He knew that religious people, of all people, would be scandalised by such a notion.
#2 Foolishness
On the other hand, if you didn’t see the scandal in it, you most probably saw the foolishness. The almighty, all-powerful creator God, suffers the ignominy of crucifixion with barely a whimper.
But to those who will suspend human wisdom and judgement for a while, who are willing to think through the implications of God’s self revelation, it’s possible to see things differently.
Paul’s third response is:
#3 Power
Not our own power, but a realisation that this crazy theory of incarnation and sacrifice is the very work of God as he reaches into our world and rescues us from it.
The gospel that enriches
This gospel this good news, not only rescues from the sin that separates us from God, it not only reconciles us to God, a point Paul makes in his second letter to the Corinthians, but it also enriches our lives.
According to Paul, the grace of God enriches our lives in every way. In all our speaking, in all our knowledge. No longer do we need secret or special knowledge because have an enriched knowledge.
We are also enriched through spiritual gifts.
And as if that were not enough, this grace presents us strong and blameless before God himself. We are truly brought back to where we belong, in relationship with the God who loves us.
Conclusion
So, crazy and scandalous at it might be to the rest of the world, it remains the message of hope, faith and love that we find in Paul’s letters and throughout the Bible.
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