1 Corinthians 15:1-3 - By this gospel you are saved

15:1

The Corinthians have been asking many questions, and many serious issues and attitudes needed to be addressed, but now Paul comes to the heart of the gospel. What Paul is about to say is “the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand”. This is what it is all about, this is to be the foundation of our lives. If we make something else, even things like care for the poor, the heart of the “gospel” then we are badly mistaken.

15:2

What Paul is about to say is the thing “by which we are being saved”. Nothing else will save us or anything else. We certainly should, even must, care for the poor, but doing so will not save us and will not save them. We need to hold fast to the heart of the gospel. If we do not, then our belief has been in vain. It is as serious as that.

15:3

Just to make sure that they realised the importance of it all, Paul says “I delivered to you as of first importance”. Nothing else must take precedence. The message Paul relayed is the message he received, and in Acts and Galatians we read how he received this from Christ. Now Jesus should know what the heart of the gospel is, so if you have a different view of what the heart of the gospel is then you are a fool. The first thing is that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures. This “in accordance with the Scriptures” can be taken in at least two ways. One is as a direct fulfilment of Isaiah 53 where it speaks of Him taking the iniquity of us all upon Himself. The second is that the general message of the Old Testament is that all are sinners. Any religion or “theology” which forgets that we are sinners is utterly useless and has turned away from the truth. I am a sinner, you are a sinner, and they are sinners. All have sinned, and all need forgiveness.