1 Corinthians 15:21-58
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Chapter 15:21-58
Victory and the
Eternal Kingdom
21. For since by man came death, by Man
also came the resurrection of the dead.
22. For as in Adam all die, even so in
Christ all shall be made alive.
23.
But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits,
afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming.
24.
Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God
the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power.
25.
For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His
feet.
26.
The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.
27.
For “He has put all things under His feet.” But when He
says “all things are put under Him, “it is evident that He who put all things
under Him is excepted.
28.
Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son
Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may
be all in all.
Christ, in His resurrection,
was the fulfillment of the Old Testament Firstfruits. There were three feasts
that occurred simultaneously in the Jewish month Abib. In the afternoon of the
14th day of the month, the Passover feast took place. The next day
the Feast of Unleavened Bread began and lasted seven days. The first day of
that feast was a sabbath, a day of rest, and the next day, the very first sheaf
of the harvest was offered to the Lord. This was called the Feast of
Firstfruits. From that day, fifty days were counted to the Feast of Pentecost. The
Scripture calls these (Lev.23:2) ‘the feasts of the Lord’.
Christ was the Passover Lamb,
offered on Passover evening, then rested in the tomb on the sabbath of the
Feast of Unleavened Bread, rising from the dead on the morning of the Feast of
Firstfruits (see Lev.23:5-14). This is why Paul called him the Firstfruits of
them that sleep. That year it happened to fall on the first day of the week. The
sheaf of firstfruits was a representation of the entire harvest, in
thanksgiving and consecration, recognizing that all comes from God and belongs
to God.
Paul presents this spiritual
principle in Romans 11:16, speaking of Israel: “If the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy” or, if the first
sample offered to God is holy, then the entire harvest is holy. (The Israelites
also offered a “firstfuit dough” to the Lord, from a larger mass of dough. That
is to which Paul is referring.) Paul applies the principle to Israel: If the
patriarchs were chosen and consecrated by God, then the entire nation is God’s.
Applying this to Christ’s resurrection it means, if He, as the firstfruits, was
resurrected, then it assured the resurrection of all believers.
1 Corinthians 15:1-20
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Chapter 15
1.
Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I
preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand,
2.
by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word
which I preached to you – unless you believed in vain.
3.
For I delivered to you first of all that which I also
received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4.
and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third
day according to the Scriptures,
5.
and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve.
6.
After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at
once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen
asleep.
7.
After that He was seen by James, then by all the
apostles.
8.
Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born
out of due time.
9.
For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to
be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
10.
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace
toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not
I, but the grace of God which was with me.
11.
Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so
you believed.
Paul
begins this chapter with a wonderful synopsis of the gospel, which he preached.
Blessed is the person, who is led to a place where it is declared, the Holy Spirit
opening his ears, so that he understands and believes. There is enough in two
verses so that anyone, anywhere, who receives these words and stands in faith
upon them, can expect to be saved. I heard an old preacher quote verses 3 and 4
and then declare, “I intend to swing out into eternity upon these truths.”
In
verse 2, Paul gives a qualification, so that the reader can distinguish
personally, whether he has truly believed or else believed in vain. He gives
the condition, “If you hold fast…” In
the parable of the sower, only the fourth kind of soil was productive, showing
that the other three received the seed in vain. They were either too hard, too
shallow, or too cluttered with cares and pleasure and came short of true faith.
Jesus said that, “He who endures to the end shall be saved” (Mt.24:13),
not because endurance saves, but because saving faith endures.
It
is a great privilege to know the gospel that the apostle preached in the early
church, but it is even more wonderful to know, from Whom he received it. It was
from the same One, Who taught him concerning the Lord’s Supper in chapter
11:23: “I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you." This
is God’s plan of salvation and you will notice that it was totally based on Old
Testament Scriptures. It was not a novel teaching that suddenly came out of
nowhere. Jesus clarified that already in John 7:16, assuring, “My doctrine
is not Mine, but His who sent Me.” The Holy Spirit, who taught Paul, never
departed from the word of Christ: “He will take of Mine and declare it to
you” (Jn.16:14).
1 Corinthians 14
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Chapter 14
The gifts of
prophecy and tongues
1.
Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially
that you may prophesy.
2.
For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but
to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries.
3.
But he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation
and comfort to men.
4.
He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who
prophesies edifies the church.
We have already begun to look
at the conclusion in verse 1 that Paul gives to his teaching in chapters 12 and
13. We will note again, that there is no hint of the spiritual gifts ceasing or
of love replacing the gifts. He clearly states his doctrine and he does so
imperatively. Chapter 13 leaves no option, concerning the necessity of God’s
love being manifested in the church. The command that he gives is to pursue it.
As to spiritual gifts, the same imperative is applied and done so forcefully,
seen by use of the Greek word desire. Strong’s
definition is: have warmth of feeling for
or against – affect, covet earnestly, have desire, move with envy, be jealous
over, be zealous. The translation commonly into English is desire earnestly. To be so adamant
concerning that which, according to the cessationists, will no longer be
necessary within a few years, because they would have the complete canon of the
New Testament, seems to me to be totally unreasonable.
We have also briefly
commented on Paul’s special emphasis concerning prophesy, which will be the
main subject in the following chapter. Prophecy certainly is to be given
preference, because of its importance towards the edification of the church.
There is a comparison throughout the chapter between prophecy and tongues.
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