1 COR. xv. 3, 4. “I de-
livered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that
He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according
to the Scriptures.”
I. THESE are the primary truths which Paul delivered to
the Corinthians. The story of the cross and the resurrec-
tion was what he proclaimed everywhere. You never go
far in his life or Epistles without meeting them.
1. These were the leading principles of the religion that
turned the world upside down. The effects Christianity
produced upon the world are amongst the greatest difficul-
ties of infidelity. And what did it all? Not a mere publi-
cation of a higher code of duty, but the simple story of the
cross of Calvary and the empty sepulchre in the garden.
2. Learn what the foundation of our own personal
religion must be if we really want inward spiritual comfort.
The early Christians plainly possessed such comfort.
The proof of it was their grasp of these facts.
II. Why did Paul give these truths such prominence?
Not merely because he was commanded to do so, but
because men’s wants could not be met and satisfied by any
other gospel.
1. We have all a sense of sin. Nothing cures this but
the sight of the Divine Mediator between God and man.
2. We are universally liable to sorrow. None of God’s
creatures is so vulnerable as man. The cold lessons of
stoicism have no power to help us. We need a living
personal Friend, and it is here that the doctrine of the
resurrection helps us.
3. We must certainly face death. At no point do
false religions and philosophy break down so completely
as at this point. Where they are weakest the Gospel is
strongest. It is this, and this only, that will enable us to
meet the last enemy without fear, and say: O Death, where
is thy sting? O Grave, where is thy victory?
John Cairns, D.D.