Scripture Daily

Context No. 964 of 4322 · 1 Corinthians

Context · Reflection

1 Corinthians 15:1-11: in context

1Now I declare to you, brothers, the Good News which I preached to you, which also you received, in which you also stand, 2by which also you are saved, if you hold firmly the word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers at once, most of whom remain until now, but some have also fallen asleep. 7Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8and last of all, as to the child born at the wrong time, he appeared to me also. 9For I am the least of the apostles, who is not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the assembly of God. 10But by the grace of God I am what I am. His grace which was given to me was not futile, but I worked more than all of them; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. 11Whether then it is I or they, so we preach, and so you believed.

Paul reminds the Corinthians of the gospel he preached, on which they stand and by which they are saved. He delivers what he first received, as a fixed tradition: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, was buried, was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and appeared, to Cephas, to the twelve, to more than five hundred at once, to James, to all the apostles, and last of all to Paul himself, as to one untimely born. I am the least of the apostles, he says, unworthy even of the name because I persecuted the church; but by the grace of God I am what I am.

This is one of the oldest summaries of the Christian message, handed to Paul and handed on by him: died, buried, raised, appeared. The gospel is rooted in events, not ideas, and Paul stacks up witnesses, naming Peter, the twelve, five hundred people most of whom were still alive and could be asked. The faith rests on something that happened and was seen. And then Paul turns personal, and it is deeply moving. He calls himself the least of the apostles, unfit for the title because he had hunted down Christians, and in the same breath says by the grace of God I am what I am. He does not hide his past or excuse it; he holds it up as the measure of grace. The man who persecuted the church became a tireless worker for it, and he insists it was not him but the grace of God working through him. His whole identity is grace applied to the least deserving, which is exactly why the good news is good.

Do I let my worst past disqualify me, or can I say with Paul, by the grace of God I am what I am, and let that grace put me to work?

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