Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain (1 Cor 15:1-2).
The salvation discussed in 1 Cor 15:2 has confused many of us. Why did Paul use the present tense? It sounds as if he is talking about the believers’ being in the process of being saved. Why didn’t he use a perfect tense, as in Eph 2:8-9 (“you have been saved”)? And isn’t the gospel the saving message (e.g., Gal 1:6-9)?
Months ago, I saw a video by N.T. Wright, a leading New Testament scholar, about the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15. He said that the chapter was about how the resurrection of Jesus guarantees our resurrection and that that is the good news of 1 Cor 15:2. The good news here is not the saving message. It is the message that we too will be raised and will gain new immortal bodies.
Many commentators suggest that the gospel of 1 Cor 15:2 is the saving message, and that the salvation in view is regeneration. For example, Fee wrote: “Among all the things he proclaimed and taught while he was with them, these are the matters of ‘first importance.’ Here is the ‘bare bones’ content of the gospel that saves” (First Corinthians, p. 722, italics added).
Pratt agrees: “Anticipating the importance of what he would say about the resurrection, Paul made it clear that anyone who did not hold to the gospel he had preached could not be saved. Only by this gospel could they be saved from God’s judgment. Salvation comes through belief in the good news of Christ’s death and resurrection” (I & II Corinthians, p. 258, italics added).
Most who hold that view believe that salvation is a process, that we are currently “being saved,” and that we can only retain our salvation if we “hold fast to the message of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection.”
However, N.T. Wright is not the only one who understands the gospel in 1 Cor 15:1-4 as the good news that because Jesus rose from the dead, we will also. Wright understands the salvation in 1 Cor 15:2 to be sanctification. So do other commentators.
Dave Lowery wrote in DTS’s Bible Knowledge Commentary:
15:1–2. The present tense of the verb saved focuses on sanctification…To reject bodily resurrection eviscerated “the gospel” and made faith vain (eikē, “without cause” or “without success”; cf. vv. 14, 17) because it had an unworthy object (cf. 15:13, 17). Believing the gospel includes holding firmly to belief in Christ’s resurrection. Unless one holds firmly, his belief is “in vain”; cf. Matt. 13:18–22 (“1 Corinthians,” p. 542).
Notice that Lowery says, “the present tense of the verb saved focuses on sanctification.”
Likewise, Dwight Hunt wrote in The Grace New Testament Commentary:
…the gospel…includes a daily sanctification (are saved) if believers hold fast (or abide in) the word (cf. John 8:31–32; Rom 1:15; 10:9; 1 Cor 15:2; Gal 2:20; Eph 2:10; Jas 1:21). This daily sanctification process relates to the quality of life the Christian will spend in eternity (3:9–15; Luke 19:11–27; Rom 8:16–17; 2 Pet 1:10–11) (“1 Corinthians,” p. 758).
Hunt also says that Paul refers here to “this daily sanctification process,” not to regeneration.
If Paul were speaking of salvation from eternal condemnation, he would have said, “by which you have been saved,” as he did in Eph 2:8-9.
1 Corinthians 15 is the great resurrection chapter. Here are three key takeaways from the chapter:
- We can only remain spiritually healthyi if we hold fast to the truth of Jesus’ death and resurrection and our coming resurrection.
- Because we will rise from the dead to participate in Jesus’ kingdom, our labor in the Lord is not in vain. The Lord Jesus will reward it at the Bema.
- Our focus in sanctification should not be on our works, though they are important, but on the Lord Jesus Christ and His soon return when we will be glorified and judged at the Bema. The way to produce good works is to have the right mindset, as Paul said in Rom 12:2. 1 Corinthians 15 shows that the right mindset is key. Wright said, “All along [in 1 Corinthians 15], Paul is teaching them to think resurrectionally” (see here at 0:31). I’d never heard that expression. But I like it.
Keep grace in focus.
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i In the NT, the Greek word sōzō, used in 1 Cor 15:2 often refers to being physically healthy. It also refers at times to being spiritually healthy (cf. 1 Cor 3:15; 5:5).
