Transcript

ANNOUNCER: 1 Corinthians 15 mentions “the grace in which you stand”. Is this about maintaining eternal salvation? Or about standing steadfastly in the Christian faith and walk? That’s one thing we’ll discuss today here on Grace in Focus, and we are so glad that you are joining us. This is a ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. Our website is faithalone.org, and our YouTube channel is YouTube Grace Evangelical Society. There are new videos there each week, so subscribe and view those videos, and like them. We appreciate it, and our website once again is faithalone.org. 

Now with today’s question and answer discussion, here are Bob Wilkin and Sam Marr. 

SAM: All right, Bob, we have a question from Carlos. It’s in 1 Corinthians 15:1. So I’ll go ahead and read the first couple of verses. He says, “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.” 

BOB: And so what’s this question, it’s about verse 1?

SAM: Yeah, his question is, what does that “in which you also stand” mean? Why did Paul say that? 

BOB: Okay, so I think it’s—this is a much misunderstood passage. Many people think that 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, or 1-11, is the saving message. So many people will say, if you believe verses—especially 3 and 4, “For I deliver to you, first of all, that which I received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried and that he rose on the third day according to the Scriptures.” And then he goes on to talk about post-resurrection appearances. A lot of people say, well, if you believe that, you’re born again. 

Well, the problem with that view is it doesn’t fit with 1 Corinthians 15:1-2. It doesn’t fit with 1 Corinthians 15:1-52, because the whole point of the chapter is about the resurrection and that there were some in Corinth who were denying the resurrection, physical, bodily resurrection. And so Paul, by bringing this up, is not evangelizing the readers. He is telling the readers about how they stand. In fact, that’s Carlos’ question. And it’s a good question. Notice, “Moreover brethren I’ve declared to you the gospel”, the good news, “which I preached to you, which also you received in which you stand”.

In other words, in order to be a steadfast believer in Jesus Christ, we must continue to believe and hold to Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. If we abandon any of those elements, let’s say we say, yes, He died in the cross for our sins, and yes, He was buried, but He didn’t rise from the dead. We’re no longer standing in the Christian faith. We’ve now stopped being steadfast. 

Paul’s point here is that you cannot abandon any element of the good news of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection and remain a faithful Christian. Notice what he says, “in which you stand by which also you are saved”. He’s not saying, saved from eternal condemnation. 

This same word is used in other places, in 1 Corinthians, to refer to being spiritually healthy. 1 Corinthians 5:5, “I’ve delivered such a one over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh,” that is, his sinful inclinations, “that his spirit might be saved in the day of Christ Jesus”. “The day of Christ Jesus” refers to the Judgment Seat of Christ and he’s saying, this is a believer who currently is not faithful and he’s turning him over to Satan so the guy will repent and then be found faithful at the Judgment Seat of Christ. So “by which also you are saved”, that is spiritually healthy, “if you hold fast that word which I preached to you”, notice this salvation is not secure. This salvation can be lost. If you stop holding fast the word which I preached to you and this is unless you believed in vain, well it goes on in 15:17-21 to say, to believe in vain would be if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, then you’ve believed in vain, then your faith is worthless and of all men we are most pitiable. 

So the whole point of 1 Corinthians 15:1-2 or 1-11 is that we must stand fast on Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. The reason why the Lord’s Supper reminds us every week, if we take it every week, that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and rose bodily from the dead. He shed his blood for us and He died and rose again and he’s coming again according to 1 Corinthians 11, that every time we do this, we’re doing this, reminding the people, the worshipers, that He’s coming again. And so the reason that we do that is because it’s so foundational to the Christian experience, the Christian life.

SAM: Right, that’s the hope that we have, if He didn’t rise from the dead, then we shouldn’t expect to rise from the dead either. 

BOB: Right, Paul’s point in the chapter, if he didn’t, we won’t. 

SAM: Right, that’s what the “believed in vain” means. Well, there’s a second part to this question from Carlos. He asks about John 8:24 and he asks in relation to, so I guess it’s not really related to 1 Corinthians, but he’s asking is Jesus telling them to believe that He is God or to believe that He is the Messiah? 

BOB: Okay, that’s a good question. Maybe you can read John 8:24 then we can talk about it. 

SAM: Yeah, John 8:24 says, “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins, for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” 

BOB: Yeah, and notice He said the same thing a few verses earlier in verse, I believe it’s John 8:21, “I am going away and you will seek Me and will die in your sins. Where I go you cannot come,” and then He repeats it again. So what is dying in your sins? And is that Carlos’s question?  Oh no, he wants to know if this is Messiah or deity. 

Well, I would say it’s clearly a statement of his deity. However, I think you’ve got the Greek text there. I’m pretty sure the word “He” is not supplied. “Unless you believe that I am”, ego eimi, and that’s reminiscent of Exodus chapter three where Yahweh, the pre-incarnate Jesus, tells Moses to tell them “I am that I am”. Isn’t it just ego eimi? 

SAM: Yep. Yeah, there’s no—

BOB: Yeah, no pronoun.

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BOB: So the thing is, you could, some people say this is a statement of deity, but I would say because of the context, there’s no verse in John that says if you believe Jesus is deity, you’re born again, but there are a whole lot of verses that say if you believe Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, you’re born again. I think of John 11:25-27 or even John 4:10-25 where, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is says to you, give Me a drink, you’d ask Him and He’d give you living water”. And He went on to say that living water springs up into everlasting life. Well, the passage ends with, she says, “We know that Messiah is coming,” and that’s when He says, “I who speak to you am he”, well, again, it’s ego eimi. There’s no pronoun there, but it’s best to understand, “I am” the one we’ve been talking about, “I am the Messiah”. 

And so I would suggest here in John 8:24 that what the Lord Jesus is saying is this, if you don’t believe that Jesus is the one who guarantees everlasting life to those who believe in Him, which is what “the Christ” means in John’s gospel, then you’re going to die as a slave of sin. 

And by the way, you can see that in verses 30 through 32 because many believed in Him. And then He said, “If you abide in My word, you’re My disciples, indeed, and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” And immediately, the Jewish unbelievers in the crowd say, “We are Abraham’s descendants that have never been in bondage to anyone.” And that’s where Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.” 

So when Jesus says, if you don’t believe I am, He will die in your sins. He doesn’t mean you will die because of your sins. Everybody dies because of their sins, believers too. What He’s saying is you’re going to die in your sins, that is, as a slave of sin, both in your position and in your experience, the believer is no longer a slave of sin in our position. Look at Romans 6 around verses 17 and 18. But the believer can also be free from sin’s bondage by abiding in Christ and abiding in His word. 

SAM: Yeah. And He ends that passage in verse 36, “But therefore if the Son makes you free, you should be free indeed. So I think that I think that reinforced what you’re saying, that it’s the emphasis here is the Son or the Christ more so than the God/deity. But—

BOB:I mean it’s there too. 

SAM: Right. Right. Here’s a question I have for you. For someone that, this people He’s speaking to had a Jewish background, they knew what the Messiah was, who the Messiah was. But for someone that doesn’t have a Jewish background, which is most people in the modern day, can you believe in Jesus, the Messiah, without understanding that the Messiah is God? 

BOB: Yes, you can. And they did in the first century, for example, the disciples, let’s not count Judas because he never believed, but the eleven disciples, they all believed that Jesus is the Christ. So did Martha, right? “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God who’s to come into the world”, John 11:27. And yet none of them, including Martha, believed he was going to rise bodily from the dead. 

The Jewish conception was as flawed as many Gentile’s conception today. And that is, they thought that the Messiah was going to rule and reign. For many of them, they didn’t even have a strong grasp of the suffering servant of Isaiah 52 and 53. 

Now some Jewish people believe there would be two Messiahs, one to suffer, one to rule and reign. But it’s very clear that in the first century, people were thinking, Jesus had come to rule and reign. Even, for example, Peter, when Jesus says, I’m going to Jerusalem, and I’m going to be mistreated and killed, and I’ll rise on the third day. And Peter says, that’ll never happen to You, Lord. God forbid that would happen to you. Peter was planning on ruling right away, no death for Jesus, no death for him, no suffering for Jesus, no suffering for him, and he had the plan wrong. 

So today, a person can definitely, and by the way, none of them believed that Jesus was God in the flesh. It’s only when you get to John 20:28, that Thomas says, my Lord and my God. The fact that they believed he was the Son of God was a Messianic title. To believe that Jesus was the Son of God meant that he was the Son of David, because remember in the royal enthronement psalms, “You are my Son, today I have begotten Thee”. And so all the Davidic sons were a son of God, but the Son of God was the greater Son of David, the Messiah. 

Well, I think Carlos had a third question, but I don’t think we’ve got time to get to it. But the main point of his two questions is to focus on context. When you want to interpret the Bible, look at the context. Don’t just focus on a word or phrase, that’s important, but focus on the immediate context in the greater context of the book, and that will help you greatly. 

SAM: And until then, let’s keep grace in focus. 

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On our next episode: can preachers say what Jesus said and still come up with a false gospel? Be sure to listen in, and in the meantime, let’s keep grace in focus.