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A Short and Important Passage
Today's reading is relatively shorter than a lot of them we've had lately, but is a very important passage for a number of reasons. I'm just going to deal briefly with the foundational one: it is a very clear and concise telling of the Gospel. Paul is either reiterating or summarizing what he taught the Corinthians, which he received himself. Here's what he has to say, separated out:
1. Jesus died
2. He died for our sins
3. The Scriptures predicted this
4. He was buried
5. He rose again (this will be important later on in chapter 15)
6. This is also in accordance with the Scriptures
7. He appeared to Peter
8. He appeared to the rest of 12
9. He appeared to a large group of 500
10. Most of those witnesses are still alive (at the time of writing)
11. He appeared to James
12. He appeared to the rest of the apostles
13. He appeared to Paul
That's being ridiculously meticulous in splitting it up, but the main idea is this: "Jesus died for our sins and rose again according the the Scriptures. The OT testifies to this. As proof, He then appeared to many people, most of whom are still alive, so go ask them! And also to me." This is a really, really concise telling of the Gospel and a mostly likely a summary of Paul's teaching in Corinth. We're going to see that the main force of what he's saying is on the resurrection: miss that and you miss everything.
If you were going to divide the Gospel into several points for sharing, how many would you have and what would they be? Paul has about 4 or 5 main thoughts about the content of the Gospel (as presented here, depending on how you divide them). What do you think is necessary? I think I would probably divide it out something like this:
1. God is creator and King
2. We are sinful and bear the penalty of rebellion
3. Jesus is God
4. He died for our sin and penalty
5. He rose again proving He was God and giving us His righteousness
6. Believe who He is and turn from rebellion to get His free gift of grace
That's a little wordy and you could probably combine some of them, but I think that covers all the major necessary points. What about you? Would you present it differently? How?
A Short and Important Passage
Today's reading is relatively shorter than a lot of them we've had lately, but is a very important passage for a number of reasons. I'm just going to deal briefly with the foundational one: it is a very clear and concise telling of the Gospel. Paul is either reiterating or summarizing what he taught the Corinthians, which he received himself. Here's what he has to say, separated out:
1. Jesus died
2. He died for our sins
3. The Scriptures predicted this
4. He was buried
5. He rose again (this will be important later on in chapter 15)
6. This is also in accordance with the Scriptures
7. He appeared to Peter
8. He appeared to the rest of 12
9. He appeared to a large group of 500
10. Most of those witnesses are still alive (at the time of writing)
11. He appeared to James
12. He appeared to the rest of the apostles
13. He appeared to Paul
That's being ridiculously meticulous in splitting it up, but the main idea is this: "Jesus died for our sins and rose again according the the Scriptures. The OT testifies to this. As proof, He then appeared to many people, most of whom are still alive, so go ask them! And also to me." This is a really, really concise telling of the Gospel and a mostly likely a summary of Paul's teaching in Corinth. We're going to see that the main force of what he's saying is on the resurrection: miss that and you miss everything.
If you were going to divide the Gospel into several points for sharing, how many would you have and what would they be? Paul has about 4 or 5 main thoughts about the content of the Gospel (as presented here, depending on how you divide them). What do you think is necessary? I think I would probably divide it out something like this:
1. God is creator and King
2. We are sinful and bear the penalty of rebellion
3. Jesus is God
4. He died for our sin and penalty
5. He rose again proving He was God and giving us His righteousness
6. Believe who He is and turn from rebellion to get His free gift of grace
That's a little wordy and you could probably combine some of them, but I think that covers all the major necessary points. What about you? Would you present it differently? How?
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