Now I am reminding you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you indeed received and in which you also stand. 2 Through it you are also being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. 3 For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures; 4 that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures; that he appeared to 5 Cephas, then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 After that he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one born abnormally, he appeared to me. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective. Indeed, I have toiled harder than all of them; not I, however, but the grace of God [that is] with me. 11 Therefore, whether it be I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
Paul appealed to his brothers and sisters in Corinth and encouraged them to hold fast to the gospel message he had preached to them (1 Cor. 1:23) about Christ crucified and his resurrection from the dead. Paul reminded them of the early Christian creed he received and passed on to them (vv. 3-5). That credal formula was written by Paul some 40 years before the earliest account of Christ’s death and resurrection in Mark’s Gospel (Mk. 15:21 - Mk. 16:8). The early Church pointed to the OT as foretelling Christ suffering and death, “But he was pierced for our sins, crushed for our iniquity. He bore the punishment that makes us whole, by his wounds we were healed (Is. 53:5).” Paul linked Christ’s suffering and death to our sins.
The early Church also pointed to the OT as foretelling God raising Christ from the dead after three days, “He will revive us after two days; on the third day he will raise us up, to live in his presence (Hos. 6:2).” Not only did the risen Christ appear to the apostles but to many other people so there was no lack of eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Jesus (vv. 6-7). Paul referred to Jesus appearing to him (Acts 9:3-9) and he considered himself not worthy to be called an apostle, not even fit to be born, because he persecuted Christians before his conversion (Acts 9:1-2). But by the grace of God Paul worked harder than any of the apostles.
Almighty God, if Christ has not been raised from the dead our faith is in vain, but we hold fast to the promise of life in Jesus Christ which came through the new covenant with his resurrection attested to by the apostles and many disciples. In faith we entrust our life and our works to you with the sure and certain hope that you will strengthen our trust and make straight our paths that lead to everlasting life. This we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen!
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References
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Faculty of the University of Navarre. The Navarre Bible: New Testament Expanded Edition. Expanded Edition, Four Courts / Scepter, 2008.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
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