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 the believers in Corinth and encouraged them to hold fast to the Gospel message he originally preached to them about Christ crucified and his resurrection from the dead (1 Cor. 1:23) which they accepted and to which they are committed. Christ’s death and resurrection is the core message of the Christian faith. The Gospel continues to inform and transform believers and that ongoing process will lead them to salvation if they remain faithful to the Gospel message. The Gospel message is of the highest importance and, in keeping with the oral tradition of the time, Paul received and “handed on” the essential teachings of the Gospel to the Christian community. Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross for the sins of mankind fulfilled the OT prophecies. The Gospel is the “cornerstone,” the foundational truth upon which Christian belief is built.
Paul outlined the key components of the Gospel message which are Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection on the third day in fulfillment of the Scriptures. These were an early Christian creed Paul received and passed on to the church at Corinth (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. 15:21-16:8). Paul pointed to the OT as foretelling Christ’s 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 also 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).”
Paul spoke about the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus to the apostles which strengthened their belief and made the resurrection a reality to them. The risen Christ appeared to over five hundred individuals some of whom were still alive at the time of Paul’s writing so there was no lack of eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Jesus. The risen Christ also appeared to James whom scholars believe to be the brother of Christ, one of Jesus’ family members who was skeptical about his ministry (Mk. 3:20-21; Jn. 7:3-5). James became a prominent leader and key figure in the early Christian movement after witnessing the resurrected Christ (Acts 15:13-21).
Paul referred to Jesus appearing to him on the road to Damascus which led to his conversion and subsequent ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles. (Acts 9:3-9). 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). By the grace of God working in him, he labored harder than any of the apostles. Whether he or the apostles proclaim the Gospel, their message is the same - the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Almighty God, through the Gospel you reveal the message of Christ's death and resurrection. May we always remember the significance of Christ's sacrifice and the transformative power of his resurrection in our lives. This we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen! Alleluia!
__________________________________
References
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
Orchard, Bernard, et al. A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture. Feb. 1953.
Comments