The certainty of Resurrection (chap.15)
In this chapter the Apostle Paul puts emphasis on Resurrection. Perhaps he chose this chapter at the end of his letter only suggests that he wanted to make them doubly clear while living in Corinth which had been a Greek city.
The Greeks did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. But when Paul had preached at Athens and declared the fact of Christ’s resurrection, which would soon follow the resurrection of believers, some of them have laughed at him (Acts 17:32). Most Greek philosophers considered the human body a prison which is prone to sin and so they welcomed death as deliverance from bondage. This wrong attitude had even entered into some of the churches. So Paul had to write almost a whole a chapter on Resurrection.
Our Salvation: (15:1-2):
Paul makes a connecting statement before starting the subject of Resurrection. The Corinth church was torn by parties, some people living in sin and so on, for them it was important to remind of them of Resurrection, lest they may forget.
Paul reminds them that Gospel brought them to faith in Christ. It was the Salvation given by the living Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ which had brought them to this church. The fact that they were standing firm was proof that their faith was genuine and not empty.
The Scriptures (O.T) have foretold: (15:3-4):
The Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures foretold. In the OT also it was given that His Resurrection would take place on the 3rd day.
Paul compared Christ’s resurrection to the “first fruits,” and the first fruits were presented to God on the day following the Sabbath after Passover (Lev. 23:9-14; 1 Cor. 15:23). Since the Sabbath must always be the seventh day, the day after Sabbath must be the first day of the week, or Sunday, the day of our Lord’s resurrection. This covers three days on the Jewish calendar. Further Jesus pointed to the experience of the prophet Jonah in the fish belly. He was vomited out from the fish belly on the 3rd day (Matt.12:38-41). Besides there are many more references which evidences the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ (Ps.22:22, Isa.53:10-12 etc.).
Let’s look at the cross on which the prince of glory died:
- The Roman government executed Him, by one of the most cruel and excruciating forms of capital punishment ever devised, crucifixion. The word ”excruciating” came from verb “out of the cross.”
“Consider how heinous sin must be in the sight of God, when it requires such a sacrifice!” (Clarke).
2. “Although the Romans did not invent crucifixion, they perfected it as a form of torture and capital punishment that was designed to produce a slow death with maximum pain and suffering.” (Edwards)
3. The victim’s back would first be torn open by the scourging, and then the clotting blood and wounds would be ripped open by tearing of the clothes of the victim. When he was thrown on the ground to nail his hands to the crossbeam, the wounds would again be torn open and contaminated with dirt. Then, as he hung on the cross, with each breath, the painful wounds on the back would scrape against the rough wood of the upright beam and be further aggravated.
4. When the nail was driven through the wrists, (not on palms as many pictures depict the nails on both the palms) it would sever the large median nerve. This stimulated nerve would produce excruciating fiery pain in both arms, and could result in a claw-like grip in the victim’s hands.