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Timothy: I Corinthians 15:1-11
The Resurrection of Christ

Dear God, my Beloved Father, I respectfully offer my praise and gratitude to You. You are the Almighty God and my Father in Heaven. I rejoice in receiving another new day that You have bestowed upon me. I am delighted to be busy reflecting on Your Word and serving the purpose You have given me. I find joy in the happiness of my brothers and sisters in the Church and empathize with the sorrows and pains that You allow to happen to them. I worry about the weak in faith, those lacking understanding of Your Word, who struggle to obey Your commandments as written in Joshua 1:9. I pray for Your mercy and awakening upon them. Now, I pray for Christ to strengthen me and for the Holy Spirit to guide me in the truth of the Eternal Living Word of God. I am thankful to the Triune God.

Father, I would like to present my reflections on 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 as follows:

1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;

2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

Verses 1 and 2: I understand that the Apostle Paul wanted the Corinthians, the people of God, to remember that he preached the Gospel to them, and they understood, believed, and stood firm in their faith. This means that they still firmly believed in Paul’s preaching. Through their steadfast faith in the Gospel, they have been saved. However, to continue to be saved, they must hold on to what they believe. This means they must demonstrate their faith through their actions by living a life that reflects genuine repentance and acceptance of the atoning death of Christ. It is a life of forsaking sin and practicing righteousness according to the Word of God, which is brought forth anew in Christ. Otherwise, their faith becomes useless, for faith without deeds is dead faith.

3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;

4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

Verses 3 and 4: I understand that the Apostle Paul affirms that the Gospel he preached to the Corinthians is what he received from the Lord Jesus Christ and passed on to them. This means that there were no additions or subtractions in his preaching. The crucial point of the Gospel is that Christ died for the sins of humanity, and after being buried in the ground for three full days and three full nights, He was resurrected. I understand that the “third day” means at the end of the third day after the physical body of the Lord Jesus was buried in the ground.

I know that many Christian denominations claiming to be followers of Christ teach that Christ died on Friday afternoon and was resurrected on Sunday morning. However, from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning, there are only two full nights and one full day: Friday night, Saturday night, and Saturday day. Yet, Christ Himself prophesied, “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40). Sadly, billions of people who claim to be disciples of Christ still commemorate Good Friday and Easter Sunday according to the misguided teachings of these denominations, which contradict the Word of God.

5 And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:

6 After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.

7 After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.

Verses 5 to 7: I understand that the Apostle Paul recalls the occasions when Christ appeared to His disciples after His resurrection. Among them, there was a time when He appeared to Cephas, also known as the Apostle Peter. There was a time when He appeared to the group of twelve apostles, but at that time, only eleven remained because Judas Iscariot, one of the apostles, had hanged himself after betraying Him. There was a time when He appeared to over five hundred of His disciples, perhaps on a mountain in Galilee. When Paul wrote his letter to the Corinthians, many of those five hundred individuals were still alive, while some had passed away. There was a time when He appeared to James, who was His brother, and finally, He appeared to all of His disciples before His ascension.

8 And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.

9 For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

Verses 8 and 9: I understand that the Apostle Paul affirms that the Lord Jesus Christ also appeared to him. I understand that the phrase “one born out of due time” means an aborted fetus or a prematurely born child; figuratively, it refers to someone useless or weak, lacking abilities. Perhaps Paul used this expression to imply that being called an apostle came too early for him, as he didn’t have as much time to walk alongside the Lord Jesus and learn from Him like the other apostles. Nevertheless, the Lord still appeared to him, as He did to the other apostles before him, and bestowed upon him the role of an apostle.

10 But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

11 Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed.

Verses 10 and 11: I understand that the Apostle Paul is well aware that whatever he has achieved is by the grace of God. The grace bestowed upon him did not become useless when given to him. He fully knows how to make use of that grace to serve God effectively. Paul speaks of the reality that he has toiled more in serving God than all the other apostles, not boasting but stating a fact. He expresses this to demonstrate the impact of God’s grace on him. It is by the grace of God that he is deemed worthy to be an apostle of Christ. Therefore, Paul’s teaching does not differ from that of the other apostles; they all proclaim the truth and teach under the authority, power, and name of Christ.

Dear Father, I am grateful for today’s lesson. Please help me and the shepherds, elders, and preachers of the Gospel to wholeheartedly fulfill our entrusted roles, especially, to always proclaim the truth according to the Word of God. Amen!

In the grace of Jesus Christ, my Lord.

Timothy Christian Huynh
05/31/2023