Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Corinthians 15-16.

This passage contains one of Paul’s best descriptions of what the good news of the Gospel is. It is right up there in importance with Romans 10:9-10 where he writes, “If you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”  Here Paul writes that we must hold firmly to the gospel which he preached.  That gospel was, and is, that Jesus died for our sins, that He was buried, and that He was raised from the dead on the third day.  Paul expands on to make clear that he means a literal, physical raising from the dead, not a spiritual, or figurative raising from the dead.  The gospel message has no meaning or value without that part, and without the part where we who put our faith in Christ will also experience such a literal, physical raising from the dead.  The suffering and hardship of this life become pointless if our existence ends with our death.  So, let us preach to those around us and seek to draw them into faith in Christ so that they might also experience the joy that comes through oneness with Him and the eternal life which He offers.  This message was the part which was “foolishness to the Greeks.”  And all too many today want to find wisdom in the Gospel without being willing to accept the “foolishness” of the resurrection of the dead.  As Paul tells us, if Christ was not resurrected from the dead, the entire New Testament is built upon lies and has no redeeming value.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.