Paul is a Witness to the Resurrection of Christ and is a Minister of the Gospel

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Click for a description of the mark of the beast.
Click here for a description of the image of the beast.

• Jesus Christ died for our sins to give us Salvation.
• Jesus Christ is risen from the dead and is alive.
• By the grace of God, we are saved through Christ.

Jesus Christ died for our sins to give us Salvation. “Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand,” 1 Corinthians 15:1 The Gospel in a nutshell is that God loves everyone in this world, and He sent His Son Jesus Christ so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. That is what the preaching of Paul consists of.  “…by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.” 1 Corinthians 15:2 We are saved by the Gospel of Christ as we hold to His testimony. “For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,” 1 Corinthians 15:3 Paul’s sins were forgiven, and he received Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, and that is what he gives to us through his writings.

Jesus Christ is risen from the dead and is alive. “…and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,” 1 Corinthians 15:4 God raised Jesus from the grave after He had been dead for three days. “…and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve.” 1 Corinthians 15:5 Peter saw Jesus after He was raised from the dead, then He appeared to the other members of the Twelve (the “Twelve” is used like describing the name of an organization, not a definite number). “After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep.” 1 Corinthians 15:6 Over five hundred is a definite number, apart from those who belonged to the “Twelve.” Jesus Christ walked on this earth for forty days after He was raised from the dead and was recognized by over five hundred. During the time of Paul’s writings, many of those who saw Christ after His death were still alive as a witness.

“After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles.” 1 Corinthians 15:7 After Jesus appeared to over five hundred, then He was seen by all of the Twelve. “Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.” 1 Corinthians 15:8 It was probably at least a year after the resurrection of Christ that Paul saw Him. He was born out of due time in the sense that everyone else saw Christ within forty days of the resurrection.

By the grace of God, we are saved through Christ. “For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” 1 Corinthians 15:9 How could there be a worse sin than persecuting those who come to God through Jesus Christ? Yet Paul went from that to being an Apostle.

Today, those who live and govern by the thing which forms what they think, feel, do, and say allows the image of the beast to live and speak through them. By what they say and do they continuously mock God, discard the need for the remission of sin through Jesus Christ, persecutes the followers of Christ, and trample on the Holy Spirit. They are conformed to the anti-Christian society of the global culture as they are groomed to the mark of the beast.

Jesus Christ came to save anyone who calls on His name, the same as He came to save Paul. That is the grace and love of God, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” 1 Corinthians 15:10 It is only by God’s grace that we are what we are in the Lord Jesus Christ. By the Spirit of Christ, we work all the harder to share the Grace of God with others. “Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.” 1 Corinthians 15:11 It doesn’t matter who the Gospel of Christ comes through, it is the grace of God which gives us Salvation in Jesus name.

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“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,“
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’”
“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:1