The Word of God
The Gospel According to 1 Corinthians 15:1-4
Man is dead. Man is spiritually dead, soulishly active, physically alive. In him lies what is called the “sin principle” that has taken up residence within him and has prostituted the human soul for its own use, will, and devises. Before conversion, this is man’s state, this is man’s truth according to the objective authority of the Scriptures. The first man, Adam, was created alive, spiritually alive if you will, meaning he shared in Divine Union with Creator God. Being alive, Adam in Divine Union receives God’s lone command, “The Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die‘ (Genesis 2:16-17).” The literal translation of the word “die” in this passage means, “Severance in the Divine Union.” When he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Adam died, or was spiritual severed in his Divine Union and cut off from Creator God. As a result, with his spirit being dead, his soul was left vacant for a new principle to take him over, the sin principle, or the flesh. However, I want you to see the emphasis God Himself puts on Adam’s act of disobedience: He doesn’t state when eating from the tree he will sin, He rather says when he eats of the tree, he will die. The term “sin” is first introduced in Genesis 4:7 when God is addressing Cain. Sin becomes progressively clear as to its definition when you read on in the Word of God, but God views man in one of two states: DEAD or ALIVE. Because Adam was our father in terms of physical creation, when Adam died, death passed to all of his human children. Paul states in 1 Corinthians 15:21-22, “For since by a man (Adam) came death, by a man (Jesus) also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.” Here you have the great statement, the great dilemma of the ages, the great truth of all human history summed up in two words, “In Adam.” “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come…For if by the transgression of the one the many died…For if by the transgression of the one (Adam), death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of the grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ (Romans 5:14-18).” You first have the general: Adam, mankind, humanity; you then go on to discover the specific: “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins… (Ephesians 2:1)” and, “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh…(Colossians 2:13)” Before conversion, I must come to find out that 1) I am in Adam and 2) As a result of being in Adam, I am dead. This is my state, this is who I am, this is where I stand. What then is the wage, the cost, the consequence of this state in which I stand? “For the wages of sin is death…(Romans 6:23)” So now, I stand dead, spiritually separated from the life of God. I owe a debt I cannot pay because I owe “death,” but the only way to pay the debt of death would require me to be “alive.” In Adam ALL died, therefore no created, human being can pay his own debt, which is death, because he is ALREADY dead. Only One that is alive unto God can truly satisfy the debt of death for sin.
Here I start with Jesus. So you discover, that Christ, through the implantation of the Divine Seed, by the Holy Spirit, in the womb of Mary, created the first human being since Adam to be actually alive unto God, in the spiritual sense. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14).” Fast-forwarding through Jesus’ life, you discover that the reason He was conceived in a virgin womb and lived the life of a man in the flesh (not sin) was for this purpose: “…to give His life (the only life alive unto God) a ransom for many (for the wages of sin is death) Matthew 20:28.” “Jesus answered, ‘You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice’ (John 18:37).” And what is the truth that Jesus was to testify? That the Son of God was the ONLY man who could EVER pay the wage of sin, which is death, because He was the only Man ever to be alive that had the ability to give His life a ransom for many. “No one has taken my life away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father (John 10:18).” And it is here that I take up 1 Corinthians 15. “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures…(1 Corinthians 15:3-4)” We must look at HOW Jesus died, was buried, and was raised again According to the Scriptures. And what “Scriptures” is Paul referring to? The Old Testament Scriptures!
I believe the Old Testament Tabernacle is God’s picture book of the Gospel. It is one of the most important topics in the Word of God, aside from Jesus Christ Himself, which by the way, is the Tabernacle. If we were to study anything in the Bible, it would behoove us to study the meaning of the Tabernacle. Why would God spend two chapters describing the creation of the known world, and yet entire books are devoted to the building and structure of this little building called the Tabernacle? You get my point. I am referencing Exodus and Leviticus in these notes…surrounding the Tabernacle all around were tall walls of Linen, secured to brass poles. At no point could you approach God through these walls. Linen in the Old Testament speaks of God’s Holiness and Righteousness (Standard); brass speaks of judgment. What is God’s standard? To be alive; “For in Him was life…” What is God’s judgment? That I am dead. “And you were dead in trespasses and sins…” God’s holiness requires holiness; He is His own standard. Because I am dead in Adam, I CANNOT approach God, for I am unholy, un-godlike in Adam. Because of this, I am subject to the brass judgment for which the linen walls are secured. This is according to the scriptures (1 Cor. 15); I cannot enter through those walls. Then, you come to discover a most beautiful door, one entrance, one way to pass through the linen and the brass. “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture (John 10:9).” Then look at the next verse in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I CAME that they may have life, and have life abundantly.” The door leads me to life! It is to restore to me that which was taken away in Adam. Life is the issue, life being restored to a dead race of men. In order for life to be restored though, things must be done first…
“…died for our sins according to the scriptures.” My debt of death, which is the wages of sin, must be paid. Jesus Christ, alive unto God, had to be my Substitutionary Atonement in death because I could not pay my debt. His blood had to be shed, both physical and spiritual death had to take place (Hebrews 9:27) for the remission of my sins (deeds). Here you meet, after the door, the brazen alter, in which a lamb was slain, sacrificed, and then burned. “And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (remission) (Hebrews 9:22).”In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses (deeds), according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us… (Ephesians 1:7-8)” Jesus Christ, has first forgiven me of my sins because of His shed blood, my deeds are no longer credited to my account. I have been justified. “…died for our sins according to the scriptures (according to the pattern of the Tabernacle).”
“…and that He was buried…” My sins (deeds) have been forgiven, the remission of a dead man’s deeds have been accomplished, and that dead man’s deeds are no longer credited to his account, past, present, or future. But what about the dead man? Its like a criminal acquitted for all his wrong doings, and yet he still sits, locked up in a jail cell! What is that jail cell? ADAM. I STILL am in ADAM. I must now, after being forgiven, but still dead in Adam, be TAKEN OUT OF Adam and placed into another Man, the Last Adam, the Man, Christ Jesus. I must pass from death unto life. Once the lamb was slain on the Day of Atonement upon the brazen alter for the remission of sins, the High Priest would take that shed blood of the lamb and place it onto the head of another lamb, the scapegoat. There was an identification of all that that blood represented, transferred, and then taken away. This is burial. A fit man would lead the scapegoat so far away so as to never return. I have been taken out of Adam and placed into Christ’s death as a dead man, there to be spiritually judge with him in baptism, in burial. “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried through baptism into death…(Romans 6:3-4)” “For He rescued us (taken us out of )from the domain of darkness (Adam), and transferred (placed) us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:13-14).” See, redemption and rescuing are TWO DISTINCT THINGS according to the Apostle Paul. Redemption, the forgiveness of sins, and rescuing, the taking me out of Adam and placing me into Christ. You want to define Paul’s Gospel in two words? It would be “In Christ,” “In Christ,” “In Christ;” that term is used by Paul over 100 times in his letters. Out of Adam, into Christ. Out of death into life. Its a matter of life. Even the most favorite of Scriptures, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes INTO Christ, shall not perish, but have eternal life,” states, “INTO Christ” in the literal translation; I am believing INTO Christ, meaning by believing into Christ, I must be TAKEN OUT OF where I currently am…in Adam.
“…and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” After the High Priest would pass through the holy place, into the holy of hollies, and sprinkle the blood of the shed lamb upon the mercy seat, he would then come out and proclaim to the people that the work for the day had been finished and God had accepted the sacrifice! That is resurrection: the proclamation that God accepts the sacrifice. They would then feast in celebration. “…so also in Christ all will be made alive (1 Corinthians 15:22),” “…certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection (Romans 6:5),” “…even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ, and raised us up with Him…(Ephesians 2:5-6),” “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old (Adam) things have passed away; behold new (Christ) things have come (2 Corinthians 5:17).”
This is what I believe is the simple and vital Gospel: I am dead in Adam; the wages of being in Adam is death; I cannot pay my wages for being in Adam; Christ came to pay my wages, which was death; Christ came also to take me out of Adam and place me into Himself; Christ then raised me up together with Him to a new life and for me to be forever acceptable to God. Christ + NOTHING = Salvation. May we continue to discover more of the unfathomable riches that are found in our Lord Jesus Christ.
“Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, to obedience of faith; to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen.” Romans 16:25-27
Johnny
Home Church Orlando 