Hold Firmly to the Gospel Message – 1 Corinthians 15:1-2

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Encouraging, comforting, and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory. (1 Thess. 2:12 NIV)

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Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel that I preached to you, that you received and on which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

1 Corinthians 15:1-2 NET

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul addressed a serious issue. Apparently, some within the church at Corinth disputed the reality of the resurrection. Resurrection was a somewhat foreign concept to the Greeks (Acts 17:32), so it is unsurprising that some had brought this skepticism to the church.

In refuting this skepticism about the resurrection, Paul reminded them of the gospel he had preached. At the heart of this gospel is Jesus’ death for our sins and his bodily resurrection on the third day (1 Cor. 15:3-5). Paul went on to say that apart from the resurrection of Jesus and the promised resurrection of his followers, the Christian life is vain. We have no hope for the future and might as well live for today.

The Corinthian church, and by extension, believers today, have received this gospel and have taken our stand on it. We have heard and accepted the gospel’s truth and committed ourselves to it.

And by doing so, we are being saved. Salvation is not just something that happened to me in the past. It is happening to me even now and into the future.

Stand Firm on the Gospel

But, Paul says, there is a condition. We took our stand on the gospel. And we need to hold firmly to it. We need to be careful not to wander away from the gospel message preached to us. This is not a matter of doctrinal disagreement. Instead, it is turning to a different gospel altogether.

When we fail to hold firmly to the gospel message found in the Scripture and faith in Christ, we have believed in vain. What does that mean? Our ongoing salvation depends on holding firmly to the gospel message. If we abandon faith in the death, burial, and bodily resurrection of Jesus, then we are no longer standing on the gospel. We have believed in vain, turning to a different gospel (Gal. 1:6-9), and are lost.