“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also, ye have received and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how 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” 1Corinthians 15:1-4
LIGHT FOR NOW: The gospel is not about the sinner man; the gospel is about what God has done and offered for the sinner man.
When the gospel is preached, men’s sins are not the focus; God’s love towards the sinner is the focus. This means that the gospel is not about the sinner, the gospel is about God’s disposition towards the sinner. Now, what are the facts of the gospel as explained by Paul in our opening text? The death, the burial and the resurrection of Christ. It is important for us to consider what this death is or how he (Jesus) died. Now, his death was first and primarily spiritual; it was only after this spiritual death that he died physically. For in the garden, man’s penalty was thus pronounced: Genesis 2:16-17, “And the Lord God commanded the man saying, of every tree of the garden of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die”. The Hebrew translation renders it this way “In dying you shall die”. In other words, man will die spiritually and then physically afterwards. Without such a separation from God, physical death could never have been created much less have the ability to hold man. Death is an enemy; Jesus died spiritually and then physically died. In physical death, HE, Jesus departs His body. Let’s see this, “when Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, it is finished: and he bowed his head and gave up the ghost” (John 19:30); he is now dead. The next question that comes to the fore is when Jesus died, where did he depart to? Was it heaven he departed to or was it hell he departed to? Now, if Jesus departed to heaven, it will mean he did not suffer even a day. Of course, when Jesus died and was buried, he did not remain in the grave; meaning that he departed somewhere.
NOW, TO KNOW WHERE Jesus departed to (that is, his destination after he died) will be unveiled in the manner which Jesus died and in what state he died? Brother Paul in 2Corinthians 5:21 gives us a lead: “For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him”. He was not a sinner; much more than that, He bore the sinners’ punishment. He was made sin just because he came to save the sinner; he took the sinners’ place. That is, Jesus became our substitute. Jesus thus died in the state of sin (as our substitute) and therefore went to hell. Peter’s account will help us in Acts 2:25-32. However, let us pay attention to verse 27 which is key to this explanation: “Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither will thou suffer the holy one to see corruption”. So, where did Jesus go to? Jesus went to hell. Thus, in any work of Christ, we see a clear display of God’s love. He became sin for us, so we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He went to hell so that heaven now becomes my reality in Christ. What manner of love is this?
INSTRUCTION: Nothing in this world is worth God’s love; fix your eyes on it.
PRAYER: Father, I thank you for identifying with me in the state where I was in sin and now I am the righteousness of God in you. Thank you for being my substitute and effecting your life in me, in Jesus Name, Amen.
FOR MORE LIGHT, get the message ‘The Gospel of Christ’
QUOTE: The degree to which you study is the degree to which you understand and consequently the degree to which you can explain.
DAILY BIBLE READING: MORNING: 1CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 15; EVENING: JOHN CHAPTER 19
LIGHT FROM THE WORD 