By Sonny Hernandez
1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. 3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:1-3, KJV)
Some moderate Calvinists deliriously think 1 Corinthians 15:1-3 proves it's biblical to say to the lost, "Christ died for you." Some of these compromisers—who are too scared to say, "Christ died for the elect"—will also say, "1 Corinthians 15:1-3" is the gospel.
Yet, they will ignore the context and significant grammatical points in these texts because they are ashamed of the offense of the cross. Examine the following exegesis of 1 Corinthians 15:1-3:
15:1: Paul's use of "brethren" demonstrates that the apostle wrote to believers, not all men, without exception.
15:2: The verb σῴζεσθε ("ye are saved") is in the present tense—revealing Paul wrote to men—whom God had already saved.
15:3: The apostle included himself [see first person plural pronoun ἡμῶν ("our")] when he wrote, "...Christ died for our sins" (emphasis mine), revealing Paul taught on particular redemption.
15:3: Per the context, "...according to the scriptures," confirms that all biblical promises are true concerning Christ's completed and saving death for "his people" (Matthew 1:21), "the sheep" (John 10:11), "God's elect" (Romans 8:33), and "the church" (Ephesians 5:25), not all without exception.
15:3: Paul's mention of πρώτοις ("...first of all") is exegetically significant because it means "...first, foremost, most important, most prominent" (BDAG, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 893), proving the doctrine of particular redemption is essential to the gospel.
Comments