CONCERNING DEATH AND RESURRECTION (1 CORINTHIANS 15:1-58)
Since the earliest days of the apostles, two categories of errors have weaseled their way into the Christian faith: errors that challenge orthodoxy (right belief) and errors that challenge orthopraxy (right practice). Though both of these serious errors must be sternly resisted, there is a clear distinction in severity between these two. The following chart compares errors of orthopraxy and errors of orthodoxy.
ERRORS OF ORTHODOXY |
ERRORS OF ORTHOPRAXY |
Failure to believe the central doctrines of the Christian faith. |
Failure to live up to the standards of Christian virtue. |
An error that marks a person as a false brother. |
An error that occurs within a community of true believers. |
Persistence in errors of orthodoxy clearly indicates lack of salvation. |
Persistence in errors of orthopraxy might indicate a lack of salvation. |
Thankfully, a rare occurrence among churches that preach the truth. |
Unfortunately, a common problem, even among churches that preach the truth. |
Destructive to a church’s health, potentially deadly to its life as an authentic local church. |
Damaging to Christian witness, a church’s effectiveness, and believers’ growth. |
Correct Response |
Correct Response |
Conversion to Christ and saving faith in the essential truths of the gospel. |
Repentance from sin and consecration to right living by the power of the Holy Spirit. |
So far in his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul has primarily addressed the church’s errors of orthopraxy. They had failed to live up to the Christian virtues of love, unity, peace, morality, and humility that should have characterized growing, Spirit-filled believers. At times, the heinousness of moral failure may have led Paul to question the genuineness of a few of the believers’ conversions (5:11-13; 6:9-10); yet as a whole, Paul regarded the people in the church at Corinth to be genuine Christians struggling with immaturity and carnality (1:4-9; 6:11).
In light of the challenges to orthopraxy in Corinth, 1 Corinthians 13 can be regarded as the “practical pinnacle” of the treatise. In 1 Corinthians 15, however, Paul makes a sudden transition from serious issues of orthopraxy to a severe issue of orthodoxy, making this chapter the theological summit of Paul’s grand letter. He begins with a reiteration of that which is “of first importance” —the message of the gospel of the person and work of Jesus Christ (15:1-11). From this center and source of the Christian faith —the atoning death and life-giving resurrection of Jesus Christ —Paul details the doctrine of our own future resurrection at the return of Christ (15:12-58).
KEY TERMS IN 1 CORINTHIANS 15:1-58
anastasis (ἀνάστασις) [386] “resurrection,” “rising up”
In the ancient world, the vast majority of people believed in some kind of conscious existence after death —either in heaven, hell, or some other uncertain place. Jews and Christians were unique in their expectation of a physical, bodily resurrection at the final judgment, in which the righteous would be rewarded in their restored but glorified bodies while the wicked would be punished in their resurrection bodies. In the Bible, ultimate salvation involves more than “life after death.” It includes anastasis —resurrected physical life after “life after death.”
euangelion (εὐαγγέλιον) [2098] “good news, gospel”
The English term “gospel” comes from the Middle English compound “good-spell,” where “spell” means “tale.” The gospel is therefore the “good story.” The Greek term euangelion described the favorable report of a messenger from the battlefield or the official proclamation that an heir to the king had been born. The good news that Paul proclaimed concerned Jesus Christ’s death for sin and His resurrection as well as salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Paul’s brief “review” of the gospel essentials in 1 Corinthians 15:1-5 is regarded by scholars as the sedes doctrinae, or “seat of doctrine,” for the gospel. Here Paul intended to define the gospel for his readers. In clear, simple terms, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 answers the question, “What is the gospel?”