THE CRUX OF THE MATTER

“I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said.  He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said.”  1 Corinthians 15:3-4

          Paul writes this letter to a spiritually arrogant Corinthian church.  This is in fact his 3^rd contact with this body of believers. The first contact was his visit to establish the church.  His second was a letter not found in scripture in which scholars say Paul dealt with serious moral issues within the Christian community in Corinth. Here Paul is reestablishing the fundamental truth that Christ died and rose from the dead.  The apostle mentions very specifically why Christ had to die.  It was for our sins. 

          What is sin?  It is the “deliberate disobedience to the will of God” that “encompasses the condition of resulting separation from Him”.  Disobey God and reap the consequence of your disobedience.  But it doesn’t have to be that way.  The Corinthians had the mistaken belief that they could be saved and still do whatever they wanted to do in this life.  Paul concurs that they most certainly can, but not everything will benefit them or be either instructive or constructive.  (1 Corinthians 6:12, 10:23)

            We must take the lessons taught to the Corinthians to heart.  Christ didn’t just exist, but rather came for a specific purpose.  That purpose was to fulfill God’s plan to pay for the sins of all men with His own blood.  Under the Mosaic Law a blood sacrifice was necessary to pay for sin.  The blood of goats, calves and bulls covered over sin, the blood shed by Christ removed it.  This is the good news!  This is the gospel message!  This is what we need to share to a dying world with no hope.  Put your personal agendas aside and reacquaint yourself with God’s miraculous message so that you might be used of God to shake the world you live in.  Until next time, walk with the King and be a blessing!

NOTE:  The definitions found in today’s devotional were taken from the American Heritage Dictionary.  The translation used is the NEW LIVING TRANSLATION, published by Tyndale House.