But I make known to you, brethren, the glad tidings which I announced to you, which also ye received, in which also ye stand,
Paul has spent this letter correcting a divided church. Now he turns to something more basic: he preaches them the gospel again. Why announce good news to people who already believe it? And what does it mean that they stand in it?
The opening words look strange, and one writer says so plainly before answering.
THE OPENING WORDS of chapter 15 appear at first sight rather extraordinary. Why, we may ask, should the Apostle declare the Gospel to people who had already received it?
The answer is that basic truth is not a stage a believer passes through and leaves behind.
we do well to remember that the Church of God always needs its basic teaching given again and again. It is not safe to treat God's first truths the way we treat the first principles of natural science. Gospel truth is the soul's necessary food. We gain and keep true spiritual strength only by constant meditation on what, as believers, we already know. So the enemy aims his hostility at this truth without ceasing, for he knows well how strong a support of faith it is. He never works more successfully against Christ's unwary sheep than when he tricks them into a flattering idea about themselves. They come to think that knowing such doctrine is only the needed first step towards a higher quality of knowledge. They think a truth simple enough to be food for babies can safely be ignored by those further on.
One writer counts what Paul presses on them, item by item.
It was humbling, but healthy, for these believers to hear the gospel made known to them again. They ought to have been sharing in its work instead. The apostle presses it on them (1) as what he first declared to them, (2) as what they had received, (3) as that in which they had their standing, and (4) as the means of their salvation. In this letter, as in many others, Paul speaks of salvation as still going on.
Paul preached this gospel, but he was not its source.
He says, "I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received." It did not begin in the mind of the preacher who declared it to them. As he states elsewhere, "the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ" (Gal. 1:11-12). So here he says he had received it, and he had announced it to them.
The word translated stand carries the sense of a fixed position rather than a shifting one.
The standing. — "Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand" (Rom. 5:2). The wording about our access implies permanence, and so does the wording about our standing. We stand steadily, without a break, in the favour of God. Scripture uses the same word for God's unchangeable foundation, set against the shifting character of what God has entrusted to man's responsibility — "God's firm foundation stands" (2 Tim. 2:19)… In every case the word implies an unvarying steadfastness. What a comfort to learn that we have entry into such a place of choice privilege! And we stand there on an unalterable basis and in an unchanging acceptance.
One writer sets a condition beside that standing.
The Gospel saves us if we hold fast its message. Some people do not like the "if," but it is there all the same. The real believer always holds fast; the unreal does not. With that proviso we can say to all who take the place of Christians, "The Gospel has saved you, and in it you stand." So anyone who tampers with the truth of the Gospel, and unsettles it, is cutting away the ground from under his own feet.
Some at Corinth were denying that the dead rise. Paul answers by going back to the gospel.
Since this denial of resurrection undermines the gospel, the Apostle first reminds these believers of the gospel which he had preached…
Deny the one and the other collapses with it.
This gospel, which the apostle had received, had three parts: Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, He was buried, and He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. If this gospel was true, the resurrection was true as well. To deny the resurrection, Paul goes on to state, was to deny that Christ had risen. It was to say that the apostles' preaching was in vain, and their own faith with it.
- Received — Paul passes on what he was given. The gospel did not start in the preacher's mind, so no preacher may change it.
- Preached — believers need the first message preached to them again. Basic truth is food, not a beginner's stage to outgrow.
- Standing — the word means a fixed place, not a shifting one. Believers stand on an unalterable basis and in an unchanging acceptance.
- Saved — Kelly notes that Paul speaks of salvation as still going on. Hold the message fast, and the gospel saves you.
- At stake — pull out the resurrection and the whole gospel falls. Whoever unsettles it cuts the ground from under his own feet.
by which also ye are saved, (if ye hold fast the word which I announced to you as the glad tidings,) unless indeed ye have believed in vain.
Paul is about to defend the resurrection of the dead. He starts by taking the Corinthians back to the message that first saved them. Everything turns on two short clauses: "if you hold fast" and "unless you believed in vain." Both have troubled readers ever since.
Paul lists what this good news has already been to them before he adds any condition:
It was humbling, but healthy, for saints to have the gospel made known to them again — saints who ought instead to have been sharing in its activities. The apostle presses it on them in four ways. It is what he first declared to them. It is what they received. It is where they stand. It is the means of their salvation. Salvation in this letter, as in many others, is viewed as going on.
One writer breaks the verse down, and shows what a hollow faith looks like:
Salvation here depends on three things: the word preached, the sincerity of the believer's faith, and holding fast what he has received. The word preached is the message of pure and sovereign grace... But a person can accept the message and still not believe on the Saviour in his heart. That is to believe, as he says here, in vain, with no serious acceptance of the teaching as the word of God. The gospel is preached to people for the obedience of faith. It does not come merely to win a lazy nod that it is believable, or a mental agreement with its teachings.
One writer refuses to soften the word, and lets time settle the question:
The gospel saves us if we "hold fast" its message. If we do not hold fast the word it does not save. Some people do not like the "If," but it is there all the same. It is easy to say, "I believe," and so be counted among the believers. Yet time tests us. The real believer always holds fast; the unreal does not.
Commentators differ on what the empty believing means. One takes it as the way a person believes — a careless reception that lets go as easily as it took hold:
He had told them before that there is salvation by the gospel for those who held fast the truth preached. The exception is anyone who believed carelessly, or at random. Such a person would be as ready to give up as to receive.
The other takes it as the thing believed. On this reading, the strength of the faith is not the issue:
The "believing in vain" at the end of the verse does not mean faith of a weak or faulty kind. It means faith — however strong — that rests on an unworthy or false object.
The denial in Corinth was not a side issue. It struck at the gospel they had believed:
This denial of resurrection undermines the gospel. So the apostle adds the words, "unless you believed in vain" — for if there is no resurrection, they had believed a myth. He also shows, in a remark set in along the way, that holding fast the word he announced to them as the glad tidings would prove their faith real.
This "if" answers the loose talk in Corinth. It does not touch the standing of those who have believed:
Some of these Corinthian saints were claiming there is no resurrection of the dead. Paul writes to them earnestly about it. He points out that if there is no resurrection, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, they were still in their sins. The very gospel of the grace of God was at stake. So here was a challenge to keep in mind the gospel they had received. The apostle timed this "if" well. Yet he did not write these words to throw doubt on the salvation of those who had believed on Christ. They were saved once and for ever.
- Received — one gospel: Paul declared it, they took it in, they stand in it, and it is saving them still.
- Held — the message saves those who keep hold of it. The "if" stands in the text, and time shows who is real.
- Hollow — a person can accept the message and still not trust the Saviour. Agreement of the mind is not the obedience of faith.
- Empty — writers differ on "in vain." It may mean careless believing, or firm faith in something untrue. Deny the resurrection, and Corinth had believed a myth.
- Secure — the "if" answers loose talk in Corinth. It does not cast doubt on those who have believed on Christ.