What are the essentials of the gospel message?

What, then, is the gospel? In presenting it the Apostle Paul wrote, “I delivered to you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ DIED for our sins according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3). It is the meaning and the results of the death of Christ that constitute the gospel.

(Vv. 3, 4). Immediately he sums up the glad tidings under three heads. First, “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures”. This brings before us the great propitiatory work of Christ for all the world, foretold in all the Scriptures, for the law sets it forth in figure, the Psalms present it experimentally, and the prophets announce it prophetically. Secondly, Christ was buried, the complete evidence of His death and the solemn fact that all His links with man after the flesh are severed. Thirdly, “He was raised the third day, according to the Scriptures”, the everlasting witness that the power of death is broken, the devil defeated, and God is glorified.

The Apostle carefully remarks that the gospel he preached, he had “received”, as we know from another epistle, “by the revelation of Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:12). To reject his gospel is, therefore, to question the revelation of Jesus Christ and the authority of Scripture.

If Paul was an apostle, and delivered to them especially the glad tidings, it was what he too received; he pretended to no more than a faithful discharge of the trust the Lord had reposed in him as a witness concerning Himself. He received it, as we are told elsewhere, immediately from Christ. There was no intermediate channel, but a direct revelation and a personal charge. And what is the foundation laid? "That Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures." (Ver 3.) Not for ourselves merely, not at all for our good ways, but for our bad, "for our sins." Who could have said or thought it but God? And He has said it, not only now in the gospel, but from of old in the scriptures. From Genesis to Malachi all was a preparing the way for Christ to die for our sins. The law witnessed to it in the sacrifices; the Psalms declared that the sacrifices were but temporary, and that the Messiah must, and would, do the will of God; and the prophets showed that He would do it by suffering and death when Jehovah should lay on Him the iniquities of His people. Without the death of Christ for our sins, not only has the gospel no foundation, but the Old Testament has no adequate meaning or worthy end.

But God would give the amplest evidence. So it is added to Christ's death (ver. 4), "and that he was buried." Only here is made no mention of the scriptures. This is reserved for the immense fact of the resurrection: "and that he was raised the third day according to the scriptures," which is followed by the repeated appearances, of course without any such attestation. It is not merely an accessory fact or corroboration of Christ's death. His resurrection is the grand pivot of the chapter, the display of God's glory as regards man, the fullest answer to all unbelief, and the knell of Satan's power. This was the truth which the enemy sought to undermine among some at Corinth; but the result, under the grace of God, is the complete demonstration of its certainty, and of its all-importance.

The apostle Paul tells us that the gospel which he preached was that which he 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." (1 Cor. 15:3-4) Every sacrifice which was offered set forth figuratively the death of Jesus. From Abel's offering downward, the Lamb of God was typically portrayed. In those types and shadows, God declared what He would do, when the time fully came for it, in the death and blood-shedding of His beloved Son. The very kind of death He would undergo in being hanged on a tree was also pointed out in Scripture. In the twenty-second Psalm we hear Him saying, "They pierced my hands and my feet;" and the prophet Zechariah declares that the Jews will yet look on Him whom they pierced, and shall mourn for Him as one mourneth for his only son, etc. Moses also refers to it, by informing us that being hanged on a tree was connected with being made a curse, "for he that is hanged is accursed of God." When an inspired apostle comments on this he tells us, first, that "as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." Thus he proves all under the law to be justly exposed to the curse of God. Then he insists on the precious truth that "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law." How? By "being made a curse for us;" and refers to Scripture for authority, saying, "For it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." And more; for those who thus came under the curse were to be buried. It was ordered that the body was to be taken down and buried that day. "His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day (for he that is hanged is accursed of God.)" (Deut. 21:23.) Thus we see that "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried." But it may be inquired, Where, in the Old Testament scriptures, to which we presume the apostle here referred, are we taught that Christ would rise again from the dead on the third day?

"Christ died," then, "for our sins according to the Scriptures." "He was buried," — a fact which shows how true a death it was He died, and how little His disciples expected even that resurrection which was all necessary for them. "We thought," as one of them said, "that it was He that should have delivered Israel"; as if that thought were almost of necessity buried in the tomb in which they had laid Him. His burial has also for us, as we know, a spiritual application which the epistle to the Romans, as well as that to the Galatians, make known to us. This too, then, is part of the gospel. The least fact in this connection is of immense importance, but the resurrection is the crown of all. He was raised the third day according to the Scriptures. It might have been said, according to His own words, which His enemies could quote, and which were therefore commonly known: "After three days," they quote "the deceiver" as saying, "I will rise again." He has risen again, to the confusion of His enemies; but the Scriptures, as we see, are again appealed to, and their evidence put in line with all other as most important in its place.

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." Paul told them "that Christ died for our sins" before they were saved: in fact this was the means of their salvation. It is therefore right to tell the whole world, "Christ died for our sins." 2 Corinthians 5:15 insists, "He died for all," and the reason this was necessary is because of' the sins of all.

Of old God brought His commandment very near to Israel that they might do it. He has brought His word even nearer to us in Christ. It is now not a word of what we ought to do, but of what Christ has done, and of what He Himself has done in raising Christ from the dead. On our part the word only demands that we believe with the heart that God has raised Him from the dead, and that we confess Him as Lord with our mouths. When heart and mouth thus go together there is of course reality. Real subjection to Jesus as Lord carries with it salvation.

It is the testimony of the Lord. I must stress that first of all. What does the title mean? It means His authority, His absolute rights over us; He is sovereign Lord. And we are not faithful to the colours if we are not owning that and carrying it out in practical living. "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in thy heart that God has raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." That means open and definite subjection to His will, and rallying to the colours. It was what Saul of Tarsus did when he cried: "Lord, what will Thou have me to do?" But who would not be subject to Him whose love for us surpasses all our knowledge and whose will and way for us is our greatest blessing?

Confession of the name of the Lord is first stated, because it is that which forms the decisive token of distinction between the living Christian and the dead world. As it is presently after added, "with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Confession, then, seems placed here first in order, lest Satan, whose lie deceives the whole world, should seek occasion from such a passage to persuade men that a mere belief of the resurrection as a matter of fact, or even as a proof of Divine power, could suffice to save the soul. But the source of this acceptable confession is a heart which by faith not only perceives the reality of Divine truth as declared in Scripture, but believes in God who raised Jesus from the dead; who, being thus raised, is recognized in the heart, and therefore openly declared by the lips to be the only Lord. This will open itself more fully to our view presently. Meanwhile, let us remember that the object presented to faith in the preaching of the Gospel, is Jesus the Lord (Phil. 2:11). Through Him, as raised from the dead, we are called on to believe in God, who raised Him up and gave Him glory (1 Peter 1:21).

Who then can mistake the blessed simplicity of verse 9? It is a clear statement of “the word faith” — “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” It is the mouth and the heart that have the important place here — not the hands and the feet. The mouth is the index of the heart, and there will be no personal confession of Jesus as Lord unless there is belief in the heart. There may be something that appears like such a confession, but there is no simple, forth-right confession of Him as personal Lord, without faith. But the two go together. If I believe, I therefore speak.