Paul spent three years in Arabia (Galatians 1:18-20). It was during this time that the Lord Jesus taught him face-to-face the doctrines of grace that he penned in his thirteen letters in the New Testament. These letters contain the vast majority of the information that we have on the body of Christ. Without Paul, we would be lost in the weeds concerning info on the church. For this reason, Paul refers to the gospel as “my gospel” three times (Romans 2:16; Romans 16:25; 2 Timothy 2:8). It is not his gospel, but Paul always felt that way because of the unique way in which he was taught it.
First Corinthians 15:1-9 clearly explains the gospel. The good news contains three major points along with substantial proofs. The first point that Paul makes following his words “that I received” is “that Christ” (Romans 15:3). This name has tremendous meaning. Christ is the name that connects God’s deity with God’s humanity. It tells us that God took on flesh, that God became man. The name explains His incarnation, His becoming flesh and blood. The name “Christ” reveals that God, by His love and grace, determined to pay man’s debt of death that we owed to Him for sin (Romans 3:23).
But God as God cannot die. God is, in His essence, eternal life, and eternal life is eternal. Psalm 90:2 simply says that God is from everlasting to everlasting. How far back is from everlasting. God has an eternal past. There never was a time that God did not exist. There never was a time when He was not! He had no beginning. He was not created. He has self-existence. He was here before He spoke this universe into being. And He is to everlasting! He has an eternal future. He will always exist. His being will never end. There will never come a time when He will not be! Said simply – but in this case simplicity is not simple – God always was what He is now and forever shall continue to be. He is eternal life. This is mind boggling. But in order to pay our debt of death, God decided to take on Himself flesh.
This act, along with the resurrection, stand at the very heart of the miracle of Christianity. Motivated by inexpressible love, there was an amazing moment in time when God the Holy Spirit etched a tiny embryo to the wall of the womb of the virgin Mary. Wow! God humiliated Himself (Philippians 2:5-11). That tiny embryo grew into the Baby that was born in the lowly stable. The eternal, all-powerful, sovereign God had then taken on flesh. The baby grew into a man. His name reveals His true identity. He is the Lord (indicating His deity) Jesus (indicating His humanity) and the name in our passage, the Christ (indicating that God became flesh). He is in fact the God/man. He is God enough to take God by the hand (100% God) and man enough (100% man) to take man by the hand and bring the two together. This is what Christmas is all about. Only God is genius enough to put this together. Amazing! Amazing! Now as the God/man He could accomplish the next part of the gospel which we will cover tomorrow. Stay safe and stay tuned.