Thursday, April 28, 2016
1 Corinthians 15:5-8 He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.
THESE ARE THE THE FACTS: THESE ARE THE TRUTHS THAT THE CHRISTIAN BELIEVES!
The fact is that Christ is risen from the dead. When we tell someone something that's hard to believe we say, "You don't believe me? Go ask so-and-so. He saw it too!" That is essentially what we find the apostle doing in our text. He says, "I delivered to you..." That is, I told you that Christ "rose again according to the Scriptures..." And if that wasn't enough for his readers, Paul goes on, "...and He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time."
In case anyone wanted to know if Jesus really rose from the dead, the apostle provided them with a list of witnesses whom they could go ask themselves, which included Paul himself, who had seen the Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus, when he was converted to faith in Christ. As our witness then we have the written Word of God, which we know to be the truth in its entirety, in which we find recorded the eyewitness accounts of those who saw the Lord Jesus physically resurrected from the dead. We know that Christ's resurrection is a fact.
Though we did not see it with our physical eyes, we have seen Christ's resurrection through the eyes of faith. We are witnesses through the miracle that is God's Word, "born out of due time," but witnesses nonetheless through the testimony of the holy writers, who have declared the Gospel of our salvation unto us, by which Word we are also saved, and in which we stand, unto which we shall hold fast unto life everlasting.
