The Creed.

In 1 Corinthians 15:3-7 we find what Paul describes as the earliest tradition common to all Christians.  En protos in v. 3 means ‘first in rank, order, influence and honor,’ above all else.  I.e, “I am delivering to you the traditions which were delivered to me by eyewitnesses, and these are:”

 I.  “That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures....”  The prophet Isaiah said of Jesus, the Lamb of God, “He was pierced through for our transgressions [Every sin, literally, like a spear-thrust through the soul], He was crushed for our iniquities [The ‘grapes of God’s wrath’ poured out in full]; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed.  We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all,” 53:5-6.  “Christ died for our sins as attested from Scripture” is both historical fact and the centrepiece of Salvation, for if our sins have not been paid for, expiated and expunged from every record human and divine, then we are still “dead in” them.  But the Victory was won in the Conquest of the Cross and Satan’s stranglehold on the souls of men was broken forever.

II. “That He was buried....”  Which is the sign that Jesus had died, truly and physically.  Paul doesn’t make a point of the empty tomb because by its very definition ‘resurrection’ meant a new body which left no corpse behind!  Unlike the Gospels, he doesn’t even mention it because eyewitness testimony is the strongest proof possible.  In Paul’s world, to say that someone was “buried” and “raised” three days later was to say unequivocally the tomb is empty!  Speaking of resurrection is enough to imply this and much, much more.

III. “That He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures....”  1000 years before the birth of Christ, David said to the Lord in Psalm 16, “My heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because You will not abandon me to the Grave [to Sheol], nor will You let Your Holy One see decay,” vv. 9-10.  Jews living at the time of Jesus believed that the soul, the spirit, didn’t fully depart from the body til somewhere around the 3^rd day.

IV.     “And that He appeared to Peter [the fact that he uses the Aramaic form of Peter’s name, Cephas, points to an early Semitic source for the Creed], then to the Twelve [the official Apostles we know from the Gospels and the Acts].  After that, He appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.”  That is, “some have fallen” into physical death.  It’s like Paul saying, “You want to check my facts?  Go to the sources themselves.  Twenty-five years after the Resurrection of the Son of God, most of them are still here.”  “Then he appeared to James [the half-brother of Jesus], then to all the Apostles...,” which clearly refers to a number larger than “the Twelve.”  This, I believe, is “the Seventy” sent out two by two in Luke 10:1.

What we have in vv. 3-7 is the reiteration of a Christian Creed which can be traced all the way back to the formative stages of the early Church.  Scholars of every color and hue— from the ultra-liberal to the overly-conservative— agree that this Creed can be dated to somewhere between three to eight years from the Crucifixion of Christ Jesus.  It is unparalleled in World History that legends of these kinds {as skeptics are so apt to claim} would rise up around the life of a humble Palestinian carpenter who had been crucified by the Romans as a condemned criminal, and be believed by multitudes who turned to Him as their Lord and Liege, their Savior and Sovereign.  A 19^th century historian by the name of Julius Muller challenged the scholars of his era to demonstrate anywhere in history where within thirty years {same amount of time which passed between Paul’s first letter to Corinth and the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ} a series of legends had accumulated around a historic figure and become firmly fixed in the set of beliefs surrounding them.

Muller’s challenge has never been met.

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
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