ROJC- 1 Corinthians 15:2

Intro:
It’s amazing how things can change in the span of a week. Last week, it was full of excitement. Developments in my life were taking place, God was using me, and I was on top, feeling so assured of my relationship with Him. This week, I feel useless. I feel disappointed, non-productive, and worst of all so far detached from the man I call my Savior. I feel like a hypocrite. I feel selfish and self-involved. I feel that after all the work that I’ve done these past seven days, that this week has been a waste.

During these times, what do I hold on to? What do I remember? What are the thoughts that seep into my mind? Last week, I reaffirmed my faith in Jesus Christ and declared my faith in Him each and every time doubt, or distress, or overwhelming sense of failure hit me. This week, instead, I thought about those failures. I thought about the let downs, the collapses, the people’s opinions and how they would view me, especially having to appease 10 different people all at one time. I forgot about the one person that would love me, even more, in my failure.

It’s tough. Our lesson today is tough. The point of this sermon today is tough and I can tell you first hand because I’ve lived it this week. One of the messages that the apostle Paul left with the church in Corinth was something that was very importantly tied to the resurrection of our Savior.

I. Stand Fast

1 Corinthians 15:2- “by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you- unless you believed in vain.”

The church in Corinth was able to stand and be saved in the gospel in which they received. Today, millions of people are able to be saved if only they receive the gospel. Thousands stand in it. Notice the difference in numerical value. Now, let me make a disclaimer. This is not based on exegesis. This is added insight. Last week, we learned that to stand in the Gospel meant to stand in it with strength and permanence. Millions can be saved, true. And they will never lose their salvation. But only thousands stand in it.

Count to ten, the number of people who would react as Jesus would react, make decisions as He would, live as He lived, even just 50% of the time. Who are the people who would turn to God, the ones who would slowly stop conforming their lives to the world and slowly emulate Christ? And then who are the ones who abandon the gospel, the Word, when it has become the most necessary to do so? I guarantee you, that those that you think are strong, pastors, leaders of the church, are not even strong. That we all fail, and we constantly have to read the Bible to encourage us to stand fast.

Let’s proceed onto the exegesis of this passage. First, let’s look at the qualifying word “if.” We are saved if we hold fast to the word. The verb “hold fast,” in the Greek is translated “keep.” We are saved if we keep the word of the Gospel. Here’s the semi conflict. The Greek word for “keep” is in the present tense. Does that mean that if we for once believe in something else, or begin to lose faith, do we lose our salvation? If that is the case, doesn’t that conflict with the truth that we’ve been speaking that we cannot lose our salvation that even we cannot even take ourselves out of the love of God? If we accepted Christ and twenty years down the line we stray and no longer believe that there is a God, do we still keep our salvation? That’s the conflict. Are we saved only if we continue to keep the Gospel? Here’s the explanation and the clarification.

We must remember the context in which the Apostle Paul was giving this statement. The church in Corinth would be saved by the Gospel of Jesus Christ that Paul brought if they continued to keep and believe in what he preached. This means if they would not be corrupted or adhere to any of the other false teaches and enemies of Christ that would try to lead them astray. They had to continue to hold fast to the gospel of Jesus Christ which was the only way of salvation, contrary to what any of the other false teachers had to say in that time period.

Let’s take a look at the verb “saved.” The Greek word for “saved” is sozesthe which comes from the root word sozo. Now here’s the interesting part of it. The Greek word for “saved” is also found in the present tense. There can be two different conflicts in our Christian theology presented in this one verse. One, which we just discussed is our ability to lose our salvation. The second is also tied to that, which, based on the parsing of this verb sozesthe, may imply that we are constant need of being saved. It implies that the Gospel saves us over and over again. The present tense is true in the sense that it constantly saves us, but not in terms of us losing our salvation. The present tense implies that the Gospel has the continuing power to save a believer from the influence and power of sin and the devil.

It is not through our power as human beings, but through the Gospel. This also clarifies the qualifying word “if” which may insinuate that we are saved through our own discretion and power of holding fast to the Gospel. On the contrary it is through the salvific power of the Gospel by which we are saved.

Lastly, let’s take a look at the phrase, “unless you believed in vain.” There are people in this world with shallow faith. There are people who put on a Sunday face, act and try to convince people that they are Christians but have not accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior. There are those people who act as if they abide by the Word of God but do not hold fast to it. There are those who believe as the demons believe. They believe that there is a God also, but does that save them? First and foremost, determine the depth of your faith. We answer to no one but God. I’m not going to know. I can assume, and if you’re a good enough liar, then I’ll believe you’re a solid Christian. If not, then it’s between you and God.

Also, the apostle Paul demonstrated that if our faith is real, and not in vain, that also our persecutions and discouragements were then not without purpose and that the strength of our faith is unyielding. And by no less than the strength of this sort of faith, will we be saved.

Conclusion:

This sermon may sound tough from an exegetical standpoint because it was somewhat confusing. But this sermon is tough because it presents a truth to our faith that we so often need but frequently neglect. Day in and day out, do we constantly stand fast in the word of God? There are two roadblocks. First of all, do we have the strength, will, and faith to make the decision to live the way that God wants us to live, as believers? We have to make the conscious decision to stay strong and permanent in the Word.

The second roadblock is, do we even know what's in the Word of God? Do we know what it says? How can we stand fast in the Word if we don't know what to do, say or act? So, we've made the decision to live the way God wants us to live. The question is do we know how He wants us to live? If we don't, how can we stand fast?

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Isidro Annotated New Testament- 1 Corinthians 15:2