“I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve.”
1 Corinthians 15:3-5 NLT
“Christ died for our sins,
just as the Scriptures said”
Paul was a messenger who referred to Old Testament scriptures, the prophesies about Jesus, and also to fellow believers that Paul knew, people who had confirmed them. Isaiah wrote, “Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed” (Isaiah 53:4-5). Jesus took the punishment for our sins that we deserved, “just as the Scriptures said“. The punishment for sins that Paul and those in the Corinthian church deserved. The same punishment that everyone who has ever lived deserves. “Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said”, wrote Paul. Why did Jesus take on the punishment that we deserved? 1 Peter 3:18, “Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the Spirit“. And we know from John 3:16 that God gave His Son that we might receive the gift of eternal life. So how is that going to work? No believer has ever returned from Heaven with a testimony that all their sins committed in this life were forgiven through their faith in Jesus, something that they would only find out when they reached the “Pearly Gates”. Of course, we have no measurable evidence available to us. But we know what Jesus said, and we believe, O how we believe! That is what faith in Jesus is all about. Jesus said, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Paul wrote to the Corinthians that he had passed on to them some important things that had been passed on to him, and, although the Gospels were not available to him, Paul knew all about God’s grace and love, and, implicitly, the contents of John 3:16. As an aside, note that there are only two outcomes from this very well known verse – “perishing” or “eternal life”. In faith, we believers have made the right choice, but most in the world around us are defaulting to a place reserved for those who are “perishing”. So, Paul passed on to the Corinthians the Good News about Jesus, that He had “died for our sins”, “just as the Scriptures said”.
“He was buried, and
He was raised from the dead on the third day,
just as the Scriptures said”
Paul also wrote, “He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said”. There are several Old Testament prophetic Scriptures about this. We have Hosea 6:2, “After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence”. The Book of Jonah also has a reference to the third day: Jonah 1:17, “Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights”. This was a Scripture Jesus referenced in Matthew 12:40. Paul, being a devout Jew before he met Jesus on the Damascus Road, would have known these Scriptures well. We pilgrims are familiar with the story of the empty tomb. Psalm 16:10 is taken as a prophetic reference to Jesus’ resurrection. “For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your holy one to rot in the grave”. Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 provide incredible details about Jesus’ death, and they include references to His life beyond it. The Old Testament is full of Scriptures about Jesus, because the central theme running through it is always about God, His love, His plan for the salvation of mankind, and the ultimate sacrifice of His Son, Jesus.
For us pilgrims, “just as the Scriptures said” is the bedrock of our faith. The Bible is a treasure trove of spiritual nuggets, and Paul described its worth in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realise what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work“. And so we pilgrims constantly read the Bible because it contains God’s Word to His children to keep them safe on their journey to be with Him in Paradise. We neglect the Scriptures at our peril.
Dear Father God. We thank You for the wonderful resource that You have provided for us. We pray that You open the Scriptures to us and reveal Your will and purposes today and every day. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 