Book: 1 Corinthians

Isn’t it funny how a meal can nourish and sustain you—literally give you life—and we hardly even notice? What if we paid attention to what was happening inside? What if we noticed who else is being given life by this meal?

What is the gospel? Every religion teaches about man chasing after God. The gospel says that God came chasing after us. I am not the primary agent; God is the primary agent. I am the problem. God is the solution. The gospel highlights not my worthiness, but my unworthiness. The gospel highlights Christ’s worthiness, and then it talks about how in Christ, through His Spirit, by His power, the most amazing things begin to happen.

Paul mentions the empty tomb in passing. It’s there. It’s part of the “first importance” teaching. But it wasn’t the empty tomb that produced hope in the heart of believers; it was their encounter with the risen Christ. The sight of the empty tomb brought fear and panic; but visions or appearances of Jesus brought hope and joy.

Faith is necessary for Christian doctrine; love is essential for Christian practice. But hope–genuine hope in the reality to which all doctrine points and all practice imitates–is why we chose the Christian way in the first place…and why we hold to our faith and practice our love in the long wait between the times. The story is not over yet. The new day will dawn, in which the mere echoes of goodness, beauty, and truth which we have witnessed this side of His coming will give way to the fullness for which our hearts are longing.

The dictionary defines “metamorphosis” as “a change of the form or nature of a thing or person into a completely different one, by natural or supernatural means.” Did you hear what that phrase could mean: “a change of the nature of a person into a completely different person, by supernatural means.”

When Paul tells husbands to be like Jesus toward their wives, he says husbands love your wives like Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy (Eph 5:25-26). That is truly significant. We spend a lot of time talking about what we are saved FROM. We are saved from sin; we are saved from our past; we are saved from our guilt and shame.

But it is equally important to talk about what we are saved FOR. As Paul says “he has rescued us out of the kingdom of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son.” God wanted a people—a people who would conform to His image, who would showcase His likeness—so he saved us FROM our self-focused unrighteousness, and he saved us FOR a new life in Christ Jesus.

He died to make men holy.

Corinth was an ideal place for a speaker with a message. There was one catch. People came to hear a speak, not to received a message. Paul, called by a crucified and resurrected Lord, embracing the counter-cultural message of the cross, defied all expectation. He determined to be a “know nothing” preacher. To know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified. This is Paul’s mission statement in Corinth (1 Cor 2:2), and my mission at West Side.