foundation for Christianity. As eyewitnesses to the risen Christ (1 Corinthians 15: 3-8), the disciples were certain about the resurrection, ultimately laying down their own lives as martyrs all over the world, for proclaiming the gospel. Likewise, Apostle Paul made the resurrection the central aspect of his own Gospel preaching as he traveled around the Roman world. A powerful illustration of Paul’s approach is in his epistle to Corinthians, “And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.” (1 Corinthians 15: 14, 17) Christianity is anchored in the resurrection, with Jesus as the only risen, Living Savior. Christianity is also unique among religions in its depiction of God seeking out humanity to save them, in sharp contrast to humanity’s search for God in other religions. Christian historians have noted that if one were to take a chronological view of the NT books of the Bible, Paul’s epistles to the various early churches around the Mediterranean bases predate the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Paul’s epistles also provide compelling eyewitness testimonies to the resurrection from early Christian believers who had seen the risen Christ personally. Paul Barnett1, a pre-eminent scholar on Early Christianity, has shown from historical research that after the Romans crucified Jesus of Nazareth circa AD 33, His followers met weekly to worship Jesus as Lord, reaffirming Apostle Thomas’s proclamation of the risen Christ as his Lord and God (John 20:28). In his epistles to the Ephesians and Corinthians, Apostle Paul exhorts Christians to sing and make melody in their hearts “to the Lord” (Ephesians 5.19, 1 Corinthians 14.26). Apostle Paul also records the “Maranatha” prayer, which mean, ‘Lord, come back’ in the epistle to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 16.22), which is also found in the Book of Revelation (Revelation 22.20). Therefore, the evidence suggests that the early Christians worshipped Jesus as Lord and prayed to him, pleading with Him to return. Based on the research of Early Christianity scholars, Peter May2 has concluded that Apostle Paul’s credal statement in the epistle to Corinthians (1 Corinthians 15:3-5) regarding the death, burial, resurrection, and the appearing of Jesus was passed on to Paul by AD
1
https://www.bethinking.org/jesus/messiah-jesusthe-evidence-of-history. Also, Paul Barnett, “The Birth of Christianity: The First Twenty Years”, Eerdmans, 2005. 2 https://www.bethinking.org/did-jesus-rise-from-the-
dead/the-resurrection-of-jesus-and-the-witness-ofpaul)
353, i.e., within five years of Christ’s death and possibly within only two or three years. Scholars have also concluded that the belief in Jesus as crucified Messiah and risen Lord was central to the united apostolic proclamation of the disciples. Following the credal formula, Paul also lists other resurrection appearances, including Peter, James, and himself (1 Corinthians 15:6-8). Scholars believe that Paul’s specific references to Peter, James, and himself as witnesses to the risen Christ stem from the fact they met in Jerusalem to discuss faith-related matters, staying together for fifteen days, three years after Paul’s Damascus road experience (Galatians 1:1819). The purpose of Paul’s visit to Jerusalem was to clarify the content of the Gospel they were preaching, since the Galatians had been embracing “a different gospel” because some had been “distorting the gospel” (Galatians 1:6-7). During his Jerusalem visit, Paul probably got to know the authoritative oral creed, with its list of witnesses from Peter and James, if he had not already learned it from Christians in Damascus. Therefore, Paul’s reference in 1 Corinthians 15 to the risen Christ appearing to both Peter and James must be based on Paul’s face-toface discussions with Peter and Paul. Blood of Christ: As Apostle Peter wrote in his epistle to the first century persecuted Christians in the Roman empire, we have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ shed on the cross (1 Peter 1:18-19). When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden, the LORD made garments of skin to clothe them (Genesis 3:21). Through this, God demonstrated that the death of an animal and the shedding of its blood was the cost of atoning for sin. Further, the LORD taught the children of Israel that the life of the flesh is in the blood, and instructed them to offer blood on the altar as atonement for sins (Leviticus 17:11). The Old Testament sacrificial system pointed to the final sacrifice, the Lamb of God, Jesus the Christ, who shed his blood on the cross for the forgiveness of sins, past, present, and future, once for all. Jesus communicated this clearly to His disciples at the Last Supper, which forms the foundation for the celebration of the Lord’s Supper in the Church (Mark 14:22-25, Luke 22:18-20, 1 Corinthians 11:23-25). As elaborated by Charles Stanley4, there are four aspects related to the blood of Christ in God’s salvation plan: (i) Redemption, the act of purchasing back. We were redeemed with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, the unblemished, spotless Lamb of God 3 C.H. Dodd, “The Founder of Christianity”, Fontana,
1971. 4 https://www.intouch.org/watch/the-message-of-theblood-of-jesus
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