Raised According to the Scriptures
Geoffrey Wilson (1929–2021), was a British pastor and author. He wrote Banner of Truth’s popular and helpful New Testament Commentary series.
In volume 1 of his New Testament Commentaries, he examines Paul’s 1 Corinthians 15 statements regarding the resurrection of Jesus.
Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
1 Corinthians 15:1–5
God forgives our sins because Christ died for them.
That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures: Thus Paul is here clearly quoting a very early tradition, and though he does not actually refer to Christ as the suffering servant of God, he obviously sees the work of Christ as the fulfillment of Isaiah 53. Since “our sins” were the only reason for Christ’s death, this means that he died for us sinners, as the substitutionary sacrifice through whom we receive the forgiveness of sins. “In other words, there was no gospel known in the primitive church, or in any part of it, which had not this as its foundation—that God forgives our sins because Christ died for them” (James Denney).
By death and burial he came down to our level, by resurrection he raise us to his.
2. And that he was buried: That Christ was buried attests both the completeness of his death and the reality of his resurrection. In this indirect reference to the empty tomb, which undoubtedly formed part of the original tradition, “we have a first indication that the risen Lord, as Paul preached him, possessed a body identical with that in which he had been buried, a body of flesh” (J.A. Schep).
3. And that he hath been raised on the third day according to the scriptures: For the second time it is asserted that these events were an exact fulfillment of the prophetic testimony of Scripture. With regard to the difficult phrase ‘on the third day’ it may be said that it was Christ himself who taught the scriptural necessity of his rising again on the third day. The death and burial of Jesus took place once for all, but having been raised from the dead he remains the Risen One in perpetuity. “By death and burial he came down to our level, by resurrection he raise us to his” (Robertson-Plummer).
The truth of the resurrection was confirmed by unimpeachable witnesses.
4. And that He appeared to Cephas; then to the twelve: The truth of the resurrection was confirmed by unimpeachable witnesses. Peter is placed first because he was the first apostle to see the risen Lord. Then he was seen by ‘the twelve’. These words designate “the college of the apostles, without exact regard to number: actually ten, wanting Judas Iscariot, and Thomas absent on the first meeting” (Findlay).