WEDNESDAY February 7th
1 Corinthians 15:1-5
‘Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word 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 in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.’
The second part of this gospel which is of first importance is that Christ not only died for our sin, but that he was buried.
There was absolutely no doubt that Jesus had died, the gospel writer tells us that to hasten death, because the next day was the Jewish Sabbath, the soldiers came to the three that were crucified that day to break their legs which would have caused them to suffocate and die, but, when it came to Jesus it says that they saw that he was already dead. In the previous verses we read ‘When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit’,(John 19:30).
Jesus definitely died and it was for OUR sins and the account continues that he was later taken down and laid in a tomb in the garden.
So many have tried to make out that Jesus didn’t really die, but just passed out and when he was laid in the tomb, he recovered, but Scripture is clear and the testimony of the soldiers is clear that Jesus died and was buried. Now we often highlight that Jesus died and that he rose again, but this is of equal importance that he was buried, and why, well as Paul says because it was all in accordance to the Scriptures. It all took place to fulfil what had been prophesied so many hundreds of years previously, and these things happening exactly as foretold help point to the truth concerning who Jesus really was at the time and still is today, the Son of God who came into the world to save sinners.
Isaiah in that most wonderful of chapters in the Old Testament, prophesied concerning the suffering servant, who we now know to be the Lord Jesus Christ and he says in verses 8-9 of chapter 53, verses that follow on from what he has prophesied concerning his suffering, ‘By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.’
He was cut off – that is he died. They made his grave with the wicked – he was buried. The burial of the Lord Jesus Christ was essential in God’s plan, because if there had been no death, if there had been no burial, then there could not have be a resurrection! That’s tomorrows devotion. But I end today with the words of Jesus himself, where he prophesied that he would be taken like a seed and planted in the ground, foreshadowing his death and burial so that as a result new life would spring forth. John 12:24 ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.’