Posts that reference the book of 1 Corinthians

Jesus Is the Lord of Glory

None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (1 Corinthians 2:8).

This title is used only one time.
Here, by Paul.

Jesus is the Lord of Glory.
He is God incarnate.
And so He has all glory.

But yet
In His divine wisdom,
He made a plan to glorify sinners.

The plan was called a mystery because
It wasn’t revealed until God’s timing,
It is beyond our comprehension.
Especially beyond those who don’t believe.

Step 1
God became man–Jesus the Christ.
Step 2
Jesus died willingly and raised again.
Step 3
That death will satisfy the sin debt of all who believe.

None of the leaders, religious or political, understood this.
Do you understand the mystery, the wisdom of God?
Do you know the Lord of Glory?

The Holy Spirit plays an active role in the lives of believers from salvation to glorification. Sometimes, it’s not always evident or clear what that role is. We are taking a closer look at what He does, how He helps us and why Jesus said it was to our advantage that He go away and the Holy Spirit comes (John 15:7). This week we’ll look at how the Holy Spirit helps in our walk.

Our walk is kind of shorthand for saying the way we conduct ourselves on a regular basis. For instance, I study pretty much every day as part of my regular routine. I run as a regular part of my routine. Those kinds of things make up part of your walk. The other part is your character. So your walk is who you are and what you do on the regular. How does the Spirit help in our walk?

Here’s the summary: But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh (Galatians 5:16).

So if we want to walk in a way that pleases God, that imitates Christ, that fulfills our purpose, we must follow the Spirit’s guidance and direction and not our own. Paul makes it very plain for the Galatians. We walk either following the Spirit or following ourselves. There is no overlap. But walking by the Spirit gives some distinct advantages.

The Spirit strengthens us.

Paul prays for his friends in Ephesus “that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit,” (Ephesians 3:16).
That strengthened inner being stands in contrast to the discouragement Paul mentions in v.13. So if we are walking more in discouragement and frustration rather than peace and power we may be following the flesh and not the Spirit.

The Spirit gifts us.

Take a look at 1 Corinthians 12. “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; … To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. … All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills” (1 Corinthians 12:4, 7, 11). While an in-depth study of spiritual gifts is way more than we can take on in one blog post, notice a few highlights.

To each. Everyone. Every single believer is given an obvious evidence of the Holy Spirit working in them.

For the common good. Not to make ourselves look good or to amass power and influence but to build up the body of Christ

Empowered and apportioned as HE wills. The Spirit determines what is best.
So if we want to walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh, we need to use the gifts the Spirit has given us to accomplish what we can for the kingdom. If we fail to use them or if we use them for the wrong reasons, we are walking by the flesh.

The Spirit fills us.

Here’s more from Paul. “And don’t get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless living, but be filled by the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). If you have too much to drink and the police pull you over, they will likely charge you with DUI, driving under the influence. All your decisions, judgments and reactions are influenced by the alcohol in your bloodstream. Rather instructs us to live under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Live so that our decisions, our judgment and our reactions are all driven by the Spirit who lives in us. When we do the results are visible.

The Spirit bears fruit in us.

Galatians 5:22-23 gives us a familiar list of traits that are obvious in the life of someone living under the Spirit’s control. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). As our regular routine centers more and more on doing the things the Spirit wants us to do, acting more and more like the Spirit directs us to, we will see more and more love, joy, peace and the others in our lives. We’ll be known for our kindness and patience. We’ll respond more often with gentleness and self-control. Our faith and commitment will deepen.

Why? How?

“Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:24-25). Every day, as believers we have to decide whether we are going to live the way the Spirit directs us to or do what we want. We have crucified the flesh. It has no power beyond what we give it. So the Spirit helps in our walk by giving us direction, strength, and gifts to live a life that bears fruit for the kingdom.

Keep in step with the Spirit. March to the beat of His drum. Dance to His rhythm. Rely on His strength. Utilize the gifts He gave you.

Next week we’ll see how He helps our witness.

The Spirit Helps in Our Understanding

By Paula Wiseman

The Spirit Helps our understanding title graphic

The Holy Spirit plays an active role in the lives of believers from salvation to glorification. Sometimes, it’s not always evident or clear what that role is. Over the next few weeks we’ll take a closer look at what He does, how He helps us and why Jesus said it was to our advantage that He go away and the Holy Spirit comes (John 15:7). This week we’ll look at how the Holy Spirit helps in our understanding.

If you know anything at all about God and His word, it’s because the Spirit helped you understand it. It’s that simple. Paul explains:

Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God. … But the person without the Spirit does not receive what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually (1 Corinthians 2:12, 14).

God wants us to know as much as we can about this great salvation Christ has made possible (and we learned last week that the Spirit helps accomplish). Paul’s words also help us see why things that are obvious to us just don’t click with unbelievers. They don’t have the Spirit.

How does the Spirit accomplish this? Let’s look at some specific ways mentioned in Scripture.

The Spirit teaches and reminds us.

In the Upper Room, Jesus explained to His disciples, But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you (John 14:26).

Jesus knew He was dropping a ton of new information of incredible theological significance on His guys, and He knew the trauma of His death would devastate them– and make it hard to remember any of the good stuff. His words in John 14:26 were intended to reassure them that they didn’t have to get it all that night. The Holy Spirit would help them recall not just the Upper Room revelations, but all of Jesus’s words. Not only that, He expands on what Jesus told them. You see this in the New Testament letters as Paul and Peter and John and others fill out and apply Jesus’s teachings.

The Spirit searches and reveals to us.

Now God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, since the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except his spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:10-11).

God is infinite and cannot be known by finite beings such as ourselves unless He chooses to reveal Himself. The Spirit does that for us. He determines what we need to know, what we can handle, and then He makes that clear to us.

Now in our postmodern and post-postmodern thinking, meaning is assigned by the individual. In other words, I cannot know what a painter or an author meant in his work. Therefore, I ascribe whatever meaning I find which aligns with my experience and my truth. That’s not how God or His truth works. We need the Holy Spirit to help us understand, or else we’ll come up with some very wrong ideas about God.

The Spirit inspires and interprets Scripture for us.

Above all, you know this: No prophecy of Scripture comes from the prophet’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:20-21).

God’s word is not like any other collected writings. The very words were superintended by the Holy Spirit, so God’s thoughts, His promises, His commands were properly communicated to us. Then God goes one step further and ensures the Holy Spirit interprets those words for us as well.

In fact, Hebrews 3:7-16 gives an example of how that works. The writer takes some Old Testament verses from Psalm 95, rightly attributes the authorship to the Holy Spirit and then interprets and applies them for the readers. The Holy Spirit repeats that process for us when we read Scripture. Sometimes that happens instantaneously. Sometimes it takes more prayer, study, and patience. But it’s always the Spirit’s work.

Now you know what you know is all because of the Holy Spirit helps our understanding!

Next week we’ll see how the Spirit helps our walk.

Jesus Is the Last Adam

By Paula Wiseman

For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. 1 Corinthians 15:22 (CSB)

Adam disobeyed God.
He brought sin into the world.
And we are born sinners because of him.

Because we are born sinners
We are under a curse.
Death awaits us.

Jesus is perfect.
He was the sinless Son of God.
He brought redemption, reconciliation, and salvation.

Because He took our sins to the cross
The curse was reversed.
Eternal life awaits.

Everyone born after Adam will die.
Everyone born again in Christ will never die.

Jesus is the last Adam.

Study Tip: Emphasizing the Resurrection

By Paula

And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! 1 Corinthians 15:17

In the book of Acts in nearly every sermon from Pentecost through Paul’s trials in the later chapters, the key point is Jesus’s resurrection from the dead.

Acts 2:24, 2:32, 3:15, 4:2, 4:10, 5:30, 10:40-41, 13:30, 13:33-34, 13:37, 17:31-32, 23:6, 24:21, 26:8, 26:23

Why was the resurrection such a focal point?

Keep in mind that these sermons were often preached to Jewish crowds. In their system of sacrifices, they depended on the intercession of the High Priest. Once each year, on the Day of Atonement he would take the lamb’s blood into the Holy of Holies into the presence of God and sprinkle it on the lid of the ark of the Covenant, the box that held the Ten Commandments. The lid was called the mercy seat. The High Priest was required to follow every detail of God’s instructions, from the selection of the lamb and the preparation and presentation of the offering down to his bathing routine and clothing. If every detail was correct, if every instruction followed, God would accept the offering and withhold His judgment for a year. If the High Priest failed in any point, even a minor one, he would be struck dead and the people would fall under God’s wrath.

So when the High Priest would emerge from the tabernacle and later the Temple there was great relief among the people. The High Priest lived! That meant the offering was acceptable, their sins were covered, they were safe.

Jesus is our Great High Priest, and the Lamb of God.

After offering His life’s blood, God had to signal that the offering was accepted, that it was sufficient. The High Priest had to live. But because the offering was so perfect, the judgment was stayed not just for a year, but for eternity.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ proves that our redemption is finished.

If He hadn’t raised from the dead, then it was only a martyr’s death and not a Savior’s death. But because He lives, we know we will too.

As you read the New Testament, notice how often the resurrection is mentioned. Do you think we focus on the resurrection more or less than New Testament believers?

(Although there is no longer a Temple or a system of sacrifices, the Day of Atonement is still observed by Jews today. You may have seen it on your calendar – Yom Kippur.)

As I was making notes, I discovered I had already posted on my topic. So yes, this is a repost but good information.

Into the Wilderness: Instruction

By Paula

Apply your heart to instruction, And your ears to words of knowledge. Proverbs 23:12

We continue our study of the wilderness in Scripture. We’ve seen it is a place of wandering. But it is also a place of transition. Last week through Jacob’s story we saw that the restoration of relationships can happen in the wilderness. This week we’ll consider the apostle Paul and his time in the wilderness, a time of personal instruction.

Paul was a rising young star among the Pharisees. He had studied with the most respected rabbi of his day, Gamaliel. He was born a Roman citizen, affording him all the political advantages in his society. Of course all of that changed when he met Jesus. We can read about this encounter in Acts chapter 9 (and Paul retells the story in chapters 22 an 26).

From Acts and Galatians 1, we can piece together what happened next. After preaching the gospel for a short time in Damascus, Paul left for the Arabian desert for three years before he returned to Damascus then headed to Jerusalem. Because neither Luke nor Paul gives us details, that opens the door for a lot of speculation. Some have parsed the original words translated “Arabian desert” and determined that they actually referred to the area of Sinai. That leads them to conclude Paul spent the time in prayer, study and meditation reevaluating his understanding of the Law in light of the gospel. From Paul’s writing in Romans and Galatians, it is clear he had a good handle on that, so that’s a possibility.

Others believe Paul spent the time in the same three-year training program the other apostles got, receiving personal instruction from Jesus Christ Himself. In Galatians 1:16, Paul says he did not consult or confer with any man, any “flesh and blood.” They point to 1 Corinthians 15:8 as corroborating evidence. This is also a possibility.

No matter how exactly that wilderness instruction time came together or worked itself out, Paul benefited from it and we are still benefiting from it. Besides the deep theological truths Paul explained for us, we can learn from his example.

We need instruction – If the great apostle needed to learn and grow, how much more do we need it? For Paul, it was urgent and compelling enough that he set everything else aside while he learned. We need to be humble enough to receive instruction

Further instruction equips us for our calling – In Acts 9:15, Jesus tells us that Paul was called specially to carry the gospel to Gentiles and kings. But he didn’t embark on that mission until after his time in the wilderness.

The Holy Spirit makes the best teacher – This is not to say that we can’t learn from brothers and sisters who are farther along in their walk than we are. I mean, there wouldn’t be much point in these posts if that were the case. But the very best teacher is the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised He would explain things, guide us into all the truth (John 16:13). Sometimes, we need to get rid of the distractions in our lives and get away to the wilderness where we can listen.

If Jesus personally instructed Paul in Arabia, it wasn’t His first time in the wilderness. Next week, we’ll look at Jesus’s own wilderness experience.