At a funeral a preacher was exceeding the time for the service. His assistant leaned over and said, "It's getting late sir!" The preacher said, "I know, but this doctrine of the resurrection is important." The assistant responded, "But we've got to get the body over to the cemetery in time for it."

The gospel of Christ saves. Paul said, "Now I make known to you brethren, the gospel which I preached 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"

(I Corinthians 15:1-2).

When Paul came to Corinth as recorded in Acts 18 he did as he said in this text, he preached the gospel to them. Telling them Jesus is the Christ. That Jesus died on the cross for their sins, was buried and then raised from the dead on the third day. Jesus said, "He that has ears to hear, let him hear" (Luke 8:8).

Our text says the Corinthians received the gospel. Acts 18:8 says that "many of the Corinthians when they heard were believing and being baptized (immersed)" (Mark 16:15-16). Jesus died for our sins, thus we are to die to sin (repentance). As Jesus was buried in the earth, so our baptism is a burial in a watery grave of baptism. As Jesus was raised from the grave, so we are raised out of the watery grave to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:3-4). A candidate for baptism is a penitent sinner. Have you been scripturally baptized?

The Corinthians were standing in the gospel. Also the gospel is able to make us stand. In it we have the forgiveness of our sins and the hope of eternal life. We find within the gospel our victory over death and the grave. In the gospel we are made right in the sight of God. We stand not in our own creeds, and self-righteousness, and spiritual pedigree. We stand because of what God had done for us through Christ.

If the Corinthians held fast they would be saved. If they threw away the gospel of Christ, their initial faith would prove to be in vain. Jesus said, "No man putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God" (Luke 9:62). The gospel is more than adequate to save us, but if we deny it and turn back to the world, the latter end has become worse than the beginning (II Peter 2:20-22). Having come to Christ through obedience of the Gospel one is to remain steadfast in the faith. Have you obeyed the gospel?

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