1 Corinthians 15:1-4
Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day (NIV)
Where you stand.
Our faith is a location. It is not a physical place but a spiritual point. It is the place of belief, the locus of control, and the venue of our life. Our mark must place us firmly on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that He died and rose again on the third day. This is where we take our stand.
We live in an age where boundaries are being blurred. Up is down, and wrong is right. What is ungodly has been declared righteous and true. Like the shifting sands of a desert storm, our footing can slip before we know it. But the rock on which we stand is the Gospel. Jesus died and rose again on the third day.
We must never doubt that He died or why He died. Some may want to dismiss His death as if there is no significance to His death and our life, but this is Hellish scheming. Without His death, there is no forgiveness of sin. There are false teachers who suggest salvation comes by following Christ’s example of love and righteousness. And we are called as believers to follow His example, but salvation does not come by works. It is by faith alone. We believe Christ took the punishment we deserved to justify our salvation through His death.
He rose again. When He rose, He blotted out the law of sin and death. The law required all who sin to remain under the penalty of the spirit of death. His blood covered over this law. The Holy Spirit was released to abide in us so that we have the power to resist sin. Without His resurrection, we would have forgiveness but no power. Abundant life would not be impossible.
This is where we stand. The enemy will try to convince us that we must be perfect to be accepted by God. But we take our stand in the place of faith. God accepts us because of our faith that He died for our sins. The enemy may try to convince us that we are victims without the power to forge an abundant life, but we stand on the promise that, by faith, we can move mountains.
Prayer: Lord, help my mind to discern false teaching when its spies try to enter the camp and let me hold my ground. Amen.
