What Is "The Gospel" Exactly?

I Corinthians 15: 1-11

Now I make known to you, brethren, 

Paul is telling them something important here, in love as their brother. 

the Gospel 

This is literally, the "Good News"

which I preached to you, 

This is the same that he had originally taught them when he first came to Corinth. 

which also you received, 

They listened to what he said receptively. 

in which also you stand, 

You are still believing that it is true, without doubting.

by which also you are saved, 

This Gospel is what rescued them from the power sin had over them.

if you hold fast the Word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. 

If it really "worked," then they would still hold on to the Good News that Paul had preached, and it would not be "in vain," or to no purpose.  

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, 

The very first thing they needed to know and believe and trust in, as the basis of everything else in the Christian life, which also Paul had received in his own life. 

This is what it is, the Good News: 

that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 

That Jesus is the perfect Personal Sacrifice, who took our place individually, as our personal sin sacrifice as laid out in Leviticus chapter one. And how the Messiah was predicted to suffer and die, as Isaiah 53 lays it all out, by crucifixion as described by David in Psalm 22. And all the other prophesies in the Old Testament Scriptures.  

and that He was buried, 

He was buried because He was dead. If He wasn't dead, they wouldn't have buried Him. 

and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 

Jesus was Resurrected, raised back to Life from the dead with a different kind of life than He had before, as we have now. Just like the Old Testament prophesies said that He would. 

Like when Abraham received Isaac back from the dead figuratively (Hebrews 11:17-19), as he believed God would bring him back after killing him on the altar, according to what he said to the two servants with them, "the boy and I ... we will return to you" (Genesis 22:5). 

And in Psalm 2:7; Psalm 16:10; Isaiah 53:10; and Hosea 6:2 God had His prophets predict that He would raise Him up in three days after suffering death. 

And Jesus said that He would rise after three days, just as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days (Matthew 12:40).

And to prove He was really alive: 

and that He appeared to Cephas, 

This is Peter, who ran to the tomb and found the wrappings just lying there empty, with no body in them (Luke 24:12; John 20:2-9). 

then to the twelve. 

Mark 16:14; Luke 24:36-49; John 20:19-29; and Acts 1:3-8 all relate how Jesus showed His disciples and other followers that He was alive after He had publicly died.  

After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; 

At the time Paul was writing this letter, most of the five hundred believers who saw Him at the same time were still alive, even though some of them had died, and were current eye-witnesses to His Resurrection.  

Then He appeared to James, 

James was the brother of Jesus, the oldest of His four brothers, who became the Leader of the Jerusalem church. When the Angel at the tomb told the women to tell His disciples to keep the appointment He had made with them to meet in Galilee, Jesus talked to Mary Magdalene and told her to also tell His brothers to go to that meeting (Matthew 28:1-10). 


Evidently His brothers did go to Galilee to that meeting along with the Apostles, and that's when they believed Him, that He really is Messiah, God's own Son, their Redeemer. Not just their "perfect" Big Brother.

then to all the Apostles; 

Jesus met repeatedly with the Apostles and the rest of His disciples during the forty days He spent with them after His Resurrection until His Ascension.

and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.

Paul was not a believer until some time later. He was a Pharisee, who thought these followers of Jesus were fools who were poking fun at what he considered sacred, because he didn't believe Jesus fulfilled what Moses had written. Until he took that fateful journey from Jerusalem to Damascus. The story is in Acts 9:1-20, and continues through the rest of the book of Acts. 

Paul considered himself as having been born "out of time," or an abortion. He may have thought that he was born too early, because he thought Jesus would come in his lifetime, and should be living in the end of the last days. 

For I am the least of the Apostles, and not fit to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 

He is saying that because he persecuted the church that he didn't deserve to be given the position of Apostleship. 

But by the grace of God I am what I am, 

But God's grace is so gracious that even when we're still God's enemies, rebelling against His authority over us, as Saul of Tarsus was, He applies Jesus' Sacrifice to each of us, laying all our sins and sinfulness on Him on the Cross; and transfers His righteousness onto us in the Person of His Holy Spirit; all as His free gift. 

and His grace toward me did not prove vain; 

God's gift was not worthless, it accomplished the work in him God meant for it to do. 

but I labored even more than all of them, 

Paul says he worked harder than any of the other Apostles and disciples, and he probably did, laying the groundwork for all the church-planting all over the whole known World of his time. 

yet not I, but the grace of God with me. 

Paul does not take the credit for all he had accomplished, because he would not have done any of it had it not for God calling him to faith, by Jesus appearing to him on that Damascus road as He did, and working His Divine work in him.

This is what God does for every person who is saved by grace, the only way to be made fit to live with God--by His free gift. And God has purpose for each of us today, too, the same as He had for Paul. We are all different, so our "mission, if we choose to accept it," is not the same as anyone else'.  

Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed. 

So no matter if it was Paul or any other of the Apostles or disciples who brought the Good News to the Corinthians, it's the Good News that God has done all the work that counts. And they believed. 

O my Father, thank You for telling us all the details we need to know to put together Your great Story of Redemption. Thank You for having Paul write down for us, so that it cannot be changed, all Your Truth of how all the parts of our Salvation and Redemption fit together into one seamless, beautiful love story! 

You thought it all out before You ever created, and Your Son agreed to take responsibility for Mankind, being our Lord God who gave the Law and prophesies, knowing that He would come and do all the things written down, and fulfill them. So now we don't have to bring an animal to an altar, because He finished it. 

Father, You have put all creation into the hand of Your Son, and He will return to this Earth to finish all that He started, fulfilling all the rest of the prophesies and Psalms that tell of His glory. 

And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, and every tongue will proclaim in every language everywhere that Jesus is our Lord God Almighty, to the glory of Almighty God the Father, forever. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!