I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins… that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.
1 corinthians 15:3
What Paul presents here, he says, is of “first importance” (15:3). Don’t lose sight of what matters most: “Christ died for our sins… he was buried… [and] he was raised on the third day” (15:3–4).
Notice, when Paul talks about what matters most, one thing he includes is that “Christ died for our sins” (15:3). If this is of “first importance,” then that must mean our sins really matter.
However, in our times, sin seems to matter very little. Millions of people have stopped believing in God and started believing in themselves. They have stopped believing in “original sin” and started believing in “inherent goodness.”
Few would claim to be perfect, but most, it seems, now claim to be good. If people think about sin at all, it is as our occasional and understandable lapses in which we don’t live up to our own high standards. But why would Jesus need to die for the occasional lapses of fundamentally good people? That makes no sense at all.
If anything ever becomes more interesting or more compelling to you than what Jesus accomplished in His death and resurrection, you can take it as a sure sign that your spiritual life is in trouble. “Here,” says the apostle, “is what matters most. Make sure it matters most to you.”
On a scale from (1) most important, to (5) least important, how much would you say it matters to you that Jesus died for your sins?
