我的一个朋友很喜欢三维木质拼图。他说最关键是要找到那片“核心拼图”,以开启其它木块,逐渐把图搭建起来。
也是这个朋友,他称哥林多前书15章14节为“福音的核心”。正如保罗写道:“若基督没有复活,我们所传的便是枉然,你们所信的也是枉然。”
若没有复活,我们就没有建立信仰的根基。我们所有的只是一个教导人生崇高思想的名人,以及一个构建社会的道德体系。但这些都只是今生的事。若没有复活,我们就没有胜过死亡的盼望。如果真是如此,那为什么还要相信耶稣呢?
保罗继续说,“但基督已经从死里复活”。彼得在新约教会的第一次讲道中说:“这耶稣,神已经叫他复活了,我们都为这事作见证” (徒 2:32)。保罗还写道复活的耶稣曾“一时显给五百多弟兄看”。
回顾耶稣复活的当天,我们今天蒙召,不仅要宣告我们相信耶稣的复活,还要深信这就是我们信仰的核心。一切都连于基督的复活!
主耶稣,祢的复活是我们信仰的核心,是我们活着的原因,也是我们得永生的盼望。求祢保守我们,坚定相信祢已从死里复活的事实。奉祢的名祷告,阿们。
哥林多前书 15:1-20
1弟兄们,我如今把先前所传给你们的福音告诉你们知道;这福音你们也领受了,又靠着站立得住,"If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith." — 1 Corinthians 15:14
A friend of mine enjoys three-dimensional wooden puzzles. He says the key is to find the "lynchpin," one piece that unlocks the pieces and allows him to solve the puzzle.
This same friend calls 1 Corinthians 15:14 "the lynchpin of the gospel." As Paul writes, "If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith."
Without the resurrection, we have nothing on which to build our faith. All we have is a famous person who taught noble ideas about life and an ethical system on which to build our society. But that's just for this life. Without the resurrection, we have no hope for surviving death. And if that's the case, then why bother believing in Jesus?
Paul goes on, "But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead." And in the first sermon of the New Testament church, Peter preached, "God has raised this Jesus to life, and we all are witnesses of it" (Acts 2:32). Paul wrote that the resurrected Jesus "appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time."
As we look back on Easter, we are called not only to profess our faith that Jesus was raised but also to understand that this is the lynchpin of our faith. Everything hangs together on Christ's resurrection!
Lord Jesus, your resurrection is the lynchpin of our faith, our reason for living, our hope for eternal life. Keep us firmly fixed to the fact that you are raised from the dead. In your name, Amen.
诵读: 楚云
片头: 张妙阳