Salvation that is not in Vain; 1 Cor. 15:2

Paul isn’t saying in verse 1 “Now I am explaining to you the gospel which I proclaim to you,” he is saying, “I made known to you the gospel which I proclaim to you.” He is not now explaining something he has already taught, he is simply referring to what he had made known, what he proclaimed to them in the past. Now he is going to develop the implications of that in terms of the resurrection, the implications of what they believe. Verses 3 and 4, rather than giving the content of the gospel are giving the basis for the gospel, and that is, the work that Christ did on the cross which included His death, burial and resurrection. It is a package deal. The phrase in verse 1: “in which also you stand.” Wouldn’t that be our standing in Christ? We have to look at how Paul uses the word histemi [i(sthmi] in the New Testament passages related to our Christian life. A parallel passage is Romans 5:2 ^NASB “through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand…” Again, we have this same verbiage that we have in 1 Corinthians 15. There is the perfect active indicative of histemi, first person plural. A perfect tense indicates something that happened in the past and emphasizes ongoing results. They made a decision when they accepted the gospel, they received the truth, and that was the decision they made initially and so they are still standing with that decision in the gospel. That is the significance of the perfect tense. This is in contrast to the Galatians who heard the gospel and then departed the gospel into a heretical gospel; they quit standing on it, it wasn’t an ongoing thing. In Romans 5:2 it is again “this grace in which we stand,” and we could ask the question: Is this positional or experiential? Verse 1 says, “Therefore being justified by faith (past action) we have (present tense) peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” and then follows verse 2. Positional truth would say we are standing in grace whether we are in fellowship or out of fellowship; experiential truth would be saying while in fellowship we are operational on the basis of grace. The latter makes more sense, it is talking about sanctification. So Paul makes the same statement to the Roman believers, we choose to stand in it and it has to do with ongoing spiritual growth.

Ephesians 6:14 ^NASB “Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH, and HAVING PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.” This is in the context of the armour we are suppose to put on in spiritual warfare. This is not talking about positional truth, it is a command, an aorist active imperative which means that this is to be a priority. It is the same verb histemi but the imperative mood indicates that once again you can be in a position where you are not standing.

1 Peter 5:12 ^NASB “…Stand firm in it!” Another imperative.

Colossians 4:12 ^NASB “Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bondslave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God.” The word for “stand” is again histemi, and here it is an aorist passive subjunctive, and an aorist subjunctive is used in a clause of this nature with hina [i(na] in order to show purpose. The purpose for his prayers: “that you may stand perfect.” There is the Greek noun teleios [teleioj], the word for maturity. So the idea here is, once again, spiritual growth. So when Paul says to the Corinthians, “in which also you stand,” in the perfect tense it means you continue to stand, you haven’t shaken. You may have all kinds of problems as a congregation but you are still operating on the basis of grace orientation. It is talking about post-salvation truth for the Christian life.

What is it that allows them to continue to stand? Ephesians 6:15 ^NASB “and having shod YOUR FEET WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE.” So there is a relationship there between standing and the gospel. What are you standing on? You are standing on an understanding of the gospel. What do you get from that? You get your understanding of grace. That is one of the reasons it is good for believers to hear the gospel over and over again and to think about it in order to appreciate and understand fully what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross and understanding what grace is. This is because grace orientation is the foundation for everything else in the Christian life.

1 Corinthians 15:2 ^NASB “by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.” “Saved” is the verb sozo [swzw], present passive indicative, second person plural, meaning to deliver, to save or to heal. This is a present tense, the continuous action is ongoing. He is not talking about their past justification, he is talking about their present salvation. SOZO is used in three senses, three stages of salvation. Phase one is really justification, when we put out faith alone in Christ alone. Christ’s perfect righteousness is imputed to us and when God the Father sees that perfect righteousness He declares us to be just. We also speak of that as being saved but more technically that is justification. The second sense in which we use the word “saved” has to do with the spiritual life. The third sense has to do with future salvation and glorification. Phase one we refer to as positional sanctification but that is not what we are talking about in 1 Corinthians 15, which is talking about phase two, progressive sanctification, our ongoing spiritual life. Then there is phase three, ultimate sanctification. Another way we express this is that at phase one justification we are freed from the penalty of sin, saved from the penalty of sin. At that instant we are regenerated and given new life. The penalty for sin was spiritual death. But in phase two, the spiritual life, we are freed or saved from the power of sin—ongoing salvation, we are being saved every day. Every day that we walk by means of the Holy Spirit, every day that we abide in Christ, every day that we are growing spiritually and applying the Word we are being saved. Then there is phase three salvation where we are saved from the presence of the sin nature.

So Paul says that it is by this gospel that he proclaimed to them several years earlier that “you are now being saved.” We have to understand that as phase two salvation. If we don’t we are going to have real problems with the rest of the verse. Paul says, “By which,” i.e. the gospel that you believe, “also you are being saved.” The gospel is not just a recognition that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins but it is the foundation for the whole spiritual life. When we start unpacking the meaning of the gospel and realize that Jesus Christ paid for every sin, past, present and future, and that the sins that we commit now are not going to cause spiritual death, not cause us to lose salvation, not cause us to lose what we have gained, then we begin to realize what grace is; then that has ongoing implications for our spiritual life.

“By which also you are being saved” – phase 2 salvation spiritual growth – “if you hold fast the word which I preached to you.” The conditional clause “if” is a first class condition: if and we assume to condition to be true, “that you are holding fast the word which I preached to you.” He is assuming that they are going to hold fast to the gospel and that will be a basis for their spiritual growth and spiritual advance. “Hold fast” is the Greek verb katecho [katexw] which is a compound of the preposition kata [kata] plus the verb echo [e)xw], and this is a present active indicative. Present tense: ongoing action. If you continue to hold fast to the word. The verb katecho means to hold strongly to certain beliefs, to convictions, to retain, to hold on to or continue to keep the gospel straight. Then Paul uses the word logos [logoj], “the word,” i.e. the message. He is talking about the content of the gospel here, that if they continue to have a true understanding of the gospel then this is foundational to their ongoing spiritual advance. But if they depart from the gospel into a legalistic gospel, into a Lordship salvation gospel, into a gospel where you can lose your salvation, into a gospel where you have to do something to gain your salvation, you are avoiding grace and you are not going to get any where in the spiritual life. Fellowship isn’t just a matter of experience, it is a matter of doctrine.

Then we get into what looks like a very interesting phrase: “unless you believed in vain.” The verb there is pisteuo [pisteuw], aorist active indicative, second person plural. The aorist here is a constative aorist which means that the action is viewed as a whole, simply viewing the action as a past action without reference to it beginning, its end, its progress or result, or the manner of the action. You believed in the past, you believed in the gospel, “unless you believed in vain.” We can see how Lordship people would take this, i.e. it could have been a false faith; it could have been a pseudo faith. What Paul is saying here is not that you can have a non-saving faith but that this faith is to no purpose. It is the Greek adverb eike [e)ikh], this a faith that doesn’t achieve its purpose. What is the purpose? The purpose is to grow to spiritual maturity. But if you depart from the gospel you are not going to go anywhere. That was the whole problem in Galatians—Galatians 3:3 ^NASB “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” In other words, the gospel of grace is no longer operational in your life, so instead of growing to maturity you are going to abort the process and not grow or advance in the spiritual life.

What Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians 15:2 when he says, “by which you are being saved if you are holding on to the message, then you haven’t believed in vain (to no purpose,” it is the same thing that James is saying in James chapter one. James 1:19, 20 ^NASB “{This} you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak {and} slow to anger; [20] for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.” The outline of the book of James is that he is going to talk about what it means to be quick to hear. That means that our priority is to hear the Word of God. Then he deals with the sins of the tongue, being slow to speak, and then follows the implications of mental attitude sins. But the overall theme is growing to maturity and endurance. So he is going to give practical principles on how to endure the testings in life, and the first key is that you have to be quick to hear. Why does he mention these three things? “For the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.” The righteousness of God here is not talking about positional righteousness, i.e. imputed righteousness, because we have that at the instant of salvation. What he is talking about here is experiential righteousness, that which comes through spiritual growth and spiritual advance. It is also called capacity righteousness because it gives us the capacity to be able to rule and reign with Jesus Christ in the kingdom. The anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God because when we get angry we are out of fellowship, and instead of producing divine good we are producing human good, operating on the sin nature and producing sin; it cannot produce ⁺R. So how do we do this? James 1:21, 22 ^NASB “Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and {all} that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.” The main verb in v. 21 is dechomai [dexomai] which means to receive. It is an aorist passive imperative, which means it is a priority mandate. This is a deponent verb which means it really has an active meaning. The aorist mandate in the verse is preceded by what looks like a command in English—“putting aside”—but in the Greek this is an aorist participle. There is an interesting construction in Greek where if you have an aorist imperative that is preceded by an aorist participle then the aorist participle is describing the prerequisite action necessary to fulfil the command. In other words, before you can receive the Word you have to do something else. You can’t take in the Word unless first you put aside filthiness and that that which is the excess, etc., and “by means of humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.” He is not talking about justification salvation here because they are already believers. He is telling them that they have to receive the Word in a certain way if it is going to have sanctification salvation. In other words, he is talking about the same thing Paul is in 1 Corinthians 15:2: that they have to go on being saved, being saved and being saved, and they do that by receiving the Word.

1 Peter 2:1 ^NASB “Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, [2] like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation.” That word “long for” is an aorist imperative preceded by an aorist participle. It is the same pattern. In other words, before you can take in the milk of the Word you have to get rid of something. You have to take in the Word because that is what is able to save your soul, and the word for “Word” there is logos, the same as Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 15:2. It is this message that is instrumental in bringing about sanctification. Jesus said, when He prayed to the Father: “Sanctify them through they word, thy word is truth.” It is the Word of God which begins with the primary message which is the gospel that is foundational for spiritual growth. So James says in 1 :22: “prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.” The idea of doing there isn’t the idea of Christian service, it is the idea of application; and it is the word ginomai [ginomai] “become” doers, an applier of the Word. [23] For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; [24] for {once} he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.” He looks in the mirror but doesn’t do anything about it. In contrast, [24] “But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the {law} of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.” Why? Because he is growing spiritually, he is going to be able to handle the trials and the tests of life and advance.

This is exactly what Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians 15, “unless you believed in vain [to no purpose].” That is, if you don’t hold on to it and you don’t apply the Word, then your original faith is to no purpose. It is not that they are not saved but it is not going to be beneficial for them in their spiritual growth and spiritual advance. What he is saying now is that everything following this, this whole discussion and development in the doctrine of resurrection, isn’t just something that we need to know related to salvation but it is important for sanctification and spiritual growth.