Prayer of Thanksgiving: Give thanks to God for all of his creation and for sending his only Son to save us.

Prayer of Supplication: Ask God to give you strength to live in these trying times and the courage to stand for what is true.

Bible reading and commentary:

Read: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Because some members of the Corinthian church doubted the future resurrection of the dead, Paul now turns his attention to the fundamental teaching of the Christian faith. He first lays the groundwork by reminding the Corinthians of the gospel that he had taught them as well as the nature and fruitfulness of his apostleship. These verses contain the foundation of Christian doctrine and the heart of the evangelical message: that the Lord Jesus Christ died for sinful human beings and rose again on the third day for their justification. This glorious gospel continues to produce much fruit in the lives of Christians, as they experience forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with God, daily comfort, freedom from the burden of the law and hope for the future resurrection. All blessings are because of Christ’s work on their behalf.

Christians should find special significance that Jesus’ resurrection was both prophesied in Scripture and testified to by the early church. God’s scriptural revelation definitely bears the greatest authority, but the experience of early Christians who encountered Jesus alive after his crucifixion is also convincing evidence for his resurrection.

The apostle Paul was both a compelling witness to Christ’s resurrection and a great example of the power of the gospel. When Christians are tempted to despair on account of the extent of their sin, they do well to consider God’s marvelous grace and mercy expressed toward Paul, who was a persecutor of the church before he met the resurrected Christ. Paul’s life and his statement in 1 Corinthians 15:10 make it clear that salvation comes from God’s grace alone, apart from human cooperation or merit.

John Calvin on 1 Corinthians 15:3 – By taking our curse upon him he might redeem us from it. For what else was Christ's death, but a sacrifice for expiating [removing] our sins -- what but a satisfactory penalty, by which we might be reconciled to God -- what but the condemnation of one, for the   purpose of obtaining forgiveness for us? He speaks also in the same manner in Romans 4:25, but in that passage, on the other hand, he ascribes it also to the resurrection as its effect -- that it confers righteousness upon us; for as sin was done away through the death of   Christ, so righteousness is procured through his resurrection. This distinction must be carefully observed, that we may know what we must look for from the death of Christ, and what from his resurrection. When, however, the Scripture in other places makes mention only of his death, let us understand that in those cases his resurrection is included in his death, but when they are mentioned separately, the commencement of our salvation is (as we see) in the one, and the   consummation of it in the other.

Heinrich Bullinger on 1 Corinthians 15:10 – Again, lest Paul should seem to be attributing anything to his own powers, he adds by way of correction: “Though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” For God uses men and women as instruments; nevertheless, all the glory and praise for good deeds ought to be ascribed to God, who sometimes ascribes to us what he himself works through us, and that by grace. For he punishes our evil within us, and crown his gifts in us.