1 Corinthians 15:7-9 “After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.”
Paul began, in the third verse of this chapter, to lay out again the gospel that he had preached in the church at Corinth. He declared unto them how that Christ died for our sins, how that He was buried, and how He rose again on the third day. This was all done according to the scriptures. He then proceeds to lay out to them a list of witnesses to Christ’s resurrection, many of whom were still alive at that time.
In this seventh verse, Paul continues to confirm that Jesus rose from the dead by naming further witnesses. Paul obviously felt it important to give them an over-abundance of testimony to the resurrection of our Lord. It was easy enough to believe that He had died since this was something that men did. If He died, it was certainly easy enough to believe that He was buried. The question of His resurrection was another matter.
Jesus’ resurrection from the dead was miraculous as a stand-alone event. It was also the proof that He had not simply died, but that He had indeed died for our sins. His resurrection was visible proof that the Father had accepted His sacrifice for our sins and imputed unto us His righteousness. Paul pointed to an abundance of witnesses to His resurrection because we will see a little later that some there doubted the truth of Christ’s resurrection.
Paul speaks of all these other witnesses, and then he makes it personal. He tells that he saw Jesus after His resurrection. He recognizes that this, too, is a miracle because he was “as of one born out of due time.” It is a marvelous thing in our lives today that we can believe so surely in the resurrection because we, too, have seen the risen Savior. We may not experience it as Paul did, but that does not lessen the power of the revelation that Jesus is alive and alive forever more!
Paul goes on to share some of his personal testimony about this miracle in his life. He readily admits that he was not worthy of such an assurance. He testifies that it did not come as a result of some great thing that he had done. As a matter of fact, he shows us that just the opposite was true: there was nothing in his life that made him worthy of this knowledge.
It is good for us to be able to acknowledge that we do not deserve to understand anything about the grace and mercy of God. However, we should not allow the knowledge of our unworthiness to cause us to doubt God’s power to reveal His wondrous truth to us. The miraculous love and grace of God continues to reveal His Son in us that we should be to the praise of His glory.
May we be blessed to be a living example of the resurrecting power of God through His Son, Jesus Christ, knowing that the same power that raised Him form the dead quickens our mortal bodies (Rom 8:11)!