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Paul said to the church at Corinth, “I declare unto you the gospel” (v. 1). The word “gospel” means “good news.” It’s the good news about Jesus. Then Paul gave them the gospel. It’s here in our text.

“Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (I Corinthians 15:3, 4).

Being saved is not complicated. You may think it is. You may say, “I want to learn about religion.” You may think, “If I study more, one day I’ll be saved.” But learning will never save you. You can study all your life and never become a Christian. Trusting Jesus doesn’t come by learning. You only need to know a little. Everything you need to know is right here in our text,

“Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (I Corinthians 15:3, 4).

This morning I’m going to tell you how you can be saved forever, shown by the simple words of these two Bible verses.

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I. First, the word “Christ.”

Our text begins, “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.” The first word is “Christ.” It means “the anointed one,” “the chosen one.” The Hebrew word is “Messiah.” The Gospel of Mark begins with the words, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1). His name is Jesus. His title is Christ. Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the One God has chosen. That’s why the Bible calls Him “Jesus Christ.” We call Him that today.

What does it mean that Jesus is the Christ? First, it means that Jesus is not an ordinary man like you and me. There is only one Christ. Jesus was a man, but He was different from any other man who ever lived, for He was God the Son. The Apostle Peter said to Him, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). When Jesus was baptized, God the Father spoke from Heaven, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). Jesus is not only a man. He is God the Son. He did things that only God can do. He created the world. The Bible says, “All things were made by him” (John 1:3). The first chapter of John calls Him “the Word.” It says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Jesus was with God and Jesus is God. Usually when people say “God” they are talking about God the Father. But Jesus is God just as much as the Father is.

Some of you haven’t thought much about Jesus. To you, He was only a person in history. But He is the Christ, the Son of God. That changes everything! If you trust Jesus, you trust God the Son. If you don’t trust Him, you have rejected God.

I ask you, “What will you do with Jesus?” Jesus is God the Son. What are you going to do with Him? You can fall at His feet and trust Him. He will forgive your sin and give you eternal life. Or you can send Him away with words like, “Some other time.” But then you have sent God away! For you there is nothing left but judgment. What will you say at the judgment when you have sent the Son of God away? You will have no hope. You will have only a fearful judgment for your sin.

What will you do with Jesus? An old hymn says,

What will you do with Jesus? Neutral you cannot be;
Someday your heart will be asking, “What will He do with me?”
   (“What Will You Do with Jesus?” by A. B. Simpson, 1843-1919).

What will you do with Jesus?

II. Second, the words “died for our sins.”

Our text says, “Christ died for our sins.” Nobody has a problem believing that Jesus died. Everyone dies. I will die. You will die. That ought to make you think very seriously. The Bible says, “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). You will certainly die. And you will face the judgment of God. Are you ready to face the judgment? Just what will happen to you when you die? The Bible says, “Prepare to meet thy God” (Amos 4:12). Are you prepared to meet God?

Our text says, “Christ died for our sins.” This was no ordinary death. Jesus died for a definite purpose. He died to pay for your sin. Jesus took your sin in His own body on the Cross. The Bible says, “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree [the Cross]” (I Peter 2:24). Again, the Bible says, “Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God” (I Peter 3:18). And the Bible says, “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:5, 6).

Make no mistake about it – you are a sinner. You may say, “I’m as good as other people.” But that’s no help. It just means you and they are sinners. You and they are in trouble. Think about all the things you’ve done. Remember what you did on the computer. Then think of what you said. Think of when you lied. Think of when you talked bad about other people. Then think of what you felt. Think of your anger. Think of your lust. Remember what you thought about doing. You wouldn’t want to tell me about it. You wouldn’t want people to know, but God knows. Then think of your selfish heart. God knows your heart. God knows everything about you.

That’s why He can’t let you into Heaven. The Bible says, “Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you” (Isaiah 59:2). Your sin is not paid for. Your sin is not covered. Your sin separates you from God. God can’t let you into Heaven.

There is only one answer. There is only one way out. Jesus died on the Cross to pay for your sin. Jesus had no sin. The Bible says He was “without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). Why did He die? He died for you. Your sin was placed on Jesus. He poured out His Blood on the Cross to cleanse your sin. The Bible says, “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (I John 1:7). There was no other way to pay for your sin. I can’t pay for your sin. I’m a sinner myself. You can’t pay for your sin. You are a sinner yourself. Only Jesus can pay for your sin – and He did. Jesus is the only way to have your sin paid for, so God won’t judge you for it. The Bible says, “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

What will you do with Jesus? You have to do something. Will you trust Him this morning? Or will you send Him away? If you send Him away, you will be lost forever. “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

III. Third, the words “according to the scriptures.”

Our text says, “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.” The death of Jesus on the Cross was no accident. It was predicted in the Bible hundreds of years before. It was planned by God!

Seven hundred years before Jesus was born, God spoke through the prophet Isaiah, “He [the Messiah] was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). Then the prophet said, “It pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin” (Isaiah 53:10). Who put Jesus on the Cross? The human hands were those of Roman soldiers. But it was the Lord God who made it happen. “It pleased the Lord to bruise him.” Jesus was punished on the Cross “by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23). God did it deliberately. The Bible says Jesus is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). Before the universe was created, God planned that Jesus would die for your sin.

Is the death of Christ that “big of a deal”? Yes, because your sin is that big! Your sin is offensive to God. Without Christ on the Cross, you would never be saved. No one would ever be saved. God knew that man would sin. So He planned the only way out, the only answer. Jesus, God the Son, would die in your place to pay for your sin. Jesus’ death was a cosmic plan, bigger than the universe. It was the only way to save you.

What are you going to do? Are you going to let the Son of God go? Are you going to ignore His death on the Cross as though it didn’t mean anything? Then you will have to face the judgment, and you will pay for your own sin in Hell. Or will you trust Jesus? Will you come to the Saviour and let Him wash your sin away with His Blood? Will you turn to Jesus and trust Him?

IV. Fourth, the words “he was buried.”

Our text says, “And that he was buried.” Jesus’ dead body was buried in a borrowed tomb. Why was He buried? Some people said that Jesus didn’t really die. They say He only passed out on the Cross and was rescued by His Disciples. But the burial shows He was really dead, as dead as anyone is dead. The Heidelberg Catechism asks, “Why was He buried?” Then it gives the answer, “His burial testified that He had really died.”

The burial of Jesus was part of God’s plan. Jesus said, “The Son of man [Jesus Himself shall] be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40). His burial shows that His death was real. And His burial shows that His resurrection, His rising from the dead, was real. This brings me to our fifth point.

V. Fifth, the words “he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.”

Our text says, “He rose again the third day according to the scriptures.” Jesus did not stay dead. On the third day, Easter Sunday morning, He rose from the dead, never to die again. Jesus did not rise as a hopeful idea that His teachings would live on in the hearts of men. No, Jesus rose back to life, literally and physically, in a real flesh-and-bone body.

The Bible says that after Jesus rose, “He was seen of [Peter], then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once” (I Corinthians 15:5, 6). Christ did not rise as a ghost. This was no hallucination. Jesus said to Thomas, “Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing” (John 20:27). Jesus rose physically from the dead. Forty days later “he was taken up” to Heaven (Acts 1:9). One day He will return to set up His Kingdom on the earth.

All this was done “according to the scriptures.” A thousand years before Christ the Psalmist wrote, “Thou wilt not leave my soul in [Hades]; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption” (Psalm 16:10). Jesus said the same thing long before He died, “From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day” (Matthew 16:21). The resurrection of Jesus was part of God’s plan to save you, just as much as His death. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, no one would be saved. The Bible says, “If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins” (I Corinthians 15:17).

What does the resurrection of Jesus mean? It proves that Jesus really was the Son of God. He was “declared to be the Son of God with power…by the resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:4). His resurrection proves that His Gospel is true.

The resurrection shows that Jesus overcame death. Jesus said, “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore” (Revelation 1:18). When Jesus rose, He conquered death forever. Because Jesus rose, all who trust Him have eternal life. The Bible says, “This corruptible [body] must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (I Corinthians 15:53). Then all the Christians will say, “Death is swallowed up in victory” (I Corinthians 15:54).

It was all for you. What are you going to do about it? The Son of God died so you could be forgiven of your sin. He rose again to give you eternal life. He did it because He loves you. There is no greater love than the love of Jesus. What are you going to do? Will you walk away? Will you pass by? Will you hold on to your sin and your selfish life? Will you let him go with a few words? Or will you trust Him? The Bible says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). There are only two things you can do. You can turn away, or you can trust Him. What will you do? I pray you will trust Him. If you would like to speak with us about trusting Jesus, please come to the front of the room now. Amen.