“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.” 1 Cor. 15:1–2
The gospel is a message as Christians we cannot forget. It’s a message that we need to remind ourselves of daily. Paul makes this very clear in his writings to the Corinthians.
Being prone to forget things, he wrote to them, “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel . . .” (1 Cor. 15:1). Paul goes on to talk about Jesus, because they were prone to forget about him. Like the Corinthians, we fall into the same cycle of forgetfulness.
We get caught up thinking about ourselves, our family, our friends, our critics, and the people involved in our life. Thinking about so many things in our life leads us to sometimes forget about Jesus. It’s not that we don’t know of him, but that we’re forgetful of him.
We can also forget about community, as well. Paul is writing to a church, saying, “You really need to help one another, serve one another, love one another, walk with one another, because you’re not going to make it on your own. You need the people of God to go with you.”
We can also forget about Scripture. Sometimes people can go days, weeks, months, or years without actually reading the Bible—the book that God wrote. Sometimes we can get really excited about other books that have been written, maybe even decent Christian books. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but if we’re reading other books at the expense of the book God wrote, then it could be.
Paul goes on to talk about sin as well. Why? Simple. Sometimes we can forget that, apart from faith in Jesus, we are sinners. This is an important reminder of our daily need of a Savior.
Finally, since we often forget that we’re forgiven, Paul is ultimately going to talk about forgiveness of sin and new life in Jesus Christ. If the God of the Bible forgives us, then we’re forgiven. So, don’t fall into an unlocked cage by believing that you can’t receive forgiveness. You’re not above God. If he has forgiven you in Christ, then you are forgiven. Period.
The key to fighting forgetfulness is to always come back to what is the truth and who Jesus is. Remind yourself daily that Jesus lived for you, died for you, and rose from death for you (1 Cor. 15:3–4). He did this so that you could be forgiven of your past, present, and future sins, and experience a new life in him.
This post is adapted from the sermon “Of First Importance,” part 2 of the God’s Work, Our Witness sermon series.
