Of First Importance
“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. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures…” –1 Corinthians 15:1–4 (ESV)
Like many of you, I’ve given my life to catalyze gospel movements. However, a passion for movements doesn’t always equate to a passion for the gospel. Bleeding movements does not make me or you immune to gospel drift. Unfortunately, gospel drift is real, for individuals and organizations. Church history is littered with vibrant Christian movements that have fallen by the wayside because the centrality of the good news was displaced by a secondary emphasis or focus.
What is the good news of a gospel movement? There is only one thing of first importance for the Christian regarding the content of our good news. It’s the resurrection. This is our only gospel. Christ crucified for sins, buried, and raised on the third day defines and explains the Christian movement and must shape the content of our good news. In this gospel we must stand and stake our lives. Only this gospel saves. Without this specific gospel we believe in vain. If we get the gospel wrong, we get everything wrong.
Paul’s words, now I would remind you, imply the possibility of forgetting these aspects of the gospel. The warning if you hold fast, implies the possibility of not holding fast and gospel drift. The image that comes to mind of the kind of fixed attentiveness called for here is the image of a bird dog locked onto its target with every fiber of its being, straining and pointing to one solitary thing. There are a lot of gospels out there. There is only one gospel that matters.
Getting the content of the gospel right is critical to furthering gospel movements. In verse 3, Paul passed on specific content he received about the life of Jesus to the Corinthians. The word used, delivered, is a technical word to describe the handing down of instructions, teaching, or tradition. The gospel of Christ crucified for sins, buried, and raised to life is like a well-guarded family recipe that hasn’t changed and must never change. It is sacred stuff. The quickest way for a gospel movement to drift from vibrancy to mediocrity, to stagnation, and ultimately to irrelevance is to change the family recipe as it’s passed on from one generation to the next. There is only one ingredient that sustains and fuels movements. It’s the resurrection of Christ. Together, let’s keep the resurrection the centerpiece of our push for gospel movements.
FOR REFLECTION
In your push for movements, how “locked on” are you to the gospel of this text? Have you strayed to point at a different gospel? Have you lost your passion for the gospel?
Think about the people you are discipling right now. What is the thing of first or prime importance being passed down to them? Has the family recipe for good news changed?
If it has, what does repentance look like? What must you do to address this drift?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Eric Hesse leads the Gospel Movement Team in Berlin, Germany, and has lived there with his family, Miriam, Ethan, Micah, and Gethro, since 2015. He has served with Novo since 2017. His life mission is to see every believer a missionary resulting in a Holy Spirit-directed spontaneous expansion of the Church. As a Ph.D. student at Biola, he’s studying the diffusion of DMM methodology in European gospel movements.
