Paul gives us a basic picture of the Gospel message here in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4. Paul outlines the key points, Christ died for our sins, he was buried, he rose again on the third day, all this according to the Scriptures.

So what does this mean? It is a simple outline. First Scripture (old testament in this case) tells us there will be a Messiah he will come and redeem us from our sins. After doing this he will be buried, proving his death. Then after three days scripture tells us he will rise again. This is a proof text of what he would do and what He did do. By fulfilling old testament predictions about himself Jesus proves he is who he said he is, the Son of God come into the world to save lost sinners.

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2. Basic Issues of the Gospel (15:3-4)

3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

15:3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

Statements such as “I received” (παραλαμβάνω, paralambanō) and “I passed on” (παραδίδωμι, paradidōmi) point to the place of the living tradition in the early church. There are striking verbal similarities between 15:3 and the language the apostle uses about the transmission of the words of the Lord’s Supper in 11:23 (I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you).

The words “of first importance” most likely point to the quintessence of the gospel which Paul preached. That is, while Paul’s preaching and teaching touched upon many themes, not all of these themes were of equal weight and centrality to his saving message. Though the imagery has shifted, this concept is the same as that which he employed with architectural metaphors earlier in this letter. In 1 Cor 3 the apostle affirmed that the teaching ministry of others was based upon the one and only foundation stone, namely Jesus Christ (1 Cor 3:10-12). The entire structure of the church is important, but of first importance is the foundation stone, Jesus Christ.

Naturally there are many facets of God’s work in Christ that Paul both preached and taught about, but he wants here, in 15:3-5, to emphasize the centrality of four of these major points. In the Greek text each of these is introduced by the term “that” (ὅτι, hoti). The first theological doctrine in the cluster of things of “first importance” is the death of Jesus. There are two aspects of this death which are especially important to Paul’s gospel: the vicarious nature (“for our,” ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν, hyper hēmōn) of Jesus’ atoning death and the scriptural attestation to this (“according to the Scriptures,” κατὰ τὰς γραϕάς, kata tas graphas).

Neither of these is surprising in light of what has already been encountered within 1 Corinthians. The statement that, “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Cor 5:7) patently reveals the Pauline use of blood-sacrifice language with reference to Christ’s death and its vicarious benefit for believers. With the apostle’s abiding conviction that the (Old Testament) Scriptures are “for us” (see notes on 1 Cor 10:11ff), it would be astounding had he not known and made use of scriptural attestation to the death of Jesus.

15:4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

Reference to the burial of Jesus is complemented by the burial narratives preserved in the Gospels. The burial, in turn, lies behind the testimony of the empty tomb accounts. This brief reference to the burial, and by implication the later empty tomb, militates against an interpretation that somehow believes in a “Risen Lord,” while Jesus is still decaying in an unknown tomb.

As Paul will emphatically state later in this chapter, the resurrection of Jesus by the hand of God is the sine qua non of the Christian faith. Even though Paul’s letters are filled with information about the spiritual and doctrinal significance of Jesus’ resurrection, much of that is missing in this chapter. In this argumentative setting Paul must keep his thoughts to the point of the actuality of Christ’s resurrection.

Much effort has been expended to find a scriptural citation to “the third day” in the Old Testament. Some have wearied of this and have concluded that the Scriptures referred to here must be New Testament (=Gospels). This view has not found many sympathizers since it creates more problems than it solves. From those who hold to the traditional view that the word Scriptures means Old Testament, some suggest that the prepositional phrase according to the Scriptures goes with the words he was raised, rather than the phrase on the third day, while others believe that a text such as Hosea 6:2 seems a likely candidate to reflect a third day concept.
College Press NIV Commentary, The – The College Press NIV Commentary – 1 Corinthians.