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"Now I would remind you, brethren, in what terms I preached to you the gospel", the Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:1. What terms, pray tell, are those? Paul goes on to tell in what terms. "For I delivered to you as of the first importance what I also received."
"I handed on what was first handed off to me", Paul is saying. God made the handing-down hand the same as He made the receiving hand. He did so by means of the Gospel He Himself handed down. In fact, when it comes to the Gospel, you must be on the receiving end before you can be on the giving end.
By that Gospel, namely, the faith whose essence is salvation in the Lamb of God born in a Bethlehem stable and laid in a manger, Mary's little Lamb and her and our Savior, offered up on the cross of Calvary for our sins and raised for our right-standing, the Gospel which God once for all delivered to the saints, God made both the faith which, having received the Gospel, moves the hand of faith to pass it on, and the hand of faith which receives the Gospel by the same God-given faith, of one piece, one with the Gospel and the faith God creates thereby.
And what is that Gospel? Paul elaborates. "Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures . . . He was buried. . . He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures . . . He appeared to Cephas . . . (that is, Peter) . . . Then to the Twelve." That's what He came to earth for. That's why He was born in a borrowed stall and wrapped in swaddling clothes and sung to sleep by angels and adored by shepherds and wise men, and feared by His enemies, and believed on in the world.
"Then he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time," most of whom were still alive when Paul wrote this, though some had died. "Then he appeared to James, then to all the Apostles." That takes us through Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week and the fifty days of Easter, fifty days--and more--of Jesus handing off the Gospel, creating the hands of faith which both receive the Gospel and hand it on in turn, until He is taken up in glory at His ascension and pours forth the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to continue the handing off, the making of the hands of faith to both receive and pass on the faith until they themselves pass on out of this life and are taken up in glory.
And because his hand was lately joined by that faith-creating hand of God, as one abnormally formed, and joined to these other hands, hand-in-hand, passing on the faith, Paul adds, "Last of all, as to one untimely born, [Jesus] appeared also to me. For I am the least of the Apostles, unfit to be called an Apostle, because my hand was against my God and my God's Church.
"But, alas, I am what I am. In lieu of yelling, 'Hands off!' God laid His hands on me and mercifully converted mine from God-defying hands to the hands of faith", Paul is saying. "And by the laying on of the hands of His servants He conferred both the faith and the Office which goes with it, the ministry of handing on the Gospel to the hands which will receive it and pass it on in turn."
From Christ's hands downward--that's a lot of hands, hands all around, and since this is the ship of faith, all hands on deck, hands joined by His hands, joined to others', hand-in-hand, receiving and handing on the Gospel, the faith once for all delivered to the saints. And that's no hand jive. That's hands on not hands off! God's hand is in it all the way. Now, also, my hands.
Now I would remind you, brethren, in what terms I handed the Gospel on to you, most recently in terms of the breastplate of faith and love by which God guards your heart and hope, the helmet of salvation, by which God protects your head, by which you keep your head in all situations and have a heart for God and your neighbor in all seasons (not just during Christmas, that heart-warming, hands-on season) and, heart-in-hand, hand off the Gospel to their receiving hands, and by which, above all, you keep the faith and keep a hand in, in season and out.
Having reminded you, brethren, of the terms in which I handed on the Gospel to you, I would remind you of the terms in which you received it, empty-handed, clad only in the breastplate of faith and love whereby God keeps you His and Himself yours, in which faith and love you stand (unless you fall) and wherein you are saved, if you hold it fast by the sure grip of the hands of faith, having donned the helmet of salvation which is your hope in Jesus by which you keep your head at all times and, above all, keep handing on the faith.
That's a lot of hands, receiving the Good News and handing it on, hands joined by God's hand, joined to others', hands on not hands off, hand-in-hand, hands all around, all hands on deck. And now two more--yours! Amen.
- Pastor Erickson