What does “According to the scriptures” in 1 Corinthians 15 mean?
This is a part of a three-part series on 1 Corinthians 15.
1. What does “According to the scriptures” in 1 Corinthians 15 mean?
2. What does “How That” in 1 Corinthians 15 mean?
3. How did Paul receive his gospel?
“What does according to the scriptures mean?”
Paul writes 1 Corinthians 15:1-4: “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. 3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:”
Robert Breaker teaches that “according to the scriptures” means the Old Testament blood sacrifice, and that itself proves you have to mentally trust the blood of Christ as your object of faith.
Just so you know, I am not strawmanning him. Here is exactly what Robert Breaker says in his video:
Robert Breaker: “Remember, the gospel is that Jesus did what he did to save us and give us forgiveness of sins. It was according to the scriptures. According to the scriptures, there must be an atonement of blood. That’s why it’s called a blood atonement. It has to be a blood atonement. You can’t make an atonement without blood according to the scriptures. So, Leviticus 17:11, the Bible says, ‘For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I’ve given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.’ So, the blood is what makes an atonement, which is a beautiful word, atonement. Right now, if you’re a sinner and you’re not saved, you’re not with God. You’re separated by sin. But when you are forgiven through the blood, you are at one with God. At onement, that’s a beautiful word, atonement. You can think of it like that. So, let’s go to Leviticus chapter 4 now and let’s see. If you lived under the Old Testament law, what would you have to do to receive forgiveness of sins? Now, this is a little lengthy, but it’s in Leviticus 4:27 through 35. And according to the Bible, two things had to take place in the Old Testament. Under the Old Testament law, two things had to take place for you to get that atonement. You had to shed animal blood. All right? You, the sinner, had to cut the throat of that blood and let it shed. And then you had to have a priest offer that blood. So, and then when both of these things took place, that’s when you found forgiveness. That’s when you found atonement. That’s when you were forgiven of your sins. And it was through blood. Right? So, let me show you that. Now, remember, the gospel is not just death, burial, resurrection of Jesus. It’s according to the scriptures. The Bible says when Jesus showed up, it said, ‘Behold the lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.’ How? Well, in the Old Testament, they sacrificed lambs. And it was the blood of the lamb that gave them forgiveness. Just as that gave them forgiveness in the Old Testament, the blood of the lamb, Jesus Christ, capital L, is what gives us forgiveness in the New Testament. So, it must be through that precious, precious blood. Leviticus 4:27.”
Is this true? No.
Let’s read 1 Corinthians 15:3-4: 1 Corinthians 15:3: “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;”
Okay, so if Robert Breaker is right, and “according to the scriptures” is according to the Old Testament Levitical blood atonement system, and if the blood of Christ is our object of faith, then the next “according to the scriptures” has to logically fit the Old Testament Levitical blood atonement system, or the entire theology that “according to the scripture” means the Old Testament Levitical blood atonement system is bunk, not true.
1 Corinthians 15:4: “And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:”
Now, there was not a single Old Testament lamb sacrificed that rose again on the third day, which means that “according to the scriptures” does not mean the Old Testament Levitical system.
Breaker’s argument is that the resurrection is actually the high priest. To quote him directly again: “Why did he rise again? Because according to the scriptures, he went up as our high priest to fulfill the according to the scriptures. It wasn’t just the shedding of it. It was the offering of it. And he put it up there.”
But I will get into that later.
You can regularly see in the gospels the fulfillment of scriptures.
Matthew 26:54: But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?
Matthew 26:56: But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled.
Mark 14:49: I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and ye took me not: but the scriptures must be fulfilled.
Mark 15:28: And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, And he was numbered with the transgressors.
Luke 4:21: And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
John 13:18: I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.
John 17:12: While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.
John 19:24: They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did.
John 19:28: After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.
John 19:36: For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.
Luke 24:25-27: Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
Luke 24:44-45:
“And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,”
Logically, we can assume the Holy Spirit had Paul write this to allude to this phrase in the gospels. That which was “according to the scriptures” is what had to be fulfilled so Christ could fulfill the scriptures.
And what are the prophecies of how the Messiah would die? Proverbs 27:6: “Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.” Jesus was kissed by Judas.
Zechariah 13:6: “And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.” Jesus was betrayed by Judas, leading to his crucifixion.
Zechariah 13:7: “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones.” When the Romans came to arrest Christ, the disciples fled.
Zechariah 11:12-13: “And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD.” Judas had worldly repentance and killed himself.
Isaiah 50:6: “I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.” They plucked Jesus’s beard.
Psalms 69:21: “They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” They gave him vinegar to drink.
They crucified Christ. Psalms 22:16: “For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.”
John 3:14: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:” Christ is on the cross.
That is not every Scripture prophecy that Christ had to fulfill, but that is all the ones I can think of, and there are way more.
The Old Testament Levitical system is only a type and a picture of what was to come, not a prophecy. Hebrews 10:1: “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.”
AND NOT THE VERY IMAGE OF THE THINGS, that responds to what Breaker is doing. A shadow isn’t a prophecy. Joseph had to suffer to be a type of Christ, not the other way around.
I really want to reiterate that we can know what “according to the scriptures” means, because logically if Robert Breaker is right, then his definition of “according to the scriptures” has to fit verse 4.
1 Corinthians 15:4: “And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:”
Robert Breaker’s actual teaching is that the resurrection “according to the scriptures” is the high priest entering the Holy of Holies with the blood. Here is his exact quote on this: “Jesus’ blood was shed. Jesus’ blood was offered by himself as the high priest... Did he go as the high priest? And the Bible says not without blood. He must have offered it.”
Here’s the problem: that idea is predicated upon the first “according to the scriptures” directly referring to an Old Testament Levitical system, which is not biblical.
Christ is a high priest, yes, but the “according to the scriptures” in 1 Corinthians 15 is not describing the Old Testament Levitical system. And Breaker’s teaching is that both instances of “according to the scriptures” are married to each other; you can’t separate them even if you can say the resurrection does have Christ as an intermediate.
So, that entire teaching on verse 4 falls apart if you look at the scriptures containing verse 3. Even if Christ is a high priest, which he is, it does not make any sense for verse 3 to be about an Old Testament Levitical Passover lamb and for verse 4 to suddenly make Christ switch from the lamb to the high priest.
If we are purely basing this on the Old Testament Levitical system, a high priest was not buried and was not resurrected, which is what 1 Corinthians 15:4 describes. The consciousness of the lamb was not transferred to the high priest. Therefore, it makes no sense for verse 3 to be about an Old Testament Levitical lamb and verse 4 to be about a high priest going into the Holy of Holies.
1 Corinthians 15:4 connects to 1 Corinthians 15:3 with an “and”; they are connected statements, which means that both instances of “according to the scriptures” must logically connect perfectly, and no high priest in the Old Testament Levitical system died, was buried, and rose again. And his teaching is predicated upon the Old Testament Levitical system.
The actual “according to the scriptures” is this:
Psalms 16:10: “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.”
Matthew 12:40: “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
Acts 13:34: “And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David.”
John 14:19: “Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.”
John 11:25: “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:”
Watch my “believe on” study.
1 Peter 1:3: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,”
1 Corinthians 6:14: “And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.”
John 6:40: “And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.”
1 Thessalonians 4:14: “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.”
Romans 8:11: “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.”
John 6:54: “Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
1 Timothy 2:5: “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;”
Acts 2:33: “Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.”
Luke 22:69: “Hereafter shall the Son of man sit on the right hand of the power of God.”
Psalms 110:1: “(A Psalm of David.) The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.”
God is in eternity; He knew the scriptures/Pauline verses that would be written about Christ’s resurrection.
Hebrews 4:14: “Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.”
Sure, this applies, but like Brother Don says, the blood had to be applied. The blood didn’t save the Israelites until they physically put the blood on their lintels.
Spurgeon (I don’t agree with his Calvinism) literally makes a point on confession being mandatory for salvation, as the Israelites had to publicly confess by applying the blood on the door. To quote Spurgeon, from The Sacred Love Token (and I don’t believe baptism is a mandatory thing; it’s a declaration of faith):
“The sprinkled blood preserved the houses of the Israelites; and it is the blood of Jesus accepted by us, relied upon, and applied to our consciences which delivers us from death. This sprinkling, moreover, was done in a very public manner; they stained the lintel and the two side posts, so that every passer-by might see it, yea, and must see it. So salvation is promised not alone to believing, but to confession with the mouth. ‘He that with his heart believeth, and with his mouth maketh confession of him shall be saved,’ and so the grand commission at the end of the gospel by Mark puts it, not ‘he that believeth shall be saved,’ but ‘he that believeth and is baptised shall be saved,’ for if we believe in Christ we must not be ashamed of him. Shame about faith would argue insincerity of faith.”
Ephesians 4:8-10: “Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)”
And finally, Job 19:25-26: “25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: 26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:”
Why is this an “according to the scripture” that Christ had to fulfill? Colossians 1:15: “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:” Jesus is the image of the invisible God; he had to be on earth resurrected for Job to see in his flesh.
That is “And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.”
Historical theology also did not teach that view of 1 Corinthians 15.
Sources:
Robert Breaker - According to the Scriptures #gospel #gospelofsalvation #bloodofjesus #highpriest #priesthood #god
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCk-DMzZhZ0&t=535
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCk-DMzZhZ0&t=2645
Charles Spurgeon - The Sacred Love-Token
https://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/the-sacred-love-token
