Where Is Justification by Faith Alone in 1 Corinthians 15:1-11?

Bob Wilkin and others in the Grace Evangelical Society have a hard time seeing justification by faith alone in 1 Corinthians 15:1-11. They believe in justification by faith alone, they just don't see it in 1 Corinthians 15:1-11. Personally, I think it has to do with a theological bias. Here’s why I say that: If justification by faith alone is taught in 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, then Wilkin would have to admit that the saving message is there as well. That in turn would mean that Christ’s substitutionary death is part of the saving message, as well as the other facts listed by the apostle Paul in the passage. All this is in conflict with Wilkin's theology, so an easy way for him to dismiss 1 Corinthians 15 from the discussion about the saving message is to say that justification by faith alone is not found anywhere in the passage. And that’s exactly what Wilkin says: “we don't find justification by faith alone anywhere in 1 Cor. 15:3-11”.[1] Wilkin elaborates more in another article. Under the heading “Things Which Are Typically Added In When Using 1 Corinthians 15:3-11”[2], the first thing Wilkin lists is “Justification by faith alone apart from works.”[3] He says: “Try hard but you’ll not find a mention of justification by faith apart from works in this passage. You find that in Gal 2:15-16 and in Galatians 3 and Romans 3-4. But it just isn’t here. Anywhere.”[4]

Granted, the word “justification” is not in 1 Corinthians 15, but if the concept is there then that should be sufficient. On this point Wilkin agrees. He writes: “We don’t need to use the word justification, but we must preach the concept or its equivalent if we wish to preach the gospel of Paul and Jesus. ‘He who believes in Me has everlasting life’ (John 6:47) is justification by faith alone in different words.”[5]

This might surprise some Free Grace people, but Zane Hodges believed that the concept of justification by faith alone apart from works is taught in 1 Corinthians 15 – in the gospel itself! Notice what he says in this regard:

“According to Paul’s own statement, when he came to Corinth to preach, he was ‘determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified’ (1 Cor. 2:2). Later in the epistle, Paul describes his gospel as one that declared ‘that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures’ (15:3). [...]

     But this is precisely where preaching the cross becomes so important. Why should men trust Christ for eternal life? The gospel gives us the wonderful answer. They should do so because Jesus has bought their salvation at the cost of His own precious blood. [...] 

     On a very practical level, when I am dealing with an unsaved person, I find that if I simply tell him he only needs to believe in Christ, this usually doesn’t make sense to him. Why should it be so easy? Why are not works required? To the unregenerate American mind, it doesn’t sound reasonable.

     So I find it not only useful, but indeed essential, to explain that the Lord Jesus Christ bought our way to heaven by paying for all our sins. In recent years I have liked to emphasize that He paid for all the sins we would ever commit from the day of our birth to the day of our death. This serves to stress the completeness of the payment He made. It is usually only in the light of so perfect a payment that people can come to see the reasonableness of a salvation that is absolutely free.

     I say to people, ‘Jesus paid it all’ and there is nothing left for you to do or to pay. All you have to do is believe in Him for the free gift of everlasting life.

     One of my favorite illustrations goes like this: If a friend bought you a Rolls Royce and paid for it in full and offered it to you as a free gift, wouldn’t he be hurt, or even insulted, if you insisted on paying for it yourself? In the same way, if we try to do or pay something to go to heaven, even though Jesus paid it all, aren’t we insulting His great sacrifice and treating it as if it were not enough?

     Most unsaved people can understand that point, even if they don’t believe its true. The Savior's work on the cross thus becomes a powerful argument that He should be trusted for eternal life.

     And apart from the cross, for most modern Americans, the offer of salvation by faith alone in Christ alone, just doesn’t compute. Even after hearing it, it still may not compute. But by offering the truth of the gospel to people, we give the Holy Spirit something to work with in their hearts. And in the final analysis, it is only the Spirit of God who can sweep away the blindness of the human heart so that the glorious light of the gospel of Christ may shine into unsaved hearts.”[6] 

I understand that Hodges was a promise-only gospel advocate. Hodges makes that clear in his article. I quote these statements of his only to show that he believed the truth of justification by faith alone in Christ alone is an integral part of the gospel message in 1 Corinthians 15. To say it another way, Hodges clearly used 1 Corinthians 15:3ff evangelistically to explain the concept of justification by faith alone! The truth of justification by faith alone in Christ alone is inherent in the great fact of the gospel that “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3; cf. Isa. 53:11, NKJV; Rom. 3:21-28, 4:4-5, 5:1). Hodges understood this, and I think he explained it very well.

ENDNOTES:

[1] Wilkin, “JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH ALONE IS AN ESSENTIAL PART OF THE GOSPEL,” Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society 18 (Autumn 2005): p. 13; cf. Jeremy Myers, “THE GOSPEL IS MORE THAN ‘FAITH ALONE IN CHRIST ALONE,’” Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society 19 (Autumn 2006): p. 48.

[2] Wilkin, “Another Look at 1 Corinthians 15:3-11,” Grace in Focus (Jan-Feb 2008), bold his. Note: Notice that Wilkin limits his discussion to 1 Cor. 15:3-11, thus conveniently excluding 1 Corinthians 15:1-2 where the apostle Paul clearly emphasizes the one condition of faith when he says: “you received” (v. 1), and “you believed” (v. 2). But even if we limit the discussion to verses 3-11, the apostle Paul again draws attention to faith alone in verse 11 when he says, “Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.”

[3] Wilkin, “Another Look at 1 Corinthians 15:3-11,” Grace in Focus (Jan-Feb 2008), italics his.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Wilkin, “JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH ALONE IS AN ESSENTIAL PART OF THE GOSPEL,” Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society 18 (Autumn 2005): p. 7, emphasis his.

[6] Hodges, “How to Lead People to Christ, Part 1: The Content of Our Message,” Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society (Autumn 2000): pp. 10-12, ellipsis added. Cf. Hodges explanation of 1 Corinthians 15:2 from his book The Gospel Under Siege. Notice what he says: “The problem in correctly understanding this verse [1 Cor. 15:2] is caused by the English translation. A very flexible Greek verb (katecho) is translated ‘hold fast’ in the New King James Version (the AV has ‘keep in memory’). But the verb could equally well be rendered ‘take hold of’ or ‘take possession of.’ In that case it would refer to the act of appropriating the truth of the Gospel by faith. Closer examination of the Greek text suggests that this is indeed the correct understanding. The Greek word order can be represented as follows: ‘by which also you are saved, by that word I preached to you, if you take hold of it, unless you believed in vain.’ From this it appears that Paul is thinking of the saving effect of the preached word when it is duly appropriated, unless in fact that appropriation (by faith) has been in vain. What he means by believing ‘in vain’ is made clear in verses 14 and 17: ‘And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty [the AV has ‘vain’ for ‘empty’]. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins [the AV has ‘vain’ for ‘futile’].’ First Corinthians 15:2 must be read in the light of the subsequent discussion about resurrection. Paul is simply saying, in verse 2, that the Gospel he has preached to them is a saving Gospel when it is appropriated by faith, unless, after all, the resurrection is false. In that case, no salvation has occurred at all and the faith his readers had exercised was futile. But naturally Paul absolutely insists on the reality of the resurrection of Christ. He therefore does not think that the Corinthians have believed ‘in vain.’” (Hodges, The Gospel Under Siege [Dallas: Redencion Viva, 1981], pp. 85-86, first brackets added.)