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, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
Comment: God has in all of the books of the Bible gradually revealed to us His plan for redeeming those who respond to His plan for and offer of salvation which comes to a pivotal point in Jesus being crucified and raised from the dead. There is much more detail revealed about God’s planning and information about the hows and whys of what God has done but the ‘guts’ of the gospel is tied up in what happened at Easter time! And Paul having stated this emphatically ties it into time/space reality by stressing the multiple appearances of the resurrected Jesus by listing 513 people, most of whom were still living and at that time were able to be approached to verify his statement re the resurrection! He goes on to discuss this in greater depth, but in this skeptical world it pays to remember all the vast amount of evidence that there is before ‘poo-hooing’ the realities upon which Christianity is based!
Prayer: Open my eyes that I may see the Wonder of what You have planned and done for us humans, O God.
As I read it! 
Thank you Barry for your comments on this passage. I clearly remember my dear husband who, in his cynical moments often used to say, “There are those people who say, ‘O please don’t confuse me with the facts!'” We laugh at his comment, but it is sad when unbelievers can’t see the wood for the trees, as it were. God bless you.
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But what about those to whom the plan has not been revealed?
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well John thanks to God it has been revealed to us! Who can’t find a Bible to read? Who hasn’t chosen to ignore an invitation to go to church? The Koran talks about Jesus, with enough information to cause them to look deeper? There are very few who haven’t heard the word Christmas or Easter and chosen to not look into the meaning. God has set creation as as a thing which all can see or ignore or if they choose can say ‘it all just happened.’ Most of the world has chosen ignorance when they have had inklings to enquire. I would rather leave others for God to answer for – He has done so much to provide an available solution and most choose to ignore the challenges of what flashes acroo their minds for ‘happiness’ and the right too be the Master of their own destiny. A huge question but extends the invitation of an answer to all!
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John, this is a good question. I final answer will be that it is God’s business! I say that seriously because man’s lostness is not God’s fault and that that is not blaming Adam & Eve – it is blaming myself and every human being because none of us have been true to even our own standard of ‘goodness’ and secondarily God has made himself known both in creation and conscience and noone has ever lived up to that knowledge (except of course Jesus). Paul, a much greater expert than me spends the first 6 chapters of his epistle to the Romans to consider this subject but at the end of the epistle lays the responsibility on all Christians to be about the business of telling the gospel by life quality and especially by mouth! You might read the article contemplatively or I can recommend a good commentary on it!
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