I was reading 1 Corinthians 15 this morning and had a little breakthrough. I've always been sort of troubled by these types of verses, as is verse 2, the "if you hold fast to the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain" part. I think a lot of people read this (and this is what troubled me) in the sense that you are saved by the Gospel IF you hold fast to it and don't go back in your belief, appealing to the idea of perseverance. If you persevere in this and don't "stop believing" then you are saved, not at a one-time belief but only if your belief perseveres.
But as I read through this this morning there was a different meaning that naturally came through, and it honestly makes more sense. I think what Paul is saying is that he received this Gospel, and they received this same Gospel and are saved by it...
...as long as the gospel they received is the same as what he is about to explain.
He's not addressing the type of belief they must have in the gospel, but rather he's explaining the gospel in which they must believe. The "unless you believed in vain" part has got to mean simply that they received the true gospel but, like the Galatians, ended up believing a twisted one, a way of being the seed that is plucked out before it can take root.
Once again, it's not the type of faith, but the object of faith. I love the way Tim Keller put it. He was preaching about the Exodus, and he said "You know, there are those who say 'Yes, all you have to do is believe...but you've REALLY got to believe!' Don't do that. Don't do that. This is what you're doing when you say that. In Exodus 14:22 it says that the waters when parted formed a wall of water one either side of the Israelites. Now, there are some who walked between those walls of water and said, 'We're gonna die! We're gonna die! We're gonna die!' but there were others who walked through and just said 'Wow, this is amazing.' And both types of people were equally saved."
