Verse 3
As with the events of the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:23) Paul had heard of the Lord Jesus’ death, burial, resurrection, and post-resurrection appearances and had then passed this information along to others. Elsewhere he wrote that he had not received the gospel from other people but directly from the Lord (Galatians 1:11). Probably some aspects of it came to him one way and others in other ways. He apparently received the essence of the gospel on the Damascus road and learned more details from other sources.
"He received the facts from the Apostles and others; the import of the facts was made known to him by Christ (Gal. i. 12)." [Note: Robertson and Plummer, p. 333.]
Three facts are primary concerning Jesus’ death. He died, He died for people’s sins, and He died as the Scriptures revealed He would. These facts received constant reaffirmation in the early preaching of the church (cf. Acts 3:13-18; Acts 8:32-35).
"People are wicked and sinful; they do not know God. But Christ died ’for our sins,’ not only to forgive but also to free people from their sins. Hence Paul’s extreme agitation at the Corinthians’ sinfulness, because they are thereby persisting in the very sins from which God in Christ has saved them. This, after all, is what most of the letter is about." [Note: Fee, "Toward a . . .," p. 49.]
"The language ’for our sins’ is a direct reflection of the LXX of Isaiah 53. Since Judaism did not interpret this passage messianically, at least not in terms of a personal Messiah, [Note: Footnote 56: See A. Neubauer, ed., The Fifty-Third Chapter of Isaiah, According to [the] Jewish Interpreters, 2 vols.] and since there is no immediate connection between the death of Jesus and the idea that his death was ’for our sins,’ it is fair to say that whoever made that connection is the ’founder of Christianity.’ All the evidence points to Jesus himself, especially at the Last Supper with his interpretation of his death in the language of Isaiah 53 as ’for you’ (see on 1 Corinthians 11:23-25)." [Note: Fee, The First . . ., p. 724.]
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