http://www.calvarychapel.com/simivalley/library_commentaries.html <---That's the link for David Guzik's commentary on the Bible.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15 by David Guzik:
(This is for Huy to read between studying  )
2. (3-4) The content of the gospel Paul preached.
For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: 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.
a. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: Paul did not make up this gospel. He received it (and not from man, but from Jesus Christ, according to Galatians 1:11-12), and he delivered it. This is not “Paul’s gospel” in the sense that he created it or fashioned it; it is “Paul’s gospel” in the sense that he personally believes it and spreads it.
i. “Notice that the preacher does not make the gospel. If he makes it, it is not worth your having. Originality in preaching, if it be originality in the statement of doctrine, is falsehood. We are not makers and inventors; we are repeaters, we tell the message we have received.” (Spurgeon)
b. As Paul describes the gospel in the following verses, it is important to notice that this gospel is not insightful teaching or good advice. At the core of the gospel are things that happened, actual, real, historical events. The gospel isn’t a matter of religious opinions, platitudes, or fairy tales, but about real historical events.
i. “Our religion is not based upon opinions, but upon facts. We hear persons sometimes saying, ‘Those are your views, and these are ours.’ Whatever your ‘views’ may be, is a small matter; what are the facts of the case?” (Spurgeon)
c. Christ died: The death of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, the center of the gospel. Though the idea of glorying in the death of a Savior was foolishness to the word, it is salvation to those who will believe.
i. How did Jesus die? The Roman government executed Him, by one of the most cruel and excruciating forms of capital punishment ever devised, crucifixion.
ii. “Although the Romans did not invent crucifixion, they perfected it as a form of torture and capital punishment that was designed to produce a slow death with maximum pain and suffering.” (Edwards) What exactly was it like to be crucified? In days the New Testament was first written, the practice needed no explanation. But we would do well to appreciate just what happened when someone was crucified.
iii. The victim’s back would first be torn open by the scourging, and then the clotting blood would be ripped open again when the clothes were torn off the victim. When he was thrown on the ground to nail his hands to the crossbeam, the wounds would again be torn open and contaminated with dirt. Then, as he hung on the cross, with each breath, the painful wounds on the back would scrape against the rough wood of the upright beam and be further aggravated.
iv. When the nail was driven through the wrists, it would sever the large median nerve. This stimulated nerve would produce excruciating bolts of fiery pain in both arms, and could result in a claw-like grip in the victim’s hands.
v. Beyond the excruciating pain, the major effect of crucifixion was to inhibit normal breathing. The weight of the body, pulling down on the arms and shoulders, would tend to fix the respiratory muscles in an inhalation state, and hinder exhalation. The lack of adequate respiration would result in severe muscle cramps, which would hinder breathing even further. To get a good breath, one would have to push against the feet, and flex the elbows, pulling from the shoulders. Putting the weight of the body on the feet would produce searing pain, and flexing of the elbows would twist the hands hanging on the nails. Lifting the body for a breath would also painfully scrape the back against the rough wooden post. Each effort to get a proper breath would be agonizing, exhausting, and lead to a sooner death.
vi. “Not uncommonly, insects would light upon or burrow into the open wounds or the eyes, ears, and nose of the dying and helpless victim, and birds of prey would tear at these sites. Moreover, it was customary to leave the corpse on the cross to be devoured by predatory animals.” (Edwards)
vii. Death from crucifixion could come from many sources: acute shock from blood loss; being too exhausted to breathe any longer; dehydration; stress-induced heart attack, or congestive heart failure leading to a cardiac rupture. If the victim did not die quickly enough, the legs would be broken, and the victim would soon be unable to breathe.
viii. How bad was crucifixion? We get our English word excruciating from the Roman word “out of the cross.” “Consider how heinous sin must be in the sight of God, when it requires such a sacrifice!” (Clarke)
ix. However, we never speak of the physical sufferings of Jesus to make us feel sorry for Jesus, as if He needed our pity. Save your pity for those who reject the complete work of Jesus on the cross at Calvary; for those preachers who do not have the heart of Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:23, when he proclaimed the center of the Christian message: we preach Christ crucified.
d. Christ died for our sins: What does it mean that Jesus died for our sins? How does His death do anything for our sins? Many noble men and women have died horrible deaths for righteous causes through the centuries. How does the death of Jesus do anything for our sins?
I
i. At some point before He died, before the veil was torn in two, before He cried out it is finished, an awesome spiritual transaction took place - the Father laid upon Jesus all the guilt and wrath our sin deserved, and He bore it in Himself perfectly, totally satisfying the wrath of God for us.
ii. As horrible as the physical suffering of Jesus was, this spiritual suffering - the act of being judged for sin in our place - was what Jesus really dreaded about the cross; this was the cup - the cup of God’s righteous wrath - that He trembled at drinking (Luke 22:39-46; Psalm 75:8; Isaiah 51:17; Jeremiah 25:15). On the cross, Jesus became, as it were, an enemy of God, who was judged and forced to drink the cup of the Father’s fury, so we would not have to drink that cup.
iii. Isaiah 53:3-5 puts it powerfully: He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.
iv. “Reader! one drop of this cup would bear down thy soul to endless ruin; and these agonies would annihilate the universe. He suffered alone: for the people there was none with him; because his sufferings were to make an atonement for the sins of the world: and in the work of redemption he had no helper.” (Clarke)
v. And when that was accomplished (who knows how long it could have lasted?), there was no reason for Jesus to “hang around” on the cross - His work was done, He could go on now.
e. For our sins: Our sins were responsible for the death of Jesus. He did not die for a political cause, or as an enemy of the state, or for someone’s envy. Jesus died for our sins. Jesus did not die as a mere martyr for a cause.
f. He was buried: We don’t often think of the burial of Jesus as part of the gospel, but it is. The burial of Jesus is important for many reasons. It is proof positive that He really died, because you don’t bury someone unless they are really dead, and Jesus’ death was confirmed at the cross before He was taken down to be buried (John 19:31-37). Jesus’ burial is also important because it fulfilled the Scriptures which declared, And they made His grave with the wicked; but with the rich at His death (Isaiah 53:9). Jesus was buried in the tomb of a rich man (Matthew 27:57-60).
g. He rose again: This truth is essential to the gospel. Why, if Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins and remove our guilt, why is the resurrection of Jesus so important?
i. Although Jesus bore the full wrath of God on the cross, as if He were a guilty sinner, guilty of all our sin, even being made sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21), He Himself did not become a sinner. Even the act of taking our sin was an act of holy, giving love for us - so that Jesus Himself did not become a sinner, even though He bore the full guilt of our sin. This is the gospel message! That Jesus took our punishment for sin on the cross, and remained a perfect Savior through the whole ordeal - proved by His resurrection.
ii. For this reason, He remained the Holy One (Acts 2:27, 31-32), even in His death. Since it was incomprehensible that God’s Holy One could be bound by death, the resurrection was absolutely inevitable.
iii. Therefore, the resurrection of Jesus is not some “add on” to a “more important” work on the cross. If the cross is the payment for our sins, the empty tomb is the receipt, showing that the perfect Son of God made perfect payment for our sins. The payment itself is of little good without the receipt! This is why the resurrection of Jesus was such a prominent theme in the evangelistic preaching of the early church (Acts 2:24, 3:15, 4:10, 13:30-39).
iv. The cross was a time of victorious death, a negative triumph. Sin was defeated, but nothing positive was put in its place until the resurrection. The resurrection showed that Jesus did not succumb to the inevitable result of sin. The resurrection is proof of His conquest.
h. He rose again the third day: The fact that Jesus rose again the third day is part of the gospel. Jesus was a unique case. He did not or will not rise at some “general” resurrection of the dead. Instead He rose the third day after His death. This also demonstrates Jesus’ credibility, because He proclaimed He would rise three days after His death (Matthew 16:21, 17:23, 20:19).
i. Because of the reference to the third day, and because in Matthew 12:40 Jesus refers to three days and three nights, some have thought it necessary for Jesus to spend at least 72 hours in the grave. This upsets most chronologies of the death and resurrection of Jesus, and is unnecessary, being unaware of the use of ancient figures of speech. Eleazar ben Azariah (around the year 100 a.d.) said: “A day and a night make a whole day, and a portion of a whole day is reckoned as a whole day.” This demonstrates how in Jesus’ day, the phrase three days and three nights did not necessarily mean a 72-hour period, but a period including at least the portions of three days and three nights.
ii. “According to Jewish reckoning, ‘three days’ would include parts of Friday afternoon, all of Saturday, and Sunday morning.” (Mare)
i. According to the Scriptures: Because this idea is so important, Paul repeats it twice in these two verses. Jesus’ work for us didn’t just come out of thin air; it was planned from all eternity and described prophetically in the Scriptures.
i. The plan for His death is described in places like Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53.
ii. The plan for His resurrection is described in places like Hosea 6:2, Jonah 1:17, Psalm 16:10, as well as the scenario in Genesis 22, where Isaac, as a type of Christ, is “raised” on the third day of their journey, at the beginning of which Abraham had reckoned his son dead.
iii. Admittedly, the Old Testament understanding of resurrection was shadowy; many passages look to a bleak existence after death (Psalms 6:5, 30:9, 39:13, 88:10-12, 115:17; Isaiah 38:18, Ecclesiastes 9:4-5, 10); yet there are other passages of hope and confidence after this life (Job 19:25-27; Psalm 16:9-11; 73:24).
iv. Remember though, that it was Jesus, not the Old Testament, which brought life and immortality to light through the gospel (2 Timothy 1:10). | 
