Son of the Father, who gives grace and saves and will come again.

A little later, still in the first chapter, Paul identifies Jesus as “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1:24) who was crucified. He says that he means to “know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (2:2), indicating that he intends to focus on Jesus's death of atonement for the sins of the world and for reconciliation with God. This is the true wisdom of God, even if it appears to be foolishness in the eyes of the world

As the letter progresses and Paul addresses the abuses in the Corinthian Church, he drops more gems about who Jesus is and who Christians are in relationship to Him. The foundation of the Church is Jesus Christ, he says in 3:11. When Christians belong to Christ, all things are theirs for the service of God (3:22–23). God the Father raised Jesus from the dead and will one day raise Christians as well, for their “bodies are members of Christ” (6:15; 12:12; 12:27). The bread and wine of the Eucharist are the Body and Blood of Christ (10:17; 11:27).

In chapter 15, Paul re-emphasizes the kerygma, the fundamental Christian message

that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that He was buried and that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures (15:3–4)

and that He appeared to the apostles several times and also to Paul himself. Paul knows that this central truth needs to be repeated often, for it is the basis for all other truths of the Christian faith. Christ truly died and is truly risen, and He is “the first fruits of those who have died” (15:20) and will raise up the dead on the last day when all things will be subjected to Him, and He will hand all over to the Father.

Indeed, Paul paints a rich and detailed portrait of Jesus Christ in the his first letter to the Corinthians. He proclaims Christ crucified and risen. He identifies Jesus as the divine Son of God, who is the wisdom and power of God, and who died to save people from their sins and to give them grace, reconciliation with God, eternal life, and a resurrection of their own at the end of time.

1 Corthinthians is a letter written by Paul to the Christian church in Corinth around the year 51 CE, making it one of the oldest New Testament documents. It is incontestably by Paul, with some probable later interpolations, and it addresses divisions in the church in Corinth.

1 Corinthians 13 expresses some of Paul's central understandings about Jesus. Jesus is the son of God and the essential nature and core of Jesus's message is the primacy of love as the most powerful force in the universe. As Paul says in verse 8, "love never fails." Love is kind, patient, never envies, and rejoices in truth. The loving person puts the needs of others ahead of his own. Any Christian who does not root all of his actions in love is working to no purpose. Paul states unequivocally that knowledge, wisdom about mysteries, good works, and faith are nothing if they are not based in a love that is an imitation of the love that Jesus poured out on the world.

Therefore, Paul says, Christians need to get over their quarreling and divisions, as these are manifestations of a childish and immature faith. He says

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. (1 Cor 3:11)

Now, however, he and the church as a whole have to think and act like adults and ground themselves in love.

Paul also asserts a resurrection theology in 1 Corinthians. Jesus was crucified and rose again to abolish human sin and reconnect the broken relationship between God and humans.

In essence, the Apostle Paul’s initial letter to the Corinthians principally dealt with the issues and concerns such as the division in the early congregation. Subsequent to establishing the Christian congregation, Paul learns that the members who he left as elders had essentially advanced in what one could espouse as spiritual vanity and contemptuousness. This leaves us the question of the Apostle Paul’s central understanding of Jesus in this letter.

Overall, Paul is emphasizing the message that Jesus Christ came; he was the one who died, was buried, and was resurrected to a new existence as a ransom sacrifice for the sins of all humanity. He was perfect as was the first man, Adam. Adam was the first man to fall to sin. Jesus was sent to earth as the “last Adam” to pay the debt of sin as atonement that made it possible for humanity to be reunited with the Father. Therefore, the overall message and central understanding in the above mentioned passage is that of love and unity.