START WITH SCRIPTURE:
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
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OBSERVE:
Paul’s “theology of the cross” is central to his understanding of the way of salvation. It is grounded in paradox, which is a recurring theme in scripture: death leads to life, weakness leads to strength, foolishness is true wisdom.
Paul intends to undercut any effort to establish human pride or merit or accomplishment as grounds for a solid relationship with God. Wisdom, the law, human philosophy, and miracles are insufficient grounds for salvation.
God chooses to reveal himself through the weakness and folly of the cross because this requires complete surrender to him. Human effort is insufficient to reach God.
Paul even goes so far as to say that the cross is a stumbling block to those who cannot believe. The Greek word here is skandalein – a scandal, an offense! The thought of the Lord of Life crucified for sedition and heresy is indeed a scandal to those who seek to establish their own righteousness. But as we know from the other letters of Paul, the only righteousness that endures is the righteousness of Christ.
Not only is the cross the foolishness of God, the preaching of Christ crucified is also foolishness. Yet to those who hear and believe:
the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
APPLY:
The cross is still the dividing line between believers and non-believers. I once wrote a paper in seminary on this very passage. I paid to have the paper typed by a professional typist. She happened to be a non-Christian, and she suggested that this idea of “believing in foolishness” is the very problem with the Christian faith. And another non-Christian who had watched Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ pointed out that for the non-believer it was just a long movie about some guy getting beaten up and tortured for three hours (granted, much of the violence in that film was gratuitous).
But for those who have been confronted with their own sin, and found the self-help methods of our culture insufficient; for those who have realized that human knowledge is easily perverted for immoral purposes; for those who have realized that their own attempts to be “good” fall dreadfully short of the glory of God; for those who have grown weary of the “signs” and spectacles of the modern age – for them:
the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men (emphasis mine).
What is implied in this passage about the cross, but left unsaid, is what Paul will explain elsewhere in his epistles, including 1 & 2 Corinthians.
The cross is God’s means of reconciling sinful people to a holy God by the very substitutionary nature of Christ:
For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21).
And Paul will clearly elaborate on the fullness of the story in 1 Corinthians 15, including the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus: For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance:
For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).
I venture to say that the cross for us who are being saved:
is the power of God.
RESPOND:
Even forty years after my first awakening to the grace of God as a 19 year-old freshman in college, when I think of the cross and the crucifixion of Jesus, tears come to my eyes.
For me, it is a solemn and yet joyful reminder of the self-emptying, dying love of my Savior. Undeserved, unearned by me, and unselfish by him.
Although I value knowledge and books and philosophy, the cross holds a power in my spirit that transcends all human understanding.
Our Lord, all my attempts to learn all I can, to establish my own righteousness, to achieve and succeed, all fall short of your glory. Yet in your foolishness and weakness you reveal your wisdom and strength – that you have come to me, and have taken my sin upon yourself, and have given me your righteousness in exchange! For me, you are my wisdom, and strength, and justification, and sanctification, and glory. Thank you! Amen.
PHOTOS: “Close up eye red - Jesus – Cross” by Gerardofegan is licensed by Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.