FRIDAY 27th
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
‘For the word of the cross is folly to them who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.’ (v18)
‘For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.’ (Romans 1:16)
I use the ESV which uses ‘word’ in 1 Corinthians 1:18, the KJV uses ‘preaching’ the CSB & NIV ‘message’. Whichever translation you prefer what the text is saying is that what we declare about the cross is folly or foolishness to those who fail to or refuse to believe.
What do we declare about the cross? What is the message of the cross? Although we immediately may think of the symbol of the cross, what Paul is referring to here is the whole spectrum of that which Christ Jesus has done as a result of the cross. (what we call his redemptive work) So to talk of the cross covers his anguish in the garden, his suffering in the courtroom, his pain and torment while hanging on the cross, his bearing our sin, his being forsaken by his Father, his last breathe and his burial and the incredible resurrection on the third day. It must mean all of this and more which I’ve not listed, because it was all necessary to bring about eternal redemption. Therefore, the message we declare is this, that because of the cross, because of all that I have just mentioned there is hope for the sinner, hope for mankind and the possibility of forgiveness and reconciliation to God. But the unbelieving word thinks that this amazing message is folly or foolishness. Utter nonsense or rubbish. But (and thank God for the buts in the Bible) it continues to say that to us who are being saved as a result of our believing the message of the cross is the POWER OF GOD.
What humanity sees as just an act of cruel execution is the actual power of God at work!
On Sunday we considered Gods power in creating the heavens and the earth and his new creation at the end of time with a new heaven and earth. But the power of the message of the cross is that in believing we are recreated into new persons, born again by the Spirit of God and it can only come about by the power of God.
2 Corinthians 5:17 is my favourite verse; ‘Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come.’
I want us to dwell on this today, the message of the cross means that you and I are new creations, it means that through believing, we are ‘In Christ’. Remember what we were outside of Christ, sinners, hell bound, alienated from God, spiritually dead and without hope and heaps more and yet because of the incredible power of God at work in the cross through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ we have now been made anew, forgiven, reconciled to God, at peace with God, transformed, heaven bound and heaps more.
And in line with our second Scripture from Romans 1:16 may we never be ashamed of the gospel. May we be willing to always be looking for opportunity, ways and means to share the good news, for just as it has become the power of God unto salvation in our own lives in can also become the power of God to salvation to those whom we share it with.
I am a new creation,
no more in condemnation,
here in the grace of God I stand.
My heart is overflowing,
my love just keeps on growing,
here in the grace of God I stand.
And I will praise You, Lord,
yes I will praise You, Lord,
and I will sing of all that You have done.
A joy that knows no limit,
a lightness in my spirit
here in the grace of God I stand.
©1983 Kingsway’s Thankyou Music CCLI 788682