The Invisible Church Blog

1 Cor 1:18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

As with most things of God, the preaching of the Cross is so high above that which the natural man can grasp, they consider it foolishness. Yet “unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” It is a strange dichotomy, that some will think of such a thing as so high, and others will think it so low. There is room for an enlightened but unconverted crowd in the middle to whom the preaching of the Cross is neither entire foolishness nor yet actual power, but the intent of the verse is to emphasize the polar opposite of value of the Cross between those who are saved and those who are lost. These two groups are diametrically opposed in their thinking with regards to the cross of Christ. The question is why?

The answer is that through the fall, man became entirely opposed to God. Were it not that God pursued man, the Cross would have remained as foolishness to us all. But God is faithful, and in His pursuit of man through enlightening, convicting of sin, of unrighteousness and of judgment to come, He brings many to the Cross, thereby reconciling them to Himself. One simply cannot see the beauty of the Cross until they have been brought to nothing in and of themselves, but it is this bringing to nothing that the natural man is so hostile towards, it is that he cannot see himself as nothing which in turn causes him to oppose the very preaching meant to do him good! Preaching can happen till one is blue in the face with nary a conversion, but let the Holy Spirit move upon a person in resurrection power, and conversion can happen without preaching. At other times, God is pleased to use “the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” The question that arises at this point is, with such a stout reaction of opposition to the Cross by the natural man, how then  is the great divide from lost to saved, to be crossed? (No pun intended)

The answer is that it is simply a work of God, and the highest work of God, to bring a lost sinner to the Cross to be reconciled to Himself. He must tear down that which man trusts, making way for man to trust the work of redemption done by Christ on the Cross. Those who trust much in themselves must have much torn down, and those who trust little in themselves must have little torn down. This is why the thieves, drunkards, murderers, and harlots of the world are brought into the kingdom of God before those who are considered respectable, they have learned to trust much less of self making way for more trust of Christ. The sooner we all learn that, the better!

God may use human means to bring about particular circumstances, but ALL the glory for the salvation of souls belongs to God alone. We may rejoice at the news of another soul brought into right fellowship with God through Christ, but ALL glory in the matter belongs to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. This deferring of ALL glory from self to God in all things, is what makes the natural man reel at the thought of the Cross. It diminishes who he is in his own mind, and because of this he will prefer to consider the Cross to be foolishness rather than be saved by it.

There is power in the cross of Christ, power to “deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” Far from being foolishness, there is power to save you for eternity, and power to keep you eternally saved!

1 Cor 15:55-57 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

If you haven’t already, will you go to the Cross of calvary and cast ALL your hope on Christ today?

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 29th, 2009 at 4:13 PM and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.