#DailyDevotion The Message Of The Cross Is Foolish To The World But God’s Power To Save
1 Cor. 1:18-21 18The message of the cross is something foolish to those who perish, but it is God’s power to us who are saved. 19The Bible says: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and defeat the intelligence of the intelligent.” 20Where is the wise man? Where is the Bible scholar? Where is the debater of our time? Hasn’t God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21Since by God’s wisdom the world by its wisdom didn’t get to know God, God decided to use the foolishness of our preaching to save those who believe.
What is this message of the cross that is foolish to those that perish but is God’s power to us who are saved? The message of the cross is God became man through the seed of a humble virgin. He joined himself to mankind. This one, born of woman, bone of our born and flesh of our flesh, took our sins upon himself. He took our guilt upon himself. He took our shame upon himself. He took all our suffering, grief, our illnesses upon himself. Jesus then took our punishment upon himself and gave up the spirit entering death. The message of the cross is Jesus did this to save you from your fate, your punishment and eternal death. The message of the cross is God has accepted Jesus’ death as the atonement and propitiation for your sin. The message of the cross is God now imputes Christ’s righteousness to you freely when you believe Jesus has done this for you. Eternal life is a gift won for you by Jesus and offered to you freely through the Church.
In this message God destroys the wisdom of the wise and defeats the intelligence of the intelligent. The world says there is no such thing as a free lunch. You either must redeem yourself or at the very least put your two cents. The wisdom of this world says matter is bad and spirit is good, yet God who is Spirit created this world very good and joined himself to it by taking on human flesh to save the world. The world says the finite cannot hold the infinite yet Jesus who is God is contained in a human body and even more so, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit make their home in the hearts of everyone who believes in Jesus.
The “Bible Scholars” are no better than the world. They make many of the same arguments the world does. They teach you must do good works in order to be saved. They teach Jesus’ death and resurrection are not enough. They may even teach Jesus isn’t truly God or truly bodily resurrected on the third day. Some teach the bible isn’t truly God’s Word but has God’s Word in some of it, but it is mostly a book written by men who erred in their writing. Ultimately they deny Jesus is God for you for he is really only a man or God who is wholly other than you who only appeared as a man.
But it is only in Jesus who is truly God and truly Man, crucified, dead, buried, resurrected and ascended to the right hand of Glory for you so you can join him in his kingdom freely, as a gift, that you truly get to know God. It is in the mercy, kindness, grace, steadfast-love of God in Christ Jesus’ work in the flesh we know the true nature of God. The foolishness of this free gift of God in Christ Jesus is the foolishness of our preaching that saves you. You don’t have to do good works to please God in order to be saved or remain saved. Salvation is totally a free gift in Christ Jesus. Jesus alone is your salvation and standing before God. Only faith in him makes you pleasing to God. Consequently faith in Christ works the good works God wants you to do.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of Christ Jesus our Savior. Always give us your Holy Spirit that we may believe in him and proclaim the message of his cross. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.