1 Corinthians 1:17-31
Paul’s commission from the ascended Lord is given in Acts 26:12-18, and his sending forth in His service is recorded in Acts 13:1-4. Galatians 1:1,11-24 should be referred to, also, as showing more fully the character of his commission.
He was not to preach with “wisdom of words;” so, as the Apostle wrote in the opening verse of the second chapter, “I, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God;” and in the fourth verse, “and my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” In the 20th verse of the first chapter, the inquiry is made, “Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” These are sobering considerations, particularly for the unsaved, but also for believers. God has not made the gospel of His grace palatable to men; the issues are the solemnest, involving the soul’s eternal destiny.
If the preaching were calculated to please the unsaved hearer, it might well be with wisdom of word—human wisdom; but the cross of Christ would be made vain. And what, dear young Christian, is involved in the cross of Christ? You will answer, I am sure, first of all, O, it was there that He died for my sins! This is the language of faith. We take our place solidly on such scriptures as Romans 5:8, “But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us;” and 1 Corinthians 15:3 “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.”
And as we prayerfully ponder, with open Bible, upon the cross of Christ, we see that the issues dealt with there are many, indeed. Let us begin with reverence, from God’s side, as we view by faith what came out of the death of the Holy Sufferer. We see there the great love of God for the sinner; it is immeasurable. John 3:16 comes to mind with those familiar words,
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
We see, too, in the cross of Christ, God’s holiness, and His hatred of sin; for sin was judged there. Isaiah had written prophetically of Christ on the cross (chapter 53:6), that Jehovah hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all; and we are allowed by the Holy Spirit in Luke 22:41-44 to see the Holy One in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night of His betrayal, anticipating in His soul that time—the three hours of the next day when he was the Sin Offering, bearing the judgment of those who trust in Him.
Matthew (27:45-46), and Mark (15:33-34) record the occurrence of that solemn scene, for which David was inspired to write Psalm 22. God “spared not His own Son” (Rom. 8:32); the judgment of our sins, their full penalty, must be and was borne by Him. There Zechariah’s prophecy was fulfilled: “Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the Man that is My Fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts” (Zech. 13:7).
And where did the grace of Christ shine out so much as when He was crucified? (Phil. 2:5-8; 2 Cor. 8:9). What believer could be unmoved by the Saviour’s humiliation and grace as he reads the accounts of the crucifixion in Matthew or Mark, Luke or John?
We have to consider, too, how that God was infinitely and eternally glorified in Christ on the cross. (John 17:4; Heb. 10:5-9; Rev. 1:4-5; Heb. 1:2-4; Col. 1:12-20; 2 Cor. 4:6). These passages are indicative; the body of Scripture is one united whole in setting forth the truth that in the death of Christ, God has been glorified as in no other way could He have been so fully.
And as to Satan, that old serpent, the devil—the cross of Christ marked the culmination of his supreme effort against the blessed One. Matthew 2:1-18 tells of Satan’s first attempt against Him, using Herod, the Idumaean ruler of the Jews for the purpose; and Matthew 3:1-11 with Luke 4:1-13, his second. Satan, we are told in Luke 22:3, entered into Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, before he went to the Jewish leaders to bargain for the betrayal of his Master; though unseen, he was present at the passover meal, actuating Judas to deliver up Christ that very night (John 13:27), instead of after the religious services of the period were over (Matt. 26:5); and we may be sure that Satan was in the garden of Gethsemane, in a last effort to turn Jesus away from the death which now lay immediately before Him. In Luke 22:53 the Lord, speaking to those who had come out there to take Him said, “this is your hour, and the power of darkness”—the hour for the Jewish leaders, and for Satan, united against the Son of God. Thus it was that Satan bruised His heel, but it will ere long be revealed that Satan’s head (a vital spot) as the result of the cross, is crushed (Gen. 3:15).
Satan is a vanquished enemy, since the cross; and believers are delivered from his power (Col. 1:13; Heb. 2:14-15). The day is near when he will be cast out of the heavens (Rev. 12:7-12); after which he will be shut up for a thousand years (Rev. 20:1-3), and finally will be cast into the lake of fire—hell (Rev. 20:10), the place prepared for him and his angels (Matt. 25:41), where also—solemn thought -all the rejecters of Christ will spend eternity.
Let us next consider man in relation to the cross of Christ. Our first parents lost the place of innocent happiness in a sinless sphere when Satan appeared with his guile (Gen. 3). About 1650 years afterward, God, seeing that “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,” cleansed the earth by a flood. Then, without profiting from the lessons of the past, men plunged more deeply into sin (Rom. 1:21-32). As to Israel’s chosen race, Acts 7:2-53 gives God’s account of their history, dark and growing darker as it went on.
John 1:10-11 speaks of the presence of His Son in the world, and His rejection. The inspired pens of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John bring out much of the effect of His presence among men, and describe the awful wickedness of those who united in putting Him out of the world. “They hated Me without a cause.” This came out in its fullness at the cross, Jew and Gentile uniting in His humiliation and crucifixion.
But all that is of man was judged at the cross. It was not to one recognizable in the world as a wicked person, but to a choice specimen of the race (as far as the Scriptures afford us light on him), that the Son of God said (John 3:3), “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 15:50) is to the same end: “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption” (or incorruptibility, N.T.). So also in Romans 3:9-18 is it said, “We have before proved (or “charged”, N.T.) both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one...and the way of peace have they not known; there is no fear of God before their eyes.”
So all the pretension of the natural man to a secure position before God is judged in the light of the cross. From the finest in one’s own esteem, or in the estimation of one’s fellows, to the lowest reprobates of town or country, all are condemned in the Saviour’s death. You will see this in figure, in illustration, in Numbers 19:6, where “cedar wood and hyssop”—the loftiest, finest tree of the forest, and the commonest weed of the Holy Land—were to be burned together with the sacrificed red heifer.
The subject of what is involved in the cross of Christ which has thus been before us has been only touched upon; may its prayerful study be blessed to the Christian reader.
Verse 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.”
Have you not seen the proof of this? There is no doctrine more offensive to the natural mind and heart than this. But mark the two classes into which the human race is here divided: “them that perish,” and “us who are saved.”
Is there something then for me, a believer, to take pride in as being of a superior class by nature to my unbelieving neighbor? O, no! verse 29 distinctly says, “that no flesh should glory in God’s presence;” and the last verse of our chapter, “He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”
(To be continued, D. V.)