The Power Of Salvation Is In The Cross
Guest Blogger: Ben Baker
I think that today we often forget
where God has placed His power for salvation. I think that we often forget that
He has placed it in His Word, in His Gospel - in the Word of the Cross. Dr.
R.C. Sproul wrote an article reflecting on one of the last sermons that Martin
Luther preached. Luther saw that even after the Reformation was in full-swing,
people were still looking to indulgences and relics to find the power of God.
One relic in particular they were looking to was Joseph’s pants. R.C. writes,
“[Luther] wondered, why is it that people are
still spending their money on indulgences and on what Luther called the Pope’s
second-hand junk? He said, ‘The Pope is like a decoy duck, sitting on a pond
with a great bag of tricks, seducing people with this nonsense. He wondered why
it is that people ignore the Word of God and exchange it for Joseph’s pants…’
What
relevance does that have for us today? We don’t see the evangelical church of
our day rushing to depositories of sacred relics. Nobody’s looking for Joseph’s
pants. Rather we have invested our time, our energy, and our money in more
contemporary ways to improve the gospel.
We
look to programs, to Madison Avenue methodologies, to entertainment, to pop
psychology, even to the establishment of Starbucks in the church to improve the
gospel. Why do we do this? I think people in the church today are looking for
exactly what they were looking for in sixteenth-century Germany. They went to
Trier, they went to Aachen, they went to these relics because they believed
that the relics had power. Every pastor wants to have a powerful ministry. And
so we look to the latest program, to the latest method to give us a powerful
ministry, forgetting where the Lord God omnipotent has put the power in the
first place.”[1]
God has placed His power for salvation
in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul says in Romans 1:16-17, “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. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith
for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” (Romans 1:16–17, ESV)
In this passage, Paul refers to the
Gospel as “the Word of the cross”. What is meant by that? Paul tells us later
in chapter 2 when he tells the Corinthian church that he decided to know
nothing among them except Christ and Him crucified. Paul tells the Corinthian
church again in chapter 15 what this Word of the cross is. He says,
“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.” (1 Corinthians 15:1–11, ESV)
So then, this Word of the cross is the
proclamation of Jesus Christ, the Crucified One, going to the cross to die on
behalf of sinners - on your behalf, and on mine - and that this same Crucified
One rose from the dead on the third day so that we might rise to eternal life.
This is the Word of the cross.
What does Paul say about this Word of
the cross? He says in verse 18 that it is folly to those who are perishing. To
those who are outside of Christ, the message of Christ’s crucifixion on behalf
of sinners and of His subsequent resurrection is foolishness. It does not make
sense to them. Yet for those of us who are being saved, this same message is
the power of God.
So then, what do we do with this
foolish message of Christ and Him crucified? Maybe we think that we need to
somehow tweak and change and improve the Word of the cross so that it makes
more sense to the unbeliever. Maybe if we tell them that God loves them and has
a wonderful plan for their lives and that God wants them to be happy and
wealthy and healthy and all that - maybe if that’s what we tell them, they will
understand and want to come to Christ and believe in Him.
Or perhaps we think that if only this
message were accompanied by miracles or visible manifestations of the power of
the Holy Spirit - surely then unbelievers would believe our message.
Jesus speaks to this in Luke 16 where
we have the account of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man, we are told, was
clothed in purple and fine linen and feasted sumptuously every day - he had no
lack of food. And Lazarus, being poor, longed to eat even the scraps from the
rich man’s table. It came about that Lazarus died and he was carried by the
angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was in torment in Hades.
The rich man saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side and he called out to Abraham
and pleaded with him to allow Lazarus to dip his finger in cool water and touch
his tongue that he might have some relief from his torment. And Abraham tells
the rich man that there is a great chasm between him and the rich man and that
it cannot be crossed.
Upon hearing this, the rich man pleads
with Abraham to send Lazarus to his father’s house to warn his brothers so that
they do not come to the place of torment where the rich man was. And Abraham
said, “They have Moses and the prophets - the Old Testament - let them hear
them.” The rich man responds and says, “No, but if someone goes to them from
the dead they will repent.” And Abraham responds back and says to the rich man,
“If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if
someone should rise from the dead.”
Through this account, Jesus directs
His listeners to the Scriptures. He tells them that if one does not hear what
the Scriptures say concerning sin, death, eternal punishment and believe it and
turn from their sins in repentance and faith, neither will they be convinced
even if someone should rise from the dead. It is through the Word of God that
God brings about salvation - if one rejects the Word of God, no amount of signs
or miracles will change their mind.
And what about those who think that we
need to tweak and adjust the message of the cross so that it is more to the
liking of unbelievers? Paul speaks to this in this passage. God says, “I will
destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will
thwart.” And again Paul says, “Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the
world?” And again, “The world did not know God through wisdom.”
And so the answer is not to add to or
take away from the word of the cross and try to convince people of the truth
through worldly wisdom. We will never truly know God through the efforts of our
own reason and through the pursuit of wisdom. For God has hidden Himself from
the wisdom of this world and revealed Himself through the foolishness of
preaching the cross.
So then, what do we do with this
seemingly foolish message of the cross - of Christ and Him crucified on our
behalf? We preach this message. We preach this message that is a stumbling
block to Jews and folly to the Gentiles. Why? Paul gives us the answer. He says
in verse 21, “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God
through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save
those who believe.” Here in the message of the cross God is known. Here in the
message of the cross faith is created and dead men become alive.
This very same message that is
foolishness to those who are perishing is the power of God to save those who
believe. God has chosen to work through that which seems to be foolish and
powerless to bring about the salvation of men and women. More than once Paul
explained to the Corinthians that he did not come with lofty or eloquent speech
or wisdom so that the cross of Christ would not be emptied of its power.
And so we preach the message of the Crucified
One - that He died on Calvary for you and for me, that our sins might be
forgiven. And He rose again from the dead that we might one day rise too.
It may not seem like much to preach
the gospel. It may not seem like there is power there. It might seem foolish to
us and it will seem foolish to many. And yet, if we want to see people saved,
if we want to see lives change, we will preach this foolish message of Christ
and Him crucified for sinners.
And we trust, on the basis of God’s
Word, that God will work through that proclamation to bring men and women to
repentance and faith.
So I would encourage you this day to
preach Christ and Him crucified and risen again. Proclaim the Crucified One -
to friends, family, neighbors, all people, for it is in the Gospel of Jesus
Christ that God has placed His power for salvation.
And as a comfort and a promise we are
reassured in verse 25 that “the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the
weakness of God is stronger than men.”
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