The message of the cross

In 1968 an author by the name of Erich von Däniken published his first book The Chariots of the Gods. Since then he’s written 26 or so books, continuing to work out his theory that our planet was visited by extra-terrestrials in it’s ancient past.

Sound crazy to you?

Try a Google search for “crazy theories” and you’ll get almost 2 million hits. The world is full of conspiracy theories, alien visit theories and many more.

So imagine what it must have been like for the average intelligent person in the first century to hear, for the first time, the theory that God had become a human being, lived in almost total obscurity, never appeared to speak openly about who he was, did nothing to stop himself from being arrested, tried, convicted, abused, and eventually executed, only to come back to life and instead of raining down judgement, continued to teach a pattern of love and reconciliation through his followers.

Just imagine how crazy that probably sounded.

Surely, they might have said, “A real God would have nothing to do with crucifixion, let alone allow himself to suffer it.”

But, says Paul, this is the very heart of our message.

We preach Christ crucified

It is:

Foolish to those who don’t believe but the power of God to those who do.

The core of the message

In 1Cor.15, Paul sets out the core of the message:

Christ died for our sins (according to Scripture); He was buried; He was raised on the third day (according to Scripture); He appeared

In chapter 1, this is the gospel he preaches.

Faith versus human wisdom

In Corinth there was an issue with knowledge. There were those who thought they had access to some special, secret knowledge, that made them a better class of Christian. But Paul cleverly dismantles the notion of secret knowledge and does away with the importance of what we might know in contrast with the significance of what we do know.

It is the power of God, not human wisdom or secret knowledge that sets us free. And this freedom comes through faith not knowledge. We should not confuse at this point, knowledge and understanding. Paul is not saying that in order to believe, we should ditch any idea of ever understanding. In fact Paul says that the message of the cross is indeed a message of wisdom among the mature.

The nature of faith

Faith does not depend upon human wisdom but upon God’s power.

This means that faith is not rational, at least not in the conventional sense of the word. It cannot be worked out by careful thought and analysis alone. But neither is it irrational, because it depends on the external power of God. It is no blind leap. In other words faith bridges the world of the rational, of cause and effect, and the world of miracles, the seemingly irrational.

Responding to the gospel

Paul sets out three responses to the gospel.

#1 Scandalous

The first response is to be offended. Knowing his world as he does, Paul knows that best example of this is his own people, the Jews. He knows what the cross looks like through eyes of faithful followers of Judaism. He knows, because he’s been there.

The Old Testament curses anyone who hangs on a tree. He knows the stigma, the theological inconsistency of any argument that would suggest that not only would God take human form, but that he would put his life in the hands of Gentiles.

He knew that religious people, of all people, would be scandalised by such a notion.

#2 Foolishness

On the other hand, if you didn’t see the scandal in it, you most probably saw the foolishness. The almighty, all-powerful creator God, suffers the ignominy of crucifixion with barely a whimper.
But to those who will suspend human wisdom and judgement for a while, who are willing to think through the implications of God’s self revelation, it’s possible to see things differently.

Paul’s third response is:

#3 Power

Not our own power, but a realisation that this crazy theory of incarnation and sacrifice is the very work of God as he reaches into our world and rescues us from it.

The gospel that enriches

This gospel this good news, not only rescues from the sin that separates us from God, it not only reconciles us to God, a point Paul makes in his second letter to the Corinthians, but it also enriches our lives.

According to Paul, the grace of God enriches our lives in every way. In all our speaking, in all our knowledge. No longer do we need secret or special knowledge because have an enriched knowledge.

We are also enriched through spiritual gifts.

And as if that were not enough, this grace presents us strong and blameless before God himself. We are truly brought back to where we belong, in relationship with the God who loves us.

Conclusion

So, crazy and scandalous at it might be to the rest of the world, it remains the message of hope, faith and love that we find in Paul’s letters and throughout the Bible.