But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock and unto the Greeks foolishness. 1 Corinthians 1:23
Suppose you were travelling on a Sunday morning through a strange town, and happened to notice a building with a steeple, and with a small crowd beginning to gather. You find a parking spot, and make your way inside and take a seat near the back. After you spend some time gazing at the ornately glazed windows and fancy paintings of apostles and prophets, and trying to avoid the stares of the locals unaccustomed to a stranger’s presence, the service begins. After the drawn-our process of announcements, special music, and ritualistic prayers, a man in a fancy shawl takes his station in the pulpit, and begins to orate. But of what does he speak? Does he address one of the world’s great tragedies and urge his congregation to have more care and compassion for each other? Does he tell a story whose moral is the need to be more honest and fair to those around us? Does he use an illustration to urge folks to get to know God in a better way? Does he read of the kindness and compassion of God and speak of our responsibility to know and love God and to pass it on to others? Or does he preach the Gospel? I am fairly certain that few such pulpits will be filled with men who actually know the Gospel, let alone are willing to proclaim it.
In our text, Paul speaks of preaching Christ crucified. That was Paul’s message as he carried the Gospel to the Gentiles. That was the message that the other apostles carried, and that continues to be heralded forth today by faithful preachers. If ever the message of Christ crucified is silenced, no more souls will be saved. Nothing else will penetrate the darkness of sin and draw lost ones to the Saviour.
The message of Christ crucified encompasses the three Rs of the Gospel: man’s ruin, God’s remedy, and man’s responsibility. It was ruined man who rejected God’s program of life in the Garden of Eden, and who rejected and rebelled against God ever since. It was ruined man who ignored God’s dealings of grace and mercy through the Old Testament, and who failed to acknowledge and accept God’s Son when He entered this world and lived among us. Ruined man crucified the Christ. But it is in the crucified Christ that we see God’s remedy. The men who cruelly mistreated the Lord Jesus and nailed Him to the cross did so in rejection, but the crucifixion was part of God’s program to provide a remedy. When men had done their worst to the Son of God, God stepped in and did His best for mankind. The Christ Who was crucified bore all the judgment for our sins. So the Christ Who was crucified now presents sinners with the purpose of His work on that cross. Man’s responsibility is to determine what he will do with the Christ Who was crucified.
The Christ Who was crucified is the only escape from hell and the only door to God’s heaven. Christ crucified is the only Gospel message. -Jim MacIntosh