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Don't Make the Cross of Christ Void

Mikuláš Török, 10.1.2010

1 Corinthians 1:17-18 17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not in wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made void. 18 For the word of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us who are saved it is the power of God.

 

1 Corinthians 2:1-16 And I, brethren, when I came unto you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. 4 And my speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: 5 that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. 6 We speak wisdom, however, among them that are fullgrown: yet a wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, who are coming to nought: 7 but we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, even the wisdom that hath been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds unto our glory: 8 which none of the rulers of this world hath known: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory: 9 but as it is written, Things which eye saw not, and ear heard not, And which entered not into the heart of man, Whatsoever things God prepared for them that love him. 10 But unto us God revealed them through the Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 11 For who among men knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of the man, which is in him? even so the things of God none knoweth, save the Spirit of God. 12 But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is from God; that we might know the things that were freely given to us of God. 13 Which things also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Spirit teacheth; combining spiritual things with spiritual words. 14 Now the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged. 15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, and he himself is judged of no man. 16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

Paul the Apostle warns from preaching the gospel in a void way, which means that the form of our speech is ephatized more than the content, and other (even often important) things are stressed instead of the message of Christ dying on the Cross for our sins (1 Cor 1:17-18).

 

Paul calls such a preaching "making the cross of Christ void". The real content, i.e. what Christ's cross means for us, is devaluated, driven into background or even totally overridden. Simply said, made void.

 

The real gospel is about Jesus Christ, and him crucified - about who really was crucified and resurrected (for us), about who really defeated the sin and death, and brought life and liberty to captive sinners, who were spiritually dead.

 

Paul was aware of this risk and warned against it. The Scriptures tell the same to us. 

 

It's very important to speak and think about Jesus and His sacrifice the right way. The center of our testimony has to be clear: why and for whom Jesus died. The goal is to make people understand that they are sinners and they can be cleaned only be accepting Christ.

 

Blessing, healing, prosperity and other things that come out of the Christ's sacrifice are very important and elligible things. However, they cannot stand above the most important thing - saving people for the eternal life in God's kingdom. This is why Jesus died; the other things are just subsidiary.

 

We make the cross of Christ void also when we doubt the power of our message, or when we cannot distinguish when, to whom and how often should we tell the gospel. The Christ's sacrifice can be also devaluated by putting too much efford to speak to those, who clearly refuse gospel. In such situations Christians often tend to stress the subsidiary things in order to convince the other person, which is not good.

 

We preach the real gospel, the real content of Jesus's cross. Only in Him, there is the God's power for one's rebirth for eternal life. We need to tell people the truth in a clear way. 

 

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