Salvation for the Thief

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:
   "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
      the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate."

  Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.

The message of the cross is that Jesus died for our sins. Paul starts this portion of scripture by speaking about the message of the cross in verse 18 and reiterates and defines it in verse 23. The message of the cross is foolish to the world. This message is that Jesus was crucified for the forgiveness of sin. In other words, that god came down from heaven and became man (Phil 2:6-11) so that we can have eternal life, not because we did anything to deserve it (Ephesians 2:8-9) but by trusting in Jesus (John 3:16).

Unfortunately, there are those who dislike this message. Paul says that it is foolishness to them. Then he puts some details into this point by specifically telling us that the Jews find it a stumbling block and the Greeks, who were the leading thinkers of the day, found it to be foolishness. Today, the dislike for the message is just as strong and it will be until Christ comes again. This is true of both the Jews and the Gentile. In fact, unfortunately, it is even true among some who would call themselves Christians (though I certainly wouldn’t!). Rev Jeffrey John of the Church of England said, “In other words, Jesus took the rap and we got forgiven as long as we said we believed in him. This is repulsive as well as nonsensical. It makes God sound like a psychopath. If a human behaved like this we’d say that they were a monster.” And then quoting Julian of Norwich, he said “there is no wrath in God”. What we are seeing here is that people from all walks of life and beliefs find the message of the cross foolish and repulsive.

The reason for the opposition differs depending on one’s background. The bible shows us that for the Jew, it was s tumbling block, for the Greek it was foolish. Today we see that it is still a stumbling block for the Jew and it is still foolishness to the Gentile. The reason it is a stumbling block is because the Jew cannot fathom Yahweh coming down to Earth to become one of them and then dying. It is inconceivable.

Meanwhile, the gentiles think it is foolishness because it is offensive. They think, “A loving God would never do that.” For instance, the muslims believe that Jesus was a prophet, but that he didn’t die on the cross:

The second basic offense to a Muslim is the testimony that Christ was crucified. Here we have to note that Islamic criticism is not directed toward the meaning and fruits of the crucifixion, but that Islam completely denies this historical fact itself. Muslims believe that they are in fact honoring Jesus, since Allah would never allow his prophet to suffer such humiliation and suffering. Muslims reject the cross because they do not understand the concept of a loving God sacrificing himself for his people. In their eyes, the crucifixion demeans Jesus. Many Muslims believe that Christ did not die on the cross but was taken up alive to heaven. (http://www.intervarsity.org/ism/article/14)

As for the secularists, they continue to work to remove any sign of the cross outside the church:

 Hot cross banned: councils decree buns could be 'offensive' to non-Christians (Filed: 16/03/2003) Schools across Britain have been ordered by local authorities to abandon the ancient tradition of serving hot cross buns at Easter so as not to offend children of non-Christian faiths.

Some councils are refusing to hand out the traditional treats because they fear that the symbol of the cross will spark complaints from Jewish, Hindu and Muslim pupils or their families.

Officials in the London borough of Tower Hamlets decided to remove the buns from menus this year after criticism over its decision to serve pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. A spokesman for the Labour-run council claimed that there had been "a lot" of complaints but did not have a figure.

The spokesman added: "We are moving away from a religious theme for Easter and will not be doing hot cross buns. We can't risk a similar outcry over Easter like the kind we had on Pancake Day. We will probably be serving naan breads instead."

The hindu’s believe that the cross is foolish and takes away from Jesus’ message of love:

A HINDU'S VIEW OF JESUS CHRIST
Author - Anil Chawla
I find it quite ridiculous to believe that all human beings are born sinners and are saved from their sins by Jesus going on the cross as atonement for their sins. I find no justification for this belief even in the life and sayings of Jesus. Philosophically speaking, this is in direct contrast to the message of universal love that Jesus espoused.
http://www.samarthbharat.com/jesushindu.htm

It all comes down to the fact that the cross is offensive to the non-Christian spirit. The Christian has the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, living with us and it is the Holy Spirit that has made us a new creation, able to understand spiritual things with spiritual eyes. However, the rest of the world does not have Jesus’ sent Advocate to explain these things to their hearts and so they hear with non-spiritual ears and what they hear sounds offensive.

God designed the Gospel message to be this way. He wanted it to be offensive to the unbeliever, the same reason He hardened Pharaoh’s heart – to show His power and wisdom to the world. Verse 25 of our reading in 1 Corinthians 1 reminds us that “the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.” In making the Gospel message offensive to the unbeliever, He demonstrates the disgust he has for sin. It is only by giving us an offensive message – the death of His Son Jesus on the cross – can we understand how offensive sin really is to Him. The unrepentant world feels no sorrow at the sinfulness of their world and lifestyles, but God is tremendously sorrowful at it. The only way He can show us how ugly and disgusting sin really is, is to demonstrate it by an offensive message back to those who are committing those sins. The message of the cross is that offensive message.

The offensiveness of the message of the cross comes because people do not want to believe that they are responsible for that death. They don’t want to believe that they are sinners. There are many non-believers who have taken the Christian concept of Heaven and have claimed that they will be going there after their deaths, not because they are sinless and perfect but because they have at sometime or another performed an act that the Judeo-Christian God has said was a good and righteous act. By doing this act, they feel they have earned their way into heaven. Hearing the message of the cross reminds them that they are sinners who are far from heaven and it devastates their ability to continue living life the same way they always have. Hence they reject the message of the cross and rationalize their actions by believing that the message of the cross is foolishness and offensive. But they basically fulfill what the scripture tells us in 1 John 1:8: “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”

Even churches are removing the offense by moving away from the message of the cross to a bloodless message that lacks power and hope by removing sin and hell out from the picture and replacing it with the message that we’re loved by a forgiving, wrathless God. They are doing this in several ways:

They remove God’s wrath to remove the offense. We recall that Rev Jeffrey John quoted Julian of Norwich regarding this. Recognizing that Julian lived in the late 1300’s, we see that this type of thinking has been around for a long time. Today, we see many churches avoiding the topic of sin and hell and moving towards a gospel of good works and service. Many churches do not do as Paul did, preaching Christ crucified, but instead pound the congregation with messages of works, service and ministry. By doing this, these churches cease to be The Church build on the foundation of Christ and become social agencies and county clubs. By adding works to the message of the cross, or replacing it altogether, the offence of the message is removed.

The real message of the cross is a strange message because it doesn’t make sense to those who are perishing. It is also a shocking message. It is hard for those unbelievers to think that there is a God who would come down from Heaven to become a person so that He can die for mankind. However, the message of the cross is a simple message – that if you believe that God has done this, then you will have eternal life. Period. No strings attached. Do not go looking for the small print. You don’t need to find the footnotes or see the appendix. All you have to do is trust in Jesus for your salvation and you have it. Hence, the message of the cross makes a statement that Jesus loves us that much that he would actually do this for us. Finally, Jesus’ death on the cross defeats Satan. Satan is crushed by this act, death loses its sting and we escape the lake of fire.

The message of the Cross may be foolishness to the world but it is the power of God. By it, those who believe escape the grasp of the world and the grasp of Satan. It doesn’t take us out of the world, but it gives us a power and a hope that we could not have if we did not understand the message of the cross.

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Last modified: March 29, 2009