Devotional Day 31

Scripture

1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 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. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

Devotional

Christ crucified is the power of God.

These days self improvement is a huge industry. Most people want to deal with their dysfunction, addiction or brokenness and the world has many ways to deal with it. There are books, conferences, ted talks, endless podcasts and youtube videos about how to improve yourself.

Unfortunately so much of this so called ‘self improvement’ culture has been mixed in with the purity of the gospel for many Christians, where on the one hand we try to fix ourselves, and on the other the gospel tells us that we actually are not able to without Christ. The core problem with self improvement is hidden within the name - self. The truth is, we cannot truly wash ourselves clean from the stains of sin, we simply shift the weight of our sin and dysfunction around in the temples of our hearts between different idols. The bible tells us that there is only one way to overcome sin. Christ crucified.

Christ crucified is the power of God. Which is foolishness to the world and a stumbling block to the religious.

How could something so simple be so profound? How could something so foolish as the death of God, be the power of God which sets us free from sin?

When we move beyond what we can see with our mere human intellect and really look at the cross, we can see that Jesus… ‘became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption’. That’s the wonderful wisdom of the cross. Christ crucified is true wisdom, true freedom from sin, and the power of God for righteousness, sanctification and redemption.

Let’s briefly look at each of these three and see just how powerful the cross is.

The cross is our righteousness. Righteousness is defined as what is right and pleasing to God. The only problem is that every single human being has fallen short of God’s standard of righteousness and so falls short of being right and pleasing to God. Instead of having to hold our own righteousness before the Father, which the bible tells us is as pure as filthy rags, we get the righteousness of Jesus imputed (which means given) to us! Which makes us justified before God despite their own sinfulness!

The cross is our sanctification. The word sanctification means to be made holy or purified. How wonderful, this is the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus! The cross has made us holy and pure - you and I are not able to make ourselves holy or purify ourselves, but the cross of Christ is our sanctification! The sanctification of the cross is also progressive - Hebrews tells us this:

Hebrews 10:14

For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

We are being sanctified by the power of the Spirit every day, the reason that we can be changed and transformed and choose righteousness over sin is also because of the blood of Jesus which has cut us off from the power of sin!

The cross is our redemption. Redemption is the act of buying back or rescuing something or someone that was lost, enslaved, or in a state of bondage. Jesus’ work on the cross redeemed us! Remember that record of debts we stacked up and accumulated and condemns us before a holy and just God? Well colossians tells us that this record was nailed to the cross with Christ.

Colossians 3:13-14

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

He paid for it - redeeming us!

I read this wonderful story last week of how redemption was a part of the legal system quite a long time ago. If someone was in prison for something they had done - they had a redemption price, if someone wanted to redeem them, they could pay the price of redemption. Funnily enough, even though a redemption was paid and the prisoner was legally free, they didn’t know they were free until the one who redeemed them told them they were! Similarly as Christians we need to remember that the price for our redemption has been paid! We are no longer enslaved or in bondage to sin, and no longer on the path to hell.

We are redeemed, sanctified and made righteous because of the cross.

Christ crucified is the power of God. Foolishness to the world. A stumbling block to the religious, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. Amen!

Prayer

Thank You for the cross Lord! I come before the cross today in awe and wonder, and pray that times of refreshing in the wonderful truth of the gospel would fill my heart today.