“When I came to you, brothers, I did not come
with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about
God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ
and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.
My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a
demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s
wisdom, but on God’s power.” (1 Corinthians 2:1-5)
There have been, and are, many people with
great wisdom and outstanding oratory skills.
But with Christ it is not the quality of the preacher that makes the
difference, it’s the message that is proclaimed that has the power to change
lives.
Even with Christ Himself, it was not the
quality of His teaching that changed lives.
Christ did teach with out-of-this-world wisdom! When the Jews heard Him preach they marveled
at the authority with which He spoke.
“When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at
his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their
teachers of the law.” (Matthew 7:28-29)
But it is not the wisdom of Christ’s teaching or His authoritative
preaching that changed lives. It was the
power of His cross that changed men and women then and still changes men and
women today!
It is only the love, mercy, and grace of the
cross of Christ that takes defiled sinners and radically changes us. Only in the cross is there the power of
forgiveness. Only in the cross is there
the opportunity for reconciliation with God.
Only in the cross is there salvation.
The power is in the cross, and in the One who
died there! Don’t marvel at the
preacher, marvel at the message of Christ.
Keep looking to Him!
His, by Grace,
Steve
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