“For Christ did not send me to baptize, but
to preach the gospel -- not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of
Christ be emptied of its power. 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.’” (1 Corinthians 1:17-19)
For thousands of years man has been on a
futile journey to find the solutions to the problems of our world. We’ve tried human reason, but the problems of
the world are beyond our ability to solve with human reason. We’ve walked down the path of what we called
“moral freedom,” but found at the end of that path just continued
emptiness. Military might hasn’t solved
the problems, it’s just opened the way for more and more powerful tyrants. There used to be hope in psychotherapy, but
the more therapy that became available the more problems we’ve uncovered and
been unable to cure. Technology seemed
to provide possibilities, but it has failed just as miserably as every other
path we’ve tried. And there are a
thousand other paths that have been tried and a thousand other dead ends and
incomplete answers.
The place where the answers lie is the one
place the people of our world don’t want to look. In Paul’s day, Christ and His cross were a
“stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” (1 Corinthians
1:23) And they still are in our day,
too, not just to Jews and Greeks, but to every nationality of men and women. We’re too sophisticated and intelligent to
think that the answers to man’s problems could be found in something so old and
so counter to man’s own independence and abilities.
Yet, Christ is the answer that Paul
gave. The message of God and the
experience of man confirm that He is the only real answer available. A life lived in dependence upon and obedience
to Him seems foolish to most, but it’s the power of salvation for those who
will trust Him.
His, by Grace,
Steve
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