1 Corinthians 1.18-19
18 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.”
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This plan of God coming to the earth and dying on a cross makes no logical sense to most. From a human perspective, it is an embarrassing failure! Much of the world around us, including some of our closest friends and family, laugh at our belief that God became and Man and got Himself killed. But this is actually how God’s power would be best put on display! He would defy human logic and wisdom by lowering Himself and laying Himself down for people who have turned their backs on Him, and after allowing Himself to be fastened with nails upon a humiliating cross, in compassion and mercy He would pray for His killers to be forgiven (Luke 23.34).
Three days later, He would prove that even during His time of greatest weakness (dead!), He would still overcome and be victorious, as the power of God would raise Him from the dead. He is so powerful, He can conquer sin and death with both hands tied behind His back, blindfolded…and dead! God’s “weakness” proves His true power!
Christianity is the only major religion
to have as its central event
the humiliation of its own God.
-Bruce Shelley
This plan only magnifies how strong, powerful, and unmatched God is. Not even death could hold Him (Acts 2.24), and rather than just stating that as a fact, He actually proved it.
And it gets even more amazing for me. The same power that raised Christ from the dead is also the same power that raises me (1 Corinthians 6.14, Colossians 2.12)! Without the power of Christ breaking the power of sin and death in my life, there is no other way I could be saved, because left to myself, I would just continue in rebellion and unrepentant sin under the power of sin and death.
The Gospel reminds me that even though in my greatest time of strength I could never escape death nor the penalty of sin, it reminds me that God, even in His moment of greatest weakness, was able to conquer death and pay for the penalty of sin for me. This “foolish” plan becomes, then, like the mind-bending “twist” ending of an epic movie that catches all the viewers off guard. What an incredible plan that is so beyond human logic or wisdom!
Read Again and Turn it into a Prayer:
1 Corinthians 1.18-19
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Personalize and Read or Pray Aloud:
Psalm 2.1–12
1 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,
3 “Let us burst their bonds apart
and cast away their cords from us.”
4 He who sits in the heavens laughs;
the Lord holds them in derision.
5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath,
and terrify them in his fury, saying,
6 “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”
7 I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me,
“You are my Son; today I have begotten you.
8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession.
9 You shall break them with a rod of iron
and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
be warned, O rulers of the earth.
11 Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,
for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
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Pray Aloud:
Father, be glorified in __________ ,
let Your Kingdom and will be done,
in and through __________ as it is in Heaven.
Give _________ daily bread,
and thank You for Your forgiveness.
Help me to forgive others,
as I know that You have forgiven me.
Keep __________ eyes fixed on You
and Your Word so that _______
may not sin against You.
Thank You for Your sovereign love.
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