THE
FOOLISHNESS
OF THE CROSS
“Dead Men Laughing”
1 Corinthians 1:18 (NASB) For the word of
the cross is foolishness to those who are
perishing, but to us who are being saved it
is the power of God.
1 Corinthians 1:18-25 (p.130)
Here at Easter time the focus is on the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. But all too
often the message of the cross gets lost in the shuffle. The message of the cross is the
message of life and that is what I want us to hear today.
Before we can understand Paul’s message to us we have to understand spiritual death.
Ever since the original sin of Adam back in the Garden of Eden every person is born
spiritually dead (Eph. 2:1) - that is, they have no capacity to have a relationship with
God. They are spiritually separated from God. This is why each person needs spiritual
life. God desires each one of us to be made spiritually alive, to have eternal life and live
with Him forever.
The message of life is what God says must be believed in order to receive this eternal
spiritual life. The message of the cross must be believed.
Paul tells us that the word, message or story of the cross is foolishness to those that are
perishing. Those who are perishing are those who are spiritually dead – those are
without spiritual eternal life – those who are destined for eternal death. Eternal death
speaks of being separated from God forever in the Lake of Fire – it is also called the
Second Death in Revelation 21:8. This is not annihilation, it is a conscious suffering.
The message of the cross is the true Gospel that brings eternal spiritual life if believed:
Romans 1:16 (NASB) For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God
for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
In Romans 1:16 “salvation” means “delivered.” The deliverance here means two things:
1. to be delivered from this Second Death, and
2. to be delivered to eternal life
In other words, those “who are perishing” {destined for the Second Death} can now
have “salvation” {eternal life} and they get this life by simply believing Jesus Christ for
it. This is how God’s “power” works.
Look back at v.18b in the text. Beloved, I do not want you to miss this fact: under the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit Paul breaks down the world of human beings into just two
classes of people:
1. Those who are perishing (lost: lost now and for all eternity)
2. Those who are saved
These are only two types of people in the world! Everybody in group 2 was once in
group 1. See Matthew 7:13-14: the broad way and the narrow way – no “on the way”
type! No “in-between” type!
v.18-20: Foolishness means that unbelievers – those without eternal life – consider
this truth of the Gospel message of life that must be believed to be silly and even
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absurd. They do not think it makes sense. By their own “wisdom” {human viewpoint
thinking or the “wisdom” – thought systems – “of the world”, v.20b} they cannot
accept that one receives eternal life by simply believing Jesus for that life.
Many times they do not think that they even need such life because by their “wisdom”
and “cleverness” they figure they will live in some wonderful happy forever but certainly
not in the Lake of Fire. They think they have nothing to be saved from!
v.21: Man’s best thinking cannot come to know God experientially – that is, to have a
spiritual relationship with Him. But the situation is not hopeless! God has a message that
is preached (proclaimed), a specific message that will “save” (remember our definition
above) if it is believed.
God has established a means by which one can receive this salvation if they will believe
it.
Let’s get our word meaning right: biblically, the word “believe” means to be convinced
that something is true. God is saying that in order to be “saved” (receive eternal life), a
person has to be convinced that something is true.
v.22: various people always have ideas as to what they are looking for in spiritual
things. The Jews, like many today, wanted to see works of power (miracles) and they
wanted a political savior. The Gentiles wanted the message to be an intellectual “smart
thing” that affirmed their self-centeredness – they wanted an intellectual savior. Both
considered the cross to be a disgrace and foolish. Both considered the idea of death on
a cross to be the means by which salvation comes to be laughable.
v.23a: this is how God in His perfect wisdom made a plan whereby sinful man could
receive eternal life and come into the presence of a holy and righteous God to live
forever. What do we proclaim? Christ crucified!
The work of Christ on the cross is what makes it possible for Christ to offer eternal
spiritual life to all who will believe Him for it.
v.23b: because God did not give salvation in the way man wanted it, or thought it
should be, the spiritually dead Jews fell over the simple proclamation and the spiritually
dead Gentiles thought it was foolish.
Together, the perishing (the spiritually dead) laughed at
the message of Christ crucified (His spiritual substitutionary
death for us – in our place) so that by faith alone we could
receive the free gift of eternal life.
Today the spiritually dead, those who are headed for an
eternal separation from God, still laugh at the simple
message of life that we proclaim. It is foolishness to them.
v.24-25: Christ is the true power and wisdom to those
who believe. It is true power because it takes the power of
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God to give eternal spiritual life to spiritually dead people. All human power is worthless.
Believers understand that salvation can ever be achieved by works, rituals, human
wisdom, or any personal contribution to or cooperation with God. They know that Christ
alone can give that eternal life and when they believe Him for it he gives it to them as a
free gift.
v.25: the foolishness of God – that God would use the death of Christ on a cross to
make your salvation possible. The foolishness of God is His wisdom in making our
salvation so simple a young child can understand it and believe.
It is foolishness in man’s eyes because in his pride man wants to qualify for personal
salvation; man wants to think that by his “goodness” and religion he can earn God’s
approval.
Since the message of life is so simple it seems foolish to man’s thinking.
Beloved, God does not and will not grant eternal life on your terms – you come by His or
you do not come at all!
v.25:the weakness of God – crucifixion on a cross seems to be, in human viewpoint
thinking, a display of weakness. But in reality it is a display of the true power of God.
The cross makes possible what man through his thinking, his science, his religion, his
best efforts can never achieve – eternal life!
Anytime a person thinks that eternal life can be achieved by any means other than as a
gift by the grace of God that is received by faith alone, then that person is saying that
God’s plan of salvation is foolishness.
The message of the cross simply says that Jesus Christ has already fully paid the penalty
for sin by His work on the cross. It was there he died as your substitute. Thus Jesus is
the only One Who is qualified to give you eternal life. He gives that life to you on the
basis of faith alone.
When you know that you can in no way contribute to your receiving eternal life and that
Jesus alone can give you that life then and only then have you believed Him for that life.
Are you convinced that this is true?
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BY
GRACE
THIS IS THE
THROUGH
MESSAGE TO
BE BELIEVED:
FAITH
THE OBJECT OF FAITH
IS JESUS CHRIST
HE ALONE GIVES
NOT
ETERNAL LIFE
HUMAN GOOD
WORKS
RITUALS OF ANY KIND
TURNING FROM SIN
CONFESSING CHRIST
CHURCH
BAPTISM
John 6:47
Ephesians 2:8-9
Eternal
Life
Titus 3:5
ACTS 16:31
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FAITH OR BELIEVE MEANS TO BE CONVINCED IT IS TRUE – I
CANNOT CONTRIBUTE TO MY SALVATION AND JESUS ALONE
GIVES ME ETERNAL LIFE WHEN I BELIEVE HIM FOR THAT LIFE!
Which do you believe?
SALVATION
BY WORKS ALONE
WA
C+W
SALVATION BY
CHRIST PLUS
GOOD WORKS
INCLUDING
RELIGIOUS
RITUALS
TO BELIEVE EITHER OF THE TWO
ABOVE IS TO CONSIDER THE MESSAGE
OF LIFE TO BE “FOOLISHNESS.”
SALVATION BY FAITH
ALONE IN
CHRIST ALONE
CA
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JESUS
PROMISES
ETERNAL LIFE
IN HIM
FOR THAT LIFE
TO ALL WHO
BELIEVE
John 3:16 (NASB) "For God so loved the world, that He
gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him
shall not perish, but have eternal life.
John 3:36 (NKJV) He who
believes in the Son has everlasting
life; and he who does not believe
the Son shall not see life, but the
wrath of God abides on him."
John 14:6 (NKJV) Jesus said to
him, "I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No one comes to the
Father except through Me.
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