The message of the cross is strange to those who have never experienced its life changing power. We read in (1 Corinthians 1:18)….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. Foolishness comes from the same word which we get the word moron. To those dead in their trespasses and sin, who say the cross and the gospel is foolishness, that person is a moron. But to those being who are being saved – the gospel is powerful because it has revealed God’s power in changing us (Romans 1:16).
The cross is a stumbling block to the Jew because they want a sign from God that the message is true. How many people today want the same thing from God? Does God have to prove Himself to us? (Romans 3:3-4).
The cross is foolishness to the Gentile because it does not fit into their philosophy of who God is, or what they have made Him to be in their thinking. How many people today think the cross is foolishness, and Christ’s teachings are absurd because it doesn’t fit into their imagination of who God is. Before I was born again in Christ I was numbered with the wicked, and I was blinded to my condition and state (Ephesians 4:17-18). And this is exactly where some of you might be as you are sitting doing this devotion this morning.
How does the Bible describe the wicked (the sinner who is without Christ?
- They walk in darkness – (Proverbs 4:19)
- They are far from God – (Proverbs 15:29)
- They desire evil – (Proverbs 21:10)
- They have no peace – (Isaiah 48:22)
- They are like a troubled sea – churning up garbage – (Isaiah 57:20-21)
- There is no fear of God in them – (Psalm 36:1) (Romans 3:18)
- They are awaiting judgment – (2 Thessalonians 1:6-9)
How do we get a clean heart? How do we get rid of the sin, the condemnation, the pending judgment of wrath and death that awaits us? How do we end the cycle of practicing sin in our lives? The answer is found in the gospel of Jesus Christ!