God's
Foolishness
On the south coast of China on a hill overlooking the harbor of Macao, Portuguese settlers once built a massive cathedral. But a typhoon proved stronger than the work of man's hands, and some centuries ago the building fell in ruins except for the front wall. High on the top of that jutting wall, challenging the elements down through the years, is a great bronze cross. In 1825 Sir John Bowring was shipwrecked near there. Clinging to the wreckage of his ship, at long last he caught sight of that great cross, which showed him where he could find safety. This dramatic rescue moved him to write those words familiar to millions:
In the cross of Christ I glory,
Towering o'er the wrecks of time;
All the light of sacred story,
Gathers round its head sublime.
When the Apostle Paul went to the great intellectual city of Corinth he said: "For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified" (1 Cor. 2:2). And when someone asked him what his message was, he answered: "We preach Christ crucified" (1 Cor. 1:23).
To the people of Corinth the preaching of the cross was ridiculous, foolish, and even idiotic. But Paul said: "The foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men" (1 Cor. 1:25). In that great center, the cross of Christ was a stumbling block to the children of
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Israel — and to the Gentiles it was idiocy! The intellectual Corinthians demanded a man-made system of philosophy predicated on the ability of unregenerate man to unravel the divine mysteries. They wanted something their minds could grasp. Yet Paul says that the natural man cannot understand the things of God (1 Cor. 2:14). We do not need to understand the chemical elements of a remedy to benefit from it. This should not seem unreasonable. A doctor writes a prescription which we cannot read for the treatment of a disease we do not understand, and we gladly pay a sum which may seem unreasonable because we rely on authoritative knowledge and have faith that we will be made well. Before the cross has any meaning at all, the Spirit of God must open the mind. The Scriptures teach that our minds are covered by a veil as a result of our separation from God. To an "outsider" the cross must appear to be ridiculous and foolish. However, to those of us who have experienced its transforming power, it has become the only remedy for the ills of the individual and the world.
The Gospel of Christ and Him crucified is still foolishness to millions throughout the world. Long ago Paul asked the question: "Where is . . . the philosopher? Where is . . . the scholar? Where is . . . the debater of this present time and age? Has not God shown up the nonsense and the folly of this world's wisdom? For when the world with all its earthly wisdom failed to perceive and recognize and know God by means of its own philosophy, God in His wisdom was pleased through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believed" (1 Cor. 1:20, 21).
"We preach Christ crucified." The cross is the focal point in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. It was no afterthought or emergency measure with God. Christ was "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev. 13:8). The cross
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was designed to defeat Satan, who by deception had obtained squatters' rights to the title of the earth.
Many of the great words of Scripture are legal terms. Something was wrong in the universe. A great injustice had been perpetrated, and God was just. All of these are legal terms: justification (Romans 5:1), reconciliation (Ephesians 2:16), redemption (Luke 2:38), condemnation (John 3:19), advocate (1 John 2:1).
When Satan by his wiles separated man from God in the Garden of Eden, he was more than the deceiver of the first couple. In some mysterious manner he exerted a kind of pseudosovereignty over man. But Satan's power was broken at Calvary. "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8). On the cross Satan was dealt a delayed deathblow. Although Satan is still the pretender and the usurper, his end and destruction were made certain by the victory of Christ at the cross. "That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil" (Hebrews 2:14).
If it were possible for one man, Adam, to lead the race to ruin, why should it not be possible for one man to redeem it? The Bible says: "In Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Cor. 15:22). Through the cross Christ rescued the slaves that Satan held captive — and reconciled them unto Himself. The Bible describes this divine plan in these words: "We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory" (1 Cor. 2:7-8). This was the eternal secret. This was "the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest" (Romans 16:25-26).
Just as Rommel, "the Desert Fox," was stopped by the
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Allies' employing his very methods, so Satan was stopped by God and caught in his own trap. He had not figured on God's loving the world so intensely as to let His own Son be subjected to the worst Satan could do; and because the devil miscalculated the greatness of God's love and the wisdom of His plan, Satan was shorn of his authority and power at the cross. What seemed to be the biggest defeat of history turned into the greatest triumph.
Atonement
When William Tyndale was translating the New Testament into English, he encountered great difficulty in finding a word big enough to convey the meaning of the redeeming work of Christ. Finding no adequate word, Tyndale joined two simple words — "at" and "onement," thus making "atonement" and giving in its etymology a clue to the Bible's teaching of salvation by reconciliation. In Christ's death on the cross, God and man, who had been severed by sin, were brought together by the cross. If man's sins could have been forgiven any other way, God would not have allowed His Son to go to the cross. If the problems of the world could have been solved any other way, God would not have allowed Jesus to die. In the garden of Gethsemane on the night before Calvary, Jesus prayed: "If it be possible, let this cup pass from me" (Matthew 26:39). In other words, if there is any other way to redeem the human race, Oh God, find it! There was no other way. And then He prayed: "Not as I will, but as thou wilt" (Matthew 26:39).
The orthodox Jewish religion was founded on the sacrificial system. When God entered into the covenant relationship with Israel, in which He was to be their God and they were
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to be in a special sense His people (Deut. 7:7), that relationship was founded on the law. But the people could not keep the law perfectly. The breaking of the law was sin. The Bible says: "Sin is the transgression of the law" (1 John 3:4). When God gave the law, He knew that man was incapable of keeping it. Many persons are confused as to why God gave the law if He knew man could not possibly keep it. The Bible teaches that the law was given as a mirror; I look into the law and see my spiritual condition. I see how far short I come, and this drives me to the cross of Christ for forgiveness. "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith" (Galatians 3:24). The Bible teaches that this is why Christ came — to redeem them that were under the law. Man could not keep the law; he was condemned by the law.
Sin had to be atoned for, so in the beginning God instituted the sacrificial system by which man could be brought into a right relationship with God. This is why John the Baptist said: "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). Under the Jewish law those who had offended brought sacrifices of lambs and offered them to God. These sacrifices were types and shadows of The Great Sacrifice that was yet to come.
The sacrifices offered on Hebraic altars pointed to the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. These sacrifices were instituted not because God was bloodthirsty or unjust in His demands, but that the attention of men might be directed to the loathsomeness and awfulness of sin and to the cross, where God Himself would provide an eternal sacrifice that would satisfy forever the demands of His justice. "Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us" (Hebrews 9:12).
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In Christ's atonement for sin, He stood in the guilty sinner's place. If God had forgiven sin by a divine decree without atonement, which involved the personal shame, agony, suffering, and death of Christ, then man could assume that God overlooked, winked at, or was indifferent to sin. Thus man would go on sinning, and earth would have become a living hell. But in the suffering of Jesus we have the participation of God in the act of atonement. Sin pierced the very heart of God. God felt every piercing nail and spear thrust. God felt the burning sun. God felt the mocking derision and the body blows. Here in the cross is the suffering love of God bearing the guilt of man's sin, which alone is able to melt the sinner's heart and bring him to repentance for salvation. "For he has made him to be sin for us" (2 Corinthians 5:21).
The Cross of Christ
The heart of the Christian Gospel with its incarnation and atonement is in the cross and the resurrection. Jesus was born to die. Jesus did for man what man cannot do for himself. He did it through the cross and the resurrection. Today we look for man-made philosophical panaceas. Discussions and debates go on in every center of learning in a search for ultimate wisdom and its resultant happiness. No solution has been found. We still wrestle with the same philosophical problems that concerned Plato and Aristotle. We are searching for a way out of our dilemma, and the universal sign we see is "no exit." But the cross presents itself in the midst of our dilemma as our only hope. Here we find the justice of God in perfect satisfaction — the mercy of God extended to the sinner — the love of God covering every need — the power of God for every emergency — the glory of God for every
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occasion. Here is power enough to transform human nature. Here is power enough to change the world.
Thousands of people suffer from guilt complexes. Almost everyone senses that somehow they are wrong, like the little boy who said: "I guess I was just born wrong." God said from the cross: "I love you." He was also saying: "I can forgive you." The most glorious and thrilling word in any language is "forgiveness." God in Christ had a basis for forgiveness. Because Christ died, God can justify the sinner and still be just.
Christ's dying on the cross was more than the death of a martyr. It was more than His setting a good example by offering His life for His fellow man. His was the sacrifice that God had appointed and ordained to be the one and only sacrifice for sin. The Scripture says: "The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all . . . it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he has put him to grief" (Isaiah 53:6, 10). Because God Himself has set forth Christ to be the covering for human guilt, then God cannot possibly reject the sinner who accepts Jesus Christ as Saviour. "Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood" (Romans 3:25). This is what the communion table in the church is all about. Every time we eat the bread we are remembering the body of Christ nailed to the cross for us, and every time we drink the wine we are remembering the blood that was shed on the cross as a covering for our sins. A little girl, seeing a cross on the communion table, asked: "Mama, what is that plus sign doing on the table?" The cross is God's great plus sign of history.
Christ's atonement is sufficient because God said it is. I know that I am a sinner. I know that I have broken God's laws. I know that I have offended God countless times. My heart, mind, and conscience have been troubled. However, when by faith I look at the cross, there is peace and joy because I know
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that God was satisfied with the sacrifice of His Son. My sin was committed against God. If God is content with what Christ has done on my behalf and is willing to pardon me, then I have nothing more to worry about. I am redeemed, I am reconciled, I am forgiven, I am assured of heaven — not because of any goodness or good works of my own. It is only because of the love and mercy of God in Christ on the cross that I have any claim on heaven at all. It was God who permitted Christ to die as my substitute. It was God who accepted His sacrifice when He died.
When Jesus took our place, our sins were laid on Him, and our sins cannot be in two places at the same time. All of my sin was laid on Christ, and I have no sin charged to me for which God will ever hold me accountable. My sin has become Christ's burden. He has taken it away from me. He has become the sin-bearer. All my indebtedness to God was transferred to Christ. He paid all my debts. I will never suffer the shame of judgment or the terrors of hell. "As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us" (Psalm 103:12).
You may say: "But I don't understand all this." How ridiculous! If a man were drowning and I threw him a lifebelt, would he say: "I will not put this lifebelt on until I know whether it is made of rubber or cork and whether the material is strong enough to hold me." A man in danger of drowning — and he talks like this? You who are outside of Christ are incapable of comprehending the mystery of the cross as long as you are in your unregenerate state. It is not that there is not enough light for you to see the mystery. You have enough light now to drive you to the cross of Christ for mercy. By faith receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, and the cross will become the most precious thing in the world to you.
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The Evidence of Guilt
As we look at the cross we see several things. First, here is the clearest evidence of the world's guilt. At the cross of Christ sin reached it's climax. Its most terrible display took place at Calvary. It was never blacker or more hideous. We see the human heart laid bare and its corruption fully exposed. Some people have said that man has improved since that day, that if Christ had come today, He would not be crucified but would be given a glorious reception. Christ does come to us every day in the form of Bibles that we do not read, in the form of churches that we do not attend, in the form of human need that we pass by. I am convinced that if Christ came back today, He would be crucified more quickly than He was two thousand years ago. Sin never improves any more than a cancerous condition can improve. Human nature has not changed. As we stand and gaze at the cross, we see clear evidence that man is inherently wrong and we hear the inescapable verdict of God Himself: "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).
Proof That God Hates Sin
Second, in the cross we find the strongest proof of God's hatred of sin. God has said repeatedly that the soul that sins shall die. To gain a clear understanding of God's attitude toward sin, we have only to consider the purpose of Christ's death. The Scripture says: "Without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin" (Hebrews 9:22). Here is a positive statement that there can be no forgiveness of sin unless our debt has been paid. God will not tolerate sin. Moral law
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condemns and demands payment for sin. God as the moral judge of the universe cannot compromise and remain just. His holiness and His justice demand the penalty for a broken law.
The tendency today is to feel that such a position on God's part is too severe. Thus we find ourselves manufacturing another gospel: (Galatians 1:8). There are many today who ascribe sin to psychological causes. Many say that they are not responsible for what they do. But God says that we are responsible. When we look at the cross, we see how drastically God deals with sin. The Scripture says: "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32). "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin" (2 Corinthians 5:21). If God had to send His only Son to the cross in order to pay the penalty for sin, then sin must be black indeed in the sight of God.
The Glory of God's Love
Third, as we stand at the cross we see a glorious exhibition of God's love. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome: "While we were powerless to help ourselves . . . Christ died for sinful men. In human experience it is a rare thing for one man to give his life for another, even if the latter be a good man, though there have been a few who have had the courage to do it. Yet the proof of God's amazing love is this: that it was while we were sinners that Christ died for us" (Romans 5:6-8 Phillips).
A beautiful young society leader came to visit my wife and me. She had been converted to Christ in one of our crusades,
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and she was absolutely radiant in her transformation. Already, she had learned scores of Scripture verses by heart and was so full of Christ that we sat for two hours listening to her give her moving testimony. Over and over she said: "I cannot understand how God could forgive me. I have been such a wicked sinner. I just cannot understand the love of God."
The Basis of Brotherhood
Fourth, as we stand at the cross, we see in it a basis of true world brotherhood. There is a great deal of talk today about the universal Fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man. The majority of appeals made in behalf of peace are based on the idea of brotherhood. There is a sense in which God is the Father of us all by creation. But the world seems to be blinded to the fact that for men to know God spiritually as Father they must take Christ in personal salvation. Only thus are we brought into the family of God. His spiritual Fatherhood belongs only to those who trust in Him.
The Bible says that God sees two classes of men. He sees the saved and the lost, those who are going to heaven and those who are going to hell. Jesus made this plain when He said: "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few" (Matthew 7:13-14).
However, the Bible teaches that there is a glorious brotherhood and Fatherhood through the cross. "For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one, and has broken down the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility between us; having abolished in his
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flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace" (Ephesians 2:14-15). Outside the work of the cross, there is bitterness, intolerance, sedition, ill will, prejudice, lust, greed, and hatred. Within the efficacy of the cross, there is love and fellowship, new life and new brotherhood. The only human hope for peace lies at the cross of Christ, where all men, whatever their nationality or race, can become a new brotherhood.
Recently a university professor said: "There are two things that will never be solved, the problems of race and war." I say that these and all other problems can be solved, but only at the cross. The cross of Christ is not only the basis of our peace and hope; but it is also the means of our eternal salvation. The object of the cross is not only a full and free pardon; it is also a changed life, lived in fellowship with God. No wonder Paul said two thousand years ago: "We preach Christ crucified." This is the message for the world today. This is what the world calls foolishness but what God has been pleased to call wisdom.
