The Word of the Cross: Foolishness or Power

By Stan Lemke

Paul writes, 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 Cor. 1:18, NASU).

The word of the cross is the unveiled story of the Gospel, our salvation. It speaks of Gods purpose in the cross, the power of the cross, even the plan and mystery of the cross.

The cross is seen as either Foolishness or Power foolishness by those who are perishing, those who have ignored God their entire life and yet think that they will, one day, live in His heaven. Whereas, to those who are being saved, the cross is the very power of God!

The Word of the Cross is a study of the Gospel, the good news of reconciliation with God. We begin by seeking to understand the question Why the cross? We observe as God builds a bridge of trust by demonstrating his own faithfulness through the generations, giving us signs and tokens of remembrance of his grace. We will see that the cost of our sin debt is beyond our reach, that only God could provide a means to cover it. We will look upon the paschal lambJesus Christas the only solution to that debt. We will come face-to-face with the cross and observe as our sin debt is paid. Finally, we will look beyond the cross to understand what this means for us, even now.

The word of the cross is life, life eternal.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Nov 22, 2016
• ISBN: 9781512764062

Stan Lemke

Stan Lemke is committed to rigorous Bible Study and has written the following books: Walking with the Master, A Matter of the Heart, The Word of the Cross, and now Glad Tidings of Great Joy.

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Copyright © 2016 Stan Lemke.

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Unless otherwise indicated or if marked NKJV, Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NASU are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE ®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version ® (ESV®), Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Cover photo by Carrie Lemke

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-6407-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-6408-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-6406-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016919115

WestBow Press rev. date: 11/22/2016

Contents

Dedication

Introduction

Why the Cross?

Token: A Remembrance of God’s Promises

God will Provide

God’s Paschal Lamb

Sin’s Debt is Paid

Ambassadors for Christ

Dedication

To my loving wife Sharon,

My greatest friend, my partner, and my advocate!

My happiness and my strength.

Thank you for always being there!

Introduction

Paul writes (1 Corinthians 1:18): 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. NASU

The word of the cross, that’s an odd phrase, isn’t it? What does Paul mean by the word of the cross? Some have translated this as the message of the cross pointing us towards the gospel, the good news of Salvation in Jesus Christ, and it certainly is that. But it is also much more. The Greek word that Paul used here is logos from which we get the word logic. So more than just its message, Paul is directing our attention to the entire story of the cross: to God’s purpose and rationale for the cross, the efficacy and power of the cross, even the plan and the mystery behind the cross – each a demonstration of God’s grace and power as He reconciled and restored the world unto Himself; the unveiled story of our salvation.

Salvation, this too, is almost a foreign word these days. We are flesh, that is, physical and emotional beings under the constant bombardment of desires and impulses over which we seem to have little control. Thus, spiritual needs and concerns, like salvation, often take the back seat to the more pressing issues of the times. Only during periods of illness, or when our lives are brutally interrupted by a dear one’s passing, do we pause to consider our own mortality and the spiritual element of life. Then, under such difficult circumstances, we often shove these disturbing thoughts aside with clichéd comments like they are in a better place now, rather than to face the bitter, even frightening reality of death and judgment.

Foolishness or Power – Paul accurately summarizes humanity’s opinion of the Cross as being either foolishness, or the power of God. Foolishness to those who are perishing, who have no time for God or His word. Foolishness to those who refuse to honor the One who gave them life, to those who feel no desire to thank Him or praise Him for His many blessings, to worship Him for Who He is, or even to know Him. Foolishness, yes – foolishness that having rejected Him their entire life, they somehow think that they still deserve to live in His heaven for all eternity when they die.

Whereas, to those who are being saved, we see the word of the cross and its amazing story, to be the power of a gracious and loving God who reached into the world and offered up His Son – that all who would believe in Him, all who trust in His promises, might come to be His own and thereby know that we will live with Him, both now and forever.

Salvation is a gift that was purchased at great cost on the cross. It is offered freely to everyone. But, unless we know the One who paid the price, believe that He truly is the Son of God who died for us and who was raised up on the third day, then this gift is like cool water spilt out upon the hot desert sand.

The Word of the Cross is a study of the gospel, of God’s revealed plan of salvation. We will begin our study by seeking to understand God’s answer to: Why the cross? We will observe as God builds a bridge of trust to demonstrate His own faithfulness through the generations, giving us tokens of remembrance of His grace. We will see that the payment of our sin debt is beyond our reach, a debt for which only God can provide, and we will look upon the Pascal Lamb – the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. Finally, we will come face-to-face with the cross itself and observe as our own sin debt is paid, expunged, once and for all, the innocent given that we might live. Then, we will look beyond the cross to see what this means for us, here and now. Accordingly, my prayer is that as we go through this study and begin to understand what God has done – and why He did it, that we might be empowered all the more to share His good news with those around us that through the Word and our own witness, people might see the power of God, and know Him as Savior.

Lesson 1

Why the Cross?

I grew up on a small farm in North Dakota. One of my favorite memories of those years came one fall as we were wrapping up the wheat harvest. My job was repositioning the truck in the fields so that Dad could unload the combine without a lot of down time. But driving in the fields was the extent of my authority, so when the last load was finished, Dad took the combine home and I waited with the truck until Mom could bring him out to get it. In his effort to finish, Dad had pushed well into the evening thus darkness was already upon us as he’d unloaded the last hopper of wheat.

With the quiet of nightfall settling in, I could feel the heat rising from the field as the refreshing coolness of a September night blanketed the field around me. The wind was calm, the sky clear, and being a mile or so from just about everything and everyone… it seemed to me as if time itself had grown still. I stood there, transfixed. Looking up at the sky, I saw the wonder of the stars as never before. As I watched, the darkened sky was filled with amazing specks of brilliance as the last remaining wisps of sunlight slipped away. I was utterly astonished by the sight of it all. Then, with the sound of perfect restful silence all around me, I bowed my head at the thought of Almighty God, who with the simple words Let there be… created it all.

Now, some fifty years later as I look around, the world is not so peaceful as it once was. In fact, the world is in trouble. It seems broken, even as it struggles against disease and hunger. It is beset with violence, terrorism, warfare; it is so full of hatred and anger that it appears destined for self-destruction. So we must ask: What went wrong? even as we mentally recall the story of Adam and Eve. But the answer to that question may very well surprise you because, from God’s perspective, even though this is not what He desires for us – from His perspective, there were no surprises, nothing unexpected happened. In that sense, nothing went wrong. Please don’t misunderstand; God hates sin and what sin does. But God knew from the start that sin would enter the world through Adam and Eve; He knew that it would become a plague of global proportion. But God also had a plan to deal with sin, a plan which He had established even before the foundation of the world; a plan whereby He would send Jesus, His only begotten Son to be the Lamb, the author of our salvation (1 Peter 1:18-21)¹.

But, if that’s true, if God knew that this was going to happen, then: Why, why did God do it? If God knew that mankind was going to be capable of so much wickedness and evil, so much terrible destruction – then why did He create us, give us life? The answer to that question is best explained by way of reference to a story that Jesus told – a parable. Jesus said (Matthew 13:45) that the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant who was seeking beautiful pearls, and who, when he had found one such pearl, a pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had so he could buy it. Yes, man is capable of much cruelty, but God also sees great value in each and every one of us. Thus He willingly gave up what was most precious to Him, His Son, in order that He might purchase each of us (you and me) and free us from the power and destruction of sin – that we might live with Him, forever. Such is the awesome love of God!

The cross was not a Plan B, it wasn’t God’s response to man’s disobedience, it wasn’t a last resort or an act of desperation. The cross was God’s singular plan from the very beginning. The cross was the means by which God would reconcile us to Himself – the means by which we might fully enjoy life and fellowship with Him, forever. Consequently, we must conclude that all of this is precisely what God had expected, from the very beginning.

Shocked? If one’s focus is on this life, on the here and now, then perhaps understandably so. But as dear as this life may seem, as final as it might appear, this life is not the purpose, nor the objective of God’s creative work. Rather, this is just the beginning. God’s plan for us is, and always has been: life eternal. His plan, and its wonders, are only vaguely captured by words like heaven and paradise, its splendor loosely described as mansions, its magnificence depicted as a city with streets of gold. God’s plan for us dwarfs our very imagination.

With these thoughts in mind we should embrace a new perspective as we look again at God’s word and strive to understand the story of His love and forgiveness, even as we begin to answer the question, Why the cross? Let us turn then to the Book of Genesis, with fresh eyes, for herein we can already see the foundation of God’s plan of salvation being revealed.

The Bible and the story of Creation is an amazing work. But even as we start to read it, we need to recognize that the Bible is not a scientific journal and does not attempt to explain How? God created anything that He made. At the same time, the creation account from Genesis is neither folklore nor simple metaphor. What the Bible presents is a unique perspective on creation that is told to us from the vantage point of an eyewitness who observed and recorded the entire event, namely God Himself. Moreover, it is offered to us in an ancient yet picturesque language; Hebrew, making it both mysterious and beautiful.

Open your Bible to Genesis, chapter 1; we will begin with verse 1.

Genesis 1:1-5

In the beginning God created… There was a beginning, a time of starting. A time in which God initiated the action and spoke the words by which the heavens and the earth were given form and substance. Please recognize that the beginning refers to God’s creative work, not to God – for God has existed, and will continue to exist, forever.

The earth was without form and void… The earth had no form, no shape, no substance. In our mind we might picture a great abyss, something we might even associate with the depths of space, but the concept that is presented here more accurately points to the idea of utter nothingness.

Darkness was on the face of the deep… The Bible uses language often associated with water because water has no shape or form; it uses an image of darkness and water to express the idea of the unknown and mystery. Both of these continue to present us with this notion of a formless void, nothingness. One of the great differences between the Biblical accounting of creation and man’s attempt to explain our existence through theories like the Big Bang, is that the Bible states that in the beginning, as God began His creative work, that there was nothing; just vast emptiness and darkness.

And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. The face, or surface of the waters provides reference to this great void which God is about to fill with His creation of the heavens and the earth. In one sense this is a beautiful picture of God as He pauses, ready to begin His creative work, but at the same time this points us to the person of the Holy Spirit who is also there, observing and recording all that is about to take place. Thereby, the entire Trinity was present and active at creation; Father, Son (John 1:1-3)², and Holy Spirit.

Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. Much has been said and written about God’s first creative act; to make light. There is wonderful poetry in the fact that God the Father, through His Son Jesus – the Light of the world (John 8:12)³, would begin the work of creation by making light. But the act of creating light is not as simple as turning on a switch or lighting a match when the universe itself is vast emptiness. With these simple words, Let there be light… God set the boundaries of three-dimensional space and created the universe that we live in. He defined and established all of the physical laws that govern space, time, energy, and matter. He started the clock that measures all our days, and He marked the year, month, day, hour, minute, and second in which it will all end. In short, through these simple words, God laid the very foundation for all of creation, heaven and earth – even as He created within it the wonder of light.

SOAPBOX (a little personal commentary): Now this is a good time to decide how we are going to approach the rest of this chapter, and in fact the rest of our study. Many people struggle with the whole concept of creation, and especially with the idea that there is a Creator-God. There are a lot of people, very intelligent people, who have set forth very intriguing theories about the origins of the universe, the origins of life, evolution… and there are well-intentioned Christians who have tried to reconcile these ideas by suggesting that God used evolution and billions and billions of years to accomplish this. So the question before us is this: When God said, ‘Let there be…’, did whole galaxies instantly appear, did trees with rings and full grown animals spring up even as the fossil record was formed in the ground; or by these words did God initiate a creative process? Despite our desire to know more, the Bible simply does not address how God created anything – besides, who are we kidding; we’d never understand it anyway! Having said that, the Bible is very specific to say that the