The Power of the Cross

Passage: 1 Corinthians 1:18-25

Focus: “The word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (v. 18)

     The words are few, but the message is potent:

Our God is an awesome God; He reigns from heaven above,

With wisdom, power, and love; our God is an awesome God.

We serve a powerful and awesome God. Paul wrote that the cross itself bears testimony to His strength to those of us “who are being saved.”

The cross provides salvation on three levels. As an old grammar teacher, I like to think of salvation in three tenses. You WERE saved. The past tense of salvation is justification. The moment you called on Christ as Lord and Savior you were snatched from death unto life. You were saved from the penalty of sin.

Salvation’s present tense is sanctification; you ARE BEING saved. Each day as you walk with Jesus, sin loses more and more of its grip on your life. You are being saved from the power of sin.

There is also a future tense to salvation; you WILL BE saved. This is glorification. There is a coming day when we will stand before our Savior. We will see Him as He is. What a day that will be when we are saved from the very presence of sin.

This is a mystery to those who do not know Jesus. They find it foolish that we would build our lives around a 2000-year-old event. To them the word of the cross is, in the words of Marx, “the opiate of the people.” But what the world calls wisdom leads to destruction and what they dismiss as fantasy is the only way to life (v. 21). The god they serve is weak. Our God is an awesome God!

This is the God we introduce to the men, women, boys, and girls of the Dakotas. The responses we receive will be varied. Some will mock, others will be angry. Many will yawn with indifference. The good news, though, is that our God is an awesome God . . . and many that we talk to will bow their knee and experience the power of the cross.

As we approach the Easter season, thank God for the power of the cross, which has saved you, is saving you, and will save you. And celebrate the power of His resurrection, which gives us the strength to “be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain” (1 Cor. 15:58).

“There is also a future tense to salvation; you WILL BE saved. This is glorification. There is a coming day when we will stand before our Savior. We will see Him as He is. What a day that will be when we are saved from the very presence of sin.”