How Christ Crucified Becomes God’s Power and God’s Wisdom to Us

How can “Christ crucified” become God’s power and God’s wisdom to us?

Does it sound like a strange prescription for the problems in your Christian life? It probably does to many of us. Yet, this was exactly what the apostle Paul prescribed for the problems among the Corinthian believers…and for us as well.

The book of Corinthians is an illustration of a “typical” Christian life and church life. By saying typical, I don’t mean normal, that is, not up to the divine standard. The Corinthians were by no means normal. They had eleven major problems spanning from division to heresy.

But Paul still considered the church there a genuine church and even referred to them as “the church of God which was in Corinth” (1 Cor. 1:2).

If we’re honest, we’d have to admit that we’re no better than they were. Yes, we to may be genuine Christians possessing God’s eternal life and Holy Spirit. Yet, we encounter many of the same problems that they did.

But we shouldn’t be discouraged. Paul presented them with a prescription that applies to us as well. In 1 Corinthians 1:23-24 he said,

But we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness, But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

But how is Christ crucified God’s power and God’s wisdom to us today?

The prescription for our problems: Christ crucified—God’s power and God’s wisdom

Our Symptoms…

We often see “Corinthian” symptoms in our Christian life and church life. For example, division is often the first problem. We can’t be one with others—our spouse, much less our fellow believers.

We all carry many divisive factors within us from our background—including all our traditions and concepts that divide us from one another.

In Paul’s day, it was the Jewish believers with their Jewish background including their religious traditions and ordinances and the Greek believers with their Greek philosophical thought, full of analyzing and criticizing.

What about us today?

Whether we’re from the east or the west, we all have certain traditions and regulations that we hold onto—possibly our religious preferences,  our different ways of living and worship. Even eating preferences alone are enough to divide people.

Also, we may not be Greeks, but we have our kind of national philosophy, domestic logic, and psychology that can easily divide us from others.

God’s Remedy…

Christ crucified as God’s wisdom

Paul knew that the only way for the Corinthians to have a healthy Christian life and an harmonious church life was for everybody to be “crucified.”

God’s wisdom is to terminate everybody—with every background, every preference, every ordinance and every concept.

The Jews with their Jewish religion had to be crucified.

The Greeks with their Greek philosophy also had to be crucified.

When everybody and everything is terminated then and only then can there be a peaceful and harmonious situation. This is God’s wisdom and this is God’s way.

Only Christ crucified could become such wisdom to us. Only Christ with His all-terminating death can deal with the dividing factors.

Christ crucified as God’s power

Wisdom gives us the plan and the way, but we still need to power to carry it out.

There is absolutely no way for any of us to shed our old background. We love it. We prefer it. We feel that our concepts are better than everybody else’s. But in God’s view this is a huge obstacle to gaining the proper Christian life and church life that He desires.

But when we see how Christ crucified becomes God’s power to us, we have the prescription for our problem. Christ didn’t only die for our sins. He was crucified to terminate every negative thing including all our religious traditions, ordinances and natural concepts!

Christ’s death is more than an historical event.  It is more than His accomplishment. Christ’s effective death has become God’s power to us. The effectiveness of Christ’s death is now the active ingredient in the Spirit as the divine “dose.”

It’s by Christ crucified as God’s power becoming our divine dose that we can be delivered from all the negative things that damage our Christian life and church life.

Now we just need to learn how to take this “dose.”

How can we take Christ crucified as our divine prescription?

Christ offered Himself to God through the eternal Spirit and in His resurrection this crucified Christ has become a life-giving Spirit for us to receive. 1 Corinthians 15:45b says,

“The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.”

All that Christ is and all that He has accomplished are now ours in the Spirit who is with our spirit. In our mind, we’re still full of “old toxic waste.” But when we turn to the Lord in our spirit, the effectiveness of His death deals with all these troubling things so we can have a sweet Christian life and church life.

We simply need to learn to turn to Him all the time. Don’t linger in your divisive mind. Exercise to stop yourself and call on the name of the Lord Jesus and to pray,

“Lord Jesus! O Lord Jesus! I need You. I open to You. I take You as God’s wisdom and God’s power. You’re the way and You’re the power. Lord, apply the effectiveness of Your death to me. Thank you, my old man has been crucified with You. Lord, keep me in Your sweet death. I love You.”

So don’t forget to take your Prescription every day!

If you’ve enjoyed Christ crucified as God’s power and God’s wisdom, please share your enjoyment in a short comment.

References and Further Reading:

The inspiration for this post came from my enjoyment of the Life-study of 1 Corinthians by Witness Lee, especially Messages 7-8. You can freely read it online at Ministrybooks.org.