"For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect." (1 Corinthians 1:17)
Some use this as an excuse to marginalize baptism in water. As far as I can see in the Scripture, baptism is not an option. Refusal to be baptized in water in Jesus' Name is to refuse the New Birth. No one has the rebellious choice to decide which commandments of Jesus to keep or break. To those who say, "What about the thief on a cross," I say, You are not on a cross.
Our text is not a minimalizing of baptism. Rather, it is a maximizing of the Cross of Jesus Christ. Note the contrast between, "with wisdom of words," and, "the cross of Christ." Clever, always- attempting-to-shock-with-"new-revelation"-preaching, or hackneyed words all make, "the cross of Christ...of no effect." Of course no person, no demonic force can ever make, "the cross of Christ...of no effect," but they do so for themselves and their hearers if people do not walk away in awe of Father's mercy and grace revealed in, "the cross of Christ." I can remember when this awe first came to me.
My Dad was preaching in a Good Friday service back in the mid 1960s. He was preaching on one of the seven last words of Christ from the Cross. I don't remember which one, but I shall never forget the impartation of that message. It was as though, in the words of the old song, "I Stood at Calvary." This is not nostalgic remembrance of my Dad; this is for me a great "memorial." I can only wish and pray I could carry, "a double portion of [his] spirit," on this.
Can you say today, "I Stood at Calvary"? Some of us have literally, but more important, I desire whatever appreciation I can receive in this life of, "the cross of Christ." I repeat the phrase of Billy Graham, "The cross is the pivotal point of history," and, we can say of our lives. At the cross our Lord Jesus Christ dealt with our sin, rebellion, wickedness, iniquity. It is at the cross I am reconciled with the Living Triune God, in the Blood, in the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Father, in Jesus' Name, I pray for more of what my Dad "saw" of Your cross. Amen.
***********************
Read "The Goal of Obama's Foreign Policy," by Carolyn Glick at: jhs58.blogspot.com
When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
"Looking unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
"Looking unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
