LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
A Strange Way to Save
The Jews, in Jesus' time, had a strange obsession: they wanted at all costs for Jesus to perform some spectacular miracle that would prove that he was the Messiah. However, he systematically rejected such claims. The Jews were not satisfied with the testimony that God had given in so many ways about his Son; they expected a political leader who would deliver them from Roman power, a man capable of performing miracles, like those performed by Moses at the departure from Egypt.
However, the Lord was the opposite of this image: he was meek, simple and poor; and when he performed miracles, he took away all spectacular profile. So, according to the practical and interested Jewish mentality, Jesus could not be the Messiah.
Another people, like the Jews, had a strange obsession: they were the Greeks. But their obsession was not "signs", but wisdom. They were characterized by the depth of their thought; they sought to clarify the mysteries of the world and of life using their intelligence alone. In Paul's day, when the gospel spread to Greece, they were interested in hearing him, and proposed that he should speak.
But when Paul came to speak on the resurrection of Christ, they mocked him and went away. The resurrection of a man did not fit their mentality. They would have expected an orderly argumentation in which, given certain postulates, others would have been derived from them, without forcing the logic of thought. But the apostle was categorical and asserted things that he did not logically demonstrate.
Moreover, he told them that God had passed over the times of ignorance, and now commanded men to repent. The Greeks, treated as ignorant by a despicable Jew? It was more than they could accept (Acts 17:16-34). Paul says that "it pleased God to save those who believed by the foolishness of preaching". God rejects the way of miracles -although he works miracles- and the way of human wisdom. God has decided to save man by a strange method: "preaching".
Preaching is simply the exposition by words of certain spiritual truths. It requires that the hearer simply hear, and the preaching itself will produce faith in his heart to believe. Salvation comes to man clothed in simplicity, not by miracles, not by "excellency of words or of wisdom", but by a preaching of the death of Christ on the cross to save sinners. Acceptance of this fact gives men eternal life. To hear the word of the cross and to believe in the Crucified One is sufficient to attain salvation.
This is God's strange method, which is able to reach all men, without distinction. God's method is the preaching of the cross of Christ, the Savior of all men (1 Cor. 1:21).