This week I have been pondering “The Foolish Cross” with you, based on 1 Corinthians 1:18-31. I chose to do this to lead up to today, Good Friday, where the cross took on an entirely different meaning for the world. Jesus was not the first or the last person killed on a cross. But His death on that horrible instrument made the cross significant for everyone. Believers know that is where He accomplished the payment for our sins.

There are people who have heard the same Gospel message that you have heard, yet it had the opposite result. There are people today who hear this Good News, yet do not come to faith. There will be those who accept the Good News, but there will also be those that regard it as foolish. It all depends on that person’s perspective. Consider the temperature 32° Fahrenheit. That is the freezing point of water. Yet it is also the melting point! If the temperature is falling, water will freeze at 32°. If the temperature is rising, ice will melt at 32°. The same temperature will freeze or melt. Pass it in either direction, and you will get opposite results. And so it is with people. They are exposed to the same Gospel message of Jesus as the Savior of the world. Their spiritual thermometer will either rise or fall. It is growing either warmer or colder. At the critical point, some hearts yield to the Holy Spirit, or melt, and they are numbered among the faithful. But others freeze, harden and stiffen. With a rising temperature, the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. But with a falling temperature, it is a stumbling block and foolishness.

This message of the cross, as necessary as it may be, was not welcomed in Paul’s world. It is not welcome in our world today, either. I read an article about a man on a long plane trip. The conversation with the couple behind him turned to spiritual matters. They were into New Age. The wife had been raised Protestant, the husband as a Jew. They said they had read parts of the New Testament and that they loved Jesus. They also loved Buddha and Mohammed. They would no doubt be considered enlightened and wise by the worlds standards. How would you have responded to these people? “My, isn’t that interesting” or “Oh, that’s nice” would be the socially acceptable response. But this man chose to speak his faith instead. He said that he was glad they had read parts of the New Testament, but that they needed to read more. “If you had,” he said, “you would know that the Jesus you say you love says to you ‘If you love Me, keep my commandments.’ (John 14:15). And He claimed to be the only way to salvation: ‘No one comes to the Father but by Me.’” (John 14:6).

This is the message that is needed throughout the world, whether it is welcomed or not. Some say that proclaiming Christ as the exclusive means to salvation is being intolerant, disagreeable, narrow, even foolish. But as followers of Jesus, we must proclaim this message to the world. We have a command to tell the truth. The cross may sound foolish or moronic, but it is the only way to be saved. Our calling as Christians is to declare it: personally as well as through pastors and missionaries and all forms of ministry.

Only the message of the cross has the power and the wisdom of God. Only the message of the cross offers forgiveness of sins and eternal life. On Calvary, the Lord Jesus innocently suffered and died as a common criminal to pay the penalty for your sins, the righteous for the unrighteous. By God’s grace you have had this foolish cross proclaimed to you.