February 27, 2019
Christ Is The Power Of God And The Wisdom Of God
It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is
foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom. So when we preach that Christ was
crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense.
1 Corinthians 1:22-23
When the Jews anticipated a
messiah, they were looking for one like King David who would lead a mighty army
to restore the fortunes of Israel. A crucified Messiah didn’t fit their
expectations. When the Greeks thought about a messiah they had in mind one like
Plato. When the Apostle Paul met with the Greek philosophers on Mars Hill, they
were amused by his description of a God who would humble himself and become
flesh. A crucified in the flesh messiah didn’t fit their expectations.
Still today, many in our world
are offended by Jesus. Still today, many in our world say the ways of Jesus are
nonsense. We live in a time when more and more the Christian faith is being
marginalized by the powerful. More and more the voices we hear in the
mainstream media are of those who are offended by Jesus, or the voices of those
who think the Christian faith is all nonsense. As I contemplate my place in
this world, I am often drawn to the Apostle Paul’s magnificent prose on the
Supremacy of Christ:
“Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before
anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God
created everything in the heavenly
realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—
such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything
was created through him and for him. He existed before anything else, and he
holds all creation together. Christ is also the head of the church, which is
his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he
is first in everything. For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in
Christ, and through him God reconciled everything
to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of
Christ’s blood on the cross” (Colossians 1:16-20)
My Takeaway: I raise my voice to the naysayers and proclaim with
Paul, “. . . to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles,
Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24). Yes and
Amen.
Sē’lah
Alex
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(Selah is a word that appears in the
Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my
correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about
these things.)
These
meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his
way of life. The meditations are
published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/
and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may
subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by
subscription.
Publications by Alex M. Knight:
·
Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New
Testament and Psalms has been
published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.
·
The second
edition of First Think – Then Pray
is available on Amazon Kindle.
·
Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus
Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.
Unless
otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the New Living
Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House
Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream,
Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
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