Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Corinthians 1:23
But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;
23. but we preach Christ crucified ] The Christian doctrine was the very reverse of what Jews and Greeks demanded. Instead of Messiah upon an earthly throne, triumphant over his enemies, instead of a skilful and original disputant, the Christian preachers speak of a condemned criminal. As a temporal Prince He had no pretensions to notice. To the title of philosopher, at least in the Corinthian sense of the term, He had no claim. His one argument was His Life and Death. What wonder if this doctrine were to the Jews an offence, and sheer nonsense in the ears of the inquisitive and argumentative Greek?
a stumblingblock ] The expression used here is the same as in the Septuagint version of Isa 8:14.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
But we – We who are Christian preachers make Christ crucified the grand subject of our instructions and our aims in contradistinction from the Jew and the Greek. They seek, the one miracles, the other wisdom, we glory only in the cross.
Christ crucified – The word Christ, the anointed, is the same as the Hebrew name Messiah. The emphasis in this expression is on the word crucified. The Jews would make the Messiah whom they expected no less an object of glorifying than the apostles, but they spurned the doctrine that he was to be crucified. Yet in that the apostles boasted; proclaiming him crucified, or having been crucified as the only hope of man. This must mean more than that Christ was distinguished for moral worth, more than that he died as a martyr; because if that were all, no reason could be given why the cross should be made so prominent an object. It must mean that Christ was crucified for the sins of people, as an atoning sacrifice in the place of sinners. We proclaim a crucified. Messiah as the only redeemer of lost people.
To the Jews a stumbling-block – The word stumbling-block ( skandalon) means properly anything in the way over which one may fall; then anything that gives offence, or that causes one to fall into sin. Here it means that to the Jews, the doctrine that the Messiah was to be crucified gave great offence; excited, irritated, and exasperated them; that they could not endure the doctrine, and treated it with scorn. Compare the Rom 9:33 note; 1Pe 2:8 note. It is well known that to the Jews no doctrine was more offensive than this, that the Messiah was to be put to death, and that there was to be salvation in no other way. It was so in the times of the apostles, and it has been so since. They have, therefore, usually called the Lord Jesus, by way of derision, Tolwiy, the man that was hanged, that is, on a cross; and Christians they have usually denominated, for the same reason, ‘Abday Tolwiy, servants of the man that was hanged. The reasons of this feeling are obvious:
(1) They had looked for a magnificent temporal prince; but the doctrine that their Messiah was crucified, dashed all their expectations. And they regarded it with contempt and scorn, just in proportion as their hopes had been elevated, and these high expectations cherished.
(2) They had the common feelings of all people, the native feelings of pride, and self-righteousness, by which they rejected the doctrine that we are dependent for salvation on one who was crucified.
(3) They regarded Jesus as one given over by God for an enormous attempt at imposition, as having been justly put to death; and the object of the curse of the Almighty. Isa 53:4, we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God. They endeavored to convince themselves that he was the object of the divine dereliction and abhorrence; and they, therefore, rejected the doctrine of the cross with the deepest feelings of detestation.
To the Greeks – To the Gentiles in general. So the Syriac, the Vulgate, the Arabic, and the Aethiopic versions all read it. The term Greek denotes all who were not Jews; thus the phrase, the Jews and the Greeks comprehended the whole human family, 1Co 1:22.
Foolishness – See the note at 1Co 1:18. They regarded it as folly:
- Because they esteemed the whole account a fable, and an imposition;
- It did not accord with their own views of the way of elevating the condition of man;
- They saw no efficacy in the doctrine, no tendency in the statement that a man of humble birth was put to death in an ignominious manner in Judea, to make people better, or to receive pardon.
(4)They had the common feelings of unrenewed human nature; blind to the beauty of the character of Christ, and blind to the design of his death; and they therefore regarded the whole statement as folly.
We may remark here, that the feelings of the Jews and of the Greeks on this subject, are the common feelings of people. Everywhere sinners have the same views of the cross; and everywhere the human heart, if left to itself, rejects it, as either a stumbling-block or as folly. But the doctrine should be preached, though it is an offence, and though it appears to be folly. It is the only hope of man; and by the preaching of the cross alone can sinners be saved.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 23. But we] Apostles, differing widely from these Gentile philosophers:-
Preach Christ crucified] Call on men, both Jews and Gentiles, to believe in Christ, as having purchased their salvation by shedding his blood for them.
Unto the Jews a stumbling block] Because Jesus came meek, lowly, and impoverished; not seeking worldly glory, nor affecting worldly pomp; whereas they expected the Messiah to come as a mighty prince and conqueror; because Christ did not come so, they were offended at him. Out of their own mouths, we may condemn the gainsaying Jews. In Sohar Chadash, fol. 26, the following saying is attributed to Moses, relative to the brazen serpent: “Moses said, This serpent is a stumbling block to the world. The holy blessed God answered: Not at all, it shall be for punishment to sinners, and life to upright men.” This is a proper illustration of the apostle’s words.
Unto the Greeks foolishness] Because they could not believe that proclaiming supreme happiness through a man that was crucified at Judea as a malefactor could ever comport with reason and common sense; for both the matter and manner of the preaching were opposite to every notion they had formed of what was dignified and philosophic. In Justin Martyr’s dialogue with Trypho the Jew we have these remarkable words, which serve to throw light on the above. “Your Jesus,” says Trypho, “having fallen under the extreme curse of God, we cannot sufficiently admire how you can expect any good from God, who place your hopes , upon a man that was CRUCIFIED.” The same writer adds: “They count us mad, that after the eternal God, the Father of all things, we give the second place, , to a man that was crucified.” “Where is your understanding,” said the Gentiles, “who worship for a god him who was crucified?” Thus Christ crucified was to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness. See Whitby on this verse.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
But we preach Christ crucified; we that are the ministers of Christ, come and preach to them, that there was one hanged upon a cross at Jerusalem, who is the Saviour of the world, and was not cut off for his own sins, but for the sins of his people.
Unto the Jews a stumblingblock; the Jews are stumbled at this, looking for a Messiah that should be a great temporal Prince; and besides, accounting it an ignominious thing to believe in one as their Saviour whom they had caused to be crucified.
And unto the Greeks foolishness; and the Greeks, the most learned among the Gentiles, look upon it as a foolish, idle story, that one who was and is God blessed for ever, should be crucified.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
23. wePaul and Apollos.
Christ crucifiedTheGreek expresses not the mere fact of His crucifixion, but thepermanent character acquired by the transaction, whereby He isnow a Saviour (Ga 3:1) crucifiedwas the stone on which the Jews stumbled (Mt21:44). The opposition of Jew and Gentile alike shows that areligion so seemingly contemptible in its origin could not havesucceeded if it had not been divine.
unto the Greekstheoldest manuscripts read “unto the Gentiles.“
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But we preach Christ crucified,…. Regardless of the sentiments and opinions of Jews and Gentiles, of what the one required and the other sought after; and in opposition to all their senseless and groundless cavils, the apostle and his fellow ministers continued preaching the doctrine of salvation by a crucified Christ, and him only; though it was
unto the Jews a stumblingblock; as was prophesied it should be, and as it came to pass; for they not only stumbled at the meanness of his birth, parentage, and education, at his ministry, miracles, company and audience; but especially at his sufferings and death: it was a stumbling to them that he should die at all, for they understood out of their law, that Christ should abide for ever; and it was more so that he should die the death of the cross, by which, according to their law, he appeared to be accursed; and most of all this was stumbling to them, because they expected a temporal kingdom to be set up by him:
and unto the Greeks foolishness; as that the Son of God should be crucified; that riches should come through his poverty, and men be brought to a kingdom and glory through one so mean and abject; that there should be life for men in his death, and salvation through his crucifixion, or the shameful death of the cross; that blessings should come through his being made a curse; and that his death should be an expiatory sacrifice for the sins of men; and that justification should be by one that was condemned; and peace and pardon should be by his blood; and that he should be raised again from the dead. These things were the subject of their ridicule and banter, and, in their opinion, deserved rather to be laughed at than credited. The Alexandrian copy, and others, and the Vulgate and all the Oriental versions, read, “unto the Gentiles”.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
But we preach Christ crucified ( ). Grammatically stated as a partial result () of the folly of both Jews and Greeks, actually in sharp contrast. We proclaim, “we do not discuss or dispute” (Lightfoot). Christ (Messiah) as crucified, as in 1Cor 2:2; Gal 3:1, “not a sign-shower nor a philosopher” (Vincent). Perfect passive participle of .
Stumbling-block (). Papyri examples mean trap or snare which here tripped the Jews who wanted a conquering Messiah with a world empire, not a condemned and crucified one (Matt 27:42; Luke 24:21).
Foolishness (). Folly as shown by their conduct in Athens (Ac 17:32).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “But we preach Christ crucified.” (Greek hemeis de kerussomen) “we, however, preach or proclaim” (Christon estauromenon) Christ or the Messiah as having been crucified.” This was and is our witness of hope, Act 2:23; 1Co 2:2; 2Co 13:4; Gal 3:1; Rev 11:8.
2) “Unto the Jews a stumblingblock.” (Greek ioudaiois men skandalon) to Jews on the one hand an offense or an occasion for stumbling.” Such fulfilled the Scripture regarding their obstinate, willful rejection of the Saviour, Exo 17:6; 1Pe 2:8; Rom 9:32; Rom 9:32.
3) “And unto the Greeks foolishness.” (Greek ethnesin de moriam) “To races or nations on the other hand folly, stupidity, or moronity.” The races of humanity, depraved by inherent sin, are gnostics and agnostics by nature. God must take the initiative in their salvation to draw them to the cross. 1Co 1:18; 1Co 1:21; Eph 2:1-5; Act 10:43; Rom 1:14-16.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(23) But we preach.The gospel of Christ crucified made its way by those very qualities which they regarded as weakness and folly, vindicating itself as the power of God, more mighty than any sign a Jew might ask for; and the wisdom of God surpassing any merely intellectual wisdom which a Greek might desire.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
DISCOURSE: 1930
THE TRUE LIGHT IN WHICH THE GOSPEL IS TO BE REGARDED
1Co 1:23-24. We preach Christ crucified; unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
THERE is a disposition in man to dictate to God, rather than to receive from him what he is pleased to give. Though this is not right, nor should ministers gratify it, yet they should consult mens prejudices, and seek to please them for their good. The Jews and Greeks sought what from their education they had been accustomed to admire: but St. Paul, notwithstanding his readiness to yield in all things that were less important, was compelled to make the strain of his preaching directly opposite to their corrupt desires. The Jews require, &c.; but we preach, &c.
I.
The great subject of the Christian ministry
The Apostle designates this by preaching the Gospel, preaching the cross, preaching Christ and him crucified: but in preaching Christ crucified he did not confine himself to an historical relation of the fact, or a pathetic description of it. To fulfil the true end of the Christian ministry, we must,
1.
Declare the nature of Christs death
[This in appearance was only like that of the malefactors that suffered with him; but it was a true and proper sacrifice to God. In this light it was characterized by the whole Mosaic ritual [Note: The sacrifices were types of the atonement.]: in this light it was foretold by the prophets [Note: Isa 53:5-6; Isa 53:10.]: in this light it is plainly represented throughout the New Testament [Note: Mat 26:28. 1Co 5:7. Heb 9:26. Eph 5:2.]; and unless it be preached in this view, we do not, in the Apostles sense, preach Christ crucified.]
2.
Set forth the benefits resulting from it
[There is not any one spiritual benefit which must not be traced to this source; pardon, peace, holiness, glory, are its proper fruits. Without the atonement we could have received nothing; but by and through it we may receive every thing. This also must be distinctly inculcated, if we would approve ourselves faithful stewards of the mysteries of Christ.]
3.
Persuade men to seek an interest in it
[We find men filled with self-righteous conceits, and with great difficulty brought to renounce them: we must therefore argue with them, and urge upon them all the most powerful considerations: we must address ourselves to their passions as well as their understanding; and gain their affections on the side of truth. It was thus that Paul preached Christ; and it is thus only that Christ crucified can be preached aright.]
II.
The manner in which it was, and is still, received
As there were differences of opinion respecting our Lord himself, some accounting him a good man, and others a deceiver, so are there respecting his Gospel
1.
Some reject it with contemptuous abhorrence
[Jews and Greeks were equally averse to it, though on different grounds. The Jews did not understand the true nature and scope of their law: hence they supposed that the Gospel was opposed to it, and that Christ was an enemy to Moses: and notwithstanding all the evidence they had of Christs Messiahship, they rejected him from a pretended want of proof of his divine mission. The Greeks had been habituated to philosophical researches, and rejected the Gospel because there was nothing in it to flatter the pride of human reason: both these kinds of characters yet exist, and oppose the Gospel with equal acrimony; to some it is a stumbling-block, as appearing to set aside good works; to others it is foolishness, as militating against their preconceived notions of rational religion. And if it be not so dispensed by us as to call forth such treatment from such characters, we have reason to believe that we do not preach the Gospel as Paul preached it.]
2.
Others receive it with the deepest reverence
[There are some called, not by the outward word only, but by the internal and effectual operations of the Spirit. These, whatever have been their disposition in times past, have their eyes open to behold the Gospel in a far different light. To them the doctrine of Christ crucified is the power of God: they see that it is that, by which God has converted myriads to himself: they feel also that it is that, to which alone they can ascribe their own conversion; and they know that nothing can ultimately withstand its power. To them it is also the wisdom of God: they behold in it every perfection of the Deity united and glorified, whilst on any other plan of salvation some of his perfections must be exalted at the expense of others: they see it also to be suited to the state of every individual in the universe, whilst every other plan of salvation is suited to those only who have been moral, or who have a long time before them to amend their lives. Above all, they view it as bringing the greatest good that ever was vouchsafed, out of the greatest evil that ever was committed. No wonder that they count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of it.]
Address
1.
Those who, like the Greeks, have a high opinion of their reasoning powers
[You have just cause to be thankful for strength of intellect; but the province of reason is, to submit itself to God. God has not opened to your reason any one thing perfectly, either in creation or providence: be not surprised then if you cannot fathom all the mysteries of his revealed will: your wisdom is to become as little children; and if you will not condescend to be taught of Him, he will take you in your own craftiness [Note: ver. 19, 25.].]
2.
Those who, like the Jews, are concerned about the interests of morality
[Did morality suffer in the life of Paul, or of the first Christians? Does it in the lives of many who now profess the Gospel? Are they not now condemned as much for the strictness of their lives as for the strangeness of their principles? Yea, does not morality suffer through the neglect of this preaching? Let not Christ then be a stumbling-block to you, but rather a sanctuary. If you reject Christ, however good your motive may appear to be, your misery will he sure [Note: ver. 18. with 2Co 4:4.].]
3.
Those who embrace, and glory in, a crucified Saviour
[Contemplate more and more the wisdom and power of God as displayed in this mystery, and endeavour more and more to adorn this doctrine in your lives. Let it never become a stumbling-block or foolishness through any misconduct of yours: let it be seen by your prudence, that it is true wisdom; and by your piety, that it is the parent of every good work.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;
Ver. 23. But we preach Christ ] We not only preach of him, but we preach him, we give what we preach. It is the special office of the ministry to lay Christ open, to hold up the tapestry, to untold the hidden mysteries of Christ. The Holy Ghost in them taketh of that which is Christ’s, and showeth to men, Joh 16:15 .
Unto the Jews a stumblingblock ] These Philistines cannot conceive how out of the eater should come meat, and out of the strong, sweet.
Unto the Greeks ] These jeered at Jesus and the resurrection, as at a couple of strange gods, Act 17:18 . Cato profanely saith, Stultitia est morte alterius sperare salutem: It is a folly to expect safety by the death of another. The gospel was to the Jews a stumblingblock, and to the Greeks a laughing-stock. They both stumbled on the bridge, and so fell into the ditch of destruction.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
23. ] Still the expansion of . . . Now, . as regards the Jews, and as regards the Gentiles, correspond to the general term before. The after is that so often found in clauses following the temporal conjunctions , , , &c., in Homer, and , , , , &c., in Attic writers: e.g. Od. . 178, , , , and Xen. Cyr. viii. 5. 12, , . . See many other examples in Hartung, Partikellehre, i. 184 f. It serves to give a slight prominence to the consequent clause, as compared with the antecedent one.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1Co 1:23 . Instead of working miracles to satisfy the Jews, or propounding a philosophy to entertain the Greeks, “we, on the other hand, proclaim a crucified Christ” , i.e. , Christ as crucified (predicative adjunct), not “Christ the crucified,” nor, strictly, “Christ crucified”; cf. , for the construction, 2Co 4:5 , . . , “We preach (not ourselves but) Christ Jesus as Lord”. Not a warrior Messiah, flashing His signs from the sky, breaking the heathen yoke, but a Messiah dying in impotence and shame (see 2Co 4:10 ; 2Co 13:4 : hattaly , Deu 21:23 the hangd He is styled in the Talmud) is what the app. preach for their good news! “To Jews indeed a ”: this word (cl [237] ) signified first the trap-stick , then any obstacle over which one stumbles to one’s injury, an “offence” (syn [238] with , : see 1Co 8:9 ; 1Co 8:13 ), a moral hindrance presented to the perverse or the weak (see parls.). : for the “folly” of offering the infelix lignum to cultured Gentiles, see Cicero, pro Rabirio , v.: “Nomen ipsum crucis absit non modo a corpore civium Romanorum, sed etiam a cogitatione, oculis, auribus”; and Lucian, De morte Peregrini , 13, who mocks at those who worship , “that gibbeted sophist!” For reff. in the early Apologists see Justin ., Tryph. , lxix., and Apol. , i., 13; Tertull., adv. Jud. , 10; Aristo of Pella, in Routh’s Rel. Sacr. , i., 95; and the graffito of the gibbeted ass discovered on the wall of the Pdagogium in the Palatine. To Jews the announced the shameful reversal of their most cherished hopes; to Greeks and Romans it offered for Saviour and Lord a man branded throughout the Empire as amongst the basest of criminals; it was “outrageous,” and “absurd”.
[237] classical.
[238] synonym, synonymous.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
preach. App-121.
crucified. That is, a crucified Messiah.
the. Omit.
stumblingblock. Greek. skandalon. Occurs fifteen times. Nine times translated “offence”; once “offend”; thrice “stumblingblock”; elsewhere “occasion to fall, or of stumbling”. First occurance: Mat 13:41. Instead of the signs of the kingdom promised by the prophets, the One who claimed to be their Messiah was crucified. This staggered them.
Greeks. The texts read “Gentiles” (ethnos).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
23.] Still the expansion of . . . Now, . as regards the Jews, and as regards the Gentiles, correspond to the general term before. The after is that so often found in clauses following the temporal conjunctions , , , &c., in Homer, and , , , , &c., in Attic writers: e.g. Od. . 178, , , ,-and Xen. Cyr. viii. 5. 12, , . . See many other examples in Hartung, Partikellehre, i. 184 f. It serves to give a slight prominence to the consequent clause, as compared with the antecedent one.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Co 1:23. , we) Paul, Apollos.-, we preach) rather historically, than philosophically.- , Christ crucified) without the article. The cross is not mentioned in the following verse. The discourse begins with the cross of Christ, 1Co 2:2; those who thus receive it are made acquainted with all connected with Christ and His glory, those who do not receive it, fall short of the whole, Act 25:19; Act 17:32.-, a stumbling-block) As folly and wisdom, so a stumbling-block and a sign are opposed to each other, for a sign is an attractive work of Omnipotence, as a sign and power are often synonymous, but a stumbling-block, properly applied to a snare or trap, is a very weak thing. [So things extremely worthless in the present day come under the name of trifles. Germ. Schwachherten.-V. g.] To such a degree do the Jews and Greeks[11] dread the cross of Christ, that along with it they reject even a sign and wisdom.
[11] The Germ. Ver. prefers the reading of , equal, according to the margin of both editions, to , which is doubtless more passable with German readers.-E. B.ABC corrected later, D corr. l. Gfg Vulg. Orig. Cypr. Hilary have . Rec Text, with Orig. 1, 331e, reads .-ED.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
1Co 1:23
1Co 1:23
But we preach Christ crucified,-This they did as the only means offered to man to escape sin and its penalties.
unto Jews a stumblingblock,-Jesus was a living miracle and sign in his life, his teaching, and his works. The life and teaching of Jesus are as much a miracle, above human power, as were the works he performed. They are not so striking to the unthinking mind, but the life and teaching of Jesus are just as far above the capacities of man as it is beyond the power of man to raise the dead. The Jews could not account for his wonderful life. [It is well known that to the Jews no doctrine was more offensive than that the Messiah was to be put to death, and that there was to be salvation in no other way. It was so in the time of Paul, and it has been so ever since.]
and unto Gentiles foolishness:-His whole teaching and manner of helping man was without reason or sense to the philosophic Greeks. They could see neither reason nor sense in it. [Nothing in the apprehension of the modernist can be more absurd than that the blood of the cross can remove sin, promote virtue, and secure salvation; or that the preaching of that doctrine is to convert the world.]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
we: 1Co 1:18, 1Co 2:2, Luk 24:46, Luk 24:47, Act 7:32-35, Act 10:39-43, 2Co 4:5, Gal 3:1, Gal 6:14, Eph 3:8
unto the Jews: Isa 8:14, Isa 8:15, Mat 11:6, Mat 13:57, Luk 2:34, Joh 6:53-66, Rom 9:32, Rom 9:33, Gal 5:11, 1Pe 2:8
foolishness: 1Co 1:28, 1Co 2:14
Reciprocal: Num 11:7 – the manna Psa 110:2 – the rod Isa 57:14 – take Eze 3:20 – and I lay Mar 6:3 – offended Mar 8:11 – seeking Luk 9:31 – spake Act 8:5 – preached Act 8:35 – preached Act 11:20 – preaching Act 17:20 – strange Act 17:32 – some Act 18:17 – And Gallio Act 26:24 – Paul Rom 16:25 – and the 1Co 15:1 – I declare Gal 2:2 – communicated Phi 1:15 – preach Col 1:28 – Whom 2Pe 1:16 – we have Rev 2:14 – a stumblingblock
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE MISSION AND MESSAGE OF THE CHURCH
We preach Christ crucified.
1Co 1:23
It is of the last importance to the Churchs mission that her message never vary, but be the same identically with the message entrusted to her from the first, and taught to apostles and evangelists by the enlightening Spirit. We have in the text the keynote of that message, struck by the great Apostle of the Gentiles.
1. We preach Christ.One of the most remarkable features in Christs own preaching was His assertion of Himself. He preached, as no other ever did, Himself. I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; I am the Bread of Life; I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me; Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. We see in this a striking evidence of Christs Divine authority; but we see an intimation also given to those who thereafter should speak in His name as to the character of their message; it was to be an echo of His own, they were to be ambassadors coming with all authority in Christs name, and telling those to whom they came of a living Saviour, a living Teacher, a living Guide, a living Friend, and a living King, a Person invisible indeed to the eye of sense, but no mere abstraction or fond ideal, present in the world, claiming through His ambassadors the personal trust and love of all His childrena trust and a love leading to such response as that given by the Apostle, than whom none knew better or more happily the power of his own preaching. I know Whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.
II. But our compendium of theology is not exhausted.We preach, writes St. Paul, Christ crucified; Christ and a fact concerning Christ. Crucifiednow the fact of Christs crucifixion is not stated here as one of the most important incidents in His careerbut it is selected as the one fact which coupled with the Redeemers name shall comprise the theme of the Christian message. The crucifixion of Jesus Christ stands alone in the worlds history as a fact of momentous significance; it is full of doctrine. The Cross is the staff of that banner of infinite love which floats over a fallen world. If Christ be the centre of Christianity, the Cross is the centre of Christian dogma. If Christ be Christianity, the Cross is the Gospel. The mission of Jesus Christ was to bring sinful man to God, to bridge the gulf which sin had opened between the fallen children and their loving Father. Forgiveness of sins and peace with God and with conscience are the blessings which the Gospel proclaims to all who ponder the mystery of evil and know the plague of their own hearts; blessings pregnant with every other blessing of the Christian life. In imparting these blessings the Cross was ordained to be the instrument, the magnet of attraction for the sinner, the bridge by which he should pass over the chasm that severed him from God. Hence is the Cross bound up with all Christian teaching and theology.
III. There are two dangers against which we need to be equally on our guard.
(a) The one, by a too exclusive attention to doctrines to leave Christ out of His own Gospel.
(b) The other, to preach the historical Christ or the mystical Christ while His offices and work as they are set forth in Scripture and the creeds are overlooked.
Neither of these dangers should be overlooked, for they menace the growth and success of the Church of Christ, as well as the life and peace of individual souls. They call for the utmost vigilance on the part of all who labour for the advancement of the cause of Christ and the progress of His Kingdom.
Bishop W. Walsh.
Illustration
It was at the Cross that the mercy and truth of God met together, that His righteousness and peace embraced one another, so that He could be just and yet the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus. It was on the Cross that the one great sacrifice for sins for ever was offered up. It was by the Cross that Jesus passed to His resurrection triumph over death and Hades. It was by the Cross that Jesus won His right to ascend His mediatorial throne, to sit at the right hand of the Father as the representative of redeemed humanity, and to pour down upon His Church the gifts of the eternal spirit. It was from the Cross pre-eminently that Jesus preached the doctrine of self-sacrifice and self-surrender which is of the essence of His teaching. At once an altar, a throne, and a teachers chair, the Cross gathers round itself every important doctrine of the Christian faith. Gods eternal purposes, the Incarnation, the Resurrection, the Atonement, the Mediatorial reign, the gifts of the Eternal Spirit, the present blessedness, the future glory of the Church, together with the deepest moral and spiritual lessons man can learn, all hang with the Redeemer on that tree of shame, and are all involved in that one word crucified as we apply it to Jesus Christ.
(SECOND OUTLINE)
THE POWER OF THE CROSS
There are five accounts of the Crucifixion in the New Testament: one in each Gospel, and the fifth in 1 St. Peter 2:2125 The great painter, Rubens, has been criticised for his picture of the Crucifixion because he represents Golgotha as a garden of flowers. But surely Rubens was right, for the Holy Gospel tells us that in the place where Christ was crucified was a garden.
I. The sweetest, fairest flowers bloom beneath the Cross.Faith, Hope, Love, all grow near the Cross. How many kind and loving hearts we have known, and if we asked them where they learned their kindness and their love, they would say they learned it all at the Cross.
II. The whole of the New Testament is signed with the sign of the Cross.What need is there to say that the Cross of Christ is the great overshadowing theme of each of the four Gospels, all previous narrative being but a long approach and avenue to this? We seem to see the figure of each evangelist bent down from dawn to dusk, like a burdened conscientious gleaner in the awful harvest field of the Cross of Calvary. Nothing is said of His unique youth, nothing is left unsaid of His precious death and burial. The four evangelists, like four immortal artists, seem intent, as under a sacred vow, on giving every detail with infinite fidelity.
III. Whenever there has been a great revival of real religion it has been Christ crucified that has converted the sinner and restored the backslider and uplifted the believer.
Rev. F. Harper.
Illustrations
(1) One morning Dr. A. Whyte had been reading about the Cross, and he stooped down and whispered to his little boy of four years old who was at his knee: Do you know what a cross is, my boy? Oh, yes, father, was the reply; its just the thing we climb on when we go to heaven. Dr. Whyte was delighted. Ah, my little boy, he continued, when you are as old a sinner as your father youll know experimentally the truth of your words.
(2) Daniel Rowlands, the great Welsh evangelist, first knew the power of the Gospel as he was one Sunday reading the Litany in the old Llangeitho Church. When he was engaged one Sunday morning in reading the Church service, his mind was more than usually occupied with the prayers: an unexpected overwhelming force came upon his soul as he was praying in those most melting and evangelical words, By Thine Agony and bloody Sweat, by Thy Cross and Passion, by Thy precious Death and Burial, by Thy glorious Resurrection and Ascension, and by the coming of the Holy Ghost. As he uttered these words, a sudden amazing power seized his whole frame, and no sooner did it seize on him than it ran instantly, like an electrifying shock, through all the people in the church, so that many of them fell down on the ground they had been standing on in a large mass together, there being no pews in the church. His heart melted with love, amazement, and thanksgiving; similar feelings were immediately excited in all the people under this powerful impulse. Oh how did the dying love of Christ affect them all: they mourned and wept as they looked unto the Lamb of God suffering for their sins.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
1Co 1:23. The first clause is virtually the same as the last part of verse 21. The preaching of Christ was always a stumblingblock to the Jews (Rom 9:32). The story of Jesus did not agree with the philosophy of the Greeks, hence they regarded it as foolishness. This was manifested when Paul was in Athens (Act 17:32).
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
1Co 1:23. But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Gentiles foolishness.
1Co 1:24. But unto them which are (internally and efficaciously) called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of Goda power by Jews never dreamt of, and a wisdom unimagined by the subtlest Greeks. And if so, why need the preacher, to please the Jew, hide the obnoxious features of his message, and to feed the intellectual pride of the Greek laboriously strive to show how rational the Gospel is?
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
but we preach Christ crucified, unto Jews a stumblingblock, and unto Gentiles foolishness;
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
23. But we preach Christ having been crucified. This constituted the entire curriculum of the Pauline gospel message, i. e., the Christhood of Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, the Shiloh of prophecy, the Redeemer of Israel, and the Savior of the world. The crucifixion, followed by the resurrection and ascension, constituted the grand salient confirmation of His Christhood, exemplifying and illustrating not only the great fact of the vicarious atonement by which a lost world is redeemed, but the ostensible and momentous experimental reality, confirmatory of the irrefutable conclusion that all who would avail themselves of this wonderful expiatory mercy must follow Jesus in the great salient facts of His experimental Christhood, i. e., to the cross, there to have the sinful Adamic nature in us crucified and destroyed (Rom 6:6), after the similitude of the sinless Adamic nature in our great Prototype. To the Jews indeed a stumbling block. It is a matter of fact that the Jewish church stumbled over the crucifixion of Christ, then and there ejected by Jehovah from the election of grace, and plunging headlong into that awful apostasy which has culminated in infidelity, and even atheism. In a similar manner in all subsequent ages whenever the gospel church has rejected the experimental crucifixion of Adam the first in entire sanctification, which is the work of the Holy Ghost to prepare us for Heaven, in so doing she has grieved Him away (1Th 4:8), following Judaism in the awful apostasy, plunging headlong into spiritual darkness, worldliness, rationalism and infidelity. And to the Gentiles foolishness. The great Gentile world at that time was dominated by the Greek philosophy and Roman power. Crucifixion on a cross, being the normal capital punishment throughout the universal Roman Empire, standing precisely in lieu of hanging in America, was the shibboleth of popular odium and disgust. Consequently, the very idea that they were to be saved by an obscure man who had been crucified at Jerusalem, under charges of high treason, impressed them as climacteric folly.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
A crucified Messiah was a stumbling block to the Jews because they regarded Messiah as the Person on whom God’s blessing rested to the greatest degree (Isa 11:2). However, Jesus’ executioners hung Him on a tree, the sure proof that God had cursed Him (Deu 21:23; Gal 3:13).
Paul used the terms "Greeks" (1Co 1:22) and "Gentiles" (1Co 1:23) interchangeably.
"It is hard for those in the christianized West, where the cross for almost nineteen centuries has been the primary symbol of the faith, to appreciate how utterly mad the message of a God who got himself crucified by his enemies must have seemed to the first-century Greek or Roman. But it is precisely the depth of this scandal and folly that we must appreciate if we are to understand both why the Corinthians were moving away from it toward wisdom and why it was well over a century before the cross appears among Christians as a symbol of their faith." [Note: Ibid., p. 76.]