Yesterday in our
home church, we looked at how we need the power of the gospel to reach into our
inner beings. Many church-going people have an outer relationship with Christ
that seems real enough, until they look inside and realize it hasn’t permeated
to the core, so to speak. Any Christian who is struggling with inner feelings
of worthlessness and hopelessness (often disguised as depression), needs to
know the gospel in their inner being.
Today I found myself
drawn to consider what God wants us to think about his power. If there is power
in the gospel, how do we know that power? It keeps coming up in relation to the
gospel, the Holy Spirit, and the kingdom of God. I have never been interested in the “power
encounters” promoted by some groups, but neither am I the least bit impressed
by the powerlessness of a significant part of my church experience.
What God keeps
telling me is that, “the kingdom of God
does not consist in talk but in power.”[1]
Even though Paul clearly used “talk” in his letters and preaching, he was never
presenting the kingdom of God as though it consisted in talk. Rather, his talk
was such that the focus always remained on the power of God.
Earlier in I
Corinthians, leading up to Paul’s expression that the kingdom of God consists
in power, not talk, he had already addressed the power of God’s kingdom. Here
are a couple of the passages that ministered to me this morning.
17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and
not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its
power.
18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but
to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (I Corinthians 1)
Observations:
1.
Paul’s ministry was to “preach the gospel”.
2.
Preaching “the
gospel” keeps the cross full of “its
power”.
3.
“words of
eloquent wisdom” can result in emptying the cross of its power.
4.
The reason the “word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing” is not
because the “word of the cross” is “emptied of its power”, but because the
people are “perishing”.
5.
The “gospel”,
the “word of the cross”, is always
going to be folly to “those who are
perishing”, hence the need to never waste time on “words of eloquent wisdom”.
6.
“to us who
are being saved”, the “word of the
cross,” is “the power of God”.
7.
The “gospel”,
the “word of the cross”, is always
going to be the “power of God” to “us who are being saved”, hence the need
to keep proclaiming the gospel.
In answer to my question about how the kingdom of God is
about power instead of talk, God’s answer is:
“the word of the cross… is the power of God”.
Conclusion: we need the word of the cross to invade our
inner beings with this power of God.
1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you
the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know
nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you
in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were
not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of
power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the
power of God. (I Corinthians 2)
Observations:
1.
It is a good thing when we see churches
acknowledging our “weakness… fear and
much trembling.”
2.
It is also a good thing when people feel a
stronger hunger for a “demonstration of
the Spirit and of power” than we have ever felt before.
3.
We must avoid anything that resembles faith that
rests “in the wisdom of men.”
4.
Because, “the
kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power”,[2]
we want our faith to “rest… in the power
of God.”
5.
Paul’s example was that he did not speak to the churches
with “lofty speech or wisdom” that
would put the attention on him, for he was an ambassador of Jesus Christ.
6.
What Paul presented, instead of lofty speech or
wisdom, was “Jesus Christ and him
crucified.” This is where the power of God resides. It takes lofty words to
convince people they can experience the blessings of God through
self-dependence. The power of the kingdom resides in what Jesus Christ has done
for us through his crucifixion, and how his completed work transforms us into
his image.
For a while, I have been sharing about the power of the
kingdom of God. I have seen God’s work whenever people submit to God and seek
him. When we are willing to have the Holy Spirit replace our self-protection,
we will see the power of the work of God heal us, restore us, and forgive us.
Even when dealing with the perplexities of childhood trauma,
the belief of worthlessness, and the corresponding feeling of hopelessness/depression,
we need the gospel to permeate into our innermost being so that we can
experience the power of God through the word of the cross.
© 2016 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)
The Word of the Cross is the Power of God
No comments:
Post a Comment