The Cross of Jesus Christ
Scripture Reading — 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5
I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
—1 Corinthians 2:2
The battery of our lawn tractor was not staying charged after each time we used it. It couldn’t hold power. To get the engine started, we had to connect jumper cables from a live battery in our van to the dead battery on the tractor. After a few minutes of charging, we would turn the key of the lawn tractor, and the engine would fire up and come to life.
We humans face a similar challenge because, on our own, we are dead in our sins. The only way our lives can get fired up is by stretching cables back to Christ’s sacrifice for us on the cross, an event that took place two thousand years ago. That past event has power. Paul says, “The message of the cross … is the power of God.”
The problem is that we often try to bypass God’s power by relying on our own strength and intelligence. Paul explains, “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.” It’s alarming to know that God’s power in my life can be disconnected because I am wandering from Christ and trying to rely on my own strength and intelligence.
Paul counteracts human foolishness by saying, “I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”
What role does the message of the cross have in your life? Is it foolishness, or does it have life-giving power?
Lord Jesus, thank you for your gift of life on the cross. Open our hearts to see that life comes from you alone. In your name we pray. Amen.
About the author — John Kuperus
Since he was young, John Kuperus has had a passion that everyone would know Jesus. Spreading the good news that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15) is very important to him. To be better equipped for missions, John attended Reformed Bible College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He applied these skills with marketplace evangelism in a business he started in Sussex, New Jersey. This calling continued to follow him, so John attended seminary and became a minister in the Christian Reformed Church, serving a church in Ontario for eight years. Currently he serves as a missionary for Youth with a Mission (YWAM). He witnesses Jesus changing lives as people walk out of the darkness into the light. John is married to Helen, and they have seven children.
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