I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
1 Corinthians 2, 2.
After the apostle Paul arrived in Corinth on his second missionary journey, he preached the testimony of the living God to the people there. The content of His preaching centred in one Person: Jesus Christ, the crucified One.
In human society a crucified person counts for absolutely nothing. He has been written off. If he is not forgotten, all that remains for him is scoffing and contempt. All this applied to the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, when He hung on the cross in such degradation. Nevertheless He has been the subject of the gospel until the present day.
God commands us to believe in the crucified Christ. We are to put our trust in the One who causes so much annoyance to man’s religions and suffers the contempt of philosophers. It will not bring us any honour in society, and our pride will suffer for it.
But the despised Jesus offers us the sole solution for the problem of our sins before God. He died on the cross in order that we might be saved from divine punishment.
This message of salvation has no place in man’s wisdom. On the contrary, it destroys the thinking and ideology of the intelligentsia.
Yet whoever humbly receives the gospel by faith has a firm foundation underfoot. Having peace with God, he now has a standing before Him, since his matter has been put in order. He can live with the Lord Jesus here and now and await a future in glory.