The importance of the cross (2)

“But we preach Christ crucified.” 1Co 1:23 NKJV

Paul writes: “For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (vv. 22-24 NKJV). There’s no Jewish way to be saved, or Gentile way to be saved. There’s only one way to be saved—that’s the way of the cross! We all have the same need. We need to know what’s right and do what’s right. We need the wisdom to know what to do, and we need the power to do it. And Christ offers us both through the cross. In his early ministry, when Billy Graham preached to a great crowd in Dallas, Texas, there was very little response to his message. As he was leaving the platform, an old man told him, “Your message was good, but you didn’t preach the cross.” Billy went to his room, wept, and resolved, “There will never be a sermon that I preach unless the cross is central.” Starting that day, God used him to win more people to Christ than almost any other preacher in history. There’s just enough ego in each of us to want to “contribute” to our salvation by doing good works. But we cannot. Hymnist Robert Lowry wrote: “What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know; nothing but the blood of Jesus.”

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