The Devotional – 1069 – Foot Steps in First Corinthians, On
Going
In our humanity we normally do two things when it comes to
solving a mystery. The first thing we do is seek for the solution and the
second is rather easy; we just forget it and move on with something easier to
understand. The apostle said in the very first chapter of 1st
Corinthians that the message (the WORDS literally) is foolishness to those who
are perishing, but to us (you and I) it is the POWER of God. It is this power
that raised Jesus from the death of the cross and it is the POWER of God that
opens the soul of man to understand the gospel – 1 Corinthians 1 19. Isaiah
29:14 adds a bit more depth to the apostle’s quote. The gospel of God is a
MARVELOUS work of the power that breaks of bonds of personal blindness and
disobedience.
CHALLENGES & COMMENTS – 1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Can we then solve
the mystery of the gospel? I think that there is every evidence that we cannot,
but that does not mean that we should reject it or dis-believe the gospel. The
gospel of God is and will always be a “mystery” one that every person who lives
must give thought too. Those who reject the message will remain in the darkness
of their choice, but to the one who believes the message of the death and resurrection
of Jesus Christ will be given “more Light”.
Solomon says in
Ecclesiastes 11:5 that people do not know what is the way of the wind
(literally the spirit), nor do people understand how bones are formed in the
womb. This for me is a very good explanation that we also do not know or
understand the works of God who makes ALL THINGS. It is God who made the gospel
of Jesus Christ. NO ONE ELSE. Acts 20:24.
So the proof of
the gospel is not solved in the cause and effect world of proving and
disproving a mystery. The proof of the gospel will always abound in the Power
of God and His Love for you and me. Preaching that Jesus Christ died on the
Cross for the sin of the world is simply a historical truth, even to those who
are perishing, but to those of us who believe it is the power of God to
salvation. Therefore for those of us who believe, we are not ashamed of the
gospel or of Christ, Romans 1:16-17.
What then is
believing? Is it the delivered message from the apostle Paul, or maybe it is
the diction or expression of the words of a preacher? Could it be the Words of
Jesus to the Pharisee Nicodemus in John 3, “you must be born again” (literally
born from above). Most certainly all of these can play an important role in
believing the gospel; the apostle says in 1 Corinthians 15:11 – from whom ever
you heard the message, you believed.
The message of the
Power of God then is believable, but only by FAITH because salvation is the substance
of God’s power in which we hope for and it is the testimonial evidence of the
things we cannot see with the human intellect. This is why the elders in Biblical
history obtained a good testimony. BY FAITH and by faith in the Power of God…
so will you and I.
Amen
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