The Apostle Paul preached Christ crucified. What does that mean?
1Co 1:23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness,
1Co 1:24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
It means that Paul preached our total death in Christ on the cross. Paul preached our total inability to please God from a separated standpoint. What do I mean? Just what Jesus said of HIMSELF.
Jesus meant what he often said about his own ability to please God.
The son can do nothing of Himself. NOTHING!! He cannot love, cannot be kind, cannot heal, cannot be patient, cannot do a thing on His own–as if He had any power of His own to do anything.
EVERYTHING Jesus did was the FATHER doing it—but it was Jesus.
John 5:19 Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.
John 5:30 I can of Myself do nothing….”
John 14:10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.
Jesus knew full well that in and of Himself He could do no thing….but that it was His Father in Him joined as ONE SPIRIT with Him, doing everything. Look at a literal Greek rendering…
John 14:10 Do you not believe that I am in the father, and the father [in me is]?The words which I speak to you, [from myself I speak not]; but the father, the one[in me abiding], he does the works. Apostolic Bible Polyglot
Paul had learned this mystery as well and preached Christ Crucified.
To preach Christ crucified is to preach our own death and resurrection in Christ.
All those in Adam were in Jesus on the Cross–Adam died that day. You and I were in Christ on the cross and we died with Him.
We died to what we were held by. Died to the Law. Died to sin. Died to being in Adam. Died to being a separate self–that is, a person separate from Jesus.
Paul preached full union and communion with God through faith in Jesus.
Just as Jesus had taught that unless we abide in Him we will bear no fruit.
Paul preached full union with the Father through union in spirit with Jesus.
1Co 6:17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
It is true that we died. But just as important is the fact that we now live.
Paul preached a new life found by being in Jesus.
We are saved by Life–not by obedience.
The Life that was in the Son is now in us.
Jesus lived by the Life of His Father, the Father doing all the works. Now that we have come to Jesus by faith, we also live through the life of another person.
Preaching Christ crucified is a stumbling block to the religious person.
People who think that it is they themselves who are responsible to live a life pleasing to God will be offended to hear Paul’s Gospel preached the way he meant it.
The religious person holds to the idea that they are able in themselves to obey God. They beat themselves up when they fail to obey and feel condemned. They try very hard to please God. But they do not realise (yet) that all this obedience is futile!
Obeying so that we do what is right—-versus disobeying and doing wrong ALL comes from the same false mindset. It is living from the tree of the knowledge of good(right) and evil(wrong). It is death to the one living this way.
Paul was a Pharisee and knew all about that futility.
Gal 2:16 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.
The person who tries to obey God’s commandments imagines he has some inner ability to obey them. Yet the purpose of the Law is to reveal to us that we have zero ability to obey God.
Rom 3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
Rom 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
Therefore whenever a preacher exhorts you to strive for obedience he is setting aside the grace of God found through faith in Jesus and placing you under the Law again from which you have been set free through death in Christ.
By the law is the knowledge of sin.
When we falsely imagine that we must keep the Law, or try to be obedient to God in order to please Him, we are assuming that we have some ability in us to do so. The truth is we are a container with no substance of our own. We are made to contain another person. Of course that Person is Jesus Christ. We are the appearance of God in our flesh body–He is the substance living His life as us.
Trying to be obedient to God only brings the certain knowledge of our own failings and inabilities. By keeping up trying to obey- we only gain the knowledge of sin. With such knowledge we live in condemnation and accusation daily.
This why the Law is in place. It is there to bring us to see that we need Christ to be our very LIFE….to be the self that lives in God. We accept this wonderful truth by faith. Once we do accept Jesus as our only LIFE –the only life that we are–all guilt and condemnation vanishes away.
Rom 3:21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,
Rom 3:22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference;
Rom 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Verse 23 is always thrown at people telling them that they fall short of the glory of God. Yes, it is true. Man was made to contain Jesus in order to walk pleasing in God. Without this knowledge and relationship we fall short all the time. That is why God sent forth His Son. Righteousness is not attained through obedience but by faith in Jesus.
The old Covenant was meant to fail to produce in us true righteousness….it is the New Covenant whereby God comes to live in our heart and flesh that causes us to walk in His ways constantly and to be pleasing in His sight always.
Rom 3:24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
Rom 3:25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,
Rom 3:26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Paul preached Christ and therefore us crucified. It is an exchange of Life. We once we indwelt by another life not our own…and not Jesus! But God drew us to Jesus and granted us eyes to see and ears to hear the Gospel in whatever form is was for us individually. We believed on Jesus as Saviour and received into our heart by faith.
In that wonderful moment when Jesus became our substance- our spirit, joining Himself with our born again human spirit- we were placed into Christ and Christ into us. We died to the Law and became married to Christ able now to produce good fruit in that vital union. Not by trying to be obedient- but through relationship and faith in Jesus and the Father.
We now demonstrate God’s righteousness simply by being in Jesus and remaining in Him through faith. Of course the Accuser will attempt to get you thinking you are not in Christ in order for you to try to DO THINGS to abide in Him. The moment we begin to try to obey God in order to abide in Him we have set aside the Grace of God and moved into unbelief.
God’s righteousness is restful….it is simply accepting Jesus and yourself as one self.
Eze 36:24 For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land.
Eze 36:25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.
Eze 36:26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
Eze 36:27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgements and do them.
This is the New Covenant made in Jesus cleansing blood. We are those who have received this new heart, new spirit, and heart of flesh. We are those who walk in His statutes and keep His judgements and do them. Yet not us, but Christ in us…yet it is us…for we are one.
