◄ What Does 1 Corinthians 2:2 Mean? ►

When lives are lived on the un-sanctified wisdom of the world and people allow the clever oratory skills and philosophies of men to influence their own thought processes, in preference to the Word of God, those lives will be characterised by spiritual weakness, doctrinal error, and a tendency towards an inflated ego.

Paul was a man of many talents and had acquired much worldly wisdom and religious knowledge. Paul was a logical thinker and had plain common sense, and yet as He grew in grace, Paul determined to know nothing other that Jesus Christ and Him crucified. In five short words, Paul gave the foundational truths contained in glorious gospel of God, Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Jesus Christ: refers to the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ; the incarnate Son of God Who was given by the Father to be the substitute for the sin of the whole world. Jesus: the child Who was conceived of a virgin through the mysterious work of the Holy Spirit, and Who would grow up to become the Kinsman-Redeemer of humankind. Christ: the anointed Messiah of Israel, and Saviour of humanity, Whom the Father anointed to become the Redeemer of the world and sacrificial Lamb of God, and about Whose perfect life, substitutionary death, wonderful Resurrection, and eternal rule the prophets of old wrote about in the Holy Scriptures. Yes, Paul determined to know nothing among them except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

And Him Crucified: refers to the Work of the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary. Part of that work was the expiation of our sins, where sin and guilt was removed from our account forever because Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God, sent by the Father to take away the sin of the world. But He was also the propitiation for our sin, for by being born into the human race He became our Kinsman-Redeemer Whose sacrificial death and glorious Resurrection paid the price of our sin with His own death, a penalty all guilty sinners justly deserve. Yes, Jesus Christ was the propitiation for our sins, turning the wrath of God, which we all justly deserve, away from us and upon Himself so that by faith in Him we might be made the righteousness of God.

Not only is our sin and guilt removed and God's wrath against sin fully satisfied through Christ's work on the Cross, but He reconciled us back to God, removing forever our alienation from God. Although we were born into this world as enemies of God, the death of Jesus Christ reconciled us back to God. Although we were at enmity with God, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son. Yes, Jesus identified with our death so that we might be identified with His life. And He identified with our sin so that we might be identified with His righteousness.

Our many sins together with our sin nature had made us slaves of sin, but Christ Jesus redeemed us in some amazing ways: 1. He redeemed us from the curse of the Law. 2. He redeemed us from the guilt of our sin. 3. He redeemed us from the power of sin. 4) The day is coming when our mortal bodies will also be redeemed, and we shall put on immortality. Our corrupt bodies will put on incorruption and we will finally be redeemed from the presence of sin as well as it penalty and power, forever and ever.

Heavenly Father, I praise You for my salvation and my redemption. Thank You that I am fully reconciled to You, through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that in the days ahead, I set all else aside, except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. In Jesus' name I pray, AMEN.