THE SECOND PART: A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
The First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians
Message One—The Crucified Christ
Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 1:23-24, 30; 2:2, 9-10; 5:7-8; 10:4; 15:45b; 1 Pet. 2:24
I. The crucified Christ was the unique subject, the center, the content, and the substance of the apostle’s ministry—1 Cor. 2:2:
A. The death of Christ has become God’s power to eliminate all the problems in the universe; thus, Christ crucified is God’s power to abolish all negative things and carry out His plan—1:23-24:
1. The human way of solving problems is to negotiate, but God’s way is to terminate; the best way to solve problems among people is to terminate everyone involved—Gal. 2:20; cf. 1 Cor. 6:7-8.
2. The crucifixion of Christ has silenced the entire universe and simplified the extremely complicated situation in the universe—cf. 2 Cor. 11:2-3.
B. When we enjoy the crucified Christ, all that we are, all that we have, and all that we can do are completely terminated, and His resurrection life is imparted through us into others—John 12:24-26; 2 Cor. 4:10-12.
II. The enjoyment of the crucified Christ as the life-giving Spirit in our spirit solves all the problems in the church and issues in the growth in life for the building up of the church—1 Cor. 1:23; 2:2; 15:45b; 6:17; 3:6:
A. The crucified Christ is the unleavened bread to be a feast to us—5:6-8:
1. Leaven signifies evil things and evil doctrines (vv. 6, 8; Matt. 16:6, 11-12); since Christ is unleavened, if we feast on Him daily, we can have an unleavened church life.
2. We need to enjoy Christ as our unleavened banquet for the entire period of our Christian life—1 Cor. 5:7-8; Exo. 12:15-20; cf. 13:4-9:
a. The crucified Christ whom we enjoy today as our feast is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, and included in His being is His killing death; as long as we enjoy Him, we will be nourished, and the negative elements within us will be killed—1 Cor. 15:45b; Exo. 30:23-25.
b. To eat the Lord Jesus, to feast on Him, is to receive Him into us that He may be assimilated by the regenerated new man in the way of life; we can eat Him by eating His words—John 6:57, 63; Jer. 15:16.
B. The crucified Christ is our spiritual rock who was smitten and cleft by God to flow Himself out as the spiritual water for us to drink—1 Cor. 10:4; John 19:34; Exo. 17:6:
1. We need to call on the Lord continually and draw water with joy from Him as the fountain of living water—1 Cor. 12:13, 3b; Isa. 12:3-4; John 4:10, 14.
2. We need to speak to the Lord constantly to receive Him as the living water—Num. 20:8.
C. The crucified Christ is the power of God for us to live in any kind of environment and to live out every kind of virtue—1 Cor. 1:18, 24; Eph. 1:19-23:
1. We are able to live a contented life in any kind of environment by Christ as our inward power—Phil. 4:11-13.
2. We are able to live Christ out as every kind of virtue by Him as our inward power; to live a life of these virtues is much more difficult than doing a Christian work—vv. 13, 8.
3. We can enjoy the transmission of Christ as the power of God and the transfusion of Christ as the peace of God by practicing fellowship with Him in prayer—vv. 6-7.
D. The crucified Christ is the wisdom of God as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption to us—1 Cor. 1:30:
1. Christ became wisdom to us from God to transmit all that He is into our tripartite being for His eternal expression, making us the masterpiece of God for the wise exhibition of all that Christ is—Eph. 2:10; 3:10.
2. When we lay hold of Christ as the personified wisdom of God, He becomes the reality of the tree of life to us for us to minister Christ as life to others— Prov. 3:18-19; 2 Chron. 1:10; Col. 2:2-3; 1:28; 1 Tim. 5:1-2.
E. The crucified Christ is our Healer, our healing tree—Exo. 15:22-26; 1 Pet. 2:24; John 11:25; Rev. 2:7:
1. When we experience the healing tree of the cross of Christ and live a crucified life, our bitter situation becomes sweet.
2. We need to apply the cross of Christ to our whole being, that the bitterness within us may be healed and changed into sweetness.
F. The crucified Christ is the depths, the deep things, of God—1 Cor. 2:6-10:
1. The deep things of God are Christ in many aspects as our eternal portion, foreordained, prepared, and given to us freely by God—Rom. 11:33; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 6:17.
2. To realize and participate in the deep and hidden things God has ordained and prepared for us requires us to love Him—2:9; Mark 12:30; cf. 1 Cor. 16:22:
a. In this way we have the closest and most intimate fellowship with God, and we are able to enter into His heart and apprehend all its secrets—Psa. 73:25; 25:14.
b. When our entire being becomes one with God through loving Him in intimate fellowship, He shows us, in our spirit through His Spirit, all the secrets of Christ as our portion—1 Cor. 2:10-12.
Ministry Excerpts:
THE CRUCIFIED CHRIST
The first two chapters of 1 Corinthians are very difficult to understand. You may read these chapters again and again without understanding what Paul is talking about. You may be impressed by many different verses and yet not be able to see Paul’s main point. The main point in these chapters is that in his spirit Paul was endeavoring to bring the distracted philosophical believers back to Christ. For this reason, in these chapters Paul does not emphasize the resurrected Christ or the ascended Christ; instead, he emphasizes the crucified Christ. In 2:2 he says, “I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and this One crucified.” To the Corinthians Paul proclaimed a crucified Christ, a Christ who had been killed.
We have pointed out that the best way to solve problems among people is to terminate everyone involved. However, the human way of solving problems is to negotiate. God’s way, on the contrary, is not to negotiate, but to terminate. When everyone has been terminated, there is silence. The best way to bring in silence and simplicity is to have a Christ who has been crucified. It seems as if Paul was saying to the Corinthians, “I testified to you a Christ who had been crucified. When I first came to you, I preached to you concerning the crucified Christ. The Lord’s life on earth ended with death by crucifixion.”
The fact that Christ was crucified implies many things. It implies that He was despised, rejected, and defeated. No one could be crucified without first being rejected and defeated. Through crucifixion Christ suffered man’s rejection. He was able to avoid death by crucifixion, but He did not do so. He could be crucified only because He was willing to be killed. The crucifixion of Christ has silenced the entire universe and simplified the extremely complicated situation in the universe.
Deep in his spirit, Paul was yearning to impress the distracted, philosophical Christians in Corinth with this crucified Christ. Among the saints there was turmoil and trouble. Many voices were speaking different things: “I am of Apollos,” “I am of Cephas,” “I am of Paul,” “I am of Christ.” What could silence all these voices? Paul knew that they could be silenced only by a crucified Christ. Therefore, in Paul’s spirit was the burden to bring the believers back to the Christ whom he had preached to them and testified to them. Paul could say, “The Christ I preached to you was a silent Christ, a Christ who was willing to be crucified without a word. He was willing to be despised, rejected, and put to death. This is the Christ I ministered to you when I came to you. Now I want you to know that such a Christ is God’s power. Only a crucified Christ can save you. God’s saving power is not a strong Christ but a crucified Christ, not a fighting Christ but a defeated Christ.” I repeat, Paul’s spirit was to bring back these striving, philosophical Christians to the simplicity and silence of the crucified Christ.
Furthermore, in 1:17 Paul said that he preached the gospel “not in wisdom of speech, that the cross of Christ should not be made void.” In this verse wisdom of speech refers to philosophical speculations. In 2:1 Paul says, “And I, when I came to you, brothers, came not with excellence of speech or wisdom, announcing to you the testimony of God.” Literally, the Greek term rendered “with excellence” means according to elevation or superiority. Paul did not come to Corinth to display excellent speech or philosophical wisdom in the testimony of God. On the contrary, Paul avoided philosophical speculation and excellence of speech and preached the simple word of the cross. The word of the cross is simple, having nothing to do with excellence of speech.
When Paul ministered Christ to the Corinthians, he did not exercise philosophical wisdom, for he realized that the Corinthians were a philosophical people, a people who had been born into a philosophical environment and raised under its influence. Paul’s goal was to deliver the Corinthians from the philosophy into which they had been born. Paul seems to be saying, “You were born into philosophy and worldly wisdom. But I came to you not with philosophy, but with Christ and the cross. I did not preach Christ according to the excellence of your philosophical speculations. Instead, I preached Christ to you in a simple way, telling you that He had been crucified. Christ was willing to be despised and rejected. He accepted man’s rejection. When He was arrested, He did not resist. When He was put on the cross, He did not fight. He was silent, for He was willing to be crucified. This is the Christ I preached to you.”
Paul’s preaching was absolutely contrary to the principle of Greek philosophy. According to the philosophy of the Greeks, Paul’s preaching of a crucified Christ was neither logical nor philosophical. Here Paul seems to be telling the Corinthians, “My preaching was not according to philosophy or worldly wisdom. Nevertheless, you accepted my preaching and my testimony, you were enriched in Christ in all expression and all knowledge, and by grace you received the initial gifts—the divine life and the Holy Spirit. However, you have not lived according to what you have received from the Lord. The initial gifts you received have not been developed. They have not grown to maturity. Rather, you have remained in a stage of infancy. You are still babes in Christ. Now my burden is to bring you back to the crucified Christ and to the initial gifts. You need to forget your Greek culture, wisdom, and philosophy and return to Christ and Him crucified.” This was Paul’s spirit in writing the first two chapters of 1 Corinthians. Writing with such a spirit, Paul pointed the believers to the crucified Christ and spoke to them the word of the cross. He told them that Christ crucified is the power of God for saving us and the wisdom of God for fulfilling His plan.
THE CROSS OF CHRIST
Verse 18 says, “For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” The little word “for” at the beginning of this verse indicates that verse 18 is an explanation of verse 17. In verse 17 Paul declares, “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in wisdom of speech, that the cross of Christ should not be made void.” The cross of Christ is the center in the accomplishment of God’s New Testament economy, which is to have a church produced through the redemption of Christ. Paul preached Christ crucified (v. 23; 2:2; Gal. 3:1) and boasted in the cross of Christ (Gal. 6:14), not the law with circumcision, which the Jews and some of the Jewish believers fought for (Gal. 3:11; 5:11; 6:12-13), nor the philosophy which was promoted by the Greeks and some of the Gentile believers (Col. 2:8, 20). The cross of Christ abolished the ordinances of the law (Eph. 2:15; Col. 2:14), and we the believers have died to philosophy, an element of the world (Col. 2:20). But Satan instigated the Judaizers and philosophers to preach their isms of worldly wisdom that the cross of Christ might be made void. The Apostle Paul was alert in this matter. In dealing with the division among the Corinthian believers, which came mostly from the background of Jewish religion and Greek philosophy, the apostle stressed Christ and His cross. When Christ is taken to replace religious opinions and philosophical wisdom, and His cross is working to deal with the flesh attached to any background, divisions will be terminated. The exaltation of natural preference and human wisdom cannot stand before Christ and His cross. (Life-Study of 1 Corinthians, msg. 7)
As believers in Christ, we all must be able to answer this question: Why was it necessary for Christ to be crucified? In his preaching to the philosophical Greeks at Corinth, Paul must have indicated why it was necessary for Christ to be crucified. Perhaps the most common answer to this question is to say that Christ had to be crucified in order for God to save us. God cannot save us apart from the crucifixion of Christ. According to the New Testament, God has no way to save anyone apart from the cross of Christ. Let us consider briefly why this is so.
In the universe there are many kinds of problems. There are the problems of Satan, the world, and sin. There is also the problem of man. The man created by God for His purpose fell and became sinful. Other problems related to man are the flesh and the natural life. In addition, everything in the universe has become old; that is, it has become rotten, corrupt. Anything that is not corrupt cannot be old. Oldness indicates a shortage of life. When a tree grows, it has life. But when it begins to die, there is a shortage of life. Because of Satan, the world, and man with sin, the flesh, and the natural life, the whole universe, including the heavens and the earth, has become old, corrupt, ruined, and full of death.
In addition to all these problems, there is the problem of the ordinances and regulations given by God for man’s living. Therefore, the cross deals with the problems of Satan, the world, sin, man, the flesh, the natural life, oldness, and ordinances. In order for these problems to be solved, it was necessary for Christ to be crucified.
Before Christ could be crucified to solve all these problems, He had to put on human nature. This means that He had to become a man, a creature. By becoming a man, Christ became a creature. He took on human nature, not only for the purpose of dying for us and of shedding His blood for our sins, but also for the purpose of solving the problems of Satan, the world, sin, fallen man, the natural life, flesh, oldness, and ordinances.
Although Christ could have refused death by crucifixion, He was crucified. According to the human understanding, Christ was executed by others. However, His understanding of His death was different. In John 10:11 the Lord Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” Concerning His life, the Lord goes on to say in John 10:18, “No one takes it away from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it again.” His life was not taken from Him. On the contrary, He gave up His life for us. If Christ had not been willing to lay down His life, it would not have been possible for people to execute Him. Instead of fighting for Himself, Christ accepted the death of the cross. He was willing to be crucified in order to accomplish redemption and solve all the problems in the universe. Christ crucified is an offense to those who seek signs, and foolishness to those who seek wisdom. But to us who believe He is God’s power and wisdom.
GOD’S POWER
In the cross of Christ we see God’s power. It takes the power of God to defeat Satan, the world, sin, fallen man, the flesh, the natural life, the old creation, and the ordinances. What other power is greater than Christ crucified as God’s power? What other power can destroy Satan or overcome the world? Only God has the power to accomplish these things. This power is not that of doing things by speaking, such as the power God exercised in creation. Rather, it is the power of crucifixion, the power of the wonderful death of Christ. This means that the crucifixion of Christ has become the power of God. The death of Christ has become God’s power to destroy Satan, to solve the problem of the world, to eliminate sin, and to terminate fallen man, the flesh, the natural life, and the old creation. By this power God is able also to solve the problem of the ordinances. By one death, the death of Christ, all the problems in the universe have been cleared. Thus, Christ crucified is God’s power to abolish all negative things and carry out His plan.
GOD’S WISDOM
This crucified Christ is also God’s wisdom. In order to accomplish anything, we need both power and wisdom. We have pointed out that wisdom is for planning and purposing, whereas power is for carrying out and accomplishing what is planned and purposed. In God’s economy Christ crucified is both God’s power and His wisdom. It is possible for us to have power or strength without having wisdom or the way. If we have power without wisdom, we may use our strength in a foolish way. Therefore, we need Christ as both power and wisdom. (Life-Study of 1 Corinthians, msg. 8)