"Jesus and Him Crucified"

  Paul states to the Corinthians: "For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." (I Cor. 2:2) Earlier he told them: "But we preach Christ crucified..." (I Cor. 1:23) I know there are several thoughts we could draw from this but here is one major we need to have awareness about. Paul didn't say say we preach the crucifixion!

  Too many are trying to dramatize the crucifixion. We have the gospel accounts of what Jesus went through but those accounts weren't given to be made into some dramatic play or scene. Here's what I mean. The crucifixion does not give meaning to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the Lord Jesus Christ that gives meaning and glory to the crucifixion!! It's not about the deed, it's about the person and not just any person. It's about the Lord Jesus Christ accomplishing and embracing the work of the Father ending with the crucifixion. It isn't the bare act of dying that is proclaimed but the person, the Lord and Savior that is proclaimed because of His purpose and effect on mankind in that final offering of Himself on the cross.

  Paul could tell the Corinthian brethren: "For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord..." (II Cor. 4:5) Our lives were changed by a Lord and Savior, the person Jesus Christ. Too many proclaim themselves and the wonders of what He has done for them. It isn't our transformed lives that make the cross the moral and spiritual center. It's Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This isn't to make light of His crucifixion. It was necessary. It was powerful. But the power was from the heart of the heavenly Father, Jesus Christ His Son. No one forced Jesus. John 10:18 speaks that He did this on His own initiative. That's what makes Him so wonderful and lovely. The Lord Jesus followed the will of the Father and the result was He was seized and killed. "Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, 'Sacrifice and offering you have not desired but a body You have prepared for Me; in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have taken no pleasure.' Then I said, 'Behold, I have come (in the scroll of the book it is written of Me) to do your will, O God." (Heb. 10:5-7)

  The death of Jesus wasn't a death of old age or "natural causes". The dying of the Lord had purpose and it was to hit directly at the heart and destruction of all of Satan's purpose among man. And this destruction and purpose is found in Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And Paul proclaims: "But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world."  (Gal. 6:14) This Savior, this Lord is what gave the cross it's glory and power. That's where we should be bragging and not in us! It's time we get to know Jesus and Him crucified!