Surely Paul could have made the gospel more palatable – and less dangerous – by saying it was about something else. Something cleaner and less ridiculous than the cross. Something more glorious. Less disgusting. He didn’t do that, though. “I decided,” Paul said, “to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). In the face of the worst cultural prejudice imaginable, he fixed the entire gospel squarely and immovably on the fact that Jesus was tacked to a stauros and left to die. If he had been trying to find a surefire way to turn first-century people off from his “good news,” he couldn’t have done better than that! So why did he do it? It’s simple. He did it because he knew that leaving the cross out, or running past it with a glance, or making it peripheral to the gospel, or allowing anything else to displace it at the center of the gospel would make it, finally, no gospel at all.
— Greg Gilbert (b. 1977), Pastor, Buchautor, Sprecher
Related Bible passage: 1CO.2.2
Topics: Grace & Redemption, God, Jesus & the Holy Spirit, Witness & Mission
Occasions: The Church Year
Greg Gilbert
Greg Gilbert (* 1977) ist ein US-amerikanischer reformiert-baptistischer Pastor und Buchautor, der seit 2010 die Third Avenue Baptist Church in Louisville (Kentucky) leitet. Bekannt wurde er durch Schriften wie „Was ist das Evangelium?“, in denen er ein reformatorisches Heilsverständnis vertritt und den Auftrag der Kirche primär auf Evangelisation und Jüngerschaft statt auf gesellschaftliche Transformation festlegt. Für Bibelleser bieten seine Werke eine systematische Auslegung biblischer Grundbegriffe, die wegen ihrer strikt calvinistischen Zuspitzung und Abgrenzung zu weiter gefassten Missionsverständnissen auch kontrovers diskutiert wird.
All quotes by Greg Gilbert (5)
It wasn't the nails that held Jesus to the cross. It was love.
Max Lucado
Grace, like water, flows to the lowest part.
Philip Yancey
In our own woundedness, we can become sources of life for others.
Henri Nouwen
God does not love us because we are lovable, but because his nature is love.
Oswald Chambers
Oswald Chambers
God counts on your failure far more than you do yourself.
Hans Peter Royer
Ultimately mourning means facing what wounds us in the presence of One who can heal.
Henri Nouwen
The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.
Tim Keller