The Heart of Christianity
By
John Orlando
Covenant Presbyterian Church, Abilene, Texas
29
May 2005
Text: 1 Cor 2:2
Intro
The human body is truly amazing. The complexities of it are so vast, that it is no wonder that the Psalmist declared that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made!”
One of the most wondrous and absolutely critical things in the human body is the heart. In a typical day in a healthy adult's life, this tiny muscle pumps more than 2,000 gallons of blood through the body, feeding, energizing, renovating and repairing the body's cells, and delivering hormones and transporting other vital chemical messengers. And, unlike other muscles, the heart can never rest, let alone stop, without serious or, indeed, fatal consequences.
The human heart is so powerful and vital to life that we often use it in a figurative sense whenever we want to describe the true essence and supreme working power of something, and it is in this sense that I want to speak to you this morning.
What is the heart of the Christianity; what is it that is the very essence; the supreme working power of Christianity? That is quite a question, and one that might inspire many different answers. However, I believe that in our text this morning we are presented with the true heart of Christianity, the thing that gives and pumps life into Christianity, and that is Jesus Christ and Him crucified and all that that entails.
First, let’s briefly look at:
I. The Immediate Context of The Passage
It was their determining to know something other than Christ and Him crucified that was at the core of what was causing the divisions among them, as well as the sinful and immoral behavior that is mentioned later, and ultimately leading them into doctrinal heresy, where they were actually denying the resurrection of Christ.
One might think that after Paul asks the rhetorical question, he would then move on to other things. After all, a rhetorical question is a question in which everyone already knows the answer! But no! Paul does not move from his point; he does not set the cross of Christ aside and begin to set a bunch of moralisms before the people. Instead, with the cross of Christ lifted high (so to speak) he goes on to declare the message of the cross and tells us that it is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God to salvation.
The message of the cross was a stumbling block to Jews because the cross ultimately robbed the Law of Moses both of its power to justify and its power to sanctify. What could be more scandalous than to set this One who was hung on a tree, cursed by God no less, at the center of all of life in both justification and sanctification, instead of the Law of Moses?
To the to Greeks it was utter foolishness. The Greeks were renowned for their intricate philosophies and curiosities about ultimate reality. But, the biggest problem with all of their speculation is that it was based purely upon their autonomous reason. They attempted to scale into the heavens by the sheer power of their intellects and reason apart from any objective standard—apart from divine grace and revelation—and they then prided themselves on their fine sounding argumentations and rhetorical skill, steeped in high-sounding words of eloquence.
Thus, Paul completely shatters their myth of works righteousness and human autonomy by preaching the simple message of the cross, which ultimately declares that it is God, not man, who is sovereign and autonomous, and that man, far from being able to ascend into the heavens, is wholly separated from God, an enemy of God and a child of wrath, dead in trespasses sin, and enslaved to his sin nature, and shut out from heaven. And the way to heaven is not through philosophical speculation, or the Law of Moses, but solely by the infinite God-Man who lived a life of perfect obedience, died on a cross, and rose bodily from the dead. What foolishness is this! Where is the eloquent sophistication in that?! Could anything be more revolting to all human reason?! Could anything be more offensive and intolerant and narrow-minded!
But it is the simple, unadorned, “foolish” message of the cross; a message so utterly perfect and powerful that it does not depend upon its messengers for its effectiveness! It is not eloquence of speech that gives the message its power, rather it is the cross of Christ. Human eloquence and wisdom simply cannot comprehend or compare to the message of the cross, where a holy God comes to save us who are altogether unworthy, altogether unrighteous, and altogether sinful for no other reason than an His unfathomable love for His people, the depth and width and breadth of which is infinite and cannot be measured. Neither those who are being saved by that message, nor those who are proclaiming the message, can ever have room for boasting, for it is God alone who effectually works and gives the increase.
II. An Explanation of the Phrase
A. “I determined to know nothing” The phrase conveys a steadfastness of disposition in Paul who, maybe more than any man in history, understood the power of the cross. The former Saul of Tarsus, with all of his scholastic skill and academic knowledge, and his passionate zeal for the Law, and murderer of Christians, realized that it was Christ and Him crucified alone that saved him and gave him the power to live for eternity and in his daily life.
B. Paul says he determined to know “nothing” - not one single thing; not his works, not the Law…nothing, as Paul says in Phil 3:7-10. Paul knew that any movement away from Christ and His work would produce dire consequences. This is the way it always is in the Church. Whether we are talking about the church at Corinth, the churches in Galatia, or the church today, we are always in danger of wanting to know something more than Christ and Him crucified, and it is this that lays at the root of every denial of the Gospel.
C. “Among you” – This is something that has practical implications in our lives and how we relate to one another. Christ and Him crucified is not only what we proclaim to one another, but it is how we live among all people. We will explore this a little more later.
D. “Except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” – Now we come to the heart of it all. When Paul uses this phrase, I believe we could say that it is in essence theological shorthand by which Paul is referring to the totality of the Person and work of Christ as revealed in His nature, and His active and passive obedience. Lets deal first with who Jesus is:
1. Jesus is the Christ – In Matt 16, the apostle Peter declared of Jesus, “You are
the Christ, the Son of the living God.” In making this statement, Peter confesses that Jesus was one in nature with God, that is, he confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the promised Messiah, fully God and fully man. This calls our attention to the very nature of God Himself, wherein orthodox Christianity has confessed through the ages that “In the unity of the Godhead there be three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.” (WCF)
Thus, this simple words “Jesus Christ” teach us that Jesus is God in the flesh, the second person of the Trinity, who came to do the will of His Father, which ultimately was to redeem all those given to Him by the Father from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people zealous for good works. Which takes us now to His work:
2. “And Him crucified” – This word “crucified” does not merely relate to the fact that Jesus was put to death on a Roman cross. It also declares in one little word the full scope of the redemptive plan and work of our sovereign and Triune God on the behalf of His people! From all eternity, the persons of the Trinity purposed to save a multitude of imperfect, wicked, and unworthy sinners from every nation, tribe, and tongue. The Father then chose these sinners on the basis of grace alone, not on the basis of anything good in them or foreseen in them, and gave them to His eternal Son, Jesus the Christ, for the adoption of sons.
In the fullness of time, Jesus accomplished all that He was sent to accomplish in His perfect substitutionary redemptive work, whereby He humbled Himself, took the form of a servant, and lived the life of perfect obedience to the Law on our behalf. He then went to the cross, where He who knew no sin became sin for us, and bore the penalty that was due us on the cross, and as such He made a full, complete, sufficient, and perfect satisfaction for all of the sins of all His people, and actually saved His people at the cross. He tasted death for His sheep, was buried, and then was raised bodily from the dead for our justification, and ascended into heaven where ever lives to make intercession for His people.
The Holy Spirit of God, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, is now sent forth to perfectly apply and bring about all that is related to the perfect and predetermined plan of God. As He applies the perfect work of Christ to all those who were given to Christ, He makes them alive, gives them the gifts of faith and repentance, and seals them, being the guarantee of our salvation. And as those who have been made alive by grace alone and receive and rest upon the perfect works and merits of Christ alone, we have at that moment the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed to us, and we are declared right before God forever.
One little word; “crucified.” And yet that one little word is powerful indeed!
III. The Ramifications of the Phrase
A. Ramifications to Doctrine: Salvation is all about the Glory and Grace of God alone: The phrase declares simply and concisely that it is all about who Jesus is, and not who we are. It is all about what Jesus has done, and not we have done. It is all about the perfect works and merits of Christ, not our works and merits, which could never justify us before God.
This was, in essence, what the Reformation was all about. “How” are we saved, and "who" is it that does the saving? If salvation is based upon anything in us, no matter how small, then who is it that ultimately is the cause of our salvation? We are. The Reformers rejected that completely, and maintained that the “how” of our salvation was wholly owing to the “who” of salvation: The sovereign grace of God and perfect works of Christ. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone, in by and because of Christ alone, all to God’s glory alone.
One of the things that gets lost in the whole discussion though is the perfect work of Christ on the cross. We get so embroiled in discussions on Divine sovereignty, justification by faith alone, etc., that by the time the cross comes up in the conversation, it has almost become a passing consideration. But what we must realize, beloved, is that at the heart of the great theological truths brought to light in the Reformation, and therefore Biblical Christianity, is Christ and Him crucified. Only in Biblical Christianity is the true sufficiency and perfect work of Christ clearly affirmed and proclaimed. Only in Biblical Christianity do we see that divine sovereignty truly divine sovereignty. Only in Biblical Christianity is divine grace truly diving grace. Only in Biblical Christianity, that is, only in the Gospel, do we see the true condition of fallen man: he is dead in his trespasses and sin, the thoughts and imaginations of heart being evil continually, and man, far from being “free,” is in absolute bondage and is a slave to sin. Only in Biblical Christianity can the words “Jesus Saves” be given their true meaning, for it is only in Biblical Christianity where an actual atonement for sins is proclaimed.
To put it plainly, we must relentlessly focus on and declare the absolute perfections of God and work of Christ in redemption.
To speak as others do that Jesus merely made men savable, whereby He did not actually secure and guarantee the salvation of anyone at the cross, but leaves it up to man to make the work of Christ effectual, completely robs the cross of all its purpose, all of its preeminence, and all of its power. It brings Christ down to the level of an impotent bystander in the drama of redemption as the “sovereign” will and power of man are exalted as the final determinative cause of salvation. To deny the absolute sovereignty of God in salvation is to ascribe to God a foolishness that is difficult to comprehend, wherein He would be thought to embark on a plan of redemption that is wholly imprecise and imperfect. With all due respect, this is, at the very least, false teaching that must be rejected.
Let God be true and every man a liar. Christ laid down His life for His sheep, and as Spurgeon said, “Christ so died that He infallibly secured the salvation of a multitude that no man can number, who through Christ’s death not only may be saved, but are saved, must be saved, and cannot by any possibility run the hazard of being anything but saved.”
That, beloved is a Savior who is truly a Savior! That, beloved, is a Savior to get excited about!
B. Ramifications to Daily Living: We noted earlier that Christ and Him crucified is not only what we proclaim to one another, but it is how we live among all people. When we are among people, we are interacting with them, and the way we interact with people is by the words we speak and things we do. Paul’s whole life, his manner of speech, and his manner of living, was “Christ and Him crucified.”
This means that we live sacrificially, just as Christ did. We are willing to lay aside what is rightfully due us for the benefit of others, as Paul would later tell the Corinthians in chapter 9 of the book, that though he could have required certain things from them by virtue of being an apostle, he nevertheless did not force the issue, but, he says, “I have made myself a servant of all, that I might win the more.”
To “live” Christ and Him crucified means that we forgive, as we have been forgiven. It means that we esteem others better than ourselves, we carry one another’s burdens, we stop holding grudges, backbiting, slandering, gossiping, and envying. It means that we love one another deeply, and as such we are longsuffering, kind; we keep no records of wrong; we bear all things, hope all things, and endure all things. It means that we do not judge one another anymore, but are determined not to put a stumbling block in our brother’s way, and we do not destroy our brother, this one for whom Christ died.
Maybe you're like me, and you're saying "but, I can't do those things." Well, welcome to the club--none of us can in our own strength. This is why we must walk by faith and not by sight, and we must rest in Christ, and Christ will produce His fruit in us. As Paul said in Galatians 2:20: "I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." "Living" Christ and Him crucified then is living by faith in Christ and Him crucified, and as we do, He will produce within us the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, against such there is no law.
Conclusion
As the human heart pumps blood throughout the body, feeding, energizing, renovating and repairing the body's cells, delivering hormones and transporting vital chemical messengers, so Jesus Christ and Him crucified is the very heart of the believer, who feeds, energizes, and renovates broken and sinful lives, delivering them from darkness and transporting us into His kingdom where we are made to live and reign with Christ for eternity.
Christ and Him crucified is the core; the essence of all of life, for Christ is God of very God, Light of very Light, by whom all things were made, and through whose work and grace alone we stand and are forever saved, having received the redemption that He purchased.
Jesus Christ and Him crucified is the chief article upon which the church stands or falls, and is the hinge upon which all else turns.
Let us then, beloved, take hold of the chief article. Oh merciful God, cause us to be slaves to the cross of Christ. Let us never take our eyes off of that Sacred Head now wounded with grief and shame weighed down, whose suffering was all for sinners gain--ours was the transgression, but Yours, our mighty God and King, was the deadly pain.
No condemnation now I dread; Jesus, and all in Him, is mine; alive in Him, my living Head, and clothed in righteousness divine, Bold I approach the eternal throne, and claim the crown, through Christ my own.
For I determine to know nothing among you, beloved, except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Amen.