THE WORD OF THE CROSS
1 Corinthians 1: 14-31
DAB When we were last able to be together we considered what we have in verse 9 of this chapter: “God is faithful, by whom ye have been called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord”, and the exhortation in verse 10, “that there be not among you divisions”. We read of one of the first attacks on the testimony which sought to bring in disunity in Acts chapter 15, with erroneous teaching being brought forward that would divide believing Jews and believing Gentiles. Paul was very much one of those who combatted for the Lord in that attack, and the victory was won. Now we have here, I am assuming not many years later, divisions between Gentile and Gentile, and divisions that the saints in Corinth seemed quite free to boast in. So Paul must have very much felt it when he asked in verse 13: “Is the Christ divided? has Paul been crucified for you?”.
Where we have read here, Paul says, “I thank God that I have baptised none of you”. I think we can see the wisdom of the Holy Spirit here, that although there were one or two named persons, there was not a company that could become some sort of sect on account of being those baptised by Paul. With such disunity and confusion in this local assembly, Paul goes back to the glad tidings, and draws attention to the foolishness of the glad tidings. It is our common ground, our holding to “the word of the cross”, so that anything of the flesh that brings in this disunity might be judged as put away.
RJF Do you think the note f in verse 10 to the word “united” is helpful? It has in mind ‘a whole; or, if broken, are restored to one complete whole’. The central point of gathering is that everybody who comes in is Christ’s. The means for that gathering, for any to enter in, is by the cross of Christ. That is something that should always be at the forefront of our minds in relation to any matter that might arise.
DAB That goes back to what we had when reading in Ephesians: “and has broken down the middle wall of enclosure, having annulled the enmity in his flesh, the law of commandments in ordinances, that he might form the two in himself into one new man, making peace; and might reconcile both in one body to God by the cross, having by it slain the enmity”, chap 2: 14-16. There again it is the cross. Being “perfectly united” is not in a man-made construction, because then you would always see the mark where it had been joined together. Going back to the cross removes anything man-made entirely. This is God’s construction; it is the one body in Christ; there is no join or scar, no weak point: it is Christ and His work.
PHM In verse 2, Paul addresses the Corinthians as “those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints”. He then says, “with all that in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours”. Our call is to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is the basis on which we can be of one mind; without that there will be division. We have all been sanctified, and if we all call on that Name then we will be of one mind.
DAB I suppose that is almost without qualification. Calling upon the Lord’s name is open to every believer. There is not a decree, or sect, or a certain line of truth I need to understand to get the gain of this. I call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, which we can claim as our own because of what He has done for us. It is the basis of our fellowship.
PHM The fact that you have the full title, Lord Jesus Christ, would include that we would know Him in each of those names. We accept Him as Lord, and thus come under His authority; as Jesus, it is the One known in nearness and intimacy; and as the Christ, He is known as God’s anointed one. Part of being of one mind is accepting the Lord in these three ways, as Lord, as Jesus, and as Christ.
DAB How great it is, the Name that we call on. Our every blessing is founded on that Name, as we have in Ephesians, “every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ”, chap 1: 3. I agree that these names should govern our lives, but we also, in effect, claim everything that Christ has done for us by calling on His Name. It seems a very expansive thought.
PSB So we find that what was broken in the garden of Eden, the relationship between God and man, has been restored in a much greater way, in Christ. The greater my appreciation of that relationship, the greater my appreciation of all that I have been brought into in the Lord Jesus Christ.
DAB Tell us more of what is in your mind? In this scripture Paul brings them back to the glad tidings because the relationship had broken down between brother and brother.
PSB I was weighing over what was said in relation to the cross; what happened at the very beginning was that lawlessness came in. Man fell out of the relationship in which he had been set with God. What the cross has done has entirely removed that order of man and established something entirely new. New creation has been established in the Lord Jesus Christ; therefore, if I am in the enjoyment of that, I am to understand that the order of man that ended at the cross cannot possibly enter into the new order of things. If there is division, it means there is not the enjoyment of the life that this new relationship affords, which Christ has brought me into by ending what I am naturally at the cross.
DAB It is good to get an impression of the cost to Christ to remove the old man in me. It is not that we dwell on what our flesh is, but the more I understand the cost to Christ to bear my sins on the cross, the more I will understand how much He loved me. Then I can see that if He bore my sins in His body upon the tree, and He bore the sins of my brother in His body on the tree, it would show me how much Christ loves my brother too. That would increase the value we have of one another.
PSB I think so. I do not think we can ever contemplate the cross too much. One who was absolutely perfect went that way for me. The Man who was of an order that God found delight in took on what was due to me. He did that in view of bringing us forward in Him for the Father’s delight. There is something intensely vital in the contemplation of the cross.
RJF The greatest dimension of the cross is vertical: the cross is the means by which man is reconciled to God. The passage here brings out much as to the horizontal relationship between one and another, but reconciliation between one and another is secondary in comparison to the extent of the distance that needed to be overcome to reconcile man to God. And it is important to see that it is not to reconcile God to man: it is reconcile man to God.
PSB I think it is good to draw attention to that because it is primary. If that is so, if I am in the reality and enjoyment of that in my own soul, there would be no strife with my brother. You are also right in emphasising it is God who has reconciled man to Himself; it is what He wanted. Should that not find an answer in my own heart? He wanted me for Himself, and He did that by giving up what was most precious.
RJF It is something that is central to the gospel: that great appeal, “Be reconciled to God”, 2 Cor 5: 20. God has provided everything for that reconciliation to take place. But each individual must take that step to be reconciled.
The other thing I was thinking about the cross is that Christ was lifted up to die. He was lifted up as an object of derision, but also an object to be seen. Thinking back to the fiery serpent, those that looked at the fiery serpent lived, Num 21: 9. Therefore when we contemplate the cross, do we always need to bear in mind that Christ was lifted up? We should always have Christ in view.
PHM With reference to what you have been saying about the cross, and being reconciled to God, it is interesting where we began: it says, “I thank God”. Paul begins this epistle saying, “by God’s will”. He seems to trace back to the source. Over the page we get many references to what God is doing. For example, “to us that are saved it is God’s power”. He begins by thanking God. He could have thanked his Lord, but in relation to what you are saying about the cross, he traces it back to God.
PSB That is good. He takes it right back. Christ went to the cross for me. That is right, but do we hold that primarily He went that way to fulfil God’s will? I am blessed through it, but Christ came to do the will of God. So, Paul’s desire is that everything is taken back to God.
DAB The whole passage that we have read emphasises God. Can we link this thought to the revelation of God? What I mean by that is that this was the way God moved to reveal Himself. He has come out to us by the cross; it is the way through which God has made Himself known. Perhaps we can wonder then at the counsel of God, that everything, all that we can enter into in faith, is through the word of the cross.
KJW I was just looking at the words of hymn 357 -
But in the cross of Christ we see
How God can save, yet righteous be.
I was following up the thought of linking back to God, that it was the primary thought, the Lord going that way to fulfil the will of God. That hymn has several references bearing on our conversation. It starts with -
The perfect righteousness of God
It speaks about the cross of Christ,
‘Tis in the cross of Christ we trace
His righteousness, yet wondrous grace.
I had not really thought too much about God’s righteousness and the cross of Christ, but it seems to be linked very much with the will of God and His desire to reconcile man to Himself.
DAB We have here a reference to the foolishness of the preaching. We can wonder why that is, but all that we have spoken of is found through faith. That is utterly foolish to the world; they would need evidence; that seems to be true even in what the world is passing through at the moment, and the ways in which it seeks to meet it. To commit our life and our safety to God in faith might be utter foolishness to the world. But Paul says, “to us that are saved it is God’s power”. It is a power that the world cannot touch.
KJW I was thinking of that; from a natural perspective man might think, how can someone in such weak circumstances do so much? But the work was completed at the cross; there the blood of Christ was shed, which that hymn also refers to. He is the subject of faith which we are to lay hold of.
RJF That brings us back to the scripture that was referred to in Ephesians 2. Before we have reference to the breaking down of the middle wall of enclosure, it says: “ye who once were afar off are become nigh by the blood of the Christ”. I was noticing it is not the cross of Christ that is referred to in 1 Cor 1: 17; it is “the cross of the Christ”. It brings out His distinctiveness. Our whole approach as to the cross must be through the blood.
KJW That is helpful. I noticed it was “the Christ”, really emphasising the greatness of that One, the way that He went, all that He gave, His precious blood being shed, the basis laid for reconciliation.
RJF As was mentioned earlier, the name Christ refers to the anointing. And so if you think of “the cross of the Christ”, it is the cross of the One whom God has anointed. God has set out His Man as the One whom He has provided.
KJW It speaks of foolishness and wisdom. From a natural perspective what weakness was seen, but that was the cross of the Christ, the anointed One; and it is the greatness of that One who did the work.
PSB The thief on the cross saw that, Luke 23: 39-43. It makes you wonder that a man hanging on the cross beside the Lord was the one that saw something more than other men saw.
KJW I am always amazed by how much that thief understood of the Lord’s kingdom and His greatness in a few short moments. That was God’s work seen in him, the wisdom of God.
RJF Do you think note a (v 18), as to “the word”, is helpful? It is ‘the word which speaks of the cross’. In terms of a subject, therefore, it is far broader than the simple consideration of what the cross was as a physical object, and brings out the whole moral thought of what was being reconciled. From a moral point of view, the cross of Christ is the central frame of reference for the entirety of a believer’s dealings with God.
DAB Yes; so we see that the veil of the temple was rent in the midst, while the Lord was still on the cross (Luke 23: 45-46); it was not when He came out of death. God coming out to men was the on basis of the work on the cross.
RJF At that point every liability had been resolved, and every question had been answered. Everything that followed from man’s perspective, is really a comfort and assurance. God could not allow His Holy One to see corruption. The fact that He was raised again is another signifier that He was God’s Holy One. The fact that He has been received up into heaven gives me a place there too.
DAB You might say that if the veil of the temple had been rent in two from the top to the bottom (Matt 27: 51) sometime after the Lord had borne judgment on the cross, it might suggest that there was something else that had needed to be done. But no, God could come out unhinderedly in grace the moment that work was completed. The mind of man cannot add or take anything from it; the Lord could say, “It is finished”. Whatever my understanding of the truth is, the blessing is mine because the work was accomplished by Christ and cannot be tarnished.
PSB God’s heart was made known. He could come out to man, and man could go in to God. In the Old Testament a veil is drawn over who God is, but what you see here is that behind God’s operations He is making His love known. That is really the purpose of His operations, that God is known in the fulness of the revelation of Himself. I judge it would be right to say that is what is seen in the veil of the temple being rent. It shows the greatness of the work of Christ.
DAB It brings the immensity of this dispensation to us. God in His sovereign will chose how to make Himself known. He could have come out in judgment on the whole scene for how they dealt with His Son, but He has come out in grace and mercy. This magnifies why it is that Paul draws the Corinthians’ attention to this: we are in a dispensation of grace, and this should meet our personal disagreements. What if my brother has wronged me? Well, what has God done for me to meet my failure? What can I therefore do for my brother? How could the Lord’s people be divided if everyone held that spirit?
PSB That links with our previous thought that if our vertical links are right, there is more chance of our horizontal links being right. It is a testing matter, because I know what I am, but if my vertical links are right, the horizontal links will be healthy as well.
PHM I was thinking that the centurion had that impression of what was vertical. “Jesus, having cried with a loud voice, said, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit. And having said this, he expired. Now the centurion, seeing what took place, glorified God, saying, In very deed this man was just”, Luke 23: 46, 47. We were saying that the malefactor was given a revelation by God. What led the centurion to give glory to God? He must have been affected by the power of what he saw take place, and as a result of that vertical view he could give glory to God. The centurion was given the understanding to trace what he witnessed back to God.
RJF If we contemplate the scene at the cross, the centurion had to look up to Jesus on the cross. What he saw transformed his view and his understanding, so much so that he could not refrain from saying what he had seen. Mark records him saying, “Truly this man was Son of God”, chap 15: 39. It was a matter of revelation to him.
DAB The majority of references to the Lord on the cross present what we are calling a vertical view; that is, God was before Him. Even the cup which He was to take, He received it from His Father. And, as we have seen with both the centurion and the thief upon the cross, they also had an apprehension of God. There is also a horizontal reference in what the Lord said to John, regarding John and the Lord’s mother, John 19: 26-27. I think this illustrates the point being made. As we are drawn to what we are calling our vertical link we have in Christ, He maintains our horizontal links.
RJF There was one expression, one of the words of the Lord on the cross: “I thirst”, John 19: 38. That is a very profound, deep matter. We would have to look back into the psalms to get some understanding of it. Although it was expressed outwardly in the form of feeling, it seems to be an expression of something very deep.
DAB If we consider Paul’s reference to the foolishness of the preaching, men generally do not even feel that they need salvation, let alone having someone else to save them; you can understand that it is entirely against what the flesh would want. What the preaching demands is that everything of myself goes, and Christ becomes everything to me. We are in a world where you assert your own rights, and try to make a name for yourself and do well for yourself, and the gospel runs entirely contrary to that.
RJF The cross itself is not only a point of salvation; it is a point of regulation. There is a very interesting expression here, “to us that are saved”. That seems to me to be very inclusive, but it is also to regulate us; all these strifes that come in at the beginning of the paragraph indicated they were not regulated by the cross of Christ. Simply speaking, everything must be seen in the light of the cross and weighed up against it.
DAB So if we follow your thought as to what is inclusive, it is really what Paul seeks to draw out in this passage. He speaks of the exclusive character, or what distinguishes men, in the world - even on what the cross is to them. Here we have how Jews ask for signs, and Greeks seek wisdom. Next we see that Christ crucified is an offence to the Jews and foolishness to the nations. But then we have, “to those that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ God’s power and God’s wisdom”. It is very inclusive.
PSB He does not set himself apart, although he begins the epistle as “a called apostle”, v 1. He could almost have commanded them to be unified, but we also find Sosthenes the brother mentioned, and then we have, “to us that are saved”. It takes away all division and brings them together as one.
DAB Yes, and I believe it is right to say that that spirit is found in all the authors of the New Testament. I was thinking of John, a fellow-partaker in the sufferings in Jesus, Rev 1: 9. That is really what was emphasised, that the saints, the brethren, are all one in Christ. We find that to be a very prominent thought.
RJF I was thinking back to the way the epistle begins: “all that in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (v 2), and “to those sanctified in Christ Jesus”. This would be the thought that Paul had in writing. There were different strifes, but all of them were “called saints”.
DAB Paul helps too as to the spirit in which we meet such manifestations of the flesh. He fully identifies himself with the Corinthians. Even if they would not accept him he says, “I shall most gladly spend and be utterly spent for your souls, if even in abundantly loving you I should be less loved”, 2 Cor 12: 15. That is someone truly in the gain of the word of the cross.
But, speaking of the inclusiveness, there is a certain exclusive aspect to it as well. It is “to those that are called”. That is the exclusive character.
RJF That is the other side of “called saints”, saints by divine calling: anyone who is called is included regardless of background or anything else that marked the saints at this point, or the saints in the day in which we are.
DAB So it is not only taking account of the value of any large body of Christians, but it is the value of each individual. In the world, if there was a company of one hundred, and one left, the ninety nine remaining probably would not really notice. But in divine things we should feel it very much because that saint is called, and they are valued and treasured by God.
RJF So that is what we find in Luke 15.
DAB Yes, and the Lord does not delegate recovery in that passage; He does it Himself. That is something we can take encouragement in.
RJF We have that lovely expression there, “he lays it upon his own shoulders”, v 5. In the world at large there is a lot of focus on inequality and that kind of thing. If we look back to the beginning of this chapter, everyone who is a called saint is equal before God. If we regard someone as less than equal, we are far from God because we are not seeing things as He sees them. The second of these epistles speaks about the weak brother for whom Christ died.
DAB The Lord, having recovered the lost sheep, seeks those who had like feeling as to the matter, and says, “Rejoice with me”, v 6. In that passage, the Lord does not look for others to do the recovering, but would it be right to say He does look for those who would sympathise with Him as to that lost sheep?
PSB That is helpful: the Lord recovers, but do I enter in feelingly with Him in prayer in order that He does it? Sadly, things come in and we cannot enjoy liberty with some we have had over the years; do they become distant in my mind, or do I feel it and carry it before the Lord? Being called saints applies to all. If I cannot walk with a believer it should not make them any less a brother or sister. The Lord’s desire is that we should enjoy relationships together. The perfection of it will only be when He takes us all to be with Himself. We should feel the situation in Christendom generally, not just those who we have enjoyed the company of, but all believers caught up in whatever they may be caught up in. We should feel these things in some measure as He does.
DAB The scripture says, “Rejoice with those that rejoice, weep with those that weep”, Rom 12: 15. That comes back to the truth of the one body. If part of the body is wounded or damaged the whole body feels it, it is affected, and it does not function as well; we are to enter into and feel these things. Now, I can say that objectively, but I do not find these things naturally in me. How do we become more sensitive to these things, and feel the loss that we have had? The memory does begin to fade naturally; we get used to the new norm.
PSB I wonder if we need to go back to what was said earlier about the vertical links. If I am in the enjoyment of what God is to me, it means I am in the enjoyment of His presence, which means I have some appreciation of His feelings. We touch that at the Supper; we enter into His joy, and what He has. This is something I should cultivate more, my relationship with Him. He will cause me to have some understanding of what His feelings are. It is not an emotion we can put on; it has to be something as a result of drawing on Him.
DAB The Lord says: “Ye are my friends if ye practise whatever I command you”, John 15: 14. The idea of “friends” brings in the feeling side of things, and brings in the thought of relationship. The way these feelings are cultivated is that we practise what the Lord commands. Would that be the answer?
KJW I am often challenged by this section. “This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you”, John 15: 12. That would extend to believers we can no longer walk with. That is the level of the love we should have for one another.
DAB That is helpful. It brings back what we had at the start of the reading, taking account of what it cost Christ to love me. We are to love one another on that level.
PSB It is a beautiful passage: “As the Father has loved me, I also have loved you: abide in my love. If ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have spoken these things to you that my joy may be in you, and your joy be full. This is my commandment that ye love one another, as I have loved you”, v 9-12. Then it goes on as to laying down His life and, “Ye are my friends”, v 14. The whole passage links with your question as to feeling. It is to “love one another, as I have loved you”, abiding in the Lord’s love.
DAB It is how God has made Himself known. It almost characterises the whole dispensation of grace we are in. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal”, John 3: 16. God does not desire that any man should perish, but “that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth”, 1 Tim 2: 4. There seems to be an atmosphere of love in this whole dispensation; God’s desire is that all should come to the knowledge of the truth. You and I, as recipients of that love, are to take that love to others. It should be - and will be in the Spirit - easy to love one another in that way. It may not be so in the flesh, but if I am in the spirit and gain of these things, it will not be a chore or an effort. It will come naturally as features of Christ are being manifested in our body, which we read is “the temple of the Holy Spirit”, 1 Cor 6: 19. If the Holy Spirit has free rein these features will radiate out without effort.
PSB In the power of the Spirit, we are formed after Christ. If that is not so with me, it is because there is something of me that has come in; I am looking at it thinking how it is affecting me and I have got my eye off Christ. I was thinking of what we had a year ago; if there is not reconciliation, it means flesh has come in. The only way to overcome that - I cannot do it in my own strength - is in the power of the Spirit and by occupation with the One who is in the glory.
DAB I wonder if that is what it is to “boast in the Lord”. Boasting is often thought of as a wrong thing, but you are boasting in Someone who has done it all, and He has come out in love. Our basis of fellowship together, our basis of brotherly love, our basis of working things out together, our basis of being perfectly united, our basis to go on in the world, our basis to be lights in the world, is in all that is radiating out from the work of Christ in us. Any boasting in the Lord, therefore, is boasting in the work of Christ and taking account of that work in others.
PSB That is good, and to be a light in the world you do not have to say anything; it is what you are, what radiates out from you. It is what comes naturally; that means naturally as according to the character of Christ. We do not have to say anything. If we are given to speak it should be what we express as being ‘a light in the world’, not what we claim to be.
Sunbury
8th July 2020
Key to initials
(all local in Sunbury):-
D A Barlow; P S Barlow; R J Flowerdew; P H Morris; K J Walkinshaw