The Preaching of the Cross, the Power of God

1Cor 1:18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

I have always wished I were much more gifted in getting the message of the gospel across to people one on one. I feel so inadequate in expressing the story of Jesus' love and the necessity of the cross.

In my mind, it is all so clearly evident. Jesus died, the innocent being the payment for the guilty. He was buried and then He rose again. Simple faith and trust in what Jesus did bring about free salvation and makes the difference between an eternity in hell and forever in glory. How simple is that?

But forming the words to a lost man can sometimes be as frustrating as getting a fat cow through a narrow chute. If you are having trouble with that analogy, perhaps this would be better, ...as frustrating as pulling a Baptist away from an all-you-can-eat buffet!

The problem is that the lost man cannot grasp simple eternal truths. I Cor 2:14, But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

The fact is, most people want to make salvation way too hard. Jesus said that a person has to come to Him in child-like faith in order to be saved. But an unsaved person wants his intellect to be employed so that he can somehow make a mental ascent to God. Nope! Simple belief is sufficient.

And so, the hell bound pooh-poohs the work of the cross. "It just can't be that simple - there has to be more to it."

I thank God that I was just simplistic enough to just trust that what the Bible said about Christ's atonement for me was sufficient. That's why that call the preaching of the cross, "God's simple plan of salvation."