Knowing Jesus

For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

1 Corinthians 2:2-5

After walking the Christians in Corinth through the nature of God’s kingdom – in which the wisdom of the wise is destroyed, the intelligence of the intelligent is frustrated, the weak things are used to shame the strong, and the lowly and despised things are raised up – Paul says something that I pray would be our anthem.

“For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”

Paul longed for the believers at Corinth to know Jesus as He knew Jesus.

He yearned for their faith to rest on God’s power, and God’s power alone.

You know what I realized this week as I sat with this passage?

I have a tendency to overcomplicate the Gospel.

Often I do so out of a desire to make myself seem wiser, more intelligent, or more acceptable in the eyes of man. Sometimes I do so out of fear. Sometimes I do so out of a lack of faith that the Spirit of God opens people’s minds and hearts to His truth…and I think deep down that I have to convince them!

Guess what?

We need only to know Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The Spirit of God changes hearts and minds. After all, He changed mine.

Do you know Jesus? If so, take a moment to think back to when you first believed the Gospel was true…when your heart was overjoyed that God loved you in the midst of your sin and shame! Or think back to a time when you found yourself in awe of His grace. Remember when you loved His Word and couldn’t get enough of it? Remember when all you wanted to do was worship? 

This part of 1 Corinthians invites us to go back…not to immaturity or a lack of knowledge…but to the simplicity of the moment when we first believed. To know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified through His Word and the Holy Spirit. To stand amazed by His grace. To remember His faithfulness.

Tomorrow morning at 10 AM, we’ll gather together to be reminded of the beauty of the Gospel. We’ll sing and pray and open His Word so the name of Jesus Christ will be lifted high, and God’s power – not ours – is magnified. I hope you’ll join us.