- Overcomer Literature Trust
- Swindon
- Wiltshire
THE CROSS AS A PROCLAMATION
By Mrs Jessie Penn-Lewis.
“The Word of the Cross . . . is the power of God”, said the Apostle Paul (1Cor. 1 v18 RSV). It is dynamic and through it the Holy Spirit manifests the energizing ability of God to save. It is not preaching about the Cross which is the power, but the Word of the Cross, and it is this Word of the Cross which is to be proclaimed to a fallen and lost world as a message from God, announced as a herald announces a proclamation.
This can be traced out in the letters of Paul. “We preached (proclaimed) the gospel of God to you” (1 Thess. 2 v9). Conybeare’s footnote says, ‘The original word involves the idea of a herald proclaiming a message’. Again in Titus 1 v3, “At His appointed season He brought His Word to light through the preaching (proclamation) entrusted to me by the command of God our Saviour”. And Gal. 1 v16 reads, “When God . . . was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach (proclaim) Him”. A proclamation requires a herald, so Paul writes to Timothy, “And of this gospel I was appointed herald” (2 Tim. 1 v11). “Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all . . . And for this purpose I was appointed a herald” (1 Tim 2 v7). All these passages show the herald nature of Paul’s preaching of the Cross.
The proclamation is to be of the Word of the Cross, and Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1 v22-23, “Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach (proclaim) Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles”. The Word of the Cross is vitally linked to the resurrection. “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead . . . This is the gospel” (2 Tim 2 v8). Here we have the two fold message of the Cross stated as the terms of the proclamation, Christ crucified and Christ raised from the dead. Calvary and the Resurrection. Not one without the other. A real physical death and a real physical resurrection.
The responsibility of the herald is to proclaim the message. We find this in 1 Corinthians 9 v16 where Paul writes about himself, “I am compelled to preach (proclaim). Woe to me if I do not preach (proclaim) the gospel, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me”. This is strong language, but Paul uses it to show the Corinthians the Divine compulsion upon him, and how solemn the trust committed to him. They understood in those days how absolutely a slave had to obey his master. Although the Apostle served of his own free will the constraint on him to proclaim the message put him in the same place as a slave. He had to fulfill his trust. “Christ did not send me to baptise, but to preach (proclaim) the gospel” (1 Cor. 1 v17).
The proclamation to be given is “Not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power” (1Cor. 1v17). The proclamation does not need beautiful words. It has only to be proclaimed in its simplicity, for it is the Word of the Cross which is the power of God, not words about it. Here is stated also the solemn fact that the message which contains the mighty power of God can be rendered powerless by the preacher. The words which human wisdom thinks necessary to make the message acceptable have actually the contrary result, in making void the power of the Cross itself. So few really believe that the Word itself, simply stated, has in it the power of God, and they are not willing to simply proclaim the written Word.
How did Paul fulfill his commission as a herald with a proclamation? “When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony of God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2 v1-4). And then he adds “I came to you in weakness”. Oh Paul, are you not mistaken? Did you not mean that you were filled with power? No! “I came to you in weakness and fear and with much trembling”. Conybeare’s footnote points out that this expression means ‘a trembling anxiety to perform a duty’, the anxious attitude of a slave.
When the solemnity of the trust and the vital character of the message of the Cross is realized by anyone it is bound to produce that trembling anxiety, lest they should fail God or become unfit for the Holy Spirit to use with the message. “My message and my preaching were not with wise or persuasive words”, the Apostle continued, “but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on man’s wisdom but on God’s power”. Here it is again. Paul deliberately avoided using “persuasive words”. In addition to the power of God the herald simply has to be absolutely exact in transmitting the proclamation.
Paul laboured to prepare Timothy to carry on the work when he knew that his departure was at hand. Listen to his last solemn words to him, “In the presence of God and of Christ . . . I give you this charge: Preach the Word; . . . For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine . . . they will turn . . . away from the truth and turn aside to myths” (2 Tim.4 v1-4). The aged Paul was in no doubt as to the attitude of many to the truth of the Gospel after he had gone, especially in the latter days in which we are now living. Nevertheless, “I give you this charge . . . PROCLAIM” is written to us as well as to Timothy. The passion was in Paul to the very end. The one thing he cared about was his stewardship. When he looks back upon his sufferings, all is swallowed up in the fact that he had accomplished his ministry.
In 2 Cor. 6 v4-10, we have a glimpse into his service as a herald. “As servants of God we commend ourselves in every way . . . in truthful speech and in the power of God . . . sorrowful yet always rejoicing, poor yet making many rich, having nothing and yet possessing everything”. Then in 2 Cor. 4 v2 we see how he handled the Word of God. He said, “We have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the Word of God”. Keen as Paul was to win souls to Christ he used no cunning schemes to reach them. Paul boldly depended upon a straightforward proclamation of the Word of the Cross, believing it to be the power of God. He “openly set forth the truth” in such a way that the consciences of men were reached both by the plain honest statement of his message and the transparent clearness of his life.
All that is of God can be openly proclaimed to all. There are no degrees of initiation in the Church of God. There are different stages of growth in knowledge but no secret truths which cannot be proclaimed to the whole world. Oh for this bold straightforward declaration of the Word of God relying upon it as the power of God. Let us proclaim God’s message in the simple terms of the Scriptures, assured of the co-working of God. It is an absolute necessity that the Holy Spirit should make Christ’s death at Calvary so real to each sinner that they realize, His death for them and then come to Him as a living Saviour. He is the living Saviour, but we do not come to Him only through His merits, or even on the ground of His work at Calvary, but that death on Calvary must be made real to us by the Holy Spirit, so that we see our part in it and know that we are born into a new life through His death as our substitute.
Galatians 3 v1 emphasizes this in a very vivid way. “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?” writes the Apostle, “Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified”. This was the way Paul preached. He proclaimed the Word of the Cross as the power of God, and he pictured Jesus Christ upon His Cross before the Galatians, so that, as it were, they saw the crucifixion with their very eyes. This is the message to be proclaimed, just as if you went out as a herald, saying, ‘A proclamation from heaven, He was lifted up on the Cross for you, behold the Lamb of God'.
From: ‘The Centrality of the Cross’.
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