The Word of the Cross - 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 - Sunday, February 1, 2026

The Foolishness That Saves: Understanding the Power of the Cross

In a world obsessed with success, power, and achievement, there's something profoundly countercultural about Christianity's central symbol: a cross. An instrument of execution. A place of death. A scene of apparent defeat.

Yet this is precisely where God chose to display His greatest wisdom and power.

When Death Looks Like Failure

Ask anyone on the street whether death represents failure, and you'll likely get a resounding "yes." Our culture celebrates winners, champions, and conquerors. We admire those who overcome obstacles, accumulate wealth, and achieve prominence. Death? That's the ultimate defeat, the final failure, the end of all ambition.

So when the world looks at Jesus Christ hanging on a cross, dying a criminal's death, what does it see? Weakness. Defeat. The end of another failed religious movement. The Apostle Paul captured this perfectly when he wrote that "the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing."

But here's where everything flips upside down.

The Ultimate Victory Hidden in Apparent Defeat

To those being saved, that same cross represents something entirely different. It's not defeat—it's victory. It's not weakness—it's power. It's not the end—it's the beginning.
What does the cross accomplish? It destroys sin. It conquers death. It breaks the power of the devil. It offers forgiveness, hope, rescue, and eternal life. When believers look at the cross, we don't see failure. We see the most profound triumph in human history.

Consider this perspective: when someone we've prayed for dies, how often do we hear people say, "God didn't answer our prayers"? But this assumes death is always the worst outcome. For believers, death isn't failure—it's the ultimate healing, the final victory, the completion of our faith journey. It's going home.

The cross teaches us that God's definitions of success and failure are radically different from the world's.

The Foolishness of God's Wisdom

God deliberately chose what the world considers foolish to shame those who think themselves wise. He chose what appears weak to shame the strong. He selected what seems low and despised to accomplish His greatest work.

Think about Jesus Himself. Was He considered wise by worldly standards? The religious leaders called Him a blasphemer. Was He considered powerful? He rode a donkey, not a war horse. Was He of noble birth? He was a carpenter's son from Nazareth, a town so insignificant people asked, "Can anything good come from there?"

Yet this "foolish" God-man accomplished what no philosopher, no military conqueror, and no religious leader ever could: He provided a way for sinful humanity to be reconciled with a holy God.

The wisdom of the world says, "If you want something done right, do it yourself." It celebrates self-made success, personal achievement, and individual accomplishment. But God's wisdom says something entirely different: "If you want it done right, let Me do it—because I'm the only One who can do it perfectly."

No Room for Boasting

This is why salvation cannot be something we achieve, earn, or work toward. The moment we add our own efforts as requirements, we diminish the power of the cross. We suggest that what Jesus did wasn't quite enough, that it needs our supplement, our addition, our contribution.

How often have you heard someone say, "You're not a Christian unless you..."? Fill in the blank: unless you go to church every Sunday, unless you stop certain behaviors, unless you start certain practices, unless you give a certain amount, unless you achieve a certain level of spiritual maturity.

But every "unless" we add steals glory from God and attempts to give credit to ourselves. It's like taking credit for someone else's work—and then expecting them not to be upset about it.

Scripture is clear: "Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord." Why? Because He did it all. Our salvation is entirely His work, from beginning to end. He is the source of our life in Christ Jesus. He is our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption.

Called to Faith, Not Achievement

Our first and foremost calling as believers isn't to accomplish great things, build impressive ministries, or achieve moral perfection. Our primary calling is simply this: faith. We are called to believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

This doesn't mean our actions don't matter. As our faith grows, we naturally become more like Jesus in our words, actions, and choices. This process—called sanctification—is real and important. But even here, who's doing the work? God is. Through His Word, through baptism, through His presence in our lives, He transforms us from the inside out.

We cooperate, yes. We participate, certainly. But we don't generate the power. We don't create the change. We don't earn the transformation. God does it all, and we receive it by faith.

The Professional Savior

There's only one professional Savior, and His name is Jesus. He lived the perfect life we couldn't live. He died the death we deserved. He rose from the grave to defeat our greatest enemies. He offers us His righteousness as a free gift.

And His work is perfect. Unlike our best efforts, which often fall short, His salvation is complete, sufficient, and eternal. We can't improve on it. We can't add to it. We can only receive it with gratitude and wonder.

Living in the Upside-Down Kingdom

So how do we live in light of this upside-down wisdom? We stop trying to take credit for what God has done. We stop adding requirements to His free gift. We stop looking at death as ultimate failure and start seeing it as ultimate healing for those who die in Christ.

We embrace the foolishness of the cross—foolish to the world, but the very power and wisdom of God to those being saved. We boast only in the Lord, giving Him credit for everything He has accomplished in our lives.

And we rest in the assurance that our salvation doesn't depend on our wisdom, our strength, or our nobility. It depends entirely on the One who is the source of our life, the foundation of our hope, and the perfecter of our faith.

The cross isn't a symbol of failure. It's the ultimate demonstration that God's ways are higher than our ways, His thoughts higher than our thoughts, and His wisdom infinitely greater than anything this world could imagine.

(Blog content generated by PulpitAI from sermon transcript)