Jesus Christ and Him Crucified

In a small village stood a Chapel upon whose arch were inscribed the words –

        ‘We preach Christ crucified’

This was done so that all who entered the Chapel or stood outside might understand the purpose for which the meeting hall had been built.

For many years godly men preached there and presented a crucified Saviour as the only means of salvation for all men – Acts 4:12.

But sadly as those generations of godly preachers passed, there arose a generation that considered the Cross and its message ‘the gospel of shambles’ and began to preach salvation by Christ’s teaching and example, without the necessity of His sacrificial death on the Cross.

With the passage of time a little ivy creeper made its way up the side of the archway and covered the final word of the inscription so that it was hidden from view.  Now the inscription read  –  ‘We preach Christ’ and so they did, but not Christ crucified!

After some time the question was asked why the sermons should be confined to Christ and the teachings of the Holy Bible, so the preachers began to give discourses on a social gospel, politics and moral disarmament without Christ.

Now the little ivy creeper crept along a little further and covered out the third word of the inscription so that it simply read – ‘We preach’.

So now man’s philosophies and social conditions had taken the place of Christ’s Gospel and its message of the forgiveness of sins through His shed royal blood, giving a way back to a Holy God.

The Apostle Paul, one of the men who ‘turned the world upside down’ in the first century, determined when in cultured Corinth to know nothing amongst them except ‘Jesus Christ and Him crucified’.  Let us be like minded in our faith and be overcomers holding fast till He comes. Amen.

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