I. Apart from the crucifixion of our Lord, there was much in Jesus Christ to commend Him both to the Jew and to the Gentile. There was no need for the introduction of that which was such a stumblingblock to the one and such foolishness to the other. The Apostle preaching Christ to the Jews might have dwelt upon the fact that He was one of their own nation, that this certainly very great and wonderful man, this worker of miracles, evidently sent from God, was one of themselves, a "Hebrew of the Hebrews," and a great honour to their race. He might further have told the Jews how Jesus had reverenced the law of Moses; how religiously He had observed the Sabbaths and the feasts; how He had referred to the Scriptures and told people to search them; and how He had said, "I am not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil." And speaking about Jesus Christ to Greeks and other Gentiles, the Apostle might have pointed to the fact that our Lord was Himself a very loyal subject of the Gentile government then existing in His country. With so much else to testify concerning our Lord, why should the apostles speak so much of His crucifixion?
II. Now, I think we may answer thus: that as men of common sense to claim for them nothing more the apostles would never have adopted this course unless they had been convinced that there was something of special and extraordinary importance in the death of their Master; something really more important in His death than in anything that had taken place during the whole course of His life. They believed and their Master had told them to believe that His death was to be the life of the world; and on this account, and this account only, can we understand or reconcile with good sense the immense predominance which is everywhere given to the sufferings and death of our Lord.
III. If the apostles had not preached the doctrine of the Cross, and had not made Christ crucified the great theme of their ministry, you and I would never have heard of Christianity at all. They might have preached Christ's noble example, they might have referred much to His discourses and the beauty of His character; but if they had not preached the Cross, and salvation through the sacrifice of the Cross, their preaching would have been forgotten on the road. Christ crucified is a truth that never can come amiss, and of which too much never can be said.
H. Stowell Brown, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xvii. p. 289.
The Exaltation of the Cross.
I. The great truth which the Apostle had to impress on the Corinthians was, that in spite of their sinfulness and alienation they were still beloved by the one true God. And how better could he do this than by displaying the Cross? The greater the humiliation to which the Son of God submitted, the greater is the demonstration of the Divine love to man. This it is which, as an immortal being and yet a sinful, I have most interest in ascertaining, and this it is in which, if once ascertained, I have most cause to exult. Come, then, a teacher to those sunk in heathenism, and what shall he teach? One may go and tell them of their being objects of God's providence, fed by His bounty, guided by His light, and curtained by His shadows. Another may tell them of their having been made after His image, endowed with immortality, illuminated by reason. I would not be insensible to the excellence of such teaching, to the beauty of these proofs of the love of the Creator; but feeling that these heathen are in danger of eternal destruction, and knowing that the sacrifice made on their behalf is such as irresistibly proves that God so loved them as to do everything to save them except to dishonour Himself, give me a teacher who would exclaim with the Apostle, "I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified."
II. Although to the eye of sense there is nothing but shame about the Cross, yet spiritual discernment proves it to be hung with the very richest trophies. Christ triumphed by being apparently defeated, He vanquished in the act of yielding to the enemy, and therefore was His death glorious, aye, unspeakably more glorious than life, array it how you will with circumstances of honour.
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit,No. 1745.
References: 1 Corinthians 2:2. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxi., No. 1264; A. Barry, Cheltenham College Sermons,p. 1; A. Saphir, Christian World Pulpit,vol. ii., p. 385; H. W. Beecher, Ibid.,vol. viii., p. 42; F. W. Aveling, Ibid.,vol. xiv., p. 100; E. W. Shalders, Ibid.,vol. xxv. p. 219; Cartwright, Thursday Penny Pulpit,vol. vi., p. 117; E. M. Goulburn, Occasional Sermons,p. 374; Deems, American Pulpit of Today,p. 161. 1 Corinthians 2:2-5. H. W. Beecher, Sermons,1870, p. 1. 1 Corinthians 2:4. J. H. Evans, Thursday Penny Pulpit,vol. ix., p. 359. 1 Corinthians 2:5. H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xvi., p. 340; Ibid.,vol. xvii., p. 340; J. Van Dyke, Ibid.,vol. xxix., p. 156.