WWUTT 1421 Those Who Are Being Saved (1 Corinthians 1:18)

For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God.

Yes, we are saved, but we're also going through a process of salvation when we understand the text.

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Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of the book of 1 Corinthians, chapter 1, and I'll begin reading today in verse 18, we'll go through verse 25.

I'm reading once again from the Legacy Standard Bible. The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, for the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the clever

I will set aside. Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe?

Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know

God, God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom, but we preach

Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness.

But to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

Such a powerful opening verse we have here. Well opening as far as our reading goes today, we're in verse 18 now of first Corinthians chapter one, where Paul says to the church in Corinth for the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

Now you may want to ask, what does this mean to say we are being saved?

How does that work? I thought we are saved, not we're being saved. We came to faith in Jesus Christ and now we're saved.

That's our identity. That's how we talk about ourselves as Christians. We say we're born again.

We are saved. I once was perishing. I was headed to hell. I was dead in my sins and in my transgressions,

I've been brought to new life in Christ and therefore I have been saved as sort of a past tense statement.

My conversion has happened and now I am walking with Christ. I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer

I who live, but Christ who lives within me, right? That's what we mean when we say we are saved.

It is a past tense word, but it describes a present condition and even a future promise.

So I've been saved. I've been brought from death to life. I'm living in new life and I have the promise of eternal life.

Saved can be applied in all three ways, rescued from this, living in this, the promise of this.

Okay. So here in first Corinthians one 18, Paul is saying that everybody is going through a process toward a final destination.

We are either in the process of perishing and headed to hell, or we're in the process of salvation and headed for heaven glory forever with God.

Those who are perishing hate the message of the cross. They hate everything about it.

Now, when Paul says here, the message of the cross, he's talking about everything that Christ accomplished in his work with his death on the cross and his resurrection from the grave.

There's no resurrection from the grave without his death on the cross. So that's what Paul means by word of the cross.

It's the gospel in all its fullness. It is God becoming incarnate, putting on flesh and dwelling among us.

It is Jesus living a perfect life. The only good man who ever did such a thing, who kept the law perfectly, who was sinless, who then became that spotless lamb that he might give himself as a sacrifice, dying on the cross for our sins so that whoever believes in him, we're crucified with Christ.

Our sins are imputed to him and he gives to us, clothes us in his righteousness.

He is raised even for our justification. His resurrection from the grave is conquering death for us so that all who believe in him will likewise receive eternal life.

We will also rise from the grave. He's the first fruits. We will rise also and then never die again as he will never die again.

So we will never die again. So this is what we receive in Christ. He's ascended to the father.

He's seated at the right hand. He's interceding for us even now, advocating for us before the father.

We have an eternal inheritance with him. All that the father has given to the son, we receive as fellow heirs of the kingdom of God.

All of this is the gospel. All of this is the word of the cross. As it says in Colossians 1 20,

God is reconciling all things to himself through the person and work of Jesus Christ, making peace by the blood of his cross.

We have peace with God, fellowship with God because of what Christ accomplished on the cross.

But all of this is foolishness to the one who is perishing. It's foolishness in practical measure and it's foolishness in spiritual measure.

The practicality of it, just looking at the fact that God became a man and let the people that he created kill him on a cross shamefully about the most shameful death that a person could experience in the

Greco Roman world, naked, treated as a criminal, hanging on a cross, displayed for the wrongs that he had done, the evil that he had perpetuated against the state.

This is what they did with their criminals. They crucified them. Whoever did wrong or broke the laws of the state, they were crucified.

They were hung by a roadside so that they might be a signpost or billboards.

Here's what happens to the person who goes against Rome. We know Jesus did not do any of those things.

He did not come against the state. They hated him without a cause is what the scriptures say.

And the prophecy fulfilled in that Jesus was completely sinless, did nothing wrong and was crucified because of the people who are demonstrating in our sinfulness, talking about all people here, not just the

Romans and the Jews who are present at Jesus crucifixion, but every single human being in our nature were against God.

And that's demonstrated in Christ's crucifixion. You have people, Jew and Gentile, who in their sinful nature are opposed to God and crucify the son of God.

This is what all of us would do in our natural state. If we were given the opportunity, everybody would put

Jesus to death. Until we were redeemed, we were transformed, we were regenerated by the

Holy Spirit of God in our natural state, in the sinful pleasures that we were pursuing, going after those things that were in rebellion against God, we would have in that place, we would have crucified the son of God.

I talked about this a little bit on Friday in the Q and A, because in the book of Colossians, Paul talks about filling up what was lacking in Christ's afflictions.

Well, what does that mean exactly? Well, there's persecution that's going on right now, people persecuting the followers of Jesus Christ.

And we have to have a robust understanding of persecution. If we're going to endure this thing and hold fast to the true gospel of the

Bible, that we may endure to the end and hear from our Savior, our master and Lord, well done good and faithful servant on the day that we enter his eternal kingdom.

We must hold fast the true gospel in the face of this persecution that's going on and is increasing in the world.

It will get worse than what it is now. Anyway, so the church is being persecuted. What this demonstrates is that the people who persecute the followers of Christ also show they would have persecuted

Christ himself. We're sharing in the sufferings of Christ when we're persecuted for the sake of his name, when people hate us for righteousness sake, doesn't even have to do with the fact that we shared the gospel with somebody and they hate us for it.

It's just that we want to do the godly thing. People are going to hate us for that. As Peter says in first Peter chapter four, they will malign you because you won't join them in their flood of debauchery.

And as Paul said to Timothy, those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted just because you want godliness.

People are going to persecute you for that. So it shows that the people in the world now who are persecuting the church likewise have this hatred against Christ and would have persecuted the son of God himself.

Jesus finished the work of propitiation, of atonement, of justification.

All of that was done with his death on the cross and his resurrection from the grave, raised for our justification.

All of that was accomplished there. When Jesus died, he said, it is finished. The work of atonement was done.

So there's nothing left that needs to be done for you and I to be justified before God.

It is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, in the finished work of Christ, period, done.

It is finished. But what's meant by when Paul talks about how he is filling up what was lacking in Christ's afflictions, the persecution of Christ's church had not yet happened or it's not yet come to its fulfillment.

That's what's going on now. And as we are enduring this persecution, those who hate

God are demonstrating that they would, given the opportunity, they would kill God himself. Now that will never happen.

And Christ won't ever be killed again either because he's untouchable. He is seated at the right hand of God.

He died once for all and will never die again. And likewise, we, though we may die in the body, if we are in Christ, we will be raised and we will never die again.

We get to receive the same resurrection that Jesus got.

He's the first fruits and then we will be resurrected also by faith in him. It's a wonderful message to us.

It's foolishness to the world. You just look at Paul preaching at the Areopagus in Acts chapter 17.

And as he goes up there, what we call Mars Hill, and you have all the statues, the idols of the gods that are up there, and Paul proclaims the message of the gospel.

He talks about how God is going to judge all of the world, Jew and Gentile, and he is shown by whom he will judge the world,

Paul says, by raising him from the dead. And once Paul gets to that part in his presentation of the gospel, the warning of judgment and even showing that our salvation is through Christ, as he kind of presents his message there before the

Greeks at the Areopagus. Once he gets to the statement that God has raised the judge from the dead, that's when the

Greeks scoff. That's when they mock. They're like, oh, come on, resurrection from the dead. It just doesn't happen, people.

What in the world? You guys are absurd talking about this nonsense. But it does say there in Acts 17.

There were some that heard Paul say this and went, I want to hear more about this. And so they came with the other

Jews and Gentiles who were listening to Paul proclaim the gospel, and the gospel was preached more robustly to them.

They heard more about the word of the cross, and many were saved. Many became

Christians as a result of this because of a spiritual work that God did in the hearts of the hearers that they would desire to know more about this, and the message became power to them.

It became the power of God for salvation to all who believe, as Paul says in Romans 1, 16.

That's what we know about the gospel. And so in listening to this word of the cross, those who hear it, those who believe it, those who put faith in Jesus Christ, they are saved and are even coming to salvation.

There is a salvation in a sense that has not yet been completed. And this work, this process, again, as I mentioned, this process will not come to completion until the day of Christ.

Philippians 1, 6 that goes along with this, Paul saying to the Philippians, I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it at the day of Christ.

And later on in chapter 2, Paul says to the Philippians, he says to them to work out their salvation with fear and trembling.

We have salvation now in Christ, but there's also something that is being worked out.

We're being sanctified. We're growing in holiness and must be in pursuit of this until we come into the presence of God.

Then later in chapter 3, in Philippians chapter 3, Paul says there that I'm not already perfect.

I'm not yet perfect. But I desire to make it my own because Christ has made me his own.

Are you perfect? No, you're not perfect. Just looking at these words that Paul says to the

Philippians, we can know we're not perfect for the work is not yet finished. I'm confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it at the day of Christ.

There are some out there who believe in entire sanctification. They believe that they can be completely sanctified this side of heaven.

It's common among the Wesleyans, the Nazarenes, the Methodists. I had a friend who believed this.

He served in a Nazarene church. He didn't exactly state it matter of factly like, I can't wait until I'm entirely sanctified before I die.

And I think, I think in a couple of weeks I'll get this done. You know, it wasn't like he was saying something like that.

He phrased it to me as a question and said, don't you believe that a person can be completely sanctified this side of heaven in their lifetime?

They can reach perfect sanctification. And I said, no, I gave him, you know, the necessary scriptures to show how

I just don't think this is going to be a thing. And he said, I don't know. I'm still kind of thinking about that. And I said, have you ever met anyone that's completely sanctified?

And he said, well, no. He said, yeah, you might as well be looking for a unicorn. You're just not going to find it.

This side of glory, it is when we enter into the presence of God that the work of sanctification that was happening in our lives is done, is over.

It's even talked about in the book of Hebrews that those who have gone before us, the faithful that have gone before us in Hebrews chapter 11, without us, they will not be sanctified.

So there's a sense in which that complete sanctification happens with the whole church and we will not be completely sanctified until we're all together and presented to Christ as his spotless bride, received all as one forever in his eternal kingdom.

That will be when that process of sanctification is totally done. But this is the salvation that we are in now.

We're in this process of growing in holiness. And the process, the salvation process includes our conversion.

We were converted, we were regenerated, came to faith.

We've repented of sin. We're growing in Christ. We're becoming more

Christ -like. We are growing in our love and affections for God.

We're growing in our love and our affections for the body of Christ, the church.

We are growing in our knowledge of him and how we share the gospel with other people.

We are suffering for the gospel as we struggle, and yet we continue to cling to the promise of Christ.

All of these things, all of this is added onto our growing in Christ Jesus, our growth in sanctification.

So this is that process of salvation. Just consider what

Peter says, 2 Peter 1, starting in verse 4, God has granted to us his precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

There you kind of have that contrast again there. Those who are in the process of salvation are partakers of the divine nature.

Those who are in the process of perishing, they are partakers in corruption that is in the world by lust.

Let me continue on here, verse 5, now for this very reason also, applying all diligence in your faith, supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self -control, and in your self -control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.

For if these things are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the full knowledge of our

Lord Jesus Christ. There's a pretty good description right there of the process of salvation.

But like we have the process of salvation, there's also the process, as Paul talked about here, the process of perishing.

And I think Romans 1 gives us a pretty good roadmap for the route to destruction.

We have in Romans 1 18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

Verse 21, for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

They are not thankful to God. They don't honor him as God, and so their foolish hearts are darkened.

So what's the process that continues here? Verse 24, therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever.

Amen. So we have this statement again here in 1 Corinthians 1 18, the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

The word of the cross is that very word that brought us to salvation. The gospel, when it was preached to us, brought us to salvation, and it's that same word that has the power of perfecting us until the day of glory.

We are being perfected. We are being refined. We are being sanctified, made more holy as we grow in the likeness of Christ, desiring to be as our savior.

We are being saved by the word of the cross, and it is the power of God.

It is God's work and not ours. It is not by ourselves that this is accomplished.

It is by God, and to him alone be the glory. Marvel at that, dear

Christian, how amazing that is because of the goodness and mercies of God that have been shown to us through Jesus Christ, our

Lord. Let us pray. We'll pick up here tomorrow. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the word of the cross.

We marvel at the word of the cross, how all of salvation history revolved around the cross at Calvary, how you orchestrated all of this to give your son who would die there in our place, dying on a thief's cross, who would have stood there and thought something incredible was happening in a spiritual realm that we could not have fathomed with human eyes and ears, and yet you were doing this work.

As we look into the scriptures and we study the theology of it, we marvel all the more at the power of God for salvation to all who believe on his name.

This message of the cross was once foolishness to us. We once thought it was foolishness, but you gave us your spirit that we might discern spiritual things and marvel at the work that God is doing, the work that you are doing in us even now.

Keep us steadfast, keep us sure in this process of salvation that we are in, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of God.

Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website www .tt

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