Stan Lemke

The Word of the Cross Stan Lemke

Paul writes, "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" (1 Cor. 1:18, NASU).

The "word of the cross" is the unveiled story of the Gospel, our salvation. It speaks of God's purpose in the cross, the power of the cross, even the plan and mystery of the cross.

The cross is seen as either Foolishness or Power- foolishness by those who are perishing, those who have ignored God their entire life and yet think that they will, one day, live in His heaven. Whereas, to those who are being saved, the cross is the very power of God!

The Word of the Cross is a study of the Gospel, the good news of reconciliation with God. We begin by seeking to understand the question "Why the cross?" We observe as God builds a bridge of trust by demonstrating his own faithfulness through the generations, giving us signs and tokens of remembrance of his grace. We will see that the cost of our sin debt is beyond our reach, that only God could provide a means to cover it. We will look upon the paschal lamb--Jesus Christ--as the only solution to that debt. We will come face-to-face with the cross and observe as our sin debt is paid. Finally, we will look beyond the cross to understand what this means for us, even now.

The word of the cross is life, life eternal.