<quote from Real Faith & Reason>
“God was pleased through the foolishness of the proclamation to save those believing.” (1 Corinthians 1:21b Berean Literal Bible)
We understand this “foolishness” in the context of “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.” So, to those who walk in darkness, Christ appears to be foolishness, yet we know Him as God’s power and wisdom living within us.
“Few are they who by faith touch Him; multitudes are they who throng about Him.” (Augustine)
The translators rendered the word “preaching” from the Greek word “kerugma.” Kerugma means “a proclamation.” This proclamation isn’t theology, excitement, or entertainment. Rather, “we preach Christ crucified.” Stating it literally, we proclaim Christ crucified; we don’t proclaim a message about Christ crucified. Proclaiming Christ is different from stating a proclamation about Christ. One imparts Christ, the Almighty Creator God, from one person to another, while the other gives a speech about theological concepts. It’s one thing to know that we ought to be listening to Christ’s voice, but it’s quite another to actually listen to Christ and yield ourselves to Christ continually throughout every part of our lives.
If we proclaim Christ, the living Christ makes Himself visible through the words spoken, and the proclamation is in the Spirit of prophecy. This preaching is power.
“For the preaching . . . is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18 King James Bible)
“If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles [mouthpiece] of God;” (1 Peter 4:11a King James Bible)
So when we yield to His Spirit, He saturates our words with His Spirit. When we tell of our experiences with Christ and give our testimonies about how He leads, teaches, corrects, or delivers us, we are speaking the living Christ, the Logos, the Utterance. For every word we say, we allow His Holy Spirit to speak His words through us by His Power. In this way, we’re not distracted by our human will and learning. Instead, we speak the living Christ rather than speaking our own words because we aren’t authorized to speak our own words. Only by yielding to the Holy Spirit can we proclaim Christ, and we yield in the moment. Then, when we yield to the Holy Spirit, our words reveal Christ.
At the same time, a person who hears this proclamation is hearing God speak through us, so this person isn’t hearing us. Instead, this person is hearing God’s powerful rhema or utterance, and faith comes by this form of hearing. Since these are God’s utterances as He speaks through us, those words have power, the same power that created and now sustains the universe.
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