Empty Words
For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ be nullified. 1 Corinthians 1:17
Be Nullified – What an amazing statement. There is hardly a preacher alive today who would echo Paul’s proclamation. He did not come to baptize. Wow! He might as well have said, “I didn’t come here to recruit members. I didn’t come to get you on the rolls.” Paul didn’t care at all about our lists of requirements. He came to do just one thing – preach the gospel. And even then he gives us a startling caution. “Not in words of wisdom.” What in the world can this mean? Paul, the great apologist, the master of oration, able to hold his own with kings and philosophers, says that he will not preach with words of wisdom. Are we to assume that he means he will rave on like an idiot? Will he take up the microphone and intone repeated phrases like, “Oh, yes. Yes, Lord. Oh, Lord. Do you feel it? Can I have an amen?” while he makes sure that the lighting is just right for the television audience?
No, that’s not Paul. Paul tells us that he will not see the cross nullified. The verb is kenoo. It means, “to make empty, false, to bring to nothing.” This is the same word in that incredible creed found in Philippians 2:5-9 – “the emptying of Jesus”, kenosis. In Philippians, Paul uses this word with tremendous power, but here he has something else in mind. What would make the cross empty? The answer is simple: human achievement! That’s what those “words of wisdom” are. They are the epitome of human reason, human effort and human accomplishment. Paul says, “If you think you going to win God’s favor based on human words of wisdom, you are a fool, for you have made the cross worth nothing at all.”
And what words would make the cross worth nothing? How about words like good enough, fair, tolerance, correct, personal opinion, relative, cultural, acceptable or does not hurt anyone? Wherever sin is minimized, the cross is emptied. Wherever God is ignored, the cross is emptied. Wherever you and I refuse to submit to the call of the King, the cross is emptied.
Paul came preaching foolishness. He came telling the audience that their worldview was hopelessly backwards, seducing them to destruction. He came saying that no amount of negotiation, rationalization, correctness or excuse would ever remove their guilt before God. And he never relaxed the message because he knew that every word of human wisdom took a nail out of the hands of Jesus and left the cross impotent.
