1Corinthians 1 v 23 reads,'But we preach Christ crucified; a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles '. The Jews as most of us know believed in a coming Messiah,an anointed one who would set up an earthly kingdom,and would bring in a glorious era of peace,it is all featured around the Jews,he would be a conqueror a liberator. There were many who claimed to be the Messiah at the time of Jesus but they were nationalistic .The Jews saw Jesus as the most damaging of the false Messiahs , a crucified Messiah was seen as ludicrous. The word Christ means anointed one,when Jesus read from Isaiah 61 v1ff in His home towns synagogue ,the words ,'The Spirit of the Lord is on me,because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor',He was claiming to be the Messiah.But he would not be the kind of Messiah the Jews thought or wanted,for it was not to set up an earthly kingdom,a Messiah not with sword but with the cross.John Stott writes ,The Romans regarded crucifixion with horror ,so did the Jews ,though for a different reason'.They made no distinction between a tree and a cross, and so between a hanging or crucifixion, a person came under a curse (Deut21v 23 ) The Jews could not bring themselves to believe that God's Messiah would die under a curse,strung up on a tree'. None of it made sense to the Jews,for the Messiah they wanted had nothing do with salvation,nothing to do with sin, The Christian glories in the cross because on that cross mankind's greatest need would be met,and our greatest need is to have our sins forgiven,only through Christ and Christ alone ,can this happen.
'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you shall be saved'.
Acts 16 v31.
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