"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (1 Corinthians 1:18). "For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2:2). "But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Galatians 6:14).
The message of the cross is the foundation upon which everything else rests. It is the basis upon which God is building today. Without a clear revelation of what God did through Jesus Christ on the cross, our message will be faulty and our gospel will lack power. Paul said that he was persecuted for the message of the cross (Galatians 5:11). What is the message of the cross? Why was Paul persecuted for it? If we were to boast, as Paul did, would we "boast in the cross"? Can we say with Paul that "by the cross the world has been crucified to me and I to the world"? Does the cross hold a central place in our understanding and in our daily experience of God?
Our purpose here is to take a fresh look at the cross of Christ and what was accomplished there for us. It is our prayer that in doing so, inadequate concepts would be washed away and replaced with a true and expanding revelation of what God did at Calvary, that we, as Paul, may experience the power of God that comes from the message of the cross.