The Preaching of the "The Cross is Foolishness"; Say the Greeks, and a "Sandal" to the Jews! Read and Ponder . . .

A Devotional Reading for July 9, 2025

Brought to You by "The Inverted Christian"

Roger D Duke, Proprietor

Edited Reading from the Pen of John Bunyan, Author of The Pilgrim's Progress

The Preaching of the "The Cross is Foolishness"

God judges[,] “The preaching of the cross,” that is, Christ crucified, “is to them that perish foolishness” (1 Corinthians 1: 18, 23). What says the merit-monger, will you look for life by the obedience of another man? Will you trust the blood that was shed upon the cross, that ran down to the ground, and perished in the dust? Thus, deridingly they scoff at, stumble upon, and are taken in the gin that attends the gospel, [but is] not to salvation, but to their condemnation. Because they have condemned the just, that they might justify their own filthy righteousness (Isaiah 8: 14).

But I say, if all have sinned, if all are defiled, if the best of a man’s righteousness be but madness, blasphemy, injury; if for their righteousness they are judged hypocrites condemned as opposers of the gospel and as such have counted God foolish for sending his Son into the world; then must the best of “men be justified from the curse in the sight of God while sinners in themselves.” Because they still stand guilty in the sight of God, their hearts are also still filthy infected—"Though thou wash thee with nitre [saline solution], and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before ME, saith the Lord God” (Jeremiah 2: 22). Wherefore, this vine is the vine of Sodom; these clusters are the clusters of Gomorrah; these grapes are grapes of gall; these clusters are bitter, they are the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps (Matthew 3: 7; 23). John [the Baptist] in his ministry gives the first rebuke and jostle to such still calling them serpents and vipers concluding it is impossible they should escape the damnation of hell. For of all sin, man’s own righteousness, in special, bids defiance to Jesus Christ.