How do people respond to the good news of Jesus Christ?
The missionary task assigned to Paul was not to gather converts who claimed a special attachment to his name. Rather, it was the Christ who encountered and summoned him that gave him a gospel to declare (1:17).
The content of that message is now powerfully opened up and its effect on those who come within earshot of it is clearly shown (1:18-25). Three types of reaction may be distinguished:
To those “who are being saved” (note the present tense) the cross represents the essence of divine power, leading to salvation (Romans 1:16). The association of power with the humiliation and ignominy of death on a Roman gibbet—a death reserved for the most degraded and despised in Roman society—may seem surprising and, at first sight, to hold together mutually contradictory ideas (see 2 Corinthians 13:4). But Paul goes on to explain that in the weakness of God, suffering initial defeat at the hands of evildoers, divine wisdom is displayed and the heart of God revealed (1:25). Tacitly to be understood is the conviction that God raised him from defeat and death, and so vindicated his own honor (Acts 2:23-24).
As the humble, suffering Christ portrays God’s strength in weakness, so it is with those who belong to him. As Christians, they are despised and written off as insignificant members of a sophisticated society (1:26-28). But this choice and calling, irrespective of their social status, also reflects the wisdom of God. For what purpose (1:29)? Those who have found in Christ the secret of life’s purpose and God’s plan realize that it is God’s initiative and power which have led them to this blessedness—and so they give him their thanks for undeserved mercies (1:31).
“But they have not all heeded the gospel” (Romans 10:16). The preaching of the cross, then as now, divides people into the stark categories of those who respond and those who reject. The Jewish people, with their insistent clamor for “signs”—as seen in the ministry of Jesus from its beginning to its close—refuse to believe that a crucified man can be their Messiah, for Deuteronomy 21:23 proves that he must be under a divine curse. Paul’s reply is given in Galatians 3:13. The curse he assumed was for our sakes.
The Greeks find the cross a laughing-stock (1:22-23) because it contradicted their ideas of divine wisdom—indeed, it taught the exact opposite of their principle that the gods cannot and do not suffer mortal pain. They remain aloof and untouched by human misery. The Christian answer lies in a God who entered our life at every level—and tasted death (Hebrews 2:9) at its bitterest (Mark 15:34).
