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| Section 19
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19. First of all,
then, we must know that the doctrine of the Cross is not regarded by
all in the same light. It is one thing to the Gentiles, to the Jews
another, to Christians another; as also the Apostle says, “We
preach Christ crucified,—to the Jews a stumbling-block, to the
Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and
Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God;”3298
and, in the same place, “For
the preaching of the Cross is to those who perish foolishness, but to
those who are saved,” that is, to us, it is “the Power of
God.”3299
The Jews, to whom it had been
delivered out of the Law, that Christ should abide for ever, were
offended by His Cross, because they were unwilling to believe His
resurrection. To the Gentiles it seemed foolishness that God should
have submitted to death, because they were ignorant of the mystery of
the Incarnation. But Christians, who had accepted His birth and passion
in the
flesh and His resurrection from the dead, of course believed that it
was the power of God which had overcome death.
First, therefore, hear how this
very thing is prophetically declared by Isaiah, that the Jews, to whom
the Prophets had foretold these things, would not believe, but that
they who had never heard them from the Prophets, would believe them.
“To whom He was not spoken of they shall see, and they that have
not heard shall understand.”3300
Moreover,
this same Isaiah foretells that, while those who were engaged in the
study of the Law from childhood to old age believed not, to the
Gentiles every mystery should be transferred. His words are: “And
the Lord of Hosts shall make a feast on this mountain unto all nations:
they shall drink joy, they shall drink wine, they shall be anointed
with ointment on this mountain. Deliver all these things to the
nations.”3301
This was the
counsel of the Almighty respecting all the nations. But they who boast
themselves of their knowledge of the Law will, perhaps, say to us,
“You blaspheme in saying that the Lord was subjected to the
corruption of death and to the suffering of the Cross.” Read,
therefore, what you find written in the Lamentations of Jeremiah:
“The Spirit of our countenance, Christ the Lord, was taken in
our3302
| 3302 Their corruptions, LXX. | corruptions, of whom we said, we shall
live under His shadow among the nations.”3303
Thou hearest how the Prophet says that
Christ the Lord was taken, and for us, that is, for our sins, delivered
to corruption. Under whose shadow, since the people of the Jews have
continued in unbelief, he says the Gentiles lie, because we live not in
Israel, but among the Gentiles.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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