I'll do my best. Concepts in Scripture often have multiple meanings and that is true here. I think when most Christians use the phrase "Knowing Christ" or "Knowing Christ Crucified" they would actually be saying the same thing.
When I used the phrase above I was referencing the Apostle Paul from 1 Corinthians 2:2 where he said:
And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the
testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing
among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
This is the second time that Paul, in his letter to the Corinth Christians, uses this phrase. He is trying to get the church to understand the importance of the Christ (the Messiah) as crucified. This act of crucifixion and death is the ROOT of our Justification. It is the action that saves the sinner and is central to Christian belief. Paul states that in preaching "Christ crucified" he did so without lofty words or "wisdom."
This concept of wisdom is all throughout the letter, especially in the first chapter. Paul is trying to illustrate the word being used in two ways. He is writing to a church of mostly Greeks. The ancient Greeks prided themselves on a culture of rhetoric, logic, and philosophy. This is one of the meanings Paul has for wisdom. It is a wisdom of the world and the thinking of the current age.
Paul also has another meaning for wisdom and this is the "wisdom of God". It is the wisdom that made the creator of existence incarnate as an infant and birthed in a barn. That had the King of Kings dining with prostitutes and thieves while admonishing religious leaders. That took the all powerful God and nailed him to a cross. This wisdom seems like foolishness to the leaders of the world. When men write stories of victory they don't tend to have the powerful main character humble and humiliate himself before his enemies. Paul makes his intentions with this double meaning clear. That the foolishness of God is wiser than men:
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are
being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of
this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in
the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased
God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For
Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ
crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who
are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of
God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of
God is stronger than men. - 1 Cor 1:18-25
To wrap it all up, Paul's initial meaning for "Christ Crucified" is in reference to God mocking the "Wisdom" of the world" through a foolish sounding, scandalous means of salvation. The death of God. The second meaning is that our Justification hinges on Christ being crucified and our Faith is founded in Christ being Crucified. We should remember these things at all times and keep them central to our daily lives.
S.D.G
This thread is beating around the bush on Justification. An issue that has split the Church for 500 years. I for one believe the human will is bound and depraved apart from Christ.
Probably a very unpopular opinion but people are not good. People are inherently bad and selfish. The ability to commit a multitude of sins resides in all of us. All it takes is a push in the right direction for most people.
Its even evident in our events today. Though we are on the right side of this battle, look how quickly we can fall in to tribalism. How many of us really crave the opportunity to fight the other side?
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