Knowing Nothing But Christ

Paul makes an interesting statement in 1 Corinthians 2:2.  There he says, "For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified."   In this statement he is commenting on the content of the gospel message that he proclaimed to them and the manner in which it was proclaimed.  Most of the context relates to the idea that the gospel message was not about Paul and how he presented it, but about the power of the Word of God proclaimed and enabled by the Spirit of God to connect with the heart of the hearer. 

I do not know about you, but I need to be reminded of this because I tend to sneak into my life far too often.  It is very easy to become the center of what Christ has done.  He did it after all for me.  This thought is both misleading and dangerous.  Christ did not die for me in the sense that He died for the singular purpose of my salvation.  That is simply not true.  Christ died in obedience to the will of the Father and to bring honor and glory to God in His perfect salvation plan.  When we say that He died for me, what we need to be referring to is substitution.  He died the death I should have died and in this sense, biblically, he did die for me. 

But when we are proclaiming the gospel, perhaps we, like Paul, need to be reminded that we should preach nothing except Jesus.  Not Jesus and our preferences in worship.  Not Jesus and our neatly wrapped theological package that we think you must accept all of it or none of it.  Not Jesus and . . . anything.  It is simply the work of Jesus Christ on the cross that saves and that should be the center of our gospel-centered conversation.