A concept so simple…

…it seems foolish

One thing about we humans - we like to complicate things. Given something simple, just about anyone will quickly, and almost involuntarily, make it more complex than it was or ever needed to be.  It’s the reason Scotty said to Captain Kirk, “The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain” (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock). It’s the reason that the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) principle was developed. We have a natural tendency to overthink things.

Sometimes, it may be that we just believe something is too simple to work as-is, there has to be more to it; we have to add something otherwise it is destined to fail. With many things in life, other than the occasional difficulty in maintenance or troubleshooting, there is little consequence to convoluting things. Some things, however, are not meant to be tampered with. The simplicity is intentional.

One of those things, perhaps one of the most important things, that people tend to overcomplicate, is the gospel, the good news of God’s kingdom. The message God gave, and the method He prescribed, is so simple as to be considered foolish. As Scripture says:

For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.” Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

1 Corinthians 1:18-24

The gospel is simple, and to those who are perishing, to the unsaved, it is foolishness. Yet it is to be preached simply and straightforwardly. This is what Paul meant when he wrote, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16). The gospel itself is the power of God for salvation. Not our words - God’s.

But that is not good enough for most people, Christian and non-Christian alike. Christians believe it needs to be dressed up, embellished, that a hook needs to be used to draw people in, or a clever argument made to convince people of its truth. But that is not what Scripture tells us. Jesus simply told His disciples, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15). That is our calling, our mission - simply to preach. And how simple a message. Paul provided as concise a statement of it as could be given in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 - “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”

The good news really is that simple: Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, He was buried, and He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. Even the power in it is simple. Once again quoting Paul, when he answered the question, “what must I do to be saved?” - “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). Likewise, he wrote, “if you confess with your mouth Jesus the Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).

Unfortunately, Christians get it in their heads that this simple message is not enough. Or, unlike Paul, they’re ashamed, so they need to find a way to soften it up, water it down, or just let the preacher preach it. The problem with such thinking is that it then puts the Christian in the place of God, a position in which I certainly do not wish to, nor should any Christian, stand. We believe we need to convince the unbeliever. But that is not our job. That responsibility belongs to the Holy Spirit. Only God can change the heart, not us. Even if we could, that would make someone’s salvation rest upon our ability to reason, not on God’s power. This is why Paul was clear with the Corinthians about his own role:

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void…And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

1 Corinthians 1:17,2:1-5

It’s not about how clever or persuasive we are; it’s about His power.

Likewise, unbelievers, when they hear the gospel in its simplicity, think it too easy, or they are tripped up by the way it is presented. Most believe they have to change before they can be saved. They think the onus is upon them to do something in order to receive the gift promised by God. The beauty they miss in the simplicity of the message is that there is nothing they can do to earn salvation. It is a gift, a free one: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). It is not something to be worked for, it is something simply to be received. God will change a person after that person has received salvation. To think otherwise is putting the cart before the horse.

In God’s eyes, our wisdom is foolishness, just as in the eyes of the wise, God’s wisdom is foolishness. Considering what we see all around us, I will take the simple foolishness of God over the wisdom of the wisest man any day of the week. You should too.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. - John 3:16