IT NEVER CEASES TO AMAZE ME

Pastor Art Watkins of Coden Bible Church (Coden, Alabama)

March 23, 2016

It never ceases to amaze me of the some of the dumb statements some Christians make about the cross of Christ on Facebook. Just read an article posted by Joyce Pollitt that said that Paul was the first to preach the cross for salvation and that the 12 apostles did not know about or preach the cross for salvation. Anyone who believes this nonsense is highly deceived and no one should ever take them serious when they speak or write about the Bible.

It’s true when Jesus told the 12 apostles that he would die and be resurrected in the four gospels they did not understand it for it was hidden from them. (See Luke 18:34) But after his resurrection he opened their understanding to see and understand why he died.
Luke 24:44-47 says: And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
What was once hidden from them before the cross was revealed to them after the cross. What they did not understand before the cross in Luke 18 they understood in Luke 24. The Lord opened their understanding to understand the scriptures that prophesied of his sacrificial death such as Isaiah 53. Therefore, they understood the cross long before God saved Paul. They not only understood it, but they preached it for salvation.

----Peter----

1 Peter 1:18-18: Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

1 Peter 2:24: Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

1 Peter 3:18: For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:


----John----

1 John 1:7-2: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

1 John 2:2: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Revelation 1:5: And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.

Any person who reads these verses and still insists the 12 apostles did not preach the blood of Jesus Christ for salvation and redemption is either deceived by the devil or just plain lost or a combination of both for it’s the devil who blinds people’s minds to the gospel according to 2 Cor. 4:3-4.