23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

24 God raised Him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it.

36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.

— Acts 2:23-24, 36

1 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.

— 1 Corinthians 2:1-2

18 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.

23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,

–1 Corinthians 1:18, 23

who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

— 1 Peter 1:21

31 because He has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom He has appointed; and of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead.”

32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked.

— Acts 17:31-32

Thoughts on Today’s Reading

Grace, mercy and salvation to you from Jesus the Lord.

People may like the false cross-less and promise-only gospel. That kind of false gospel invalidates faith in who Christ, the God-Man, is and what He did — died for our sins and rose again. These essential details are viewed in this false gospel as extra information and unnecessary truths for salvation. Proponents of this false gospel claim that these are nonessential truths for eternal life. They often call the message to be believed for eternal life the “saving message,” saying that the word gospel refers to the entire Bible.

This false gospel teaches that for salvation a person must believe in the promise of Jesus to give us eternal life. To these teachers, all that is essential for salvation is faith in eternal security through a man name Jesus. While it is true that Christ gives us eternal life when we believe in Him, we are not told to believe merely in Christ’s promise to give us eternal life. We believe Christ died for our sins and God raised Him up again. We believe and know for certain that God has made the crucified Jesus both Lord and Christ. Paul also asserted Jesus Christ and Him being crucified, highly exalted and bestowed the name above every name by God.