We Preach Christ Crucified

But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. 1 CORINTHIANS 1:23–24

Spurgeon preached on almost every book of the Bible and on thousands of texts. He preached on Leviticus and on the Song of Solomon, on the ravens and the farmer’s plough, on providence, prayer, judgement and heaven. And yet his hearers agreed that he always seemed to end in the same place. Whatever road he set out on, it brought him to Calvary. This was not an accident of temperament. It was a settled conviction about what preaching is for, and indeed about what the Christian life is for.

One string on the harp

In a communion address later gathered in Till He Come, Spurgeon speaks as a preacher to other believers about the joy of praising Christ. If preachers had nothing to do but exalt their Lord — no discipline to exercise, no errors to fight, no doubts to answer — they would have heavenly work. “For my part,” he says, “I wish I could be bound over to play only upon this one string.” He admits he cannot. A pastor must deal with sin and error and sorrow. But he wanted everything else to be tuned to that one string.

For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 1 CORINTHIANS 2:2

He took Paul at his word. The apostle was not refusing to teach anything else; his letters range over marriage, money, meat offered to idols and the resurrection of the body. He was refusing to let anything else become the centre. Every subject was to be handled in relation to the crucified Christ, and nothing was to be taught that would make Him less necessary.

Spurgeon is remembered for telling young preachers that, just as every village in England has a road that leads eventually to London, so from every text in Scripture there is a road to Christ, and the preacher’s business is to find it. Whether or not the words are exactly his, the conviction certainly is, and it shaped every sermon he preached.

What it means to preach Christ

In an early sermon on 1 Corinthians 1:23–24, Christ Crucified, preached at Exeter Hall in the first years of his London ministry, he sets out what he thinks preaching Christ does and does not mean. It does not mean giving people a weekly dose of philosophy while neglecting the Bible. It does not mean a religion that is all mist and haze, without definite truths. And he offers a simple test: “I take it that man does not preach Christ and him crucified, who can get through a sermon without mentioning Christ’s name once.”

That is a searching test, and not only for preachers. It is entirely possible to talk a great deal about religion — about morality, family, church life, the state of the nation — and hardly mention Christ at all. Spurgeon thought that such religion, however respectable, was not the gospel.

Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. ACTS 4:12

He also insisted that preaching Christ meant preaching the Holy Spirit’s work, the sovereignty of grace, justification by faith and the substitution of Christ. For Spurgeon, Christ was not a sentiment but a Person with a work, and the work had definite content. A Christ without the cross, or a cross without the atonement, was not the Christ of the apostles.

Why Christ is precious

The preaching of Christ was not for Spurgeon a professional duty. It was the overflow of love. Some years into his London ministry he preached on 1 Peter 2:7, Unto you therefore which believe he is precious, and he began by telling the congregation that this was the text on which he had preached his very first sermon, as a lad of sixteen in a cottage near Cambridge. He had chosen it, he said, because he could not have spoken on anything else; Christ was precious to his soul. And now, years later and famous, he told them that Christ was more precious to him than ever.

Unto you therefore which believe he is precious. 1 PETER 2:7

This is the secret of his Christ-centred preaching. You speak most of what you love most. In a passage gathered in Gleanings Among the Sheaves he confesses that he never tires of the theme: “The monotony of Christ is sweet variety.” He adds that when believers complain of cold love to the Saviour, the answer is not to try to work up feelings but to spend more time in His presence, thinking of what He has done, until love grows in proportion as His love is realised.

We love him, because he first loved us. 1 JOHN 4:19

A stumbling-block still

Spurgeon never imagined that preaching Christ would make a preacher popular. The text itself says that Christ crucified is a stumbling-block and foolishness. In the sermon Christ Crucified he applies this with some force to his own hearers. There were religious people then, as now, who loved the outward forms of church life and would listen gladly to sermons about good conduct, but bristled at being told they needed a new heart and a crucified Saviour. There were clever people who wanted a more sophisticated message. Both, he said, stumble at the same place.

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. 1 CORINTHIANS 1:18

The reader should know that some of the language of that early sermon, particularly about the Jewish people, is harsher than a Christian today would or should use. Spurgeon longed for the conversion of the Jewish people, but the rhetoric of the Victorian pulpit could be coarse. It is also true that his determination to find Christ everywhere sometimes led him into readings of the Old Testament, and especially of the Song of Solomon, that stretch the text further than careful interpretation allows. The instinct is right; the Scriptures do testify of Christ. The method needs the discipline of the plain sense.

Christ in the ordinary Christian’s mouth

The same communion address that speaks of the one string ends with a word for those who are not preachers. They cannot do better, Spurgeon says, than speak much of Jesus whenever opportunity allows, and make Him the theme of their conversation. People talk a great deal about ministers, and churches, and the state of religion. It would be better, he thought, if they talked more of Christ.

They that feared the Lord spake often one to another. MALACHI 3:16

That is a test anyone can apply. Listen to the conversation after church next Sunday, or to your own conversation with Christian friends. How much of it is about Him?

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Apply Spurgeon’s test to the last sermon you heard, the last Bible study you led, or the last spiritual conversation you had: was Christ named?

2. Choose a passage of the Old Testament you know well, and ask honestly and carefully how it leads to Christ, without forcing it.

3. If your love for Christ feels cold, do not try to manufacture feeling. Spend twenty minutes this week reading a Gospel account of the crucifixion slowly.

4. Notice what you most often talk about with other Christians. Deliberately turn one conversation this week towards Christ Himself.

5. Ask God to show you whether any part of your religion would continue unchanged if Christ were removed from it.

A PRAYER

Lord Jesus, You are precious to those who believe, and I confess that I have often found other things more interesting than You.

I have talked about church and ministry and morality, and left You out of the conversation.

Tune my whole life to one string. Let every road I travel lead me back to Your cross.

Make me glad to be called foolish for Your sake, and let the preaching of the cross be to me the power of God. Amen.