（译者附加小标题）
山穷水尽（The End of his Rope）
没有重生的罪人是完全失落的。
没有福音的光照及帮助，罪人在他天然的光景中，永远都找不到通往神的出路。其实，他连寻求神的念头都动不了。“……属血气的人不领会神圣灵的事，反倒以为愚拙，并且不能知道，因为这些事惟有属灵的人才能看透。”（林前2:14）罪人是灵里死亡又瞎眼的，所以凭他自己，他根本没指望找到神。
但就算十架的福音传给了罪人，他也会拒绝。林前1:18 说：“因为十字架的道理，在那灭亡的人为愚拙……”。即便那唯一的救恩之道向罪人显明了，他也会置之脑后，不屑一顾。但另一方面，林前1:18 又说：“十字架的道理……在我们得救的人，却为神的大能。”人自以为的“聪明”，就是“自然神学”告诉我们可以导致我们认识神的“智慧”，反而会迫使他拒绝这十架的信息，就是那唯一可以拯救他的大能的信息。
江郎才尽（The End of his Wit）
神如何看待人的智慧呢？保罗在林前1:19-20继续说：“就如经上所记：我要灭绝智慧人的智慧，废弃聪明人的聪明。智慧人在那里？文士在那里？这世上的辩士在那里？”换言之，神说：把你们的杰出人才都列出来：那些最流利的演说家、最优秀的辩论家、最精英的天才全都出来吧！看哪，你们不过是一群笨蛋罢了！
使徒行传17 章，保罗在雅典，圣经说：他“看见满城都是偶像，就心里著急。”（徒17:16）于是，在亚略巴古（Areopagus），就是当时所有的学者和知识分子汇聚的地方，保罗放胆地揭穿了他们可笑的无知，更传讲了那能够拯救他们的唯一的信息：
他说：「众位雅典人哪，我看你们凡事很敬畏鬼神。我游行的时候，观看你们所敬拜的，遇见一座坛，上面写著『未识之神』。你们所不认识而敬拜的，我现在告诉你们。创造宇宙和其中万物的神，既是天地的主，就不住人手所造的殿，也不用人手服事，好像缺少什麽；自己倒将生命、气息、万物，赐给万人……。就如你们作诗的，有人说：『我们也是他所生的。』……世人蒙昧无知的时候，神并不鉴察，如今却吩咐各处的人都要悔改。因为他已经定了日子，要藉著他所设立的人按公义审判天下，并且叫他从死里复活，给万人作可信的凭据。」（徒17:22-31）
精疲力尽（The End of his Strength）
这些人也许是当时世上最聪明的脑袋，然而他们所能做的，只是为他们所忽略的任何神明竖起一块牌坊，以保自己的平安而已。这也许就是你可以从“自然神学”中得到的最大的安慰和希望，即平息你可能忽略了宇宙中真神的一种负罪感。
柳暗花明（The Beginning of God）
再回到哥林多前书第一章，这段经文的高潮是21节：“世人凭自己的智慧，既不认识神，神就乐意用人所当作愚拙的道理，拯救那些信的人。”其实，这是用不同的语言在陈述“大使命”：人类得救唯一的指望，在乎传讲十架的道理。保罗承认，这样的信息，对犹太人而言，是难以置信的绊脚石；对外邦人来说，也纯粹是愚拙的道理（林前1:23）。的确，他是对的，从人的角度来看，这确实是无稽之谈：相信一个2000年前的犹太木匠，相信他悲惨而屈辱的死亡，竟然可以影响现代的人类，更可以为我们提供什么赎罪祭，这听来简直疯狂至极、不可理喻！
然而，彼得却坦然地对以色列的祭司和首领宣告：“除他以外，别无拯救；因为在天下人间，没有赐下别的名，我们可以靠著得救。”（徒4:12）
唯独基督（Through Christ Alone）
为什么唯独在基督里才有救恩呢？哥林多前书1:29-31，保罗给了我们答案，
使一切有血气的，在神面前一个也不能自夸。但你们得在基督耶稣里，是本乎神，神又使他成为我们的智慧、公义、圣洁、救赎。如经上所记：『夸口的，当指著主夸口。』
人定胜天！？（God alone Prevails）
总之，这福音不是给那些骄傲的人、自大的人，或那些自信可以凭自己的本事找到神的。神故意选择了一个“愚拙的”信息来贬低我们、降卑我们，并保证没有人能够夸口自己的聪明才智。他拣选了十字架，好抹杀人里面任何的倾向，以为我们可以靠着自己找到神，好叫一切的荣耀都归于神。
（改编自好消息）
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The Foolish Cross
by John MacArthur
Wednesday, September 19, 2018
Unregenerate sinners are completely lost.
Unaided and unilluminated, in his natural condition and without the gospel, the sinner will never find a way to God. In fact, he won’tbe looking for it to begin with. “A natural man does not accept the things ofthe Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understandthem, because they are spiritually appraised” (1 Corinthians2:14). He’s spiritually dead and blind, with no hope of finding God on his own.
But even when sinners are presented with the gospel ofthe cross, they reject it.FirstCorinthians 1:18 says, “For the word of the cross is foolishness tothose who are perishing.” Even when a sinner has been shown the only way ofsalvation, he will ignore and dismiss it. On the other hand, 1 Corinthians1:18 goes on to say, “But to us who are being saved it is the powerof God.” Man’s supposed wisdom—the very thing that natural theology tells uswill lead him to God—forces him to reject the message of the cross and the onlypower there is that can save him.
What does God think of man’s wisdom? Paul continues in 1 Corinthians1:19–20: “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?” In other words, bringon the finest minds, the most articulate communicators, the best debaters—giveme the elite, and I will show you a group of fools.
In Acts 17, Paul is in Athens, and Scripture says, “Hisspirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full ofidols” (Acts 17:16).In the Areopagus—the gathering place for all the philosophers and intellectualsof the day—he boldly confronted their laughable ignorance and proclaimed theonly message by which they could be saved.
Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious inall respects. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of yourworship, I also found an altar with this inscription, “To an Unknown God.”Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. The God whomade the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, asthough He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breathand all things; . . . for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some ofyour own poets have said. . . . Therefore having overlooked the times ofignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere shouldrepent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof toall men by raising Him from the dead. (Acts17:22-31)
These were perhaps the finest minds in the world at thetime, and the best they could do was put up a placard to serve as a safety netfor any deities they had overlooked. That’s maybe the best you can hope for from natural theology—the guilty sensation that you might have overlooked the true God of the universe.
Back to 1 Corinthians 1, and the pinnacle of the passagein verse 21: “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom didnot come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of themessage preached to save those who believe.” That’s effectively the Great Commission in different words. The only hope of salvation is through the preaching of the cross. Paul acknowledges that such a message is a stumbling block to Jews, and pure stupidity to Gentiles (1Corinthians 1:23), and he’s right. From a human perspective, believing that the horrific, humiliating death of a Jewish carpenter more than two thousand years ago has any impact on modern life—let alone offers any sort of substitutionary atonement for our sins—sounds like madness. But as Peter boldly exclaimed to the priests and leaders of Israel, “There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
Why is that salvation found in Christ alone? Paul gives us the answer in 1 Corinthians 1:29-31,
So that no man may boast before God. But by His doing youare in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
Ultimately the gospel is not for the proud, the arrogant, or those who believe they can get to God by themselves. God intentionally chosea foolish message to humble us and to guarantee that no one would boast in his or her own intelligence. He chose the cross to stifle any inclination in us to think we got to Him on our own. All the glory goes to God.
(Adapted from Good News)