1 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. 2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2:1-2 (NASB)
The manner of our Lord’s death was one designed by the Romans to humiliate its criminals. The cross was a place of shame, disgrace, humiliation, indignity, degradation, and ignominy. The Roman soldiers were experts at this form of execution in which the criminal was beaten, undressed, arms spread and nailed to a cross-beam, feet nailed to a vertical beam, and hoisted above the ground for the world to see. However, as we read in 1 Corinthians 2:1-2 (above), Paul decided to know nothing among those to whom he preached and ministered except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
14 But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Galatians 6:14 (NASB)
Who would make that our Lord’s crucifixion would be his ultimate boast? The Gospel, the genuine Gospel that is, has no part in what has come to be known as easy-believism. The Gospel is hard and repellant to the unregenerate mind. The world will always scoff at the idea that God became flesh. To those who are deeply into the ways of the world and cherish the accolades of men, the cross of Christ is an embarrassing place to stand, let alone the very thing that proclaims and defines who they are. In fact, even those who should know better, pastors, evangelists, and theologians, motivated by their embarrassment over the stark, black & white nature of the genuine Gospel, actually deny that they know Jesus by taking emphasis away from the cross in their ministries.