1When I came to you, brothers, I didn’t come with excellence of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 2For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4My speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5that your faith wouldn’t stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
6We speak wisdom, however, among those who are full grown, yet a wisdom not of this world nor of the rulers of this world who are coming to nothing. 7But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds for our glory, 8which none of the rulers of this world has known. For had they known it, they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory. 9But as it is written,
“Things which an eye didn’t see, and an ear didn’t hear,
which didn’t enter into the heart of man,
these God has prepared for those who love him.”
10But to us, God revealed them through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11For who among men knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God except God’s Spirit. 12But we received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that were freely given to us by God. 13We also speak these things, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things. 14Now the natural man doesn’t receive the things of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to him; and he can’t know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15But he who is spiritual discerns all things, and he himself is to be judged by no one. 16“For who has known the mind of the Lord that he should instruct him?” But we have Christ’s mind.
"Let Him be crucified!" (Matt. 27:22, 23), was the repeated cry of the multitudes in answer to Pilate's question, "What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?" (v. 22). But what did this method of execution involve, and what is its theological significance?
The Romans adopted and perfected the practice of crucifixion that probably originated with the Persians. Its purpose was not to produce death so much as to prolong the agony of dying. It was reserved for slaves, foreigners, revolutionaries, and those guilty of the most heinous crimes, except Roman citizens who were exempt. The victim's wrists were first nailed to a beam that was then lifted and attached to a vertical pole. His feet were nailed to the pole, and the weight of his body was supported by a peg under his crotch. Shock from the loss of blood, thirst from dehydration, exhaustion from difficulty breathing, and exposure to the elements contributed to the victim's eventual death, which was sometimes hastened by breaking the victim's legs.
The agony of death by crucifixion is described in remarkable detail in Psalm 22:12-18, hundreds of years before its use by the Romans. Jesus' crucifixion was the occasion of his piercing (Isa. 53:5; Zech. 12:10; Jn. 19:37); his being made a curse for us (Deut. 23:10; Gal. 3:13); and his death by the shedding of blood (Lev. 5:11; 17:11; Heb. 9:22).That his legs were not broken is evidence that he laid down his life (Jn. 10:15, 17), voluntarily yielding his spirit (Matt. 27:50), and corresponds to a requirement for the Passover lamb (Ex. 12:46; Jn. 19:36).