Can man attain or touch the power of God?
No. The power of God is not something man can attain, earn, or even begin to touch. It is the preaching of the cross, Christ crucified, which is the power and wisdom of God to those who are called and saved. It is extraneous to anything human.
Les explains that to the saved, the Gospel, the preaching of the cross, is not just a ticket to Heaven; it is the power of God. This flies in the face of Reformers and good-works people who insist we must earn our way into Heaven, yet there is nothing we can do but take what God has offered. He points to verse 23: Christ crucified is a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks with all their high-level intellectual philosophy, but unto them who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. That is a power man cannot even begin to touch, because it is extraneous to anything human.