Christ: The Power and Wisdom of God.

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. – 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 ESV

The concept of death by crucifixion, while not invented by the Romans, was certainly perfected by them. It was a horrific means of death, intended as much for crime prevention as it was for punishment. To those living under the jurisdiction of Roman rule, crucifixion was viewed as a hideous way to die, reserved for the vilest of criminals and the scum of the earth. And yet, Paul reminds his readers, it was the God-ordained means of death for Jesus Christ. The death of Christ on the cross was at the heart of the gospel message preached by Paul, Apollos and Cephas. Paul insisted, “we preach Christ crucified” (1 Corinthians 1:23a ESV). What made that message even more “foolish” to the ears of those who heard it was the fact that Christ’s death was followed by His resurrection. It was His death, followed by His miraculous Spirit-empowered resurrection, that made the message “a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles” (1 Corinthians 1:23b ESV).

And yet, the message of the cross revealed the very wisdom of God. It was His chosen means of providing justification for sinful men and women. It was through the “foolishness” of the cross that sinners could be restored to a right relationship with a holy God. But as Paul points out, “the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18 ESV). There is nothing about the message of the cross that makes sense to the sinful men. It sounds ludicrous, far-fetched and unbelievable. It is written off as a fable or myth by many. It is laughed off by others as nothing more than the wishful thinking of the uneducated. But Paul insists that it is the very “power of God.” As Paul wrote in his letter to the believers in Rome, “it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16 ESV). And God was using this message to “destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent” (1 Corinthians 1:19 NLT).

By arguing over who followed who and which leader was more impressive than the other, the Corinthians believers were diminishing the true message of the gospel. They were making the wisdom of man more important than the wisdom of God. They were elevating eloquent speech and impressive oratory skills over the simple, yet profound message of Christ crucified. The ability to debate theology or impress others with your knowledge of the Scriptures meant nothing without the cross. Which is what led Paul to ask, “Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age?” (1 Corinthians 1:20 ESV). The wise and religious didn’t come up with the idea of the cross. God did. The Jewish scholars didn’t recognize the prophecies concerning the suffering Savior. In fact, Jesus told the religious leaders of His day, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life” (John 5:39-40 ESV). They were unable to recognize Jesus as the Messiah, because He didn’t appear as the kind of Messiah they were expecting. They had been looking for a conquering king, not a suffering servant. The crown the envisioned Him wearing was made of gold, not thorns. They expected Him to free them from bondage to Roman rule, not sin.

The “wisdom of the world” to which Paul refers has little to do with knowledge or book knowledge. He is speaking of the philosophical insights of men designed to explain the world and our place in it. It is man’s attempt to understand and explain the presence of evil, suffering, and pain, as well as present an acceptable, rational path to hope and happiness. But nothing man has come up with has worked. Materialism, religion, hedonism, pacifism, pleasure, wealth, love – mankind has tried it all. But as Solomon said so well, “But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless—like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere” (Ecclesiastes 2:11 NLT).

As believers, we are to be followers of Christ, not men. We are to place our hope in the cross, not the clever arguments or convincing messages of this world. Like Paul, we are to believe that “the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Corinthians 1:25 ESV). Our salvation was the result of the cross, not the words of men. Our sanctification or ongoing transformation into the likeness of Christ is based on the message of the cross, not human wisdom. And it is the cross that will make possible our ultimate glorification, the resurrection of our bodies and our final transformation into the image of Christ. To some, it all sounds like foolishness. To others, it acts as a stumbling block, preventing them from embracing the good news of Jesus Christ and experiencing the power and wisdom of God as found in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. For Paul, the message of the cross was more than enough. He didn’t feel compelled to trick it up, tone it down, make it more palatable or acceptable, or gloss it over with clever-sounding words or sophisticated philosophical arguments. As he told the Corinthians later in his letter, “when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:1-2 ESV). For him, the message of the cross of Christ was enough, because it revealed the wisdom and the power of God. And if the simplicity of the cross was good enough for God, it was good enough for Paul.

God’s Brand of Righteousness.

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it — the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: or all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. – Romans 3:21-26 ESV Inevitably, the book of Romans is about how man can be made right with God. The first few chapters build a case concerning man's unrighteousness, proving that no man is capable of living up to God's holy standards. Man's sin nature prevents him from keeping God's law. Even those parts he does manage to keep, he does so from a wrong motivation, out of a sense of obedience or obligation, not love. His law-keeping ways are insufficient to earn him any merit with God. His acts of goodness come across as worthless to God because they are tainted with sin. So Paul concludes, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” That includes Jews and Gentiles, pagans and the pious, reprobates and the religious, and everyone in-between.

But God's brand of righteousness has been revealed apart from the law, Paul contends. In other words, God revealed His righteousness through the gift of His grace, not as a form of payment for man's efforts. Over in chapter four, Paul states, “Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due” (Romans 4:4 ESV). If our righteousness can be earned, then we are simply receiving what we are owed. If it is based on our own efforts, then God is somehow obligated to pay us what we rightly deserve. But Paul clarifies the truth regarding the gospel and the righteousness God approves of. “And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness” (Romans 4:5 ESV). In fact, the Scriptures say of Abraham, “Abraham believed god, and it was counted to him as righteousness” (Romans 4:3 ESV). The kind of righteousness God is looking for is base on faith, not works. It is God-dependent, not self-dependent. All “are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as the propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith” (Romans 3:24-25 ESV).

Man-made righteousness is insufficient. It can't measure up. It leaves us far short of the goal that God has established. Augustine writes, “The Law was given, in order that we might seek after grace. Grace was given, in order that we might fulfill the Law. It was not the fault of the Law that it was not fulfilled, but the fault was man's carnal mind. This guilt the Law must make manifest, in order that we may be healed by divine grace” (Augustine, Concerning the Spirit and the Letter). We are justified through faith by grace. As Paul says, it is a gift, unearned and undeserved. Christ's death solved our problem. He paid our debt. He redeemed us out of slavery to sin and propitiated or satisfied the holy demands of God. Until Jesus showed up on the scene, God had willingly overlooked or passed over the sins committed by men. This does not mean that He accepted or tolerated them. What Paul is inferring is that God restrained Himself from dealing with the sins of men according to His own justice. He put off the inevitable. He delayed His wrath in order that He might reveal His righteousness through Christ. As Paul says, “It was to show His righteousness at the present time” (Romans 3:26 ESV). God knew it was “impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4 ESV). So, the author of Hebrews writes, “when Christ came into the world, he said, ‘Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, “Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book”’” (Hebrews 10:5-7 ESV). Jesus Christ was sent by God to do His will. He was sent to die for the sins of men. The righteousness God demanded of men was only possible through faith in the sacrifice of God's Son. The book of Hebrews reminds us that, “by that will [the will of God that He die] we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10 ESV).

In sending His Son to atone for the sins of men, God was able to remain just. He was able to punish sin in the way that His holy standards required, while at the same time justifying those who, those sinners, placed their faith in His Son's saving work. God provided the righteousness man needed. It was a gift – unearned, undeserved and unmerited in any way. So that no one can boast. No one can take credit for their salvation. No one can claim to have played a part in their sanctification. And no one can say they had a hand in achieving a right standing before God. It was all done for us and in spite of us.