Sunday, March 22, 2015

1 Corinthians 1:18–25

18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” 20 Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. 22 For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 

Commentary
Vs. 18  "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

In many ways the message of the Lord Jesus Christ crucified is foolishness to those who are perishing, that is perishing in their sins and transgressions, and thus their unbelief. Yet for us who are being saved, the Gospel is the Power of God to salvation for everyone who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now saved here is an encompassing thought, including not only ones salvation from their sins and transgressions (John 3:16), and thus the wrath to come (Rom 5:9; 1 Thess. 1:10), but also it encompasses our ongoing sanctification. For we are being saved not only from God's judgment against sin, but also the power of sin, and ultimately the presence of sin (which will find completion when we are at home with Christ in heaven). And thus we have not only been saved from God's judgment that will come upon every unbelieving and unregenerate soul (Rev 20:11-15). But we are being saved, as an ongoing work of the Holy Spirit from the presence and power of sin in our lives.

Vs. 19  For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.”

Because of unbelieving mankind's reliance on their own "wisdom", and thus their wilful disobedience to God through it, God chose to destroy the wisdom of the "wise" and bring to nothing the understanding of the "prudent". For in every culture, in every generation, men and women purport to be wise and understanding. Yet as history shows us, time and again all of mankind's wisdom has yet to resolve the fundamental human condition, and that is sin, and the corruption from it that is within us all, and is around us all, and thus the devastating effects and fallout from it all, that we constantly apply our band aid solutions too. Now the Apostle Paul's quoting from Isaiah 29:14, is quoting from a time when Israel having turned their back on God, turned to their own "wise" and "prudent" counselors who gave counsel to them that they must align themselves with the "wise" and "mighty" of Egypt whom God clearly told them that they should do no such thing. And so here Isaiah not only tells us of God flately rejecting the "wisdom" and the "counsel" of Israel's "wise" men. But also of God prophetically turning the ages of mankind's universal "wisdom" and "counsel" that apart from Him, has likewise solved and resolved nothing, to nothing. And so at the heart of God's destroying the wisdom of the wise and bringing to nothing the understanding of the prudent is God's renunciation of all of mankind's "wisdom" whether through secular or religious means by which mankind seeks salvation for itself. For the cross of Christ stands forever juxtaposed to all of the "wisdom" that is born out of finite mankind's own desires and understanding. For the cross of Christ is not something that must be comprehended by intellectual astuteness, nor is it something that must be attained too by strenuous religious zeal and effort. The cross of Christ simply says: "Look to Me and be saved all you ends of the earth" (see Isaiah 45:22; John 3:16). Something which again flies in the face of the pride of mankind, who always try to solve and resolve their own problems through their own means. Whether through philosophy and "higher learning", as the ancient Greeks thought this brought them into the Divine Nature, or as the Jews thought that through their own zealous religious observances they would attain to what God ultimately required of them. Or as secular society now thinks that through science and engineering, or by politics and diplomacy etc., they can solve the innumerable evils and social ills that haunt us all. Yet before it all finally implodes in on us all, there must be the acknowledgment by us all of Jesus as Lord, and our sin against Him, which then opens the door for our understanding of the Gospel. Now it is the Gospel's Message of Jesus Christ crucified for our salvation from sin and death which then saves and transforms us all who believe in Him. And so the Gospel is foolishness only to those who look to themselves, and thus trust in themselves, to solve and resolve all that is wrong with them, and around them. That is the "wisdom" that God is destroying, and the "understanding" that He is bringing to nothing.

Vs. 20 "Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?" 

And so in that vein the Apostle Paul now asks:
"Where is the wise?" Are they in the Kingdom of God, are they children of the Everlasting Father? Are they going to be regenerated by the Spirit of God through their own "wisdom" and "understanding?"
Where is the scribe? I.e. the scholar with all of their technical skill and knowledge. Are they in the Kingdom of heaven? Are they the children of God? Do they have the Spirit of God? Will the Word of God save them if they don't repent and believe it? (consider John 5:39-47)
Where is the disputer? The skillful debater who only uses their God given intellectual and reasoning abilities in trying to refute the Gospel, and or undermine people's faith in God's Word. And so in the end where will they appear? (consider Matt 12:30)

And so where are they? In the Kingdom of heaven they will not be found, if they don't see their own need for Christ, and in faith turn unconditionally to Him for healing and life (consider John 12:35-40). And so it is that the Apostle Paul asks us all to consider them, and not adopt any of their ways, for again: "Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?" For it is this world's "wisdom" that ultimately denies and disobeys Almighty God. 

Vs. 21 "For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe." 

And so it is that God in His Wisdom has shut out the world from knowing Him through their own "wisdom", so that He might save us who believe through the "foolishness" of the message preached.  
For it is through the Gospel preached and our hearing, and thus believing it, that God saves us who believe. Which again flies in the face of the pride of mankind, whose wisdom makes salvation something that one must earn for themselves. For consider if you will that every religion in the world requires that one essentially try to earn what they can only attain to by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Again the Message preached and believed is the only means through which God saves souls from wrath and transforms lives here and now. If a church (or ministry) ever forgets that, then they will cease to be a means by which God works and brings salvation to broken and needy humanity.

Vs. 22-25 22 For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

Again only the Gospel preached and one believing it (not "seeing" it) brings salvation (consider 2 Cor 5:7). Something which the Jews who always requested "a sign" found untenable. Yet Jesus never gave them a sign (John 6:30-40), for as He said of them in His parable of the rich man and Lazarus, though one rise from the dead they would not believe (see Luke 16:19-31, vs. 27-31). Therefore it's not for a lack of "evidence" that they (or anyone else) does not believe, it's the simple fact of their having already hardened their hearts to God, that they cannot hear, and thus believe the Word of God. Similarly the Greeks who for generations sought to attain to the wisdom of "the gods." Yet when the Wisdom of God came to them they did not believe it. Instead they scoffed at the notion of a God who would suffer crucifixion death at the hands of mortal mankind. And so it is that the message of Christ crucified was to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness. A stumbling block to the Jews because their hope was set on the Messiah who by might and force would rescue them from all their enemies; specifically the Romans who then ruled them. Therefore for Christ to have suffered crucifixion death at the hands of their enemies was absolutely untenable to them. For they only envisioned Christ as Victor, they did not see Him as the Scriptures reveal Him, as having to first suffer humiliation and death (just as God's people had for centuries), so that having entered into their plight (indeed the entire human races plight because of sin), Jesus having suffered God's judgment against sin for us all. He then rose again the third day, so that He can now bring salvation to us all who long for it. And so there are phases to God's redemption plans for Israel, just as there are for all of believing humanity, and creation with it. Therefore those Jews who did not believe are a lesson to us not to short anything in Scriptures, but rather to wait on God for their complete fulfillment. Therefore to us who are called, both Jews and Greeks (i.e. Gentiles) Christ crucified is both the power of God and the wisdom of God (vs. 24). The Power of God which brings about our redemption and eternal salvation through His own Son's "weakness" and death. While it is the wisdom of God, because it by Christ's resurrection from the dead that God vindicates His Son having done so, and thus He can now justify every repentant and believing sinner who trusts in Him. Therefore the Apostle Paul rightly says that "....the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men."  For mankind by their own "wisdom" and "strength" can neither save themselves, nor preserve themselves, "for by strength no man shall prevail" (1 Sam 2:8).

Scripture Quotations
The New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.


Note: Draft Version

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