Text: 1 Corinthians 1:17-25
“For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
18 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. 19 For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
20 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? 21 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[b] to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
This is the high point in this chapter. Paul’s drawing our attention to the cross of Christ and its power. He’s telling us that the crucifixion of Christ is more than a tragic historical event. It’s an event with theological importance which carries profound redemptive implications. On its face it seems to be a story of weakness, and a story making foolish claims. Christ, the King of the Jews, suffered a criminal’s death, a death claimed by the Apostles and the Christians to be saving in nature. A death that dealt directly with human sin. To the ordinary man on the street the gospel account is hard to believe. It’s easily dismissed. So the temptation is to embellish it, or alter it, or perhaps to dress it up in the language of metaphysics and make it more intellectually appealing. And yet, to Paul to do this threatens the power of the gospel. Remember what he said in verse 17, he said he was sent “...to preach the gospel,...not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.” Paul’s conviction is that the plain unembellished proclamation of the gospel is powerful. It possesses the power to expose the human heart. Notice how Paul states this - “...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 (v.18).”
There are two kinds of people identified here, those ‘who are perishing’ and those ‘who are being saved’. In the normal course of daily life we’ll meet any number of people; people we work with, people we engage in conversation, we exchange greetings and smiles and handshakes, but we don’t truly know the condition of their heart and their standing with God. This only becomes clearer when we talk about the gospel. They may be willing to listen to the story of Christ and his crucifixion, but where the objections tend to come is when the cross is related to the sinful condition of man. Rehearsing the historical story of the cross isn’t offensive, rather as Paul says it’s “...the word (the doctrine), the redemptive message of the cross that offends them. It’s dismissed as ‘foolishness’. The message of the cross strikes a negative chord in us because it tells us that we’re sinners, our sins need to be atoned for, and the only one qualified to redeem us is Christ, God the Son who’s come in the flesh. The doctrine of the cross confronts us with the seriousness of sin. It challenges our inflated self image and tells us that we’re sinners by nature in need of salvation, and that that salvation must come from outside of us. We’re incapable of sufficient self-improvement to merit God’s favor.
So the natural man - those who are perishing - label the message as ‘foolishness’, dismiss it, and go on unaware that they’re self-deceived. Listen, when we turn our back on the gospel of the Cross and go our own way, the end is tragic….we’ll perish! And this is no small thing. Those who reject Christ and dismiss the ‘message of the Cross’ as foolishness are consigned to Hell, the place of eternal punishment and separation from God’s favor. Consider this proverb - “There is a way that seems right to man, but its end is the way to death (Prov. 14:12).” The deceptions we embrace seem so right. We feel completely free to disregard the gospel and live life as we choose, but the Bible says the end of this way is tragic. It turns out that living in opposition to the doctrine of the Cross is what’s foolish. What’s your attitude toward the gospel? If it’s hostile or dismissive it’s telling you something that’s very disturbing. It’s telling you that you’re ‘perishing’. Your heart’s been exposed!
However, there’s another response to the ‘doctrine of the Cross’ that’s just as revealing. Listen carefully to Paul - “...but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (v.18).” There’s another group of people, those who believe the gospel and embrace Christ by faith. They delight in the Cross! They don’t see foolishness, they see grace. They see God’s power over sin and death. They rejoice in the doctrine of the Cross that’s so offensive to others. This response gives witness to the fact that they’re ‘being saved’. They’ve been regenerated by the Holy Spirit, so the message of the Cross isn’t foolishness, it’s an expression of God’s wisdom.
What we have then is God’s wisdom embodied in the ‘doctrine of the Cross’ standing in opposition to the ‘wisdom of the world’. And this is an Age old conflict. Even Isaiah addressed it in the 6th century B.C. - “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart (Isa.29:14).” Paul quotes this in our text. But the conflict’s origin actually predates this. It’s a result of the ‘fall’. God said to Satan - “I will put enmity…between your offspring and her offspring;...(Gen.3:15).” This certainly speaks ultimately of the conflict between Christ, the seed of the woman, and Satan. But as collective references, ‘your offspring’ and ‘her offspring’ identify two kinds of people; the redeemed (‘her offspring’) and the reprobate (‘your offspring’). Paul’s conviction is that this age old conflict and push-back by worldly wisdom is overcome by gospel proclamation. The wise, among both Jews and Gentiles, were confounded by the cross-centered gospel. God made foolish the wisdom of the world by making it impossible to know God relationally through wisdom…through earthbound, man centered, ways of thinking. Through human wisdom and reasoning that’s fluid, relativistic, and passing away. The truth is, because God’s made it so, man will never know him by means of human wisdom, except perhaps as a vague idea or intellectual construct. We’ll never know God, redemptively and relationally, by way of human reasoning. Rather, he’s taken what’s considered foolish - the message of the Cross - to confound the wise.
The message that God saves people through the sacrifice of a crucified Savior is a ‘stumbling block’ to Jews and ‘foolishness’ to Gentiles. Salvation by way of a suffering substitute is contrary to natural religious thinking. Natural religions are always works based. In Paul’s time right standing before the god or gods was established by keeping religious rules. And this is still true. The living religions of our day are all works oriented, except for properly understood Christianity. Islam requires the keeping of the ‘Five Pillars’ and seeking the mercy of Allah, Hinduism embraces millions of gods and a variety of sacrificial systems to appease them, Buddhism is built around the ‘Eightfold Path to Enlightenment’ demanding disciplined thought and the suppressing of desire, and Judaism calls for the keeping of the Law and the traditions of the Fathers. But the Christian doctrine of the Cross says that Christ atoned for our sins and we’re saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
This is a radically different message, one that in the eyes of the world is foolish. What we have then, according to Paul, are Jews seeking ‘signs’, such as the chief priests and scribes mocking Jesus on the cross and saying, “come down now from the cross that we may see and believe (Mk.15:32).” Then we have the Greeks seeking wisdom, demanding rationality, being persuaded to believe by the sheer intellectual and philosophical appeal of the gospel. Both of these approaches to believing are still present today. Perhaps one of these approaches appeals to you. You’re the ‘seeing is believing’ kind of person, or you demand scientific proof, that’s the only kind of knowing you trust. You want to be reasoned into faith. But preaching Christ crucified, proclaiming the redeeming message of the Cross doesn’t yield to either of these demands. God saves on his own terms.
So the Jews didn’t get the sign they wanted, a triumphant Messiah. Instead they got a suffering Messiah who offered them a spiritual kingdom and deliverance from sin and death, and it offended them. To the Greek mind the doctrine of the Cross was absurd. The shedding of Christ’s blood, his death removing sin and promoting virtue and securing salvation made no sense to them. They wanted what they considered rational philosophical arguments. A crucified Messiah, a suffering Savior, just wouldn’t do.
But there’s another category of people who respond to the message of the Cross very differently. Paul refers to them in verse 24 as ‘those who are called’. This group is made up of both Jews and Greeks - “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 (vv.24,25).” God has taken the matter of salvation out of human hands and he effectually calls people to himself by his Spirit through gospel proclamation. And this ‘third race’ is composed of both Jews and Gentiles. Christ died for all people groups, no tribe or tongue is excluded. This was part of the gospel’s offense to the Jews. To think that Gentile pagans could become ‘children of Abraham’, members of true Israel, was unthinkable. And yet, this is the nature of grace! And this inclusive ‘way of seeing’ reveals a regenerated heart.
God turns ‘worldly wisdom’ on its head by exercising power unto salvation through what appears to be the weakness of the Cross. Here’s the wisdom of God - “For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ (Rom.5:17).” This verse acknowledges the reality of sin and death, and then underscores the ‘abundance of grace’ and the gift, or imputation, of righteousness and the life that’s eternal given to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus. These understandings are all embodied in the doctrine of the Cross. And then Paul makes an important distinction in closing his argument. God is greater than man, his foolishness is wiser than men, and his weakness is stronger than men.
This is a fundamental understanding, and it’s also a fundamental point of human rebellion. We refuse to acknowledge the Creator/creature distinction. We see ourselves as the final authority. We’re at the top of the evolutionary chain. This is the majority report from natural man, and this is why the message of the Cross is so hard to embrace. This self-deception demands regeneration in order for us to acknowledge that God’s foolishness overrules man’s wisdom and God’s weakness overpowers man’s strength. We need to accept the fact that God determines the terms of reconciliation. He designed the ‘way of salvation’, and that’s disclosed to us in the redemptive message of the Cross.
The Cross of Christ, the resurrection of Chrisst, and the ascension of Christ are foolish ideas to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved they embody and display the wisdom and power of God.