In 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, Paul instructs that God destroys the so-called wisdom of the so-called wise but has revealed his salvation through the gospel proclamation.
Wes
Welcome to the Two Journeys Bible Study Podcast. This podcast is just one of the many resources available to you for free from Two Journeys Ministry. If you’re interested in learning more, just head over to twojourneys.org. Now on to today’s episode. This is episode 2 in our 1 Corinthians Bible study podcast. This episode is entitled Christ the Wisdom and Power of God, where we’ll discuss 1 Corinthians 1:18-31. I’m Wes Treadway, and I’m here with Pastor Andy Davis. Andy, what are we going to see in these verses that we’re looking at today?
Andy
Okay, so throughout the 16 chapters of 1 Corinthians, we’re going to see Paul addressing many practical concerns in a very dysfunctional, messed up church, a sinful church, but the centerpiece always of Paul’s ministry is the cross of Jesus Christ. He’s going to say in chapter 2, verse 2, “I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified,” which is an interesting statement. Why does he say it like that? “I resolved to know nothing.” It’s because the Greeks were in love with wisdom. They’re in love with philosophy, and he had just said, “Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.”
And then he talks about the cross, and he wants these Corinthian Christians to understand the significance of Jesus dying on the cross, something that the Greeks thought of as foolish. It didn’t line up with their philosophy, and the Jews found offensive, a stumbling block. And he’s going to talk about that, that Christ is actually the wisdom of God and the power of God. And he’s going to contrast Jesus dying on the cross with the human systems of philosophy that were so well-known to them. So, Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, and they’re so in love with human wisdom. He’s going to say, look, God in his wisdom chose that man could not reason his way to God. Only by revelation would we ever know God. And the greatest revelation of the glory of God is in the cross of Christ. We’re going to walk through that today.
Wes
Well, let me go ahead and read 1 Corinthians 1:18-31:
“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.
“For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, notmany were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.'”
Andy, in this section as you mentioned, Paul is taking on the Greek love for human wisdom, commonly called philosophy. How would you define philosophy and why is it a threat to the gospel?
Andy
Yeah, I think we go to the end. The very thing you just read, it struck me again how much God is intent on stripping us of our pride. He wants to humble us. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. And so, it seems to me that the origination of evil as revealed in Isaiah 14 and also in Ezekiel 28, is that Satan became enamored with his own beauty and his own wisdom, and he thought he could take God on. And so, he became arrogant and challenged God and then led Adam in a similar rebellion and does say that Eve saw that the tree of the knowledge to good and evil, that the fruit was good for making her wise. But Adam had the same allure. He wanted to become wise.
And so, we’re in love with independent wisdom. We’re in love with our intelligence, which was just given to us in that we’re created in the image of God. And so, God must strip us of our dark, wicked, sinful love of our capabilities apart from him. And in order to do that, he has to humble us.
So human philosophy, you ask what is the definition? It’s just a system of thinking where we reason based on our five senses, we reason to ultimate issues. Like philosophy generally has to do with questions that Christianity addresses, which is the questions of origins, a question of destinations, a question of significance and meaning and the best way to live life. All of that. Philosophy seeks to answer all those questions. Therefore, it’s a pseudo, pseudo religion. And in this sense, apart from God, it is a threat to the gospel. So, Paul has to address it. He wants to strip these Corinthians of any pride in human wisdom so they can just sit at God’s feet. And the number one place that we sit at God’s feet is in the concept of Christ in him crucified. So, we’re going to walk through that.
Wes
In what way is the word of the cross foolishness or folly to the perishing and how is the cross the power of God to those who are being saved?
Andy
Well simply put, I think you get a picture of it when Paul is preaching the gospel to the philosophers in Mars Hill, and they mock and they scoff, and they think it’s ridiculous. That’s the clear display of the world thinking this is foolish. It doesn’t make any sense.
One of the things we do when we accept new members here at this church is we do interviews with them, and we ask them to share the gospel with us. And specifically, sometimes I’ll zero in on this one thing. How can a dead man who lived so many years ago have any impact on us today? If somebody can’t explain that, they don’t understand the gospel. And so, I’m kind of skating right to the edge of why it would seem foolish. I’m actually inviting them to show me that they’re unbelievers. And so, tell me why it’s not foolishness to think that one dead Jew, a bloody dead Jew on a Roman cross, means anything to anybody. Now for us, we understand who that is. That is the incarnate Son of God. And he didn’t die accidentally. He laid down his life in fulfillment of prophecy and in fulfillment of the demands of the law for blood, for death. Wages of sin is death. So, we understand all that, but to the world, it’s foolishness. It makes no sense at all. Why would a dead Jew mean anything to me?
Wes
Paul speaks of us who are being saved as though salvation is a process that is presently going on. While Ephesians 2:8 says we have been saved by grace, a past tense occurrence. And Romans 5:9 says we will be saved from God’s wrath, future focused there. How should we understand this past, present, future aspect of our salvation?
Andy
Yeah, just in English language, we have been saved, we are being saved, and we will be saved. All three are true biblically. This one here is the present kind of continuous sense. We are being saved. And we know also from Philippians, too, where Paul commands the Philippian Christians to work out their salvation of fear and trembling. We are to, in the book of Hebrews, run a race with endurance, laying aside hindrances and sin that’s so easily entangles. We are not finished being saved. Philippians 3, we forget what lies behind, press on toward what lies ahead. We run a race, et cetera. So, salvation’s a process.
And so, there’s a decisive past. If we’re Christians, there’s a decisive past. We have been saved. That’s justification. Our sins are forgiven. There is a continual present in which we are being sanctified. We’re growing in grace in the knowledge of Christ. And there is a future decisive moment when we’ll be saved from wrath on Judgment Day and from death by resurrection. So that hasn’t happened yet. That’s the future.
Now, in this particular case, if this is indeed talking about sanctification, the ongoing Christian life, the cross of Christ is the power for that journey. It’s really the fulfillment of what Jesus meant when he said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” How Thomas had said, “We don’t know where you’re going. How can we know the way?” Jesus basically said in John 14:1-4, “I’m going to heaven.” At the end of 14 he said, “I’m going to the Father.” Okay, how do we get there? “Me.” And more specifically, this text says, “Me crucified.” That’s how you get there. So, Jesus crucified is the way. So, what that means is the message of the cross is ongoing power of God for salvation. Romans 1:16. It’s not just once for all power. It is ongoing power. We never graduate from the message of the cross.
“There is a continual present in which we are being sanctified. …in this particular case, if this is indeed talking about sanctification, the ongoing Christian life, the cross of Christ is the power for that journey.”
Wes
What do we learn from verse 19 about God’s plans for human wisdom?
Andy
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” God is going to lay it low. Isaiah 2 says he’s going to take all of the idols and smash them. Isaiah 2 is really interesting. There’s all these lofty things, these high cedars and these ships mass and all these things that go up, up, up like the Tower of Babel. All the stuff that soars, they’re symbols of human arrogance. He’s saying, “I’m going to lay them all low. I’m going to level them.” And so, God is against it. He wants to make independent, separate human intelligence and wisdom, which is the source of arrogance and pride. He wants to expose it. He wants to destroy it. He says it, he’ll destroy it. “I’m going to destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
All right, so let’s get to it. These brilliant Greek philosophers, Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, all of these, their systems lead to hell. That’s how he’s going to destroy it on Judgment Day when Jesus takes all of those philosophers and puts them off to the side among the goats and says, “Depart from me you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” Or in another parable, “Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness.” So when that happens, you will know that your system of wisdom and of religion, whatever it is, has been destroyed. It led to nothing. So, he’s going to completely level it. Also go ahead into eternity, new heaven, new earth, there will be no false philosophies or false philosophers. There will be no other competing religions. It’ll all be gone. So that’s how he’s going to destroy the intelligence of the intelligent and frustrate the wisdom of the wise.
Wes
In what ways has God made human wisdom foolish? And how has the final disposition of famous Greek scholars shown this as we look at verse 20?
Andy
Yeah, I think ultimately death when they die and they’re condemned. That shows it. Also, the fact that human science, human philosophy is constantly evolving. And so, people get forgotten. Their systems get dropped into the dust and they get superseded. We see that especially with the pseudoscience of psychology. I mean, there’s legitimate psychology that comes from the Bible, that’s literally the Greek word, means the science of the soul. But then there’s that secular atheistic philosophy of psychology that flowed from Freud, but those systems are constantly being superseded or they evolve. And so that is a way of that system being exposed as foolishness. It doesn’t lead to anything finally. So, I would say ultimately the answer to the question is, as I said a moment ago, being condemned to hell, being damned. That is the ultimate rejection by God of the philosopher.
Wes
How is the wisdom of God on display in his making it impossible for human beings to know him or to save themselves by their own wisdom or cleverness? How should this continually humble us?
Andy
Yeah, verse 21 is very powerful. It really bears careful meditation, “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased with the foolishness of preaching and the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.” So, you look at that and it’s like just the very beginning of verse 21. He’s saying it was very wise for God to make certain men couldn’t reason their way to God. That’s wise of God because it makes God exalted and majestic. And also, he retains sovereignty at that point. He, as he says to Moses, “I’ll have mercy on those whom I have mercy and I’ll have compassion on those whom I have compassion.” What’s he talking about? Well, Moses said, “Show me your glory. I want to know you. I want to get close to you.” It’s like, “I’ll let you know. Okay, yeah, I’ll have mercy on you.”
And so no, we can’t just barge our way into the throne room of God. We can’t ascend the heights. We can’t get up there. It’s only by the revelation of God that we can know him. God is an infinitely mysterious, austere, distant being from us, especially in our sins. And so, God must reveal himself to us or we will not know him. That is his privilege, his prerogative. And so, it was very wise for God, in the wisdom of God, it was wise for God that the world could not reason its way to God. And so, all the philosophers, all the systems, they never found God. And so instead, God chose to reveal himself ultimately in Christ and the gospel. But before that, through the prophets, he reveals himself by his Word.
Wes
How do both Jews and Greeks naturally oppose the message of Christ crucified, but in different ways?
Andy
Again, going to the end of the chapter that we’re going to study today, God wants to strip all human pride. He wants in the end when we’re in heaven for us to boast only in him and in Christ. “Let him who boast, boast in the Lord.” And so, the gospel is very effective at stripping us of our pride. I mean, you look at it, and it’s hideous. It really is hideous. The manner of death is hideous and the abuse that Jesus took with the crown of thorns and the flogging and all of that. The carrying of his own cross up the hill and all of that, by the time they’re actually nailing his hands and his feet and he’s there, and it’s ugly, it’s ugly.
And then you realize that is what Jesus bore in my place as my substitute. He was my sin bearer. So therefore, that’s God saying I deserve that, but I didn’t even pay it. Someone else did it for me. Very humbling. And it was done before I was even born. Very humbling. It’s just humbling straight through. And so, God means to humble us.
Well, you can imagine then if you have not been transformed, if the heart of stone has not been removed and the heart of flesh put in, this is going to be very offensive. It’s a stumbling block to the Jews. Now, how is it a stumbling block to the Jews? Well, because we’re claiming that Jesus is the Son of David, the Messiah, who they believe will reign over a throne of glory over all the world, especially over Gentile enemies. And for him to be so ignominiously defeated by the Romans was unbelievably offensive. Furthermore, theologically, anyone hung on a cross is under the curse of God. Paul brought that on Galatians, if you’re put on a cross, you’re under a curse. How could the Messiah, the one beloved of God be cursed by God? Made no sense. But then Paul understood substitutionary atonement- he became a curse for us.
But if you don’t get to that point where you understand I deserve it, he’s my substitute, Isaiah 53. If you don’t get to that point, you’re going to say that is offensive. That you’re actually saying that the Son of David, the glorious king of Israel has been defeated so ignominiously by the Romans, that is offensive. So, you think about the chief priests and the teachers of the law and the Pharisees demanding that Pilate take down the sign over Jesus’s head, “This is Jesus the king of the Jews.” Pilate meant it to be offensive. He meant it to be an insult, and they saw it that way and they demanded that it be taken down. Pilate said, “What I have written, I have written.” So he won’t take it down. God wanted it there because he was the King of the Jews. He actually is. They didn’t understand there’s a coming glory, but he had to pay the price first in blood. But that’s just a stumbling block. It’s offensive. All right?
Along with that, Jesus said, “Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you.” That was brutally offensive. Jews were not allowed to eat bloody meat. They had to let the meat drain because anyone who eats the blood, the blood is the life of the creature. You can’t eat the lifeblood. That was offensive. All right, so that’s stumbling block.
To the Greeks they’re like they’re not that familiar with Jewish religion. They’re strange monotheism and all their kind of customs. Jews are odd people, peculiar people but we’ve got a pure philosophy. And along comes Paul to Mars Hill saying, “You all need to believe in a dead Jewish man in order to have your sins forgiven by the one God there is, and all your gods are false.” That’s ridiculous. We’re near the Acropolis. We’re near the Parthenon. We’re near these amazing examples of soaring Greek culture. Alexander the Great was a great believer in the supremacy of Greek culture. You’re coming along from a backwater, a dusty backwater and telling us that we have to believe in a bloody dead Jewish man? That’s ridiculous, foolishness. So, it was seen differently, but both rejected, completely rejected it.
Wes
In what ways is Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God?
Andy
How can we measure it? For me, as a mechanical engineer, I think of power as the ability to do work. Work is the ability to move mass. Something is moved. That’s the measure of power. So, like the atomic bomb, lots of buildings were removed instantly by that power, destructive power. All right? So, the ability to move something or I would say to make a change. To make a change.
All right, so what is the change that the cross has made? Well, for you and me, Wes, we will spend eternity in heaven and not in hell. How do you measure that? That’s an infinite change. From infinite negative to infinite positive, I have been moved. That’s an infinite power to do that. And he did it not just for me, but he did it for you. That’s two of us. Well wait a minute. It’s not just you and me. There is apparently a multitude greater than anyone could count from every tribe, language, people and nation. Literally hundreds and hundreds of millions of people who have themselves been moved from negative infinity to positive infinity. Wow, that must’ve taken some time. No, it was done in a single day, one afternoon.
Wes
Wow.
Andy
Like the prophet said, “I’ll remove the iniquity of the land in a single day.” So, one day, one man for all time, once for all, the author of Hebrews tells us, accomplished all that. And not just salvation of people, but the new heaven and new earth are all blood bought. They’re all bought with the blood of Jesus. So, we have a new heaven, new earth, new Jerusalem built with his blood effectively. That’s the power of the cross. And we all underestimated. We’ll have eternity to study it.
Wes
In what way, then, is he the wisdom of God?
Andy
Again, how can we even measure it? It was very wise for God to do this. It was wise for God to retain all salvation unto himself because we can say salvation is from the Lord. We couldn’t save ourselves. It was wise for God to humble us so that we all get humbled, and we boast in the Lord. That was wise. It was wise for God to just address it this way. It was wise for God, I think… You think about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the tree was wise or was good for making us wise. Well, how is that? How do we see the wisdom of God in dealing with evil? Well, God in his wisdom chose to draw it out like a poison and to draw it out long and slow.
So, as you want an education in good and evil, then watch 6,000 years of the history of good and evil, 6,000 years of wars, rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes, of crimes, of sins of David and Bathsheba, of Joseph’s brothers jealous of him in selling him, of all of the corruption and the evil and the wickedness, just the evil and all that, drawing it out. Why? So that his redeemed would be conformed to him and love righteousness and hate wickedness. It’s very wise for God to do that. Everything God does is wise.
So, what is wisdom? Wisdom is choosing the right destination and the right road to get there. God chose the right destination, his own glory in the new heaven, new earth, and the new Jerusalem, and the right road to get there. The cross and the preaching of the cross as the power of God and the wisdom of God. So, to me, those are some of the aspects of the dimensions of the wisdom of God. Christ is the wisdom of God.
Wes
What does Paul mean when he says the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men?
Andy
My translation adds an additional word to help clarify wiser than men’s wisdom and stronger than men’s strength. That is implied, but it’s not there in the original Greek. So, it’s best to leave it out, but I think that’s what it means. You take the most powerful that man has ever been, and God’s weakness is more powerful than that. Now, first of all, we have identified Christ crucified as the weakness of God. And we’ve already said it’s powerful. So, you take the most powerful thing man has ever done. Christ’s death on the cross is infinitely more powerful than that. So, you take the most powerful thing, but then you think about how do we display power? All right, how did Alexander the Great display power? By winning battles and by building an empire. What happened to him? Died at age 32 of drunkenness. All right, so what happened to his empire? Gone. Ecclesiastes, dust in the wind, it’s all gone. Chaff. All right, so that’s man’s power, and it ends up dust in the wind. It ends up chaff. The things that God builds last forever.
So, you think about Habakkuk 2, it says, “Has not God Almighty determined that the people’s labor is only fuel for the fire, that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing?” That’s Habakkuk 2. Why? For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover of the sea. That’s the contrast. Man does powerful, intelligent things, and it all ends up dust in the wind. God does in Christ in one day, he builds a new universe. That’s the wisdom of God and the power of God.
Wes
In verse 26, Paul turns to the Corinthian church itself, to its makeup. Those who are actually a part of the church. What point does he make about them and how do we see this happening in the spread of the gospel around the world?
Andy
Well, honestly, he’s not trying to insult them, but he says, “You guys are not that great. Look at yourselves. Not many of you are wise, not many influential, not many of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong, and he chose the things that are not, and the lowly things and the despised things. That’s you guys.” Okay. So, I think there were a lot of slaves. I think the predominance of the early church in the Greco-Roman world were slaves. They were not the most powerful. They were not the movers and shakers. They were the moved and shaken. They were the flotsam and jetsam on the tidal wave of human history. Generally, they weren’t the most powerful ones. And so, God did that on purpose. And we see that in India for example, and they had the caste system and the dalit, the untouchable, the lowest level caste. Overwhelming predominance of Indian Christians were in that category. There were Brahmins, there were others that were converted. There’s a big difference between not many and not any.
Wes
Sure.
Andy
It’s just one letter I know, but there’s a big difference. There are some really intelligent, gifted, talented Christians, and there are some powerful Christians. There are some powerful… I think Nebuchadnezzar, the most powerful man on earth, I think he’s in heaven. So just because you’re a king, and I think that’s Paul’s point in 1 Timothy 2, is don’t give up on praying for kings because God wants all men to be saved, meaning all types of people. Don’t give up on anybody. But honestly, numerically, statistically, most Christians are the poorest of the poor. Most Christians are not influential. Most Christians are obscure. Most Christians are not going to be inventors and powerful people. I think that’s what he’s getting at. And God specifically did that for a reason. By the way, this speaks directly to election. God basically on his heavenly kickball team, chose the worst players kind of thing just to show what he could do. And so there’s a detailed selection of individuals to become Christians. That’s election, and he chose this category. That’s what he’s saying here.
“God basically on his heavenly kickball team, chose the worst players kind of thing just to show what he could do.”
Wes
So that’s the predominant category of those who make up the Christian population throughout the course of history. Why do the wise, influential, noble born people of the world tend to scoff at Christianity? And how does God orchestrate that to shame the powerful, wise and rich of the world?
Andy
Right. So, what are they going to say? They’re going to say, “Well, of course you’re a Christian, you have nothing else to hold onto.” Let’s say you are in the untouchable caste in India, back when that meant so much, you have nothing else to live for. So, I mean I don’t need that. So, it’s that whole Christianity is a crutch for the weak kind of thing. But I’m successful. I don’t need all that.
So frankly, I actually think it fits into the whole election teaching when it says, “May their table be a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them.” The word table there, speaking about the reprobate, table frequently refers to earthly blessing, feasting. “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” So may the table of the unregenerate, of the reprobate mislead them. So, let’s expand that metaphor to say, may their earthly wisdom, their earthly power, their earthly prosperity, their earthly success, lead them astray so that they don’t think they need God. They generally don’t. People generally don’t get converted when they’re at the height of their power. They generally get converted when they understand that they are crushed, and they have nowhere else to turn.
And so, God chose to give them over to their prosperity, to give them over to their intelligence, to give them over to their cleverness and their… like Voltaire and all that. Their snarky comments and their sarcasm like H. L. Mencken. Just give them over to… Mark Twain. Just give them over… Thomas Paine, the same thing, Thomas Jefferson. Just give them over to their intelligence. Where does it get them? Where do they end up? God has the final word. God will not be mocked. He cannot be mocked. So mock away, and at a certain point you’ll realize you’re really just mocking yourself. So that’s the judgment of God. Ultimately, hell is the final judgment on those worldly philosophies.
Wes
How has Christ become for us wisdom from God as well as our righteousness, sanctification and redemption?
Andy
Christ is everything. Colossians 2 says in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Everything’s in Christ. He’s the treasure hidden in the field. And so, Christ has become everything for us. Everything comes from him. It’s so important that we see when Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” Let’s zoom in on the word truth. “I am truth. I am truth.” Not, I teach the truth. I love the truth. I exemplify the truth. I unfold the truth. All of that’s true, but Jesus is the truth. He’s the source of everything. He’s the fulfillment of that doxology. From him and through him and to him are all things. It’s Christ is the source. He’s the fountain. And so, we will understand that.
Simply put, he’s the mediator. Almighty God is the source of everything. That’s the doxology. Jesus is the link. Jesus is the pipeline, the conduit. He’s the mediator. He’s the way by which we get good things. Apart from his blood shed on the cross, we get nothing. We get wrath. But he is himself wise and powerful and good, and he is himself worthy of study. He is himself the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being. That’s how Christ is for us wisdom from God and power and sanctification, holiness.
Wes
Andy, you mentioned earlier the fact that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. What does it mean that the one who boasts should boast in the Lord?
Andy
Well, simply put, I think in heaven, you and I are going to be worshiping him. We’re going to be coming up with words. We will be perfect in thought and perfect in articulation, and we will use that perfect thinking and that perfect articulation to speak words of praise for Christ, for what he did. And that’s going to be pretty awesome, that like the psalmist says, “May my tongue be the pen of a skillful writer.”And so, we will be boasting in the Lord. We’re going to be speaking of his greatness. We will realize every good thing we ever did for which we will be rewarded in heaven, he did it in us and through us. He’ll get the credit. That’s what casting crowns is all about – we will take our trappings of honor, which we will have because the Father will honor those who serve Jesus, and we’ll lay them at Jesus’s feet because we know that it came from him. It’s a display of his glory ultimately. He worked it in us. As Jesus said, “I am the vine and you are the branches. Apart from me you can do nothing.” We will say that. We will boast in him, saying, “You were the source of every good thing I ever got. Everything came from you.” And we’ll thank him. We won’t be thankless like in Romans chapter 1, “Although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God,” that’s boasting in him, “or gave him thanks.” So, we’re going to be boasting in the Lord and not in ourselves.
We will be perfectly humble. There’ll be no arrogance in heaven, just pure humility. And what’s so cool about that is there’ll be gradations of glory. Not all people will be equally glorious. Some just will be more glorious because they did more things for the glory of God. They achieved more. It’s just true, but we won’t be jealous. We’re just going to be boasting in the Lord.
Wes
Andy, what final thoughts do you have for us on this second half of 1 Corinthians chapter 1?
Andy
I think we could do this exact same podcast several more times and come up with different things. That’s the greatness of these verses. This is one of the greatest half chapters in the Bible. I mean, this is an amazing display of the greatness of God in Christ, Christ as the wisdom of God and the power of God. So for me, I think let’s just go to the final verse. Let’s boast in the Lord today. Let’s talk about his greatness to others. And by the way, that’s a great way to look at evangelism: boasting in the Lord in front of a lost person. He’s like, “Come along with me. Let’s talk about the greatness of Jesus.”
Wes
Well, this has been episode two in our 1 Corinthians Bible study podcast. We want to invite you to join us next time for episode three entitled The Gospel: A Demonstration of the Spirit’s Wisdom and Power, where we’ll discuss 1 Corinthians 2:1-16. Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys Podcast and may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
Wes
Welcome to the Two Journeys Bible Study Podcast. This podcast is just one of the many resources available to you for free from Two Journeys Ministry. If you’re interested in learning more, just head over to twojourneys.org. Now on to today’s episode. This is episode 2 in our 1 Corinthians Bible study podcast. This episode is entitled Christ the Wisdom and Power of God, where we’ll discuss 1 Corinthians 1:18-31. I’m Wes Treadway, and I’m here with Pastor Andy Davis. Andy, what are we going to see in these verses that we’re looking at today?
Andy
Okay, so throughout the 16 chapters of 1 Corinthians, we’re going to see Paul addressing many practical concerns in a very dysfunctional, messed up church, a sinful church, but the centerpiece always of Paul’s ministry is the cross of Jesus Christ. He’s going to say in chapter 2, verse 2, “I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified,” which is an interesting statement. Why does he say it like that? “I resolved to know nothing.” It’s because the Greeks were in love with wisdom. They’re in love with philosophy, and he had just said, “Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.”
And then he talks about the cross, and he wants these Corinthian Christians to understand the significance of Jesus dying on the cross, something that the Greeks thought of as foolish. It didn’t line up with their philosophy, and the Jews found offensive, a stumbling block. And he’s going to talk about that, that Christ is actually the wisdom of God and the power of God. And he’s going to contrast Jesus dying on the cross with the human systems of philosophy that were so well-known to them. So, Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, and they’re so in love with human wisdom. He’s going to say, look, God in his wisdom chose that man could not reason his way to God. Only by revelation would we ever know God. And the greatest revelation of the glory of God is in the cross of Christ. We’re going to walk through that today.
Wes
Well, let me go ahead and read 1 Corinthians 1:18-31:
“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.
“For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, notmany were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.'”
Andy, in this section as you mentioned, Paul is taking on the Greek love for human wisdom, commonly called philosophy. How would you define philosophy and why is it a threat to the gospel?
Andy
Yeah, I think we go to the end. The very thing you just read, it struck me again how much God is intent on stripping us of our pride. He wants to humble us. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. And so, it seems to me that the origination of evil as revealed in Isaiah 14 and also in Ezekiel 28, is that Satan became enamored with his own beauty and his own wisdom, and he thought he could take God on. And so, he became arrogant and challenged God and then led Adam in a similar rebellion and does say that Eve saw that the tree of the knowledge to good and evil, that the fruit was good for making her wise. But Adam had the same allure. He wanted to become wise.
And so, we’re in love with independent wisdom. We’re in love with our intelligence, which was just given to us in that we’re created in the image of God. And so, God must strip us of our dark, wicked, sinful love of our capabilities apart from him. And in order to do that, he has to humble us.
So human philosophy, you ask what is the definition? It’s just a system of thinking where we reason based on our five senses, we reason to ultimate issues. Like philosophy generally has to do with questions that Christianity addresses, which is the questions of origins, a question of destinations, a question of significance and meaning and the best way to live life. All of that. Philosophy seeks to answer all those questions. Therefore, it’s a pseudo, pseudo religion. And in this sense, apart from God, it is a threat to the gospel. So, Paul has to address it. He wants to strip these Corinthians of any pride in human wisdom so they can just sit at God’s feet. And the number one place that we sit at God’s feet is in the concept of Christ in him crucified. So, we’re going to walk through that.
Wes
In what way is the word of the cross foolishness or folly to the perishing and how is the cross the power of God to those who are being saved?
Andy
Well simply put, I think you get a picture of it when Paul is preaching the gospel to the philosophers in Mars Hill, and they mock and they scoff, and they think it’s ridiculous. That’s the clear display of the world thinking this is foolish. It doesn’t make any sense.
One of the things we do when we accept new members here at this church is we do interviews with them, and we ask them to share the gospel with us. And specifically, sometimes I’ll zero in on this one thing. How can a dead man who lived so many years ago have any impact on us today? If somebody can’t explain that, they don’t understand the gospel. And so, I’m kind of skating right to the edge of why it would seem foolish. I’m actually inviting them to show me that they’re unbelievers. And so, tell me why it’s not foolishness to think that one dead Jew, a bloody dead Jew on a Roman cross, means anything to anybody. Now for us, we understand who that is. That is the incarnate Son of God. And he didn’t die accidentally. He laid down his life in fulfillment of prophecy and in fulfillment of the demands of the law for blood, for death. Wages of sin is death. So, we understand all that, but to the world, it’s foolishness. It makes no sense at all. Why would a dead Jew mean anything to me?
Wes
Paul speaks of us who are being saved as though salvation is a process that is presently going on. While Ephesians 2:8 says we have been saved by grace, a past tense occurrence. And Romans 5:9 says we will be saved from God’s wrath, future focused there. How should we understand this past, present, future aspect of our salvation?
Andy
Yeah, just in English language, we have been saved, we are being saved, and we will be saved. All three are true biblically. This one here is the present kind of continuous sense. We are being saved. And we know also from Philippians, too, where Paul commands the Philippian Christians to work out their salvation of fear and trembling. We are to, in the book of Hebrews, run a race with endurance, laying aside hindrances and sin that’s so easily entangles. We are not finished being saved. Philippians 3, we forget what lies behind, press on toward what lies ahead. We run a race, et cetera. So, salvation’s a process.
And so, there’s a decisive past. If we’re Christians, there’s a decisive past. We have been saved. That’s justification. Our sins are forgiven. There is a continual present in which we are being sanctified. We’re growing in grace in the knowledge of Christ. And there is a future decisive moment when we’ll be saved from wrath on Judgment Day and from death by resurrection. So that hasn’t happened yet. That’s the future.
Now, in this particular case, if this is indeed talking about sanctification, the ongoing Christian life, the cross of Christ is the power for that journey. It’s really the fulfillment of what Jesus meant when he said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” How Thomas had said, “We don’t know where you’re going. How can we know the way?” Jesus basically said in John 14:1-4, “I’m going to heaven.” At the end of 14 he said, “I’m going to the Father.” Okay, how do we get there? “Me.” And more specifically, this text says, “Me crucified.” That’s how you get there. So, Jesus crucified is the way. So, what that means is the message of the cross is ongoing power of God for salvation. Romans 1:16. It’s not just once for all power. It is ongoing power. We never graduate from the message of the cross.
“There is a continual present in which we are being sanctified. …in this particular case, if this is indeed talking about sanctification, the ongoing Christian life, the cross of Christ is the power for that journey.”
Wes
What do we learn from verse 19 about God’s plans for human wisdom?
Andy
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” God is going to lay it low. Isaiah 2 says he’s going to take all of the idols and smash them. Isaiah 2 is really interesting. There’s all these lofty things, these high cedars and these ships mass and all these things that go up, up, up like the Tower of Babel. All the stuff that soars, they’re symbols of human arrogance. He’s saying, “I’m going to lay them all low. I’m going to level them.” And so, God is against it. He wants to make independent, separate human intelligence and wisdom, which is the source of arrogance and pride. He wants to expose it. He wants to destroy it. He says it, he’ll destroy it. “I’m going to destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
All right, so let’s get to it. These brilliant Greek philosophers, Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, all of these, their systems lead to hell. That’s how he’s going to destroy it on Judgment Day when Jesus takes all of those philosophers and puts them off to the side among the goats and says, “Depart from me you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” Or in another parable, “Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness.” So when that happens, you will know that your system of wisdom and of religion, whatever it is, has been destroyed. It led to nothing. So, he’s going to completely level it. Also go ahead into eternity, new heaven, new earth, there will be no false philosophies or false philosophers. There will be no other competing religions. It’ll all be gone. So that’s how he’s going to destroy the intelligence of the intelligent and frustrate the wisdom of the wise.
Wes
In what ways has God made human wisdom foolish? And how has the final disposition of famous Greek scholars shown this as we look at verse 20?
Andy
Yeah, I think ultimately death when they die and they’re condemned. That shows it. Also, the fact that human science, human philosophy is constantly evolving. And so, people get forgotten. Their systems get dropped into the dust and they get superseded. We see that especially with the pseudoscience of psychology. I mean, there’s legitimate psychology that comes from the Bible, that’s literally the Greek word, means the science of the soul. But then there’s that secular atheistic philosophy of psychology that flowed from Freud, but those systems are constantly being superseded or they evolve. And so that is a way of that system being exposed as foolishness. It doesn’t lead to anything finally. So, I would say ultimately the answer to the question is, as I said a moment ago, being condemned to hell, being damned. That is the ultimate rejection by God of the philosopher.
Wes
How is the wisdom of God on display in his making it impossible for human beings to know him or to save themselves by their own wisdom or cleverness? How should this continually humble us?
Andy
Yeah, verse 21 is very powerful. It really bears careful meditation, “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased with the foolishness of preaching and the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.” So, you look at that and it’s like just the very beginning of verse 21. He’s saying it was very wise for God to make certain men couldn’t reason their way to God. That’s wise of God because it makes God exalted and majestic. And also, he retains sovereignty at that point. He, as he says to Moses, “I’ll have mercy on those whom I have mercy and I’ll have compassion on those whom I have compassion.” What’s he talking about? Well, Moses said, “Show me your glory. I want to know you. I want to get close to you.” It’s like, “I’ll let you know. Okay, yeah, I’ll have mercy on you.”
And so no, we can’t just barge our way into the throne room of God. We can’t ascend the heights. We can’t get up there. It’s only by the revelation of God that we can know him. God is an infinitely mysterious, austere, distant being from us, especially in our sins. And so, God must reveal himself to us or we will not know him. That is his privilege, his prerogative. And so, it was very wise for God, in the wisdom of God, it was wise for God that the world could not reason its way to God. And so, all the philosophers, all the systems, they never found God. And so instead, God chose to reveal himself ultimately in Christ and the gospel. But before that, through the prophets, he reveals himself by his Word.
Wes
How do both Jews and Greeks naturally oppose the message of Christ crucified, but in different ways?
Andy
Again, going to the end of the chapter that we’re going to study today, God wants to strip all human pride. He wants in the end when we’re in heaven for us to boast only in him and in Christ. “Let him who boast, boast in the Lord.” And so, the gospel is very effective at stripping us of our pride. I mean, you look at it, and it’s hideous. It really is hideous. The manner of death is hideous and the abuse that Jesus took with the crown of thorns and the flogging and all of that. The carrying of his own cross up the hill and all of that, by the time they’re actually nailing his hands and his feet and he’s there, and it’s ugly, it’s ugly.
And then you realize that is what Jesus bore in my place as my substitute. He was my sin bearer. So therefore, that’s God saying I deserve that, but I didn’t even pay it. Someone else did it for me. Very humbling. And it was done before I was even born. Very humbling. It’s just humbling straight through. And so, God means to humble us.
Well, you can imagine then if you have not been transformed, if the heart of stone has not been removed and the heart of flesh put in, this is going to be very offensive. It’s a stumbling block to the Jews. Now, how is it a stumbling block to the Jews? Well, because we’re claiming that Jesus is the Son of David, the Messiah, who they believe will reign over a throne of glory over all the world, especially over Gentile enemies. And for him to be so ignominiously defeated by the Romans was unbelievably offensive. Furthermore, theologically, anyone hung on a cross is under the curse of God. Paul brought that on Galatians, if you’re put on a cross, you’re under a curse. How could the Messiah, the one beloved of God be cursed by God? Made no sense. But then Paul understood substitutionary atonement- he became a curse for us.
But if you don’t get to that point where you understand I deserve it, he’s my substitute, Isaiah 53. If you don’t get to that point, you’re going to say that is offensive. That you’re actually saying that the Son of David, the glorious king of Israel has been defeated so ignominiously by the Romans, that is offensive. So, you think about the chief priests and the teachers of the law and the Pharisees demanding that Pilate take down the sign over Jesus’s head, “This is Jesus the king of the Jews.” Pilate meant it to be offensive. He meant it to be an insult, and they saw it that way and they demanded that it be taken down. Pilate said, “What I have written, I have written.” So he won’t take it down. God wanted it there because he was the King of the Jews. He actually is. They didn’t understand there’s a coming glory, but he had to pay the price first in blood. But that’s just a stumbling block. It’s offensive. All right?
Along with that, Jesus said, “Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you.” That was brutally offensive. Jews were not allowed to eat bloody meat. They had to let the meat drain because anyone who eats the blood, the blood is the life of the creature. You can’t eat the lifeblood. That was offensive. All right, so that’s stumbling block.
To the Greeks they’re like they’re not that familiar with Jewish religion. They’re strange monotheism and all their kind of customs. Jews are odd people, peculiar people but we’ve got a pure philosophy. And along comes Paul to Mars Hill saying, “You all need to believe in a dead Jewish man in order to have your sins forgiven by the one God there is, and all your gods are false.” That’s ridiculous. We’re near the Acropolis. We’re near the Parthenon. We’re near these amazing examples of soaring Greek culture. Alexander the Great was a great believer in the supremacy of Greek culture. You’re coming along from a backwater, a dusty backwater and telling us that we have to believe in a bloody dead Jewish man? That’s ridiculous, foolishness. So, it was seen differently, but both rejected, completely rejected it.
Wes
In what ways is Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God?
Andy
How can we measure it? For me, as a mechanical engineer, I think of power as the ability to do work. Work is the ability to move mass. Something is moved. That’s the measure of power. So, like the atomic bomb, lots of buildings were removed instantly by that power, destructive power. All right? So, the ability to move something or I would say to make a change. To make a change.
All right, so what is the change that the cross has made? Well, for you and me, Wes, we will spend eternity in heaven and not in hell. How do you measure that? That’s an infinite change. From infinite negative to infinite positive, I have been moved. That’s an infinite power to do that. And he did it not just for me, but he did it for you. That’s two of us. Well wait a minute. It’s not just you and me. There is apparently a multitude greater than anyone could count from every tribe, language, people and nation. Literally hundreds and hundreds of millions of people who have themselves been moved from negative infinity to positive infinity. Wow, that must’ve taken some time. No, it was done in a single day, one afternoon.
Wes
Wow.
Andy
Like the prophet said, “I’ll remove the iniquity of the land in a single day.” So, one day, one man for all time, once for all, the author of Hebrews tells us, accomplished all that. And not just salvation of people, but the new heaven and new earth are all blood bought. They’re all bought with the blood of Jesus. So, we have a new heaven, new earth, new Jerusalem built with his blood effectively. That’s the power of the cross. And we all underestimated. We’ll have eternity to study it.
Wes
In what way, then, is he the wisdom of God?
Andy
Again, how can we even measure it? It was very wise for God to do this. It was wise for God to retain all salvation unto himself because we can say salvation is from the Lord. We couldn’t save ourselves. It was wise for God to humble us so that we all get humbled, and we boast in the Lord. That was wise. It was wise for God to just address it this way. It was wise for God, I think… You think about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the tree was wise or was good for making us wise. Well, how is that? How do we see the wisdom of God in dealing with evil? Well, God in his wisdom chose to draw it out like a poison and to draw it out long and slow.
So, as you want an education in good and evil, then watch 6,000 years of the history of good and evil, 6,000 years of wars, rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes, of crimes, of sins of David and Bathsheba, of Joseph’s brothers jealous of him in selling him, of all of the corruption and the evil and the wickedness, just the evil and all that, drawing it out. Why? So that his redeemed would be conformed to him and love righteousness and hate wickedness. It’s very wise for God to do that. Everything God does is wise.
So, what is wisdom? Wisdom is choosing the right destination and the right road to get there. God chose the right destination, his own glory in the new heaven, new earth, and the new Jerusalem, and the right road to get there. The cross and the preaching of the cross as the power of God and the wisdom of God. So, to me, those are some of the aspects of the dimensions of the wisdom of God. Christ is the wisdom of God.
Wes
What does Paul mean when he says the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men?
Andy
My translation adds an additional word to help clarify wiser than men’s wisdom and stronger than men’s strength. That is implied, but it’s not there in the original Greek. So, it’s best to leave it out, but I think that’s what it means. You take the most powerful that man has ever been, and God’s weakness is more powerful than that. Now, first of all, we have identified Christ crucified as the weakness of God. And we’ve already said it’s powerful. So, you take the most powerful thing man has ever done. Christ’s death on the cross is infinitely more powerful than that. So, you take the most powerful thing, but then you think about how do we display power? All right, how did Alexander the Great display power? By winning battles and by building an empire. What happened to him? Died at age 32 of drunkenness. All right, so what happened to his empire? Gone. Ecclesiastes, dust in the wind, it’s all gone. Chaff. All right, so that’s man’s power, and it ends up dust in the wind. It ends up chaff. The things that God builds last forever.
So, you think about Habakkuk 2, it says, “Has not God Almighty determined that the people’s labor is only fuel for the fire, that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing?” That’s Habakkuk 2. Why? For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover of the sea. That’s the contrast. Man does powerful, intelligent things, and it all ends up dust in the wind. God does in Christ in one day, he builds a new universe. That’s the wisdom of God and the power of God.
Wes
In verse 26, Paul turns to the Corinthian church itself, to its makeup. Those who are actually a part of the church. What point does he make about them and how do we see this happening in the spread of the gospel around the world?
Andy
Well, honestly, he’s not trying to insult them, but he says, “You guys are not that great. Look at yourselves. Not many of you are wise, not many influential, not many of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong, and he chose the things that are not, and the lowly things and the despised things. That’s you guys.” Okay. So, I think there were a lot of slaves. I think the predominance of the early church in the Greco-Roman world were slaves. They were not the most powerful. They were not the movers and shakers. They were the moved and shaken. They were the flotsam and jetsam on the tidal wave of human history. Generally, they weren’t the most powerful ones. And so, God did that on purpose. And we see that in India for example, and they had the caste system and the dalit, the untouchable, the lowest level caste. Overwhelming predominance of Indian Christians were in that category. There were Brahmins, there were others that were converted. There’s a big difference between not many and not any.
Wes
Sure.
Andy
It’s just one letter I know, but there’s a big difference. There are some really intelligent, gifted, talented Christians, and there are some powerful Christians. There are some powerful… I think Nebuchadnezzar, the most powerful man on earth, I think he’s in heaven. So just because you’re a king, and I think that’s Paul’s point in 1 Timothy 2, is don’t give up on praying for kings because God wants all men to be saved, meaning all types of people. Don’t give up on anybody. But honestly, numerically, statistically, most Christians are the poorest of the poor. Most Christians are not influential. Most Christians are obscure. Most Christians are not going to be inventors and powerful people. I think that’s what he’s getting at. And God specifically did that for a reason. By the way, this speaks directly to election. God basically on his heavenly kickball team, chose the worst players kind of thing just to show what he could do. And so there’s a detailed selection of individuals to become Christians. That’s election, and he chose this category. That’s what he’s saying here.
“God basically on his heavenly kickball team, chose the worst players kind of thing just to show what he could do.”
Wes
So that’s the predominant category of those who make up the Christian population throughout the course of history. Why do the wise, influential, noble born people of the world tend to scoff at Christianity? And how does God orchestrate that to shame the powerful, wise and rich of the world?
Andy
Right. So, what are they going to say? They’re going to say, “Well, of course you’re a Christian, you have nothing else to hold onto.” Let’s say you are in the untouchable caste in India, back when that meant so much, you have nothing else to live for. So, I mean I don’t need that. So, it’s that whole Christianity is a crutch for the weak kind of thing. But I’m successful. I don’t need all that.
So frankly, I actually think it fits into the whole election teaching when it says, “May their table be a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them.” The word table there, speaking about the reprobate, table frequently refers to earthly blessing, feasting. “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” So may the table of the unregenerate, of the reprobate mislead them. So, let’s expand that metaphor to say, may their earthly wisdom, their earthly power, their earthly prosperity, their earthly success, lead them astray so that they don’t think they need God. They generally don’t. People generally don’t get converted when they’re at the height of their power. They generally get converted when they understand that they are crushed, and they have nowhere else to turn.
And so, God chose to give them over to their prosperity, to give them over to their intelligence, to give them over to their cleverness and their… like Voltaire and all that. Their snarky comments and their sarcasm like H. L. Mencken. Just give them over to… Mark Twain. Just give them over… Thomas Paine, the same thing, Thomas Jefferson. Just give them over to their intelligence. Where does it get them? Where do they end up? God has the final word. God will not be mocked. He cannot be mocked. So mock away, and at a certain point you’ll realize you’re really just mocking yourself. So that’s the judgment of God. Ultimately, hell is the final judgment on those worldly philosophies.
Wes
How has Christ become for us wisdom from God as well as our righteousness, sanctification and redemption?
Andy
Christ is everything. Colossians 2 says in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Everything’s in Christ. He’s the treasure hidden in the field. And so, Christ has become everything for us. Everything comes from him. It’s so important that we see when Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” Let’s zoom in on the word truth. “I am truth. I am truth.” Not, I teach the truth. I love the truth. I exemplify the truth. I unfold the truth. All of that’s true, but Jesus is the truth. He’s the source of everything. He’s the fulfillment of that doxology. From him and through him and to him are all things. It’s Christ is the source. He’s the fountain. And so, we will understand that.
Simply put, he’s the mediator. Almighty God is the source of everything. That’s the doxology. Jesus is the link. Jesus is the pipeline, the conduit. He’s the mediator. He’s the way by which we get good things. Apart from his blood shed on the cross, we get nothing. We get wrath. But he is himself wise and powerful and good, and he is himself worthy of study. He is himself the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being. That’s how Christ is for us wisdom from God and power and sanctification, holiness.
Wes
Andy, you mentioned earlier the fact that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. What does it mean that the one who boasts should boast in the Lord?
Andy
Well, simply put, I think in heaven, you and I are going to be worshiping him. We’re going to be coming up with words. We will be perfect in thought and perfect in articulation, and we will use that perfect thinking and that perfect articulation to speak words of praise for Christ, for what he did. And that’s going to be pretty awesome, that like the psalmist says, “May my tongue be the pen of a skillful writer.”And so, we will be boasting in the Lord. We’re going to be speaking of his greatness. We will realize every good thing we ever did for which we will be rewarded in heaven, he did it in us and through us. He’ll get the credit. That’s what casting crowns is all about – we will take our trappings of honor, which we will have because the Father will honor those who serve Jesus, and we’ll lay them at Jesus’s feet because we know that it came from him. It’s a display of his glory ultimately. He worked it in us. As Jesus said, “I am the vine and you are the branches. Apart from me you can do nothing.” We will say that. We will boast in him, saying, “You were the source of every good thing I ever got. Everything came from you.” And we’ll thank him. We won’t be thankless like in Romans chapter 1, “Although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God,” that’s boasting in him, “or gave him thanks.” So, we’re going to be boasting in the Lord and not in ourselves.
We will be perfectly humble. There’ll be no arrogance in heaven, just pure humility. And what’s so cool about that is there’ll be gradations of glory. Not all people will be equally glorious. Some just will be more glorious because they did more things for the glory of God. They achieved more. It’s just true, but we won’t be jealous. We’re just going to be boasting in the Lord.
Wes
Andy, what final thoughts do you have for us on this second half of 1 Corinthians chapter 1?
Andy
I think we could do this exact same podcast several more times and come up with different things. That’s the greatness of these verses. This is one of the greatest half chapters in the Bible. I mean, this is an amazing display of the greatness of God in Christ, Christ as the wisdom of God and the power of God. So for me, I think let’s just go to the final verse. Let’s boast in the Lord today. Let’s talk about his greatness to others. And by the way, that’s a great way to look at evangelism: boasting in the Lord in front of a lost person. He’s like, “Come along with me. Let’s talk about the greatness of Jesus.”
Wes
Well, this has been episode two in our 1 Corinthians Bible study podcast. We want to invite you to join us next time for episode three entitled The Gospel: A Demonstration of the Spirit’s Wisdom and Power, where we’ll discuss 1 Corinthians 2:1-16. Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys Podcast and may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
