Take a moment to read 1:18-31.
The context draws a contrast between following the “wisdom of the world” versus the “wisdom of God,” which is contained in the “message of the cross,” which is summarized in “Christ crucified.” Biblically teaching on most any major subject is easy to understand, whether it is creation versus evolution, the necessity of water baptism for forgiveness of sins, or the role of male spiritual leadership in the church or worship, God’s wisdom is clear and unmistakable. If someone refuses to grasp the clear teaching of Scripture, they are following the wisdom of the world rather than the wisdom of God.
In Paul’s context of Corinth, “Christ crucified” was an abhorrent idea; only the basest of criminals were crucified. Even the Law of Moses placed a curse on those who were “hung on a tree” (Deut. 21:23; cf. Gal. 3:13). Of course, the resurrection should have caused Jews to rethink their interpretation of that passage as it applies to Jesus!
To live cross-culturally, we should recognize that the world’s wisdom says the message of the cross is foolishness (vs 18). But, those who think that are perishing. To us who believe it, the message of the cross is the power of God.
God has a habit of overturning the “wisdom” of man and doing things unexpectedly (Noah, Joshua, Gideon are all examples). So Paul quotes Isaiah 29:14 (vs 19) to illustrate his point from the OT.
To bring his point home to his audience, Paul asks where is the wise man, the scribe, the disputer of this age, the one who can successfully set aside the cross in the plans of God and argue it is irrational (vs 20)? There isn’t one. God has made foolish the wisdom of the world.
God has not allowed the world, through its wisdom, to reason on its own to the plan of salvation (vs 21). If it had, the world would boast before God that it was saved by its own wisdom. But, God chose to save those who believe through the “foolishness of the message preached.”
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There are still those today who seek signs, like the Jews, and seek for wisdom, like the Gentiles (vs 22). But Christians are content with God’s wisdom, embodied in the scene of Christ crucified (vs 23). The Jews stumbled over a crucified Savior because He did not fit their preconceived idea of a Savior. The Gentiles thought a crucified Savior was foolishness because He did not fit their idea of a hero.
But to those called (vs 24; to be “saints,” vs 2), whether Jews or Gentiles, Christ on the cross embodies the power of God, over sin, Satan, temptation, and death, and Christ on the cross embodies the wisdom of God. Who on earth could have imagined that God-become-flesh was the answer to the problem of sin? Indeed, the foolishness of God is wiser than man (vs 25) and the weakness of God is stronger than man!
God has worked this way so that man’s faith and trust and boasting will be in God and Him alone (vs 29). Even in our day, there are those who boast in wisdom (vs 26), might, and noble birth. But God chose the foolish, base things of the world, the despised things, the things that “are not,” in order to shame (vs 27) and nullify (vs 28) man’s wisdom, the things “that are.”
It is God’s working that put us into Jesus Christ (vs 30) who became the wisdom from God for us, as well as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. That’s the wisdom of God. That’s how we live cross-culturally: we recognize that it is in Christ that we are right with God, holy, and redeemed!
So, Paul quotes Jeremiah 9:24 in verse 31 to encourage us to boast in the Lord, not wisdom of the world, not strength or power, not nobility of birth. Just the Lord. That’s how you live for Christ.
Paul Holland
