Introduction
Can you remember the theme of our missions conference? It was “Ordinary People/Extraordinary God.” The apostle Paul would have liked that slogan, and, indeed, it could have been the title of this passage he wrote.
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Let’s review where we are in the letter. Paul is addressing his first issue among many that he is raising with the Corinth believers in their church. There is division in the church. Parties are being formed, or at least people are identifying themselves under the names of church leaders. Interestingly enough, Paul seems to get off track. He admonishes them to be united and rebukes them for daring to put himself and other leaders on the same level as Christ. He mentions baptism, then notes his role was to preach. That makes him note what he preaches, which is the cross. Then he starts talking about the cross. He seems to be like a rambling teacher who, as he talks, moves from one subject to another based on how the last word triggers his thoughts.
What he is really doing is getting to the real problem of the Corinth Church that underscores all of their divisions and troubles – pride. These are a people proud of their gifts and abilities, especially in the area of knowledge. As Paul himself noted earlier in his thanksgiving, they were enriched in Christ in all speech and all knowledge. Pride in oneself will always lead to division, because for a person’s pride to be nourished, he must distinguish himself from others. It was inevitable for the Corinthians to form into their parties and boast of whom they followed. And if knowledge and wisdom were the values they prized the most, it was also inevitable that they would boast of the superiority of their religion and their own gifts over against their pagan neighbors.
Their attitude would be like this. I preached last on the wisdom and power of the cross for believers. I hoped you respond in this way. “Oh, how marvelous is our God and his ways! How merciful he is to save someone like me!” The Corinthian response would have been this way. “Don’t we have a great religion! Those dumb pagans are clueless. They can’t see what we can see.” It is this attitude that Paul is addressing in his discourse all the way through chapter 4.
Paul’s subject is the glory of God displayed by overturning the wisdom and power of the world. First, God overturns the tables through his means of salvation – Christ’s death on the cross. What seems utterly foolish and powerless to the world is the real wisdom and power that saves the world. The second way in which he flip-flops conventional wisdom is through the people whom he calls to be his church.
The Corinthians probably liked what Paul said about the cross. Like I said, they would be thinking how dumb their pagan neighbors were to reject it and how smart they were to see through the surface to the deep wisdom and power. The next statement might have made them pause. For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
Where is Paul going with this? For the most part they would have to agree with his assessment. Most were not among the educated elite. They were not recognized as academic or religious authorities. Most were not wealthy or held powerful positions. And especially in Corinth, most had not come from aristocratic families. What’s your point, Paul?
27 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; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are…
His point is that they – the church in Corinth – were but another illustration of how God uses what appears to be foolish and weak to glorify himself and shame the world. What a blow to their ego! They form the antitype of Job. In that story, God boasts to Satan about Job: Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? (Job 1:8). In this story, God would have said, “Have you considered my people in Corinth, that they are a pitiful bunch that nobody in his right mind would choose to be my representatives? Consider how foolish they are, how weak, how lowly.”
We can picture the Corinthians now, perhaps sitting in a church service and this letter is being read to them. They look at each other with puzzled expressions. “Did he just say what I think he said?”
Yes, he did. He said God chose us not because we had a good reputation for being wise, but because we had little respect for our wisdom. He said God chose us not because we held powerful positions that could advance the gospel more easily, but because we had so little authority. He said that God chose us not because we were famous or influential, but because we were nobodies. Nothing personal, but that is God’s system. The gospel itself, the people saved, the means of spreading the gospel – God glorifies himself by choosing what seems foolish and weak to the world.
The result of this: 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. Here is what God doesn’t want. He doesn’t want to hear prayers like the one Jesus described in his parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get” (Luke 18:11,12).
God’s response is, “give me a break.” If someone had questioned this Pharisee about his prayer, he certainly would have become defensive. “What? I’m not conceited. I thanked God for what he has made me to be. I gave him the credit. Should I not be thankful that God has given me wisdom and strength to be moral and a law-keeper?”
By the way, are you aware that Paul was a Pharisee? In his pre-Christian days he would have looked down on this Pharisee. Listen to his account of his credentials:
If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness, under the law blameless (Philippians 3:4-6).
Blameless! That’s a rather exalted view of oneself. And among his fellow Jews, he had it all – for wisdom, a respected authority of the law; for power, an official persecutor of the church; and for noble birth, a full-blooded Hebrew of the tribe of Benjamin. No wonder God chose Paul to be his ambassador. He had the right stuff.
You think so? Paul would respond. All that is nothing, is rubbish compared to knowing Christ Jesus. And all of that avails for nothing without Christ. As he goes on to explain in our text: 30 He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
The source of your life in Christ Jesus is not a literal phrase. The NIV better renders it as: It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus. Let’s get this straight, Corinthians. You are in Christ not because you were so wise or so spiritually in tune with God, but because God has chosen to give you such life. As Jesus said, All that the Father gives me will come to me… No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him (John 6:37,44). No one can boast that he or she came to Christ because of being wiser, more spiritual, or more worthy than another.
Paul has already made this point clear in his use of two terms, “calling” and “chose.” Consider your calling. Consider your situation when you were called out of your pagan life and into your life in Christ. We are a people called forth by God, not a people with whom God reasoned with in hopes that we might turn to him. We noted that distinction back in verse 24 between the saved and the unsaved. Paul reinforces this point with the thrice repeated phrase “God chose.” So again, no one can boast that she or he answered God’s call because of doing a better job of listening or being more willing to make a commitment.
And now that we are in Christ, realize that everything we possess pertaining to salvation remains in him. God made [Christ] our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Jesus Christ is our wisdom. Do we wish to know God? Then know Jesus Christ. Do we wish to know eternal life? Then know Jesus Christ. He is our righteousness. Do we wish to be in right standing with God? Then be in Christ. Put all hope and trust in Christ alone. Do we wish to be holy? Then live in Christ. Do we wish to be redeemed? By all means, look to Jesus Christ both now and for all time.
When we consider that all that we have to know God, to be in right relationship to him, to continue in his favor is found in Christ; that God called us to be in Christ, and, furthermore, that he chose us precisely because we exemplify hopeless cases, then we can do nothing else but what Paul says in verse 31: Therefore, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
This is what it means to glorify God – to give him all the glory for our calling, our election, our salvation, our ongoing sanctification, our preservation, and our ultimate entry into glory. Boast in the Lord.
Lessons
We can learn much from this text. One lesson is a word of admonition to us Christians. This lesson attacks a common sin among us that is like a flashing neon light to nonChristians – our pride in our Christian living. Like the Pharisee we fail to see our pride because we cover it with proper religious terms that make us seem humble. This is an insidious sin in that it is subtle yet pervasive and deadly. I certainly struggle with it. I drive to church on Sunday morning, pass by the joggers, the walkers, and the cyclists and think, “Hmph, I’m going to church and they are not.” And I am so glad that God (I do give him the credit!) has made me wiser than the liberal ministers around town. Well, for the matter, why not include the other evangelical ministers! Those kinds of thoughts will pop in my mind in the middle of worship, and I wonder that God does not strike me down. It is so easy to be smug in our righteousness.
We have got to work at examining ourselves for this sin. As I said, unbelievers see it very easily. That is why so many will not enter a church. But the only solution to combating such a sin is to exam even more carefully the doctrine of grace. As we understand more clearly what it means to be saved by grace and to live by grace, only then can we make any kind of progress against this besetting sin.
Another lesson is a word of encouragement. It is encouraging to know that God not only saves us, but he uses us for his glory through our weaknesses. It is such a relief to me as a preacher and pastor. I say to God, “I’m not the preacher you want. I have a soft voice; I don’t enunciate well; I lack charisma; I’m shy. I don’t have what it takes to preach with effectiveness.” “So then any credit for what fruit does come out of your ministry should come to me?” God replies.
You get where I am going with this. Christians moan about their lack of gifts and abilities to serve in God’s kingdom; God, on the other hand, is checking off his list of our deficiencies to make sure we have enough, like the time he had Gideon decrease the size of his army. Far from disqualifying ourselves for God’s service by listing our handicaps, we are only affirming the wisdom of his plan to use us to shame the world.
By the way, this understanding that God delights in using the weak to glorify himself ought to influence the way we look at “potential” converts and at Christians. How many times have we said, “God sure good use someone like him if he were to become a Christian”? God will use whom he pleases to do whatever work he so desires. Never overlook anyone as being a servant of the Lord, and never presume to determine who will make the better servant.
We think the testimonies of star athletes and entertainers are the best for winning people to the gospel and glorifying God. I don’t want to disparage such testimonies; they are valuable, but they are no better than the testimonies of shoe shiners, and grocery store clerks, and barbers. Indeed, stars can be less effective because of the attention they draw to themselves.
Thinking like the world does not make for better kingdom work. As a church we need to be mindful of this. It is easy, in the intention of serving God’s kingdom, to depend on worldly wisdom. The popular trend among churches today is to take their lead from successful business and marketing practices, rather than from Scripture and prayer. Pastors are being taught to model themselves after CEOs rather than the biblical model of shepherds. The reason this trend is popular is because it is successful for many churches. They are growing, some at enormous rates. People do want to be part of something which matches the world’s standards for what is important and is “happening.”
Dress like stars, act like stars, and we will attract the world. Manage like the top companies, and we will impress the world. Market the gospel like the best marketers, and we will win the attention of the world. But that is the catch. We will win the glory, not God. To be sure, we will give him his due as did the Pharisee, but the eyes of the world will be on us, and as much as we would like to be able to do so, we can save not a single soul.
What a blessing, what a relief to boast in what the Lord, rather than we, can do. What peace of mind it is to know that the Lord depends upon his wisdom rather than ours. What joy to know that it is by his power, not ours, that we will serve him and persevere. What hope to know that he will call those whom he has chosen and will bring forth the fruit he desires in ea of us and in his church. What delight to give him all the glory.
