The Wisdom and Power of the Cross
1 Corinthians 1:19-31
We see crosses portrayed on many coats-of-arms which serve as a badge of power. Royal families have crosses. But this was not always the case. In Jesus’ time, wearing a cross would have been utterly shocking. Crucifixion was so horrible that it wasn’t even talked about in polite society. So, why does polite society today have crosses on their family crests? How did the symbol of utter shame and foolishness become jewelry that even non-Christians wear today.
We pick up this morning from last week, where Paul is dealing with severe factions in the church. This is because Christianity was treated as a new philosophy rather than as an invitation to join the people of God. We see that Paul’s message was treated that way in Acts 17. They thought it a new and strange philosophy worth musing about. So Paul was invited to the Aeropagus to present his case. It was not that they thought much of Paul’s message, but they wanted to be entertained by this seed spitter. They had thought Paul was preaching about a male-female pair of gods, Jesus and Anastasia.
Corinth as a Greek city was full of philosophers and would-be philosophers as well. There was a particular group called the “Sophists” who would debate on the spot the most trivial of issues. They were graded on style and not content. The one who could make the most foolish topic palatable, won. This made one “sophisticated.” Today, they call themselves, “woke.” They were wise in their own eyes, and everyone else were deplorable fools. There is a lot of similarity today between Corinth and our American elite today.
So those who heard Paul and Apollos were seeing Christianity in this way. It wasn’t about the message; it was the skill of the orators. In some respects, Paul and Apollos might as well been talking about whether a single dandelion was lonely or not. This is overstating the case as some at least heard about Christ, and another party of Jews know the Scripture and held it in high regard as God’s word. But there were many who saw the preaching of the cross as utter foolishness and/or a scandal, or else Paul would not have addressed the topic.
The strife in Corinth was eclipsing the message of the Gospel. The cross was being emptied of its power. The attention was being placed upon the messengers rather than the message. This was the message of Jesus Christ, whom God had sent to offer forgiveness to a lost world. The means of this forgiveness was Jesus becoming a curse by hanging upon the cross. The validity of Christ’s death for sin is demonstrated by the resurrection and the promise of His return at the end of the age. Paul needs to get things back on the right track, to fix attention again on what God did in Jesus Christ and why He did it.
Paul sets up this morning’s text in verse 18 where he notes that the preaching of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. And who are the perishing? The Gospel says that all humanity is perishing, every single person, save Jesus who died for our sin, not His, and rose again. The natural man finds the idea of the cross either utter foolishness or an absolute scandal. This is the environment in which the Gospel is preached. The rescue has to come from God. The rebellious sinner needs to be converted by the Gospel. Then the message change from one of foolishness and weakness to one of power.
In verse 19, Paul cites Scripture to show that the cross was part of God’s plan from the beginning to save those who believe. He quotes Isaiah 29:14 that it was His intention to “destroy the wisdom of the wise.” The word “destroy” is a very strong verb. It wasn’t to put human wisdom into its proper place. It was to entirely trash the idea that salvation comes from the plans of men. Plato and Aristotle cannot cure the rebellion in man’s heart against God. Neither can Oprah or Dr. Phil. Even Paul and Apollos can not be saved or saved by their considerable learning. Paul was very wise in both Greek philosophy and in the teaching of the Pharisees. But on the way to Damascus, he did not simply come to his senses. He was utterly undone by the grace of God. He did not find God, but Jesus found him.
He strings Psalm 33:10 to add weight to hi argument. There is says that he will set aside the understanding of those who have understanding. It is not the message of the cross which is to be emptied. It is all human endeavor to save one’s self. It is we who need to be shown that we are all for naught apart from Christ. God chose to deal with sin His own way and not ours. So Paul asks several rhetorical questions. Where are the sophists? Where are the scribes? Where are the debaters of this age?” Paul answers these with another question expecting an affirmative answer: “Has not God made the wisdom of this world utter foolishness. The word for “foolishness” here is the word we get “moron” from. The world calls itself “sophos” but God calls them “moros.”
Why is the wisdom of the world foolishness? Paul answers this by saying that no one ever found God through wisdom. We see this in Paul’s noting that Athens was full of gods. Which one was really God? They even had empty pedestals with the inscription “To the Unknown God.” The Greek philosophers laughed at the foolishness of the common people who worshiped many gods. They tended to agree that there was only one God. But this god could not even know himself. Their god was impersonable. Nothing could be said about this god other than it was necessary for this god to exist. This god could not talk to people as this would involve change in god. The god of the philosophers was useless and was certainly not the God who speaks with people, whose existence is declared, not proven in the Bible.
Paul in his Mars Hill speech told the philosophers of the Aeropagus that all they could do was to grope after God in the way that the blinded Cyclops groped for his sheep to let them out to pasture as Odysseus’ men escaped under them. What a pathetic picture of human wisdom. They think they have answers for everything, and in truth, they can’t even answer the most basic questions like “Who am I?” “Why am I here?” “What is the meaning of life?” What happens when I die?”
No wonder Paul who came to Corinth after his preaching in Athens declared that he wanted to preach nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. All human philosophy was hot air. It is interesting that “Aeropagus” means “air eaters” in Greek. All they could do is to muse in their own hot air. They knew how empty they were. They were bored. They needed to hear something new. It is a shame that so few believed Paul’s message there. If they had believed Jesus and the resurrection (Greek, Anastasia), they would have found the answer they so blindly sought after.
That which is impossible for man to attain is possible with God. Men had tried to find God, and failed. So God emphasizes the foolishness of human wisdom by doing what seemed total foolishness to them that might be saved. The world has tried it their way. They have tried to ban war. They talk about educating people into a better society. But are not some of the most sophisticated in this age the most depraved? If education made people moral, then our colleges and universities would be shining beacons? Are they? Why are there movies like Animal House? Do they not show the utter foolishness of thinking that we can solve human depravity by education? By the way, the philosophers of Greece were pretty depraved also. They promote socialism as the cure for the ills of society, but the people who promote socialism are sociopaths. Capitalism has its faults as well as sophisticated people manipulate the system to their advantage. The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.
The Jews sought a sign and the Greeks wisdom. So God shows the sign of the cross and declares the power of the cross of Christ to save. This is the true wisdom and power of God. It is available to those who believe the Gospel, whether they are Jews or Greeks, learned or unlearned, or any other binary one can make. The ground is level at the foot of the cross. Everyone who comes needs to cast off their own righteousness and wisdom, no matter how much or how little they possess. The cross is a great leveling agent in history. It is utterly fair to all. In fact it is more than fair. It is there we find grace. It is grace which shall transform us into the likeness of Christ. This “foolishness” of God is greater than the greatest wisdom of the sophisticated. The weakness and scandal of the cross is more powerful than any warrior or army.
Paul reminds them that most of them in the church were not considered to be either powerful or sophisticated. Bu yet they were in Christ wiser and more powerful than all those who ridiculed them. Likewise, we should not be disheartened when the “somebodies” in this world disparage us. They do not understand. But on the other hand, we must be careful not to let our status as Christians become a badge of personal pride. We did not deserve it. We were utter fools. We did not figure it out. It was because Christ was preached, and we believed. Paul reminds us that even our faith is God’s free gift to us. We did not choose God; God chose us. So we must boast about ourselves but in Christ. Was not the boasting about personalities of Paul, Apollos, and Paul causing strife in the Corinth church. Do not preacher personality cults plague the church today? Has the church stopped preaching the cross and replaced it with the wisdom of this age? Let us preach Christ and Him crucified instead.
We do not find our power in wearing the cross as jewelry, nor in family crests. The true cross is still utterly foolish and scandalous. We find our power in the God who makes us victorious in the cross of Christ. We must realize that the church is not to praise philosophy but Jesus Christ. This is the true power and wisdom. Let us not settle for that which cannot satisfy.
