1 Corinthians 1:21-25 - For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
Jesus was crucified according to the perfect plan of God. It may appear on the exterior that the Jews plotted to kill Jesus and Roman authorities gave Him a crucifixion sentence, Jesus makes it very clear that He lays his life down by Himself.
John 10:18 - No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”
Acts 4:27-28 makes it clear that it was the plan and purpose of God - “For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done.
Why did God choose the Cross?
For the world through wisdom did not know God.
God is infinitely wise.
Romans 11:33-36
"Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments and untraceable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor? Or who has ever first given to Him, and has to be repaid? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen."
Paul says here that God’s wisdom is so deep and is His judgements are unsearchable. It means that we cannot get there from where we are. It is beyond us. It is so deep that no has been or could be His counselor, ever. His wisdom is ultimate and does not require any update.
Now, the world also has wisdom but Paul says that through its wisdom, it did not know God.
Through consecutive ages of darkness, in the midst of paganism, God allowed men to try the experiment of finding out God by their own wisdom and result was evident that the world by wisdom knew not God.
That is what Paul was trying to say – The world through wisdom does not understand God.
And so, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.
Why was Paul saying that the Gospel message was foolish?
He was a Jew, but he was brought up in a Roman town and was greatly influenced by Greek culture.
Everywhere he went he preached Christ. He found that he had different problems when he moved among the Greeks, the Romans, and Jews. Each of these cultures had its own particular challenges when the gospel was concerned.
1. The Romans:
The challenge with the Romans was that they were proud of their power. They ruled the world. Roman Empire was the greatest empire the world had ever seen. They were proud of their power. When the apostle spoke to the Romans, it was but natural that the Jesus he preached (who was crucified under a Roman governor) seemed the symbol of weakness. As Paul spoke to the Romans, he had to show that, although Jesus is in a sense the weakness of God, this weakness of God was actually a power able to save men and women.
What was the reaction when Paul preached before the Roman governor Festus, and King Agrippa (Acts 26)? He preached to them about the death of Jesus and His resurrection, and the Acts 26:24 says that Festus raised his voice and said, “Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad.” In other words, he was saying, “Paul, this is foolishness! To suggest that one rose from the dead, and that’s the answer to all the problems of the world?!”
Romans 1:16 - For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
2. The Jews:
With the Jews, it was different.
1 Corinthians 1:22 – Jews require a sign. They wanted visible demonstrations. That is why they were always asking Jesus for miracles.
Mark 8:11-13
Then the Pharisees came out and began to dispute with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven, testing Him. But He sighed deeply in His spirit, and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Assuredly, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation.”
Jesus had already done many signs and wonders among the Jews and the Pharisees were well-aware of this and he had even healed the daughter of one of the leaders of the synagogue. What other signs did they require of who Jesus was? But their request for a sign was not unusual as it was part of their psyche.
Their history was strewn with the evidence of God’s presence through various signs performed by God - Moses parting the Red Sea, Gideon laying out the fleece, the many signs as the people spent forty years in the wilderness, Elijah calling down fire, to list a few.
Jesus however refused to give them a sign. In another instance, we find Jesus saying:
Matthew 16:4 - A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” And He left them and departed.
This was a prophetic sign. As Jonah spent three days and nights in the belly of the fish, Jesus would spend three days and nights in the grave and then be resurrected. In other words, resurrection was the sign given to the Jews. It is through His death though that our penalties for our sins have also been paid when we come to Him and confess.
This sign was the kind of miraculous outward demonstration that they were expecting. This seems a foolishness to them.
3. The Greeks:
Next, Paul says that Greeks seek after wisdom. In writing to the church at Corinth, Paul had a Greek mentality in mind. Corinth was a Greek cosmopolitan city in Paul’s times. The dominion that Greece had under Alexander the Great was gone. So, they could not boast about power anymore. But what the Greeks had was wisdom. Greece produced great philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. The Greeks were proud of this wisdom. Great knowledge and wisdom were thought to be found in the bustling and advanced city of Corinth. However, it was also well known for its wickedness. Bible scholar and preacher Bro. J.W. McGarvey called it “the vanity fair of the Roman Empire” and he called it a “hotbed of vice.” Julius Caesar rebuilt the city of Corinth, and dedicated it to Venus, the pagan goddess they worshipped. There was a temple of Venus which was largely a house of harlotry. Every kind of sexual immorality, and every type of pagan worship took place here, in Corinth. It resembles many of our modern cities around the world. The people in Corinth were arrogant and boasted of their learning and their latest and greatest philosophies and wisdom of that day.
So, the simple gospel of Jesus Christ did not appeal them. Paul was as learned as them, but when they heard what he preached, they called it ‘foolishness.’ Not that the act of preaching was considered foolish by them but the substance of his preaching. It was the message of the cross, the simplicity of the gospel, the appeal of salvation by the blood to the common person that made them wrinkle up their noses and say, “well, that’s foolishness!”
This contradicted everything that the Greeks understood about philosophy. The basic principle of their philosophy was that mind was separated from matter, that spirit was separated from flesh. It was inconceivable to the Greek that there could be an incarnation. Remember what happened when Paul preached in Athens? In the Greek city of Athens, when Paul walked among the idols on Mars Hill, and he pointed to the authenticity of God’s message by citing the resurrection of Jesus, the Bible tells us that they mocked, or made fun of Paul (Acts 17:32). They laughed, because his message seemed foolish. What Paul had to say to the Greeks was that this message, which appears to be height of folly, is actually the wisdom of God.
Well, the message of the cross is considered a foolishness by so called wise and great men of every age.
1 Corinthians 2:6-8 - However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
Romans 1:22 “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools…”
Conclusion:
We may not be wise or powerful as per the worldly standards but let us thank God for giving us the wisdom to understand and accept the message of the Cross and believe in His Saving Power.
The world’s power, wisdom and standards will perish one day but the message of the Cross will stand for eternity
1 Corinthians 1:27-28 - But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are.
Thank you, Lord, for choosing us and giving us the wisdom to know You!
