1 Cor 1:25-29 - Material Over Method

25-29 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 26 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. 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, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.


Once more, this is not teaching that God is actually capable of foolishness but rather that what we regard as foolishness from God is actually a wisdom superior to anything we can imagine. It says as much about humanity’s attitudes as it does about God’s attributes. We are so arrogant, so lost and so intransigent that we think ourselves wiser than God. We think ourselves mentally superior and intellectually stronger than our Creator. Whenever the gospel is heard and rejected the rejecters are making a statement by which their condemnation is greater than for those who never hear the good news. One is reminded of the agonies of soul that Whitefield endured lest, by preaching, he should increase the condemnation of his hearers.

The successful, the powerful, the intelligent, the beautiful - these people that the world regards as advantaged are, according to the truth of the gospel, actually disadvantaged. That is because there is an ever-present tendency in corrupt man’s nature to think that such things are their own, or solely a result of their own efforts. Often, these things become the means by which advancement, comfort, security and supposed happiness are laid hold of. Self-effort, self-esteem, self-aggrandizement - such things are the very antithesis of kingdom realities.

In God’s kingdom all things are received through and intended for the glory of God in Christ Jesus; that includes all those who are saved and all of their attributes, talents, gifts, achievements and, yes, their "happiness". The great wonder of God is not only found in the saving of those blessed with poverty of spirit and who understand their own need - but also in the fact that even those with the worldly advantages of riches, and smarts and beauty can indeed be saved by a God for whom nothing is impossible. Nevertheless, it is often those who are down on their heels materially, emotionally and intellectually who are more inclined to hear the gospel and respond. Again, this is because their hope in themselves or their faith in the world is made weaker by their apparent disadvantage. But you can see what a blessing such disadvantage actually is if it decreases faith in self and the world in order to cast men upon hope in God.

This very juxtaposition of weak and strong - the revelation of disadvantage as actual advantage and the exposure of worldly or and fleshly advantage as disadvantage - is at the heart of the display of God’s wisdom in the gospel. It shows how far we have fallen when we regard all the carnal and worldly things as worthy and desirable and, often, as recommending us to others and to God. It shows the blindness of our depravity. It shows the self-directed nature of our values. And it shows the utterly different character of God’s values (and thereby His nature).

What we think is actually a construct of our rebellion and unbelief. The real Truth is so alien to us that it takes and act of God in the heart for us to even recognize it. By rebelling and falling, humanity is severed from Godliness and cast upon itself. The creature is worshiped rather than the creator since the creature is regarded as the source and the object of all motivation and desire - and as the sole means of exercising or acquiring power.

But God is entirely outward looking and acting. God is love. And His love is expressed in the perfect relationship of the Trinity in the unity of the godhead. Each Person fully expresses love to the other two Persons in a completely satisfying interaction by which their individual roles are fulfilled in an endless outpouring. Each Person directs attention outward and not inward. Each looks to the other and acts to please/serve the other - yet with a unity of common purpose. We can glimpse these things but we can only scratch the surface. But eyes opened to the gospel and the purposes of God in Jesus Christ towards man will recognize that it is the very nature of Christ Himself that is being imparted to those members of humanity who are in Him. We are to lose our life for His sake and the gospel’s. We are to serve others and to love our neighbour as ourselves. We are to love God in all His Persons with a whole heart and mind in Jesus Christ.

God did not make man to be a self-sufficient being. He made man so that man could ultimately participate in His Own nature - and not just be in His image. History itself - and the lives of all men whether saved or not - every event, every happening of nature, every interaction ALL things are working together for good for those that love God and are the called according to His purposes. A purpose He had before time began. A purpose that, by redeeming members of a fallen race in Christ, He could create those with the very mind of Christ. And this Mind is the same outward looking and acting mind that characterized the godhead from eternity.

And what some people miss here is that God did not create mankind out of any need - any lack - in Himself. He was not pining for companionship. He wasn’t looking to up the ante by having more beings to interact with. Perish the thought! God was and is and ever will be sufficient unto Himself in the endlessly loving and serving relationship of the Persons within the godhead. No! God created mankind not out of a need, but out of His outward looking and acting nature - grounded in perfect love - by which He purposed to give to some of His creatures the unutterable joy and bliss of knowing Him as He truly is and of actually participating in His nature. From this, in the hearts of His creatures so blessed, springs adoration, praise and glory to God - in which His creatures are blessed by expressing, by knowing, by experiencing the fruit and end of the purpose for which He made and chose them.

So the fact that God so engineered salvation that no human being might glory in His presence is not a selfish perversity on God’s part as we sometimes suspect in the depraved depths of our hearts. Such thoughts, if we have them, are a reflection of our old nature. They speak of what we are - not what God is. The fact that none shall glory in God’s presence is a gift of God to us which is bound up in His salvation in Christ, and which restores (or raises) us to that same outlook that God Himself has. By removing from us all self sufficiency, all inward-looking and self-crediting thoughts (imperfectly here but perfectly in the by and by) God actually makes us to be like Himself in quality, though not in extent. The very fact the He is in us to do this on account of Christ removes even the thought that we contributed our faith. All is from Him. We simply live it out through the faith we have been gifted by God, in the power of God indwelling us.

The unredeemed - those who persevere in unbelief until the end - though they glory in themselves to greater or lesser degrees in this life - have, in actuality, no true ground for boasting either. Those who mistakenly assert that they are content to "have the good weighed with the bad" will, to their horror, find out that their so-called "good" is either evil or is something that God’s common grace has worked in them for His larger purposes in redeeming His people. Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.