For since, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom has not known God, God has been pleased by the foolishness of the preaching to save those that believe.
This verse holds two surprises. Man's failure to find God happened inside God's own wisdom, and then God chose to save people through a message clever men laugh at.
The phrase "in the wisdom of God" does not describe how the world searched. It describes God's decision to let the search run its full course before He spoke. One writer explains the point as an intentional delay:
It was in the wisdom of God, says the apostle, that the world by wisdom did not know God. This is an inspired declaration. Thinkers of the highest natural intelligence and the widest learning had used their powers to the full and reached their final results. It was all a vain attempt to find out God by searching. In other words, God's wisdom held back the announcement of saving grace in the name of the Son of God on purpose. He waited until man's natural ability had every opportunity to reach its highest point.
God did not leave man in the dark. The darkness was man's own choice:
God never left Himself without witness. He never meant to leave man to the blind gropings of a darkened intellect... So, in the darkness they chose for themselves, their wisdom ripened. In Greece, the nation that stood for all the peoples outside Israel, among people who claimed to seek wisdom, it produced its finest blossoms and its ripest fruits. God's wisdom gladly gave ample time for this development. Israel under law had to show that man was without strength and ungodly. In the same way, the nations had to show that the world by wisdom did not know God.
The verse does not say the world was too stupid to find God. The failure came through wisdom itself:
It was not that the world by its ignorance or stupidity did not know God, but by wisdom it did not know God. All the wisdom of the ages, the combined efforts of the keenest minds in the world, ends in one result. It leaves man in complete ignorance of God, and in complete ignorance of himself.
Greece put the result on public display. One writer then asks the same question of the Christian world today:
What did the philosophy of Greece do for its disciples? It made them the ignorant worshippers of "AN UNKNOWN GOD." The words carved on their altar announced their ignorance and their shame to the whole universe. And may we not rightly ask whether philosophy has done better for the Christian world than it did for Greece? Has it given the knowledge of the true God? Who would dare to say Yes?
Commentators are agreed that the word does not mock the act of preaching. It names the message — the content that men judged absurd. The Greek noun behind it points to the thing proclaimed:
The apostle here speaks not exactly of preaching as a mere instrument, but of the thing preached... This the Jews derided, as well as the Greeks. It was foolishness to them. That is no surprise, if they did not see the glory of the person of Christ, given to die in God's love to sinners. To the natural mind, what could seem less reasonable than a crucified man as the only Saviour from sins and the wrath of God?
Part of the offence is how plain the message is:
This great wisdom comes in words so simple and clear that a child can understand it. That is why men who pride themselves on their superior wisdom are arrogant enough to despise it and call it foolishness. It is of course not the fact of preaching that is despised, but the subject matter.
Salvation comes from God's pleasure alone, and the tool He chose looks weak:
Note this too: men owe their ruin to themselves, but salvation is from God alone. It pleases Him to save. As to the means, it is "the foolishness of preaching." To do the mightiest of works, He uses what the natural mind judges the most inadequate of means. In this way He displays both His wisdom and His power.
Faith receives the message, not ability. That reverses the entry rules of every human system:
In this Christianity stands in sharp contrast with every human system of wisdom. Philosophy wants philosophers, science needs scientists, astronomy must have astronomers. Unless a man has the brains and ability their demands call for, he cannot claim to be their disciple. Not so with the grace that saves. The "wise and prudent" are set aside, and "babes" are put in their place.
- Delay — God's wisdom held back the gospel until human wisdom had its fullest chance and reached its finest results.
- Verdict — The failure was not stupidity. Wisdom itself left man not knowing God, and not knowing himself.
- Evidence — Greece's altar to an unknown God announced the result. Philosophy has done no better for the Christian world since.
- Message — What men call foolish is not the act of preaching but its content. A crucified man is the only Saviour from sins and God's wrath.
- Reach — Salvation comes by believing, not by intellect. So the wise are set aside and babes take their place, and God shows both His wisdom and His power.
Since Jews indeed ask for signs, and Greeks seek wisdom;
Paul names two things people wanted from God before they would listen: a display of power, or a system of thought. He gives neither. He preaches the one thing both groups had already turned down.
Each demand grew out of a people's history and pride.
The Jews had a background and training in the public knowledge of a God who showed Himself in visible miracles and signs. So they held that only striking visible signs could prove that a thing was from God. The Greeks, on the other hand, took pride in intellectual achievement. They looked for the kind of wisdom that would exalt the most philosophical minds.
One writer sees these two as the whole of what the world's wisdom can produce.
In verse 22 we have a summary of the wisdom of this world, measured against the higher longings of mankind. It shows two features, and only two: unbelief that is still gullible, and investigation that relies on itself.
The demand for a sign was not honest curiosity. God had already answered it.
The world is busy with other things, or turns elsewhere. God gave visible signs when He sent the Lord Jesus to the land of Israel. Never since the world began had there been such a cloud of witnesses of this kind. But what can satisfy the heart when everything in it is turned away from God? The Jews overlooked all He gave and asked for a sign as if none had appeared. The Greeks expected nothing from God. But if what they were looking for was wisdom, they never learned its first lesson: the fear of the Lord.
Both groups wanted something real. The problem was the condition they attached to it.
Power and wisdom are the two things man admires. But they must be power and wisdom that suit his own thoughts. The Jews looked for a Messiah dressed in worldly majesty and glory. The Greeks looked for a god that fitted their own philosophical ideas. How then could either one recognize or receive a Saviour who came clothed with humility and weakness?
Paul does not produce a sign for one group or a philosophy for the other.
The demand for a sign gets no answer, and the questions of philosophy lead only to emptiness and hopeless doubt. Man has confessed his own failure, whether Jew or Gentile. He cannot rescue himself. Nor can he find the way of peace by the flickering light of his own intelligence. On that ground God now speaks to both alike through His ambassadors.
And there is no alternative message held in reserve for those who find this one unacceptable.
The Jew was waiting for the Christ, but He had to be a splendid figure, spectacular, matching what they expected. The Greek would have welcomed a new philosopher to bring their ideas to a triumphant climax. Christ crucified outraged them both. Such a Christ was a hopeless stumbling block to the Jew, and He looked ridiculous beyond words to the Greek. But there is no other Christ than the Christ who was crucified.
God's answer to both demands is one Person.
The merely religious man looks for a sign, while the man who trusts reason wants wisdom. The Sign God gives is also His Wisdom... He is that hidden wisdom which God planned beforehand for our glory. But the rulers of this age crucified the Lord of glory, because they did not know Him. In killing Him they showed their own folly.
Even measured against the Jewish demand on its own ground, the cross overshoots it.
What kind of sign was this? the Jews would ask. Had not many others been crucified? Yes, but not another like Him. Here is the one Man without sin, the One who is more than man, the eternal God revealed in human flesh... But on His side it was a sacrifice of infinite value — how much more than a sign!
Sign-seeking is not limited to unbelievers. One writer finds the same habit inside a believer.
An angel told Zacharias that his elderly wife, who had never had children, would bear a son. Even so, he asked for some sign to back up the plain Word of God. In this he showed himself to be an "unbelieving believer," though very true to type, for "Jews demand signs."
- The demand. The world's approach to God has only two forms: asking for visible proof, and hunting for a wisdom that flatters the mind.
- The blindness. God had already sent unmatched signs in Christ. Asking for one more meant overlooking every sign He gave.
- The condition. Both groups wanted power and wisdom, but only in a shape that suited them. So humility and weakness ruled the Saviour out in their eyes.
- The refusal. Paul meets neither demand. The demand for a sign gets no answer, and there is no second Christ on offer beside the crucified One.
- The surplus. The cross turns out to be both the sign and the wisdom — a sacrifice of infinite value, far more than anyone asked for.
but *we* preach Christ crucified, to Jews an offence, and to nations foolishness;
Paul preached to two audiences with opposite demands. The Jews wanted a Messiah in power. The Greeks wanted wisdom. He gave both the same message, and it satisfied neither. The very thing God uses to save is the thing that offends the religious and insults the clever.
Is the folly in the act of preaching, or in what is preached? One writer answers from the wording of the passage:
As a translator's note points out, "the foolishness of preaching" points not to the act of preaching, but to what is preached. So in verse 23 the apostle says, "we preach Christ crucified … folly to Gentiles" (older translations read "foolishness"). To those cultured, intellectual men it seemed complete folly to preach salvation through One who died a shameful death on a cross. It offended their pride, because it made nothing of man. By this means God made foolish the wisdom of this world.
Paul names Christ by what men did to Him. That hits hardest at people who prize the world's approval:
The Christ whom the apostle preached was the One whom the world crucified. He was a rejected, outcast Christ — one assigned by the world to a criminal's gallows. What a fact for the poor Corinthians, so full of vanity and love for this world's wisdom!
Paul writes "crucified," not just "died," and the word choice matters:
Here it is not simply the blood shed that makes atonement. To say "crucified" says more than to say "dead." Both words declare the end of man in the flesh. But the cross carries a shame and weakness beyond anything else. God saved by means of the cross, where the world saw the worst of human suffering and humiliation. That silenced the world's wisdom. It proved that wisdom to be folly, for daring to think and speak in that way about His wisdom. … The cross of Christ is the fullest display of God's judgment of sin and of His love to the sinner.
Their problem was not who the Messiah was, but how He came. Behind that lay something deeper:
The Jews looked for a Messiah reigning in power from a throne. He would revive the kingdom, put down their enemies, and set Israel at the head of the nations. Christ reigning on a throne they could understand; Christ crucified on a cross was an offence to them. Having no sense of their need as sinners, they could see no meaning in the cross. To them in their unbelief it became a stumbling block.
For people who judged everything by reason, this message tied life to a dying Man and power to weakness:
The Gentiles looked for something that appealed to reason — some new thing, some scheme of philosophy. Tell them that salvation comes through a crucified Man, life through a dying Man, power through a Man crucified in weakness, and in their sight you were talking utter foolishness. Yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is God's power and God's wisdom.
Both reactions share one root. God designed the cross to leave no room for human greatness:
The cross sweeps away the whole of man in the flesh. It puts an end to everything the flesh could glory in. There is no glory for the flesh in the cross at all. It was God's wisdom to do this: no dignity, no heroism, but shame, reproach, disgrace, and death. It brings all of man down to a place where nothing could be found. There is not even a stone to put his foot on to keep it out of the water. Only slaves ever hung on a cross, and this is what God takes up to bring the world to nothing.
Paul gave the same message to two groups with opposite instincts. He did not adjust it for either, and he did not lean on his own skill:
On one side stood the wise Greek, on the other the devout Jew, who testified that God is one. But Paul's testimony was the same to both, though they stood opposed to one another: "a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles." The veil lay on the heart of the one as much as on the other. Both stood opposed to the teaching of grace. The apostle counted only on the power of God to remove the veil and to open the way for people to receive His testimony.
- Content — The message is not a style of speaking but a subject: a Person, and that Person crucified.
- Offence — The Jews wanted a Messiah on a throne; a cross meant nothing to people with no sense of their need as sinners.
- Folly — The Greeks wanted reasoning. Salvation through a dying Man sounded absurd, because it made nothing of man.
- Design — The cross offends both. It sweeps away everything the flesh could glory in: no dignity, no heroism, only shame.
- Confidence — Paul gave both groups the same message. He counted only on the power of God to lift the veil.
but to those that [are] called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ God's power and God's wisdom.
Paul has just said that the message of a crucified Christ offends the religious and amuses the educated. This verse names the one thing that changes the verdict: God's call. The called see no clever scheme, but a Person — God's own power and God's own wisdom.
One group wanted proof they could see. The other wanted ideas they could admire.
The Jews demanded signs, because God had stepped into their history with miracles again and again. But the sign had to be of a certain kind to satisfy them. The Greeks almost worshipped the human mind, and wanted nothing that did not fit the popular ideas of the day... The Jew was waiting for a Christ who had to be splendid and spectacular, just as they expected. The Greek would have welcomed a new philosopher to bring their theories to a triumphant finish. Both were outraged by Christ crucified. But there is no other Christ than the Christ who was crucified.
The word "called" marks off a group. They look at the same crucified Christ and find in Him what everyone else was hunting for elsewhere.
To tell the Greeks there was salvation through a crucified Man, life through a dying Man, power through One who was crucified in weakness, was to say what in their eyes was utter foolishness. Still, to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. In Him they discover God's power to save, and God's wisdom in carrying out all His purposes.
Paul does not say the called receive power and wisdom. He says they receive Christ, and the rest comes with Him.
The first and special effect of this preaching on "the called" is to set the person of the Saviour clearly and firmly before their souls. To such, the apostle says, "it is Christ." The news of Him reached their ears just as it reached everyone else's. But in their happy case it was mixed with faith, so His Name becomes to them the proof and assurance of His saving grace. They receive the Lord Himself when they receive God's testimony. Next, the Christ they have received is to them the power and wisdom of God. Power shows itself by what it does... And when a soul receives Christ crucified by faith, the effect is to settle it in the lasting peace of God.
God showed His strength in the place of deepest shame. That is what silenced human cleverness.
The point here is not simply the blood shed that makes atonement. To say "crucified" says more than to say "dead." Both declare the end of man in the flesh, but the cross carries a shame and weakness beyond anything else. So when God saved by means of the cross, where the world saw the worst of human suffering and humiliation, He silenced human wisdom. He proved it to be folly, since it dared to think and speak that way about His wisdom.
Set beside anything people can do, God's power and wisdom have no rival.
What power can anyone show next to the "immeasurable greatness" of God's power, "that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places"? What wisdom can anyone show, after all their research, to match what God revealed when He turned the shameful cross of Calvary into the means of salvation and blessing for countless millions? Men refused His beloved Son even the small honour of kingship over the Jews, and God has made Him head over the universe.
Wisdom shows itself by reaching its goal. On that test the cross is God's masterpiece.
Wisdom shows itself when the means chosen actually reach the goal. God's goal must be His own glory. So Christ crucified must be owned as His wisdom. For the cross of the Son of God empties every claim the creature could make, and at the same time shows the rich glory of His grace in the triumphant display of His own righteousness.
This wisdom did not begin at the cross. The Old Testament already pointed to it, through a man famous for wisdom of his own.
How fitting that the man once given wisdom beyond anyone else should be the one to reveal, in the Old Testament, the One who is that Wisdom in His own eternal Person!
- Called — one message meets sign-hunters and idea-hunters. God's call turns the offence into treasure and opens eyes to see Christ as His power and His wisdom.
- Christ — the called receive a Person, not first a benefit. They "receive the Lord Himself" when they receive God's testimony, and the blessings come with Him.
- Power — power shows itself by what it does. Here it settles the soul in the lasting peace of God.
- Wisdom — wisdom proves itself by reaching its goal. God's goal is His own glory, and the cross reached it while emptying every human claim.
- Both — Paul names Jew and Greek alike. No background gives an edge, and none locks anyone out. The crucified One is the only Christ there is.
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
The world looked at the message of a crucified Christ and called it foolish and weak. Paul takes those two words and hands them straight back — but can God have folly or weakness at all?
Neither word describes anything true of God. They are man's language for the gospel — and God chose exactly what man despised.
The expressions "foolishness of God" and "weakness of God" just put the thing in the strongest way. Take death as an example. Death is weakness — "crucified in weakness". Yet death set aside everything of man, and in that sense it is the weakness of God. It establishes God completely. The weakness of God was the gospel, that is, as man would speak of it; and foolishness as man looks at it. And God chose that. He took it on purpose. To man it was only someone hanging on a gallows, yet it glorified God.
Paul does not weigh God's wisdom against man's wisdom. He sets what men call God's folly beside man's best work — and even then it wins.
Men may wish to call this the foolishness of God, as in verse 25. It is still infinitely wiser than man's highest wisdom. And if they count it weakness on God's part, there is a power in it far above the greatest strength of men. It achieves such lasting results that it puts to shame the things men boast of as their greatest accomplishments.
Paul could have written that Christ died. He wrote that Christ was crucified, and the difference matters.
It is not simply the blood shed that makes atonement here; and it says more to say "crucified" than to say dead. Though both declare the end of man in the flesh, the cross holds an extreme of shame and weakness found nowhere else. In the cross the world saw the worst of human suffering and humiliation. That God should save by that very cross silenced the world's wisdom. It proved that wisdom to be folly, for daring to think and speak that way about His wisdom.
Measure the cross by what it achieved and the labels turn around. The moment that looked like total defeat is the moment Christ won everything.
Where was there ever a victory so complete and so far-reaching? It came when this Man of sorrows bowed His head and died. ... There the cunning and craft of Satan ended in his own confusion. His seeming victory became defeat, and Christ's seeming overthrow became triumph. From that lowest depth Christ went up on high. He led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. For truly "the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men."
Commentators differ on what the cross shows most of all. Most read it as God's wisdom and power hidden under an appearance of folly. One writer sees love shining there instead, and places the display of power at the resurrection.
We speak of the cross of Christ as the strongest expression of love, and of His resurrection as the brightest display of power... It was not the display of wisdom, though it certainly was the wisdom of God. To the wise of this world the cross is foolishness, and to the self-righteous it is a stumbling block. Nor was it the display of power — "He was crucified in weakness" — but it was the showing of love. If to the worldly-wise it looks like weakness and foolishness, to admiring faith it is the highest expression of love enduring.
The same test sorts what is of God from what is only of man. One writer applies it to how churches are run: what happens when God is left out?
What a human system boasts of as its glory is really its condemnation: it can run on smoothly without God. That system points to open ministry, carried on in dependence on the Holy Spirit, as proof of folly. But that is its real excellence: it cannot go on without God. If it were of man alone it would collapse in a moment. How true it is here, as in everything else: "The foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men!"
- Seeming, not real. God has no folly and no weakness. Paul takes the world's insult and repeats it at full volume to make the contrast unanswerable.
- Seeming folly outthinks men. The contrast is not God's wisdom against man's wisdom. It is what men call God's folly against man's finest work — and God's folly wins.
- Seeming weakness is the cross. Crucifixion was the extreme of shame. God chose it as the way of salvation.
- Seeming defeat is the victory. Satan's apparent win became his defeat, and Christ's apparent overthrow became His triumph.
- Seeming strength is the danger. Anything that runs well without God stands condemned by that fact. Anything that cannot go on without Him is His.
For consider your calling, brethren, that [there are] not many wise according to flesh, not many powerful, not many high-born.
The Corinthians still admired human wisdom, power and rank. So Paul asks them to look around the room at each other and count how few of them had any of it.
They could check the fact by counting heads. Then Paul shows where the fact comes from: a choice God made.
The apostle tells the Corinthians to consider their calling, for they had not yet given up their old admiration of man's wisdom, power and rank. In the assembly of God before their eyes was the clearest evidence that not many were wise by worldly standards, not many powerful, not many of noble birth… But the apostle goes further. He shows that this is not only a fact among men (v. 26) but a purpose on God's part (vv. 27-29)… So plainly does God judge what so often captivates the heart of Christians. They love to count up the wise and the great of the world in their own ranks, as if anything of the sort could add glory to Christ.
God is not shutting the door on the educated. The cross asks every man to come down, and pride refuses.
It is God Himself who calls His saints. So why were there not many wise men, not many mighty, not many noble among them? Did God unfairly shut these people out? No indeed; at least some of them did believe the gospel… God does not condemn intelligence or human ability. But by the preaching of the cross He strikes the death-blow to man's pride and confidence in these things. Some refuse it for one reason only: it wounds their pride. They will not come down and admit that God is greater than themselves.
The wording leaves a door open, and some of the great have walked through it. But they leave their greatness at the door.
This world honours the wise according to the flesh, the mighty and the noble. But "God chose what is foolish in the world … what is weak … what is low and despised … even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God" (1 Cor. 1:27-29). The few of the great in this world whom God has called take their place among the despised — not because of their greatness, but despite it.
Some read the verse backwards, as though hardship gave a head start with God. Commentators warn against that.
High birth, wide education and wealth all work to strengthen and develop what is natural in man. So it is true, and a sad truth, that these things stand against the gaining of divine knowledge. That knowledge must begin by bringing man to complete dependence on God. But on the other hand, poverty and ignorance are no natural introduction to a state of grace. "Wicked men of the rabble" are as ready to deny the truth as philosophic pride is to ignore it. At heart, man is the same at every level of culture or social position.
God's choice also shapes who He sends out to speak for Him.
God chooses to take up whomever He likes to do His work, and in fact He very often takes up very simple people… God will have a wonderful witness go out. But He will have that witness carried by His own witnesses, and His witnesses are for the most part the poor and feeble of this world. So in Acts 2 we read, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?" Galileans were the simple country folk of the day, and their leader Peter was an "uneducated, common" man. God may sometimes take up a rich man or a nobleman for some special work. But generally, as of old, so today, God's witnesses are chosen from the despised of this world.
Paul does not stop at emptying man of his boast. Verse 26 clears the ground for verse 30.
Yet such a negative conclusion, important as it may be, is not enough for the Spirit of God. He would lead the heart away from the emptiness of man's vanity or pride. He would lead it to real moral worth, to the provision of divine grace and holiness, and to a glory that will never pass away… "And because of Him you are in Christ Jesus." What a vast change of nature, position and relationships for anyone! How blessed for those whose wretched state in the world and in the flesh the apostle had just described plainly!
- Look. Paul does not argue; he points. The church at Corinth was itself the proof: God's calling ignores what impresses the world.
- Purpose. This is more than a fact about who responds. God planned it this way.
- Pride. God does not condemn intelligence or rank. The cross asks a man to come down and admit that God is greater. That is where pride refuses.
- Exceptions. God does call some of the great. They take their place among the despised — despite their greatness, never because of it.
- In Christ. Being nobody is no qualification either. Nobody boasts, and everything the believer now has comes from God: "because of Him you are in Christ Jesus."
But God has chosen the foolish things of the world, that he may put to shame the wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world, that he may put to shame the strong things;
Paul has just told the Corinthians that a crucified Christ looks foolish to the world. Now he turns the argument on them. Look at the church itself. Who did God call? And why did He pick the people the world overlooks?
Paul moves from a plain fact about the church to God's reason behind it.
The Corinthians still clung to their old admiration of man's wisdom and power and rank. So the apostle tells them to consider their calling. The assembly of God in front of them was the clearest evidence: not many of them were wise by human standards, not many powerful, not many high-born... But the apostle goes further and shows that it is not only a fact among men (v. 26) but a purpose on God's part (vv. 27-29)... His judgment is clear on the thing that always tends to capture the hearts of Christians. They love to count up the wise and the world's grandeur in their own ranks, as if anything of the sort could add glory to Christ. Did not God choose the lowly and despised things of the world... so that no flesh might boast in the sight of God?
The choice is not random. It matches the message Paul preached. That message had already set aside every human advantage, religious or intellectual.
The apostle has set aside the religious flesh of the Jew and the intellectual flesh of the non-Jew. He did it by presenting the cross and the preaching of the cross. Now he sets aside the pride of the flesh by presenting the calling of God... So a blind beggar put the wise Pharisees to shame. Simple fishermen shamed the wise rulers of Israel so completely that they had to say, "What shall we do?"
The cross itself is the foolish thing at the heart of that message. God meant it to look shameful:
The world despises the cross; and God meant it to be a despicable thing — a gallows... There, on the basest thing in the world, He has hung salvation.
Does this mean God is against clever or capable people?
Did God shut such people out for no reason? No. At least some of them did believe the gospel... God does not condemn intelligence or human ability. But by the preaching of the cross He strikes the death-blow to man's pride and confidence in these things. Some refuse the cross because it hurts their pride. They will not come down and admit that God is really greater than they are.
This is not a new method. Israel's history is full of victories won by means that looked absurd.
God used something foolish to bring down the walls of Jericho: rams' horns, blown round a powerful fortress. The people marched round it for seven days, and the walls fell. God used weak things to rescue Israel and turn back the enemy armies: Shamgar's ox-goad, Gideon's three hundred men, Samson's jawbone.
God does sometimes take up people the world values. But He breaks them first.
God uses two kinds of instruments to do His work. First, those who have no value in themselves... But He also takes up instruments which are of great value in the eyes of men and to themselves. People looked up to Saul of Tarsus. He was learned, religious, energetic and careful to do right. To all appearance he lacked nothing that God could use. Yet God lays hold of him, strikes him to the ground on the way to Damascus, and, so to speak, breaks the vessel to pieces. Then He says, Now I can use him.
God's choice of the foolish is not the end of the story. The same chapter says where their wisdom now comes from.
The very passage that tells us "God chose what is foolish in the world" at once adds, "because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God" (1 Cor. 1:27, 30). Sadly, our own imagined wisdom often stops us from benefiting from the wisdom from above — the wisdom of our Head. It is good for us to admit our foolishness and cast ourselves on the wisdom that is in Christ our Head. Then, however unintelligent we are by nature, He will give us wisdom for every detail of our life and service.
- Chosen, not accidental. Not many at Corinth were wise, powerful or high-born. That was not an accident. God chose it so that no one could boast before Him.
- Chosen to match the cross. God hung salvation on the most despised object in the world. He calls people the same way He saves, with nothing of human glory attached.
- Chosen, not because ability is bad. God does not condemn intelligence; He aims at the pride that refuses to admit He is greater than we are.
- Chosen through breaking. Sometimes God takes up someone the world admires. First He breaks their self-confidence, as He did with Saul of Tarsus.
- Chosen to receive. Those who admit their foolishness receive Christ as their wisdom, with guidance for every detail of life and service.
and the ignoble things of the world, and the despised, has God chosen, [and] things that are not, that he may annul the things that are;
God's choice at Corinth cut against every human scale of value. Why would He pick the low and the despised, and use such "nothings" to cancel the things everyone counts as real?
Paul is not just reporting who happened to believe. One writer marks the step from a plain fact about the Corinthians to a purpose in God.
The apostle goes further and shows that it is not only a fact among men (v. 26) but a purpose on God's part. He chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise men. He chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong things. This is how clearly He passes judgment on what always tends to capture the heart of Christians. They love to count the wise and the great people of the world in their own ranks, as if anything of that sort could add glory to Christ.
This is the extreme term in the verse. One writer names what God has already set aside.
As to "things which are not" (v. 28) … the apostle takes it as an extreme case in the whole scene of God in Christendom. God has brought to nothing all of heathenism and Judaism.
What is nothing to human reckoning is not nothing to God. His way of choosing matches the way He speaks and creates.
He "calls the things that are not as though they were" (Rom. 4:17). He chooses "things which are not" (1 Cor. 1:28). Things which are not to us, exist for Him.
The cancelling is not theory. The leaders who questioned the first preachers in Jerusalem found untrained men they could not answer.
They perceived that they were ignorant and unlearned men. But, though they despised them from the heart, they could not deny the plain evidence of miraculous power that backed their teaching. "Things which are not" began to shake the throne of present power. Pilate was afraid before the words of One who admitted that He was indeed a King, yet said His kingdom was not now of this world. And Felix trembled and Agrippa felt ashamed before Paul, a chosen servant and a minister of things unseen. For a time he broke down the stubborn wickedness of men who, if they thought of God at all, thought of Him only as someone like themselves. It belongs to God to "call the things that are not as though they were." In the same way, through the effective power of the heavenly calling, He makes present things nothing in the eyes of those who live on His word.
Men had already thrown every word in Paul's list at Jesus. The same writer traces each description back to Him.
In truth, all five of these descriptions belong first and chiefly to Christ. Though He was God's chosen and holy One, He was "despised and rejected by men."… "He has a demon, and is insane; why listen to Him?" "As for this man, we do not know where He comes from." These sayings show what worldly judgment thought of God's wisdom in human form, in its day of opportunity.… The "chosen of God and precious" was, and still is, the One rejected by the builders of this world.
The same principle reaches beyond who is saved.
Not only has God chosen such to be His saints, but also in His work He chooses such as His servants.
God's way of choosing leaves nothing to be proud of. One writer contrasts how we act with each other and how we stand in Christ's presence.
The flesh must glory in something — birth, riches, or intellect. But in the presence of God neither believer nor unbeliever can glory in these things. Sadly, in the presence of one another we may try to lift ourselves up by birth, riches, wisdom, or achievements. But in the presence of Christ we are ashamed of the very things we glory in before one another.
- Chosen — The low and despised in the Corinthian church were not there by accident. God chose them on purpose.
- Nothing — "Things that are not" is the extreme term in Paul's list. What counts as nothing to people is real to God, who calls the things that are not as though they were.
- Christ — Foolish, weak, low, despised, nothing — all five words fell on Jesus first. The builders of this world rejected the One God chose and prized.
- Shaking — Untrained men left the Jerusalem council with no answer. Pilate feared, Felix trembled, Agrippa felt ashamed. God makes present things look like nothing to those who live on His word.
- Silenced — Birth, wealth and intellect give no ground for boasting. In Christ's presence we are ashamed of the very things we parade before each other.
so that no flesh should boast before God.
God has just listed what He chose — the foolish, the weak, the low and despised — and now He gives His reason. It raises a question: why does God care so much about our boasting, and what may we still say in His presence?
The makeup of the church at Corinth was no accident. One writer separates what people could see from what God planned:
But the apostle goes further and shows that it is not only a fact among men (v. 26) but a purpose on God's part (vv. 27-29). He chose the foolish things of the world to put the wise men to shame. He chose the weak things of the world to put the strong things to shame. His judgment is clear on the very thing that always tends to capture the heart of Christians. They love to count up the wise and the grand people of the world in their own ranks, as if anything like that could add glory to Christ.
The words "in the presence of God" are the hinge of the verse. Boasting is not impossible everywhere — only there. (Older translations read "no flesh" where the ESV has "no human being.")
No flesh shall glory in the presence of God. It may boast outside. It may make its claims, glory in its resources and be proud of what it does, as long as no one thinks about God. But bring Him in, and in a moment it all withers — the boasting, the empty glory, the high claims, the self-satisfaction and the self-conceit.
The flesh must have something to glory in. What we mention about ourselves measures how close to Christ we are standing:
The flesh must glory in something — either birth or riches or intellect. But in the presence of God, neither believer nor unbeliever can glory in these things. Sadly, in front of one another we may try to lift ourselves up by birth, riches, wisdom or achievements. But in the presence of Christ we are ashamed of the very things we glory in before one another. We dare not mention them in His presence, except to condemn ourselves for glorying in them. To glory in them only shows how little we are in His presence.
How does God make boasting impossible? One writer points to the cross:
Verse 29 gives us one specific goal of God's sovereign calling and choosing. Boasting cannot live with grace. The cross withers nature to its very root, and leaves nothing for the flesh to boast about.
Jesus told of an older son who resented his father's welcome home for the runaway. One writer sees that pattern in every age:
The elder son has a natural claim; and religious people in every age have considered themselves in this position in relation to God — to a greater or lesser degree. But for this very reason God rejects them, "so that no human being might boast in the presence of God" (1 Cor. 1:29). It is surely no accident that Scripture always shows the elder son outside God's blessing. It is the sinner who admits his guilt, who has nothing to plead but what he finds in God Himself, who gets the blessing.
The same rule decides whom God uses. Gideon was hiding from Israel's enemies, the least in his father's house:
Such was the man that God visited and chose as His servant — a man who realised his utter weakness, and who said, "O my Lord, how can I save Israel?" This gives us a first great principle about the work of God in this world. God never asks what man can offer Him. The instruments He takes up to glorify Himself are the weak ones, who know their weakness (1 Cor. 1:27-29; 2 Cor. 12:9-10).
God does not only silence us. The next verses give us something better to say:
Flesh is completely set aside, and its wisdom is now written down as folly. No flesh is to boast in His presence: "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." Flesh cannot boast before Him. We are to boast in Him. But then the whole being of man in the flesh, morally speaking, has ended for the Christian. We are in Christ Jesus because of God, and Christ Jesus is made wisdom from God to us. That is the great subject here — and then righteousness, sanctification and final deliverance.
- Purpose. God's choice of the foolish and weak was not chance but design. Verse 29 states the goal He had in view.
- Presence. Boasting can live anywhere except in front of God — bring Him in, and the pretensions wither.
- Cross. Grace and boasting cannot share a room. The cross kills nature at the root, so the flesh has nothing left to boast about.
- Persons. Those with a claim, like the elder son, are shut out. The empty-handed sinner and the weak servant get the blessing and the work.
- Praise. God stops our mouth, then opens it on a better subject: we are in Christ Jesus, and the only boast left is in the Lord.
But of him are *ye* in Christ Jesus, who has been made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and holiness, and redemption;
Paul has just stripped away every ground for human pride. He has pointed to the cross, to the people God calls, and to the preaching He uses. Now he says what the believer is and has. The whole verse hangs on two phrases: where we are ("in Christ Jesus") and where it came from ("from God").
The verse opens with "because of him." Older translations read simply "of him," and the word points to origin. Everything the verse lists starts with God, not with us.
"Of him," that is of God, "are you in Christ Jesus." I am of God. And I have my wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption from God, all in Christ. It comes from Him; it is not my thinking about Him. And so man is totally set aside, flesh is put down.
The four words are not a random list. Each one answers a specific damage sin has done.
Wisdom naturally comes first, because it is the point under discussion. We need it, for sin has plunged us into ignorance and folly. But sin has just as surely plunged us into guilt and condemnation, so we need righteousness. It has plunged us into contamination and corruption, so we need sanctification. And into bondage and slavery, so we need redemption. Redemption comes last, because it includes the final thing — the redemption of our bodies at the coming of the Lord.
So where does a believer go for wisdom? Not to any human teacher, and not to his own reasoning.
We may have very little wisdom of our own. Still, Christ is made to us wisdom. We need not turn for wisdom to philosophy, to wise men, or to our own imagined wisdom, for we have Christ. Christ, on the cross, has fully shown us our ruin and made God known in His love.
If righteousness is a thing Christ is for the believer, then its stability is His stability.
God has made Christ to the believer "wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption" (1 Cor. 1:30). And if Christ is made righteousness to the believer, that righteousness is absolute and permanent, for Christ never changes.
Commentators differ on which side of sanctification this verse names. Some read it as the believer's settled standing, true of everyone in Christ:
Every true believer is sanctified. To each one it can be said, "because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption." So if you are truly converted and "in Christ Jesus," you may call yourself sanctified as confidently as you call yourself redeemed.
Others place the verse alongside the ongoing work in daily life:
There is a practical work in us which is progressive. And this is the work of the Holy Spirit. Scriptures like this one have progressive sanctification in view.
Writers also warn against one mistake here. Some read the verse as a transfer of Christ's own holiness to our account:
Christ's holiness is not imputed. The only passage that can appear to resemble this teaching is 1 Corinthians 1:30, but imputation is not spoken of there. It is not possible to impute redemption. It is in Christ, and through Christ, that these are according to the will of God.
So one part of this list is still future. Yet we already hold it, and we can already see it in Christ.
Last of all, Christ is made to us redemption — "the complete deliverance from the effects of sin in our bodies." We are still waiting for it. We see this redemption already set forth in Christ; we have it now in Christ our Head; we wait for it to appear in ourselves.
The verse does not end in a list. The next words send all boasting in one direction.
We have everything in Christ, and nothing in man as such. So, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." The cross, the preaching of the cross, the call of God, and our position in Christ before God shut out the flesh completely.
- From God — the chain starts outside us: we are of God, and we are of God in Christ. Nothing here is our contribution.
- For folly, wisdom — sin left us ignorant. Christ on the cross shows us our ruin and makes God known in His love.
- For guilt, righteousness — Christ Himself is made this to us, and He never changes. So the standing is absolute and permanent.
- For corruption, sanctification — writers differ here. Some see our settled standing, others the Spirit's ongoing work. Neither one is a transfer of Christ's holiness to our record.
- For bondage, redemption — last on the list, because it reaches furthest. We hold it now in Christ our Head. We wait for it in our own bodies. Four supplies, one Person, and therefore one place left to boast.
that according as it is written, He that boasts, let him boast in [the] Lord.
Paul ends a long argument about human pride by quoting an older scripture. He does not only silence boasting; he gives it a new object — the Lord Himself.
Everyone boasts in something. One writer traces the urge to the flesh, and shows where it collapses:
The flesh must boast in something — birth, or riches, or intelligence. But in God's presence neither believer nor unbeliever can boast in these things. In front of one another we may try to lift ourselves up by birth, riches, wisdom or achievements. But in the presence of Christ we feel ashamed of the very things we boast about to each other. We dare not mention them in His presence, except to condemn ourselves for boasting in them. To boast in them only shows how little we are in His presence.
The silence is not permanent. The mouth that had nothing to say for itself now has something to say — and someone to say it about:
We have seen, in verse 29, that the work of God silences boasting in the flesh. Now the lips open again for those who willingly bow the knee to Jesus, according to the faith of God's chosen people. For those who in Christ are already more than conquerors may boast. The revelation of God's glory as a Saviour leaves His true worshippers with little but praise. But their boast is Jesus.
Some readers get nervous at the very idea of a Christian boasting. One commentator answers that worry by pointing at who is giving the command:
How complete the blessing Christ has been made to us! And what a joy that we not only may but ought to boast in Him who has so ordered and given to us! Do devout souls call on us to beware of presumption? It is the apostle himself, on the strength of Jeremiah the prophet, who calls on the one who boasts to boast in the LORD. It is therefore not rash nor wrong, but a hallowed boast. We owe it to Him, and He deserves it of us.
Paul is quoting, not inventing. One writer shows the source, and the three boasts it cancels:
God has made Him everything to us, therefore our boasting is to be in Him. This quotation is from Jeremiah. Speaking of the sad state of Israel and its leaders, he said, "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD" (9:23-24).
Boasting in the Lord rules other boasts out — even religious ones:
In what does this scripture ask us to boast? Certainly not in the state of the world! The state it is in now has made large numbers drop their old boasts about its progress. Nor do the inspired words quoted above encourage us to boast in the churches. The Spirit has pictured their declining state for us in Revelation 2 and 3, just as we see it today. Much less are we told to glory in ourselves, either naturally or spiritually.
The same writer applies this to boasting in people:
So he says, "Let no one boast in men" (1 Cor. 3:21). Why? Because we have the Lord Himself whom men crucified to boast in; and we belong to Him.
The verse does not ask for an empty heart. It supplies a better object for an appetite the heart already has:
Grace brought them all to glory in the Lord — to boast in Him! They had nothing in themselves to boast in. The heart needs something — or rather someone — a worthy object. So He is the One provided for that purpose. Anyone who boasts in people is not wise; and anyone who boasts in himself is a fool. The word boast sounds a little out of place at first. But this is the word the Spirit of Truth has used to build us up, and we do well to take hold of its force: "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." We have good reason to do so. We were once far from God, but now in Christ Jesus we have been brought near. Christ carried our sins and their judgment away on the cross, and has secured an eternal redemption and an eternal inheritance in glory for us.
- Silenced. Before God, nobody can boast in birth, money or brains. In Christ's presence those things only shame us.
- Reopened. God's work shuts the mouth, then opens it again — this time for praise, and the boast is Jesus.
- Grounded. Christ has been made everything to us, so boasting in Him is not presumption but a hallowed boast we owe Him.
- Written. Jeremiah said it first: not wisdom, might or riches, but knowing the Lord.
- Redirected. Not the world, not the churches, not ourselves, not other people. The heart needs a worthy object, and He is the One given: He brought us near and carried our sins away.