God’s Wisdom in the Cross has become our
Wisdom (1 Cor 1-4) (Part I)
Jonathan Edwards offers the scriptural insight that true spirituality is knowing, tasting, and seeing the beauty of God’s holiness. What sets the saint apart from all others is that he sees the glory or beauty of divine things. The Bible speaks of this glory as the central thing that makes God and His ways attractive—that lures humans in love to Him. This is the light that makes the Person of Christ so ravishingly beautiful, that He has drawn the hearts of millions to Himself for the last two millennia. This is the brightness that all saints see in comparison to which their own hearts appear filthy (Gerald R. McDermott, “Jonathan Edwards on Revival, Spiritual Discernment, and God’s Beauty,” Reformation and Revival 6:1 Winter 1997).
What does the church become when deprived of the regular revelation of Christ’s glory? In the first place; she becomes spiritually malnourished, for she was called into existence to glorify Christ and to commune with the Godhead by feeding upon Christ.
It is by the church’s intake of Christ that she is able to manifest Christ. Without this feasting upon the things of Christ, she will experience declension. A decline into cold formalism and institutionalism is not foreign to any of us. For we have witnessed this same tendency toward lukewarm-ness in our own persons. We are all too familiar with the kind of spiritual chill that can come over the soul and numb its operations (Rev 2:4-5).
It is Christ who has purchased His church. He owns the church and rules the church by His infallible Word. When believers forget that Christ owns and rules His church—then there is an inescapable pull in the direction of man-centeredness.
The situation in the N.T. church of Corinth provides a vivid example of what may happen when the glory of Christ is neglected or concealed. Paul’s letters to Corinth represent a powerful corrective to the ‘Corinthian catastrophe’. It is the problem of divisions in the church that has led Paul to expound the meaning of God’s wisdom. In seeking the wrong kind of wisdom, the Corinthians had split the church into cliques and factions. In addition spiritualist teachers in Corinth made religious experience the integration point and badge of the Christian life.
Until the Corinthians (along with us) realize the scandal of the cross has put an end to human boasting, they will remain carnal babes who boast in men. Only when believers embrace the scandal of the cross are they ready for the diet of the mature which is the wisdom of God in the cross. The message of the cross is an unacceptable ‘diet’ to those who think in terms of human achievement and glory.
Christ crucified must be realized in the Corinthians’ lives—if not, they will continue to operate by means of “earthly score cards” in which ego-driven spiritualism allows the self-life to dominate. What is the answer to this malady? The focus is to be upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Corinth had forgotten that focus. How they needed the recovery of Christ’s glory in His Church.
In the Corinthian correspondence, Paul refutes the Corinthians’ false concept of spirituality. Paul proclaims that power comes through bearing Christ’s weakness! God’s power is perfected through human weakness. The cross is the paradigm for this formula. Paul boasts of his weakness because it preserves the cross paradigm (then God’s power rests upon Paul in his ministry). In other words, it is the believer’s weakness that is the ‘staging area’ for God’s power.
The Corinthian letters constitute a sustained theology of the cross—which is God’s way of working in the world; through human frailty. It is regarded as a way of weakness scorned by human wisdom; but hidden in the cross is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1:24).
A preoccupation with human leaders had taken the Corinthians’ focus off of Christ. Paul’s call to unity by Christ’s authority was speak the same thing, avoid divisions, be of the same mind (1 Cor 1:10). But at Corinth there was speaking different things, there were divisions, and men of a different mind. The professed believers at Corinth engaged in upsmanship (an over-under kind of ‘pecking order’), a party spirit, and triumphalism. In their ‘triumphalism’ they looked down on suffering as unspiritual, not wishing to suffer with Christ now (Rom 8:17). Their victorious life view of spirituality was in direct conflict with the wisdom of the cross.
The wisdom of God and the power of God are brought together in one person, our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor 1:24-25). To the extent that we promote God’s wisdom, we exalt God’s power in Christ. Unless Christ is preeminent and central, God’s wisdom is not exalted. Christ is pivotal in God’s wisdom and power.
God’s purpose is to destroy the wisdom of the world by means of His wisdom in the cross. How has God made foolish the wisdom of the world—He has made it foolish “through the foolishness of the message preached”—the gospel (1:21). Therefore, what folly to depend on man’s wisdom— and how foolish to exalt man’s wisdom in the church!
In Paul’s purpose statement and purpose clause he is guarding the centrality and purity of the gospel—he did not want the central point of the gospel to be robbed of its power (neutralized) by mixing the gospel with human wisdom. Paul will exalt God’s power and God’s wisdom. He did not want to empty the cross of its effect on the lives of people. In response to the divisions at Corinth, Paul indicates that Christ did not send him to baptize; “. . . but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, that the cross of Christ should not be made void” (1:17). Paul does not want the faith of Corinthian believers to “rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God” (2:5). Only then does the gospel exert transforming power.
We are to glory in God’s power and wisdom—not the world’s value system and wisdom. In chapter one of the epistle, Paul states 10 times in 10 verses that Jesus Christ is in HIS Church. Paul incorporates a series of verbs to declare in “divine passives” that God did it—He formed the Church, He owns it in Christ (we are: sanctified in Christ—v. 2, enriched in Christ—v. 5, called in Christ—v. 9, saved in Christ—v. 18, chosen in Christ—vv. 27-28). Throughout the New Testament Paul consistently stresses God’s ownership of the church—a church purchased with God’s own blood (Acts 20:28).
The Corinthians radical lack of unity was evidence that the believers were treating the church as if it belonged to them and not to Christ. It is the problem of divisions in the church that has led Paul to expound the meaning of wisdom in the first place. In seeking the wrong kind of wisdom, the Corinthians had split the church into cliques. Until they realize the scandal of the cross has put an end to human boasting, they will remain fussy carnal babes.
Only when they embrace the scandal of the cross are they ready for the spiritual diet of the mature (the cross-centered life). It’s an unacceptable diet to those who think in terms of human achievement and glory. Christ crucified must be realized in the Corinthians’ lives—if not, they will continue to operate by means of “earthly score cards” in which ego-driven spiritualism allows self to dominate. The focus is to be upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Corinth had forgotten that focus. How they needed the recovery of Christ’s glory in His Church.
In Corinth, spiritualist teachers (who appealed to the supposed authority of their religious experiences) made subjective experience the integration point and badge of the Christian life. Paul refutes that false concept. The gospel demands that power comes through bearing Christ’s weakness! God’s power is perfected through human weakness. The cross is the paradigm for this formula. By contrast, spiritualist power is powerful only when it is no longer weak or needy.
Paul boasts of his weakness because it preserves the cross paradigm. When Paul is weak and the focus is upon the Lord; then God’s power rests upon him (4:9-13). The Corinthian letters constitute a sustained theology of the cross which is God’s way of working in the world. But God’s way is considered insufficient to men; it is not assessed as wise. It is regarded as a way of weakness scorned by human wisdom; but hidden in the cross is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Paul’s call to unity: speak the same thing, no divisions, the same mind is to be based on a common devotion to Christ and to the Word of the cross (1:10). But at Corinth there was speaking different things, divisions, different mind, upsmanship, party spirit, and triumphalism. The contrast is clear: Corinth was fraught with divisions and a preoccupation with human leadership BECAUSE they were infatuated with human wisdom instead of the wisdom of the cross. What the Corinthians were doing detracted from God’s purposes in Christ.
The apostle Paul identifies the cause of divisions. The problem centered on the focus upon man and dependence on human wisdom. By contrast, only the wisdom of God exalts God’s power. 1:12 – The church at Corinth had divided itself into factions. Each of these factious parties had a leader from whom the followers sought to draw their religious identity: “I am of Cephas; I am of Apollos, etc.” The challenge for the apostle Paul was to dismantle the thinking of the Cephasite party (followers of Peter) without saying anything disparaging against the apostle Peter.
But, in order to subdue sin and promote spiritual life something far more powerful and wise is needed than human strength and reasoning. Only when the wisdom of the cross is consistently applied can this be accomplished. Human wisdom with its Jewish elements of legalism cannot do the above. Political strife is a challenge in any church—only God’s wisdom in the cross can reverse it.
1:17 – This verse marks the transition from the problems in the church to the divine solution for the church. The Greek explanatory conjunction FOR, (gar), introduces why Paul did not baptize many in Corinth. “FOR Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, that the cross of Christ should not be made void.”
1:17-18ff -- Paul is resolute about keeping his gospel away from the entire sphere of the wisdom of men. Paul’s preaching is set in strong contrast with the “wisdom of words.” In verse 18 he begins the emphasis upon the power of God, “For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” V. 18 is essentially the fulfillment of v. 19 – “For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.” God showcases His wisdom and power in the destruction of the wisdom of the world.
We also see this antithesis between divine wisdom and satanic wisdom in the earthly ministry of our Lord. Every time Jesus responded to Satan, He used geigraptai (Grk.)—“it is written.” The cross brings man’s wisdom low; for when natural wisdom is confronted with divine wisdom it is dismantled and destroyed in the process.
The practical application of this contrast, or antithesis, between God’s wisdom and man’s wisdom reaches its apex in v. 5 of chapter two: “That your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.” The concluding thought is that your faith might be in the power of God in the gospel of Christ so that it is not supported by the wisdom of men.
1:22-23 – The infinite divine wisdom of the cross is spiritually discerned (see 1 Cor 2:10-16); therefore by standards of human wisdom the cross fails on all counts to be perceived as wisdom. Both sets of criteria applied by Jew (signs and visible power) and by Gentile (natural wisdom) cause them to reject the wisdom of God in the cross of Christ. This gives us insight into that pivotal verse, “The stone which the builders rejected (after careful examination) became the very corner stone (the foundation itself)” (1 Pet 1:7; Ps 118:22; Is 28:16). When Christ and His cross-work are evaluated by the standard of natural wisdom; He will be discarded as an unworthy foundation upon which to build one’s life.
1:24-25 – The wisdom of God and the power of God are brought together in one person, our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the only source of total, final, absolute wisdom that exists. The whole fulcrum, the whole balance point, the arrow point, the focus of God’s wisdom, the very axis of God’s wisdom is Christ and Him crucified. We were created to be enthusiastic spectators of excellence. In essence, we were made to ‘glory in’ the Lord. If we are not glorying in the eternal, we will by default —glory in the temporal. If we are not glorying in Christ; we will glory in mortal man.
We are to glory in God and His mercies in Christ alone. In God’s wisdom is infinite wisdom— wisdom which scandalizes and offends natural reason, wisdom which towers over the human intellect, wisdom that is so infinitely far above man’s greatest efforts.
Christ and Him crucified is the divine wisdom which invades the realm of human wisdom. Human wisdom is a feeble wisdom—God’s wisdom invades like an immense wedge, piercing and cutting the impotent realm of human wisdom into pieces (1:19).
The power and wisdom of God are manifested in the message of the gospel. To the extent that we promote God’s wisdom, we exalt God’s power in Christ. Unless Christ is preeminent and central, God’s wisdom is not exalted. Christ is pivotal in God’s wisdom and power. Whenever Christ is not exalted, man’s wisdom rushes in to fill the vacuum.
How has God made foolish the wisdom of the world—He has made it foolish “through the foolishness of the message preached.” Therefore if this is God’s overarching purpose to make a public display of demolishing human wisdom; how foolish to depend on man’s wisdom, and how foolish to exalt human wisdom in the church!
1:27-31 -- The power of God is also manifested in the makeup of the Church (“not many wise, mighty”). The power of God is seen in how He has constituted the church—God put the people in the Body according to His wisdom. He has primarily composed the church of average, broken, unwise, needy people; the population of the church is not dominated by the earthly wise; the mighty; and the well born. These two verses highlight whom God has called and whom He has not called.
Application: Paul’s point is that if the Corinthians would consider and reflect upon their calling (“consider” as an imperative) they wouldn’t be living the way they are living. (Grk. Blepo, “I see” – “consider” used metaphorically of a mental vision.) Here is the injunction: think upon God’s sovereign merciful purposes in your election. Consider the ‘pit’ from which you were ‘dug’. By His doing and sovereign mercy alone you are in Christ Jesus. God has done it this way to eliminate every possible occasion for boasting in relation to salvation (1:30).
1:27-28 – God intends to shame the wise—this is His divine purpose. God is energizing a clash in worldviews! This is not passive. Christ, gospel, the Word of God, the Word of the cross are all used somewhat synonymously in Paul’s argument; but God’s wisdom in salvation is ever in view. God destroys the world’s wisdom, and He does so with cosmic ramifications—it is a public display ultimately to be witnessed by men and angels at the end of the age. How He destroyed it, the fact that He did destroy it, and that He will destroy it—is laid out in 1 Corinthians chapters 1 and 2.
Now Paul personalizes the purpose of God in the destruction of human wisdom—the apostle sets up an antithesis between the two forms of wisdom. This striking contrast has everything to do with solving the Corinthian catastrophe. The Corinthians were to consider their call (that they were chosen in order to exalt God’s wisdom). This is amazing: God’s choice of the foolish, immoral, and base Corinthians was designed to exalt divine wisdom! Thus, the church at Corinth is commanded to remember their past (their own salvation—that they were foolish, weak, base, and of common birth). “Look at your calling you Corinthians to see the foolishness of human wisdom.” Your spiritual origin is all of God. When we consider our own election, we also will begin to see things from the divine viewpoint; from the perspective of divine wisdom.
1:29-31 -- The Corinthian problem was not merely the domestic issue of solving disharmony in relationships. Corinth was overturning the whole saving purpose of God—namely that no flesh should boast or glory in God’s presence (1:29-31). Paul is making his case in a very convincing manner: spiritual and religious upsmanship (self-exaltation in a religious community and context), and its resulting strife, is a byproduct of the assimilating the world’s wisdom and values in the church. The Corinthian catastrophe is traceable to the veneration of human wisdom.
We are to glory in God and His mercies in Christ alone. In God’s wisdom is infinite wisdom —wisdom that baffles and staggers natural reason, wisdom that towers over the human intellect, wisdom that is so infinitely far above man’s greatest efforts (Plato etc.). God has as dualism, a dichotomy in His infinite wisdom. Christ and Him crucified is the divine wisdom which invades the realm of human wisdom. Human wisdom is a feeble wisdom—God’s wisdom invades like a massive wedge of carbon steel, piercing the impotent realm of human wisdom and tearing it into pieces in a massive display which will reach its climax at the consummation of history.
Paul continues the wisdom theme at the forefront in chapter two. He startles us out of our complacency as he warns that there is a kind of Christianity which nullifies the power of the gospel. It’s a disturbing prospect that by philosophy, eloquence, psychology, tradition, and human wisdom— the power of the cross in peoples’ lives can be neutralized. Paul exalts God’s wisdom and power in the cross, lest the effect of the cross be emptied in peoples’ lives.
Corinth was overturning the whole saving purpose of God—namely that no flesh should glory in God’s presence (1:29). We can learn from the negative example of Corinth. Upsmanship (an over-under pecking order based upon boasting in men), and its resulting strife, is a byproduct of the assimilation of the world’s wisdom into the church.
2:1-5 -- Paul reflects upon his coming to them and calls the Corinthians to think about his manner and mode and methodology when proclaiming the gospel to them: “And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in the demonstration of Spirit and of power” (vv. 2:3-4). The content of Paul’s message, and his conduct during his message were in kept in absolute harmony. “Whenever he preached Christ and Him crucified, he preached Him in a crucified style” (John Flavel, The Fountain of Life, p. 12). This is the polar opposite of depending upon eloquence, showmanship, rhetoric, or personality. The contents of his preaching and his conduct were all in agreement with the divine message. Paul’s manner, mode, and appearance (humble, loving, trembling, Word of God-cross only, weak, unimpressive, “cracked clay pot”) were in total synchrony with God’s wisdom in Christ and Him crucified. There is a demeanor which is consistent with the wisdom of the cross—Paul manifested this demeanor in his conduct before the Corinthians.
How different was Paul’s ministerial behavior from so many of today’s media evangelists; what a contrast his disposition was from the hucksters who ‘peddle’ the gospel as a means of personal prosperity and as a tool to further the human potential movement. The apostle steered clear of any behavior which is so common among those who wish to build a following around a man’s personality. Paul affirmed that his behavior among the Corinthians was in perfect keeping with his message of Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor 1:1-5).
Paul’s preaching of God’s wisdom in Christ set up an antithesis with the human wisdom that was wreaking havoc in Corinth. The apostle makes it perfectly clear: God’s wisdom and man’s wisdom do not mix! Paul always starts with Christ. He always takes his readers and converts back to Christ. This is how he deals with man-centeredness. The glory of Christ consistently displayed, exhibited, and feasted upon has the net effect of disintegrating human wisdom.
In his epistle Paul is single-minded. Whether the issue is immorality (the body is for the Lord —6:13), or a comprised Lord’s Table (we don’t share in the cup of demons—10:21—discern the body of Christ—11:29), or the resurrection (Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead according to the Scriptures—15:3), Paul runs everything and every problem through Christ and Him crucified!
The citizens of Corinth were drawn to human wisdom like a magnet; they envied the Athenians. The Athenians had their ideal Greek man: he was the epitome of human wisdom, strength, rhetoric, philosophy, pride, dynamism, partisanship, asceticism, popularity, and Greek dualism (in the Corinthian church there was a dimension of Jewish religious elements as well). The cross overturns all of this—for it openly rejects the achievements of man as a foundation for trust and reliance. In effect, Paul was saying to the Corinthian believers, “you are trying to be like Athens.” “You want a great rhetorical preacher in front of you in whom you may take pride and in whom you may boast.” Paul was not trying to win them by his ability to communicate. Paul proclaimed that each local church was solely founded on Christ’s cross (not on its human founder being a great communicator, not by adding anything to the cross). God’s value system is encompassed in God’s dualism; Christ (the God-man incarnate) and Him crucified. God is doing all through the cross.
Divine wisdom overturns human wisdom. Christ’s manhood was absolutely permeated with the mindset of Philippians 2:1-8. Christ had no “will to power”—He was the suffering servant characterized by absolute surrender to God. By contrast, the spirit of Athens had a fallen, Adamic value system of human wisdom characterized by boasting and self-assertion, and by the assumed ability of self-differentiation—as if to say, “I can and will by my achievements carry my own importance and distinguish myself from others.”
2:6-7 – To know Christ and Him crucified is the point of beginning in the understanding of God’s whole purpose of creation and redemption. So Paul says this divine wisdom was foreordained before the ages for our glory. We who behold the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ are being changed from glory into glory (2 Cor 3:18). God’s wisdom leads to our glory. God’s people are destined for glory, not shame. How this contrasts to the rulers of this age who are destined for shame (they will lose every bit of their glory).
2:8 – The sad irony is that the Corinthians in pursuing human wisdom are pursuing what belongs to this age and is passing away. This is Paul’s point—the rulers and wisdom of this age is on its way out: “Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, NOT of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood: for it they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; but just as it is written, things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him” (2:6-9).
A temporal value system can blind us to God’s purpose; for preoccupation with human wisdom leads to willful ignorance of the infinite wisdom of God in the cross and the vastness of the scope of God’s redemptive plan. The rulers were blind; they hated truth, therefore they used human standards of wisdom and evaluation. Christ’s glory, manifested in His obedience unto death, was not recognized by the rulers of this age—they did not recognize Christ as the agent of God’s salvation of man; therefore in their rebellion, they lose their glory.
2:10-14 -- God’s dualistic wisdom (the person of Christ and Him crucified) is not esteemed nor is it conceivable to the natural human mind (2:14). The cross is filled with paradox. It is filled with mystery that towers over the human intellect. To think that the dereliction of the God-man should reconcile the derelict – to think that the God-man’s willingness to be a victim in the face of evil should conquer evil—that His abject weakness and ignominy in His passion should overpower the most powerful enemies of man. To think that succumbing to death should conquer death; that being made the curse of God should lift the curse of God; that death and entombment and resurrection should bring the redeemed from defiled dust to glory. This is only made understandable to God’s people through the Spirit.
It is staggering to our intellects to think that God should operate sub contrario (contrary to the strength of His attributes) in order to reveal the knowledge of Himself. In the cross of Christ, God works contrary (the opposite, sub contrario) to His reasoned attributes of strength; authority; and life —instead the cross has weakness, victimhood, and death. God takes His stand on earth within human crooked desperateness (Paul Zahl, A Short Systematic Theology, p. 28, 33, 36).
This concept is above natural human understanding. That God should work through the ignominy and weakness of the cross in order to reveal Himself savingly is baffling to man. The Jewish religious leaders of Jesus’s day stumbled over the Rock—stating that “if you come down from the cross (down from weakness), we will believe” (Matt 27:40-42).
By God’s self-disclosure in creation and law alone we cannot know the reality of His merciful nature. Without faith perceiving Christ as He is offered in the gospel, one cannot know God’s attitude toward men nor can one know the basis for divine pardon and acceptance.
Saving faith is that salvific moment when we are delivered from guilt, fear, and condemnation through the redemption that is in Christ—in that moment, the power of God in the gospel delivers us from the necessity of self-justification. Through the Spirit’s call we abandon our commitment to self-justification and rely on Christ alone to commend us to God.
2:12 – The spirit of the world loves spurious wisdom, but despises the wisdom of God in the cross. The apostle and his co-laborers apprehend and possess these blessed things of God’s wisdom in order to convey them to others. They are “stewards of the mysteries of God” (4:1).
2:14 – The natural man’s incapacity is characterized by the fact that he can’t welcome, receive, nor comprehend spiritual things. He cannot, he has no power to do so (Grk. dunatai, “power, ability”). “The natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God” (2:14). Because spiritual truth is spiritually discerned, it requires the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit in order to comprehend. The unregenerate man operates by the empirical, rational, reason—he is not up to the task to discern spiritual truth. Rational apologetics (that a man may reason His way to God and His existence) has a far too optimistic view of man’s innate abilities. Yes, it is true, we can never shed our created sense of deity; but the noetic effects of sin have darkened the understanding of man so that we are dead to the things of God (Eph 2:1-3). The problem is not recognition of the existence of God, but the fact that man does not want a relationship with the God of the Bible (Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, Total Church, p. 175).
CONCLUSION: God’s wisdom is centered in the Son. Christ is the only source of total, final, absolute wisdom that there is. God’s “dualistic wisdom” in Christ: 1.) the hypostatic union and incarnation, 2.) the dereliction of the God-man at Calvary. (By dereliction we mean that Christ in His passion was forsaken, crushed, abandoned, and broken under the wrath of God for us.) Christ and Him crucified embraces both the mystery of Christ’s person as both God and man, and the wonder of His redemptive work. The whole fulcrum, the whole balance point, the arrow point, the focus of God’s wisdom, the very axis of God’s wisdom is Christ, and Him crucified.
The hidden God is revealed in Christ. God as our object of worship is hidden until we see His merciful heart exposed in Christ (God’s wisdom in the cross). Those who try to worship God without a faith encounter with Christ cannot be confident of His love and mercy—they are still under wrath and darkness (Edward H. Schroeder, “Using Luther's Concept of Deus absconditus for Christian Mission to Muslims,” www.crossings.org, p. 4).
The hidden unapproachable God is our common experience as humans. No person is ‘caught up’ on his or her debt to God even for a day much less a lifetime. Only the grace gift of forgiveness covers our failed obligation and transgression (Ibid, p. 5).
African Muslim turned Christian (author Lamin Sanneh) says, “[When we speak of] God’s unfathomable compassion, in my language we call [it] his ‘numbing’ capacity to take on our suffering.” Thus there is “intimacy [which] rests on a genuine reciprocity (Christ trading places with us). If we can go on from there . . . the gap narrows considerably between that and the biblical account of Jesus Christ as the divine breakthrough in human form” (Lamin Sanneh, “Muhammed, Prophet of Islam, and Jesus Christ, Image of God: A Personal Testimony” International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Oct. 1984, in Edward H. Schoeder, p. 8).
“[The gospel affirms] that although the Word was God, [He] became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.’ . . . Finally, the wraps are taken off and God deals with us outside the veils. God is in the picture now.” [He cites Jeremiah 31, the new covenant, and Hebrews 1 and 2 “many ways of old in which God spoke, but now....”] “By adopting for himself the full logical consequences of the moral significance of human existence, God achieved a stupendous breakthrough in Jesus Christ” (Ibid, p. 9).
“God, who normally delegates his authority to the prophets, is committed to the logic of that delegation by being willing to express himself in one such prophet who, by virtue of that special relationship, must henceforth be described by the strong language of filiation [Son of God]. Rather than rendering him immune to the tragedy of human disobedience, such a Prophet is in fact the supreme subject and victim of its consequences. ‘It pleased the Lord to bruise him.’ No proximity to the human condition is more poignant than that. It is too lifelike to be mistaken for what it is, a full-blooded encapsulation of the original divine intention. God through Him would know our plight and feel our sorrow. Jesus is God in full engagement. Put to grief in the unspeakable agony of human sinfulness, Jesus is the definitive measure of God’s ‘numbing’ capacity to take on our suffering” (Ibid, p. 10).
The spirit of the world loves spurious wisdom, but despises the wisdom of God in the cross. The apostle and his co-laborers apprehend and possess these blessed things of God’s wisdom in order to convey them to others (2:12; 4:1). Our message then is that there is one cross, one wisdom of God—but there are different reactions to God’s message. We have one message; Christ and Him crucified. Our whole lives are to be built upon this one message.
The response will vary—even within churches! A Scripture-based, cross-centered ministry is what is called for; if the brethren do not accept this one expression of love—God’s will for them in the Word from the heart, then they must be dealt with in another expression of love—discipline by the church and/or by God (4:21). The Corinthian error represents what happens when believers imbibe the world’s wisdom and make it the basis for values, relations, identity, and church polity. The result is carnality, strife and jealousy (3:1-3). We will examine these responses to divine wisdom in the next lesson.