(18) For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. (19) For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. (20) Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? (21) For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. (22) For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: (23) But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; (24) But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. (25) Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (26) For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: (27) But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; (28) And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are: (29) That no flesh should glory in his presence.
Never, surely, could the Apostle have chosen a more happy form of words to describe the vast difference between the divine wisdom of the Lord, as manifested in the salvation of the Church in Christ, and what is called the wisdom of the world, which uniformly rejects and despiseth it. And we see it every day. If these words of Paul had been written but yesterday, they could not more strikingly set forth the different characters of the christless, despising salvation by the cross; and the precious souls, who taught of God, receive it with open arms, knowing it by heartfelt experience, to be the power of God, and the wisdom of God, for salvation to everyone that believeth.
Reader! this is one among the many of the believer's evidences to the truth of the Gospel. Fond as some men are, that all the world should be believers; the child of God would lose a very striking testimony if it were so. There must be heresies among you, (said one that could not be mistaken), that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. 1 Corinthians 11:19. Never must, never can, the offence of the cross cease. The children of the bondwoman will always hate the doctrine of the cross. The pride of the human heart, the self-righteousness of corrupt, unhumbled nature, will always revolt at it. And, while the thing itself is the wisdom of God, the wonder of angels, and the everlasting joy of the redeemed, both in heaven and earth; to them that perish it appears foolishness, and they perish in their foolishness, And to all such, the word of God speaks: Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish! for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you! Acts 13:41
Reader! what a distinguishing mercy it is to be made wise unto salvation, through the faith which is in Christ Jesus? And we may see, and indeed we do see every day, under every ordinance where Christ is faithfully and fully preached, in the glories of his Person, and the compleatness of his finished salvation, as the whole of Jehovah's purpose of grace, for the recovery of his Church and people, and where those who have been taught to feel and know the plague of their own heart; Christ becomes the all in all, and their whole souls are melted into holy joy, adoration, love, and praise; we behold no less, the wise in their own eyes, and the prudent in their own conceit, turning with the most bitter looks of hatred against the doctrine of the cross, and rejecting the counsel of God against their own souls. Christ becomes a stumbling block and a rock of offence, as much now, as to the Jews of old. So the Lord declared by his servants the Prophets it should be; and the Lord be praised, that he hath not left himself without witness: Isaiah 29:14 and Isaiah 33:18. Precious Jesus, I would say, how sweet thy words to my soul, Blessed is he whomsoever shall not be offended in me! Matthew 11:6
By the expressions, the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God stronger than men, we are not to understand, as if it implied either foolishness or weakness in God. But the sense is, that what the carnal and ungodly in their dim sighted view consider folly and weakness of Christ, and salvation by his cross, is higher in wisdom, and greater in power than all that human knowledge can conceive. So that what men call foolishness, is, in God's esteem, a rich manifestation of his wisdom and power, in conquering sin, death, hell, and the grave, by the very means, which to human wisdom appears the most unlikely and improbable; by Christ's death overcoming death, and by his rising to life again, opening a way to his people to everlasting life. And herein was demonstrated the highest wisdom and power of God. Wisdom, in contriving, and power in accomplishing, by such unheard of unthought of ways; the recovery of the Church from the Adam fall of nature; punishing sin, and yet pardoning the sinner; taking judgment on the surety, and liberating the principal; bringing praise to God from salvation, and overruling sin, which tends to dishonour the Lord; the very means of bringing forth a greater revenue of glory, in, and by, the Person, sufferings, death, resurrection, ascension, and everlasting reign of grace here, and glory hereafter, of God's dear Son. Surely, every heart which knows the blessedness of these precious things, will join the Apostle, and say, however, to them that perish all is foolishness; yet to us which are saved, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God!
I must not allow the Reader's attention to pass away from this most interesting view, which God, by the Holy Ghost, hath given of the cross of Christ, as the power of God, and the wisdom of God; before that I have first called upon him to remark with me, what is also said of the Lord's distinguishing grace in the holy calling. Every part of the Bible, indeed, is full to the same, for the whole is of electing love, from beginning to end. But here, the Lord the Spirit more especially calls upon the Church to notice it. The brethren, partaker's of the heavenly calling, are directed to behold it. And, while they are commanded to observe, that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called; they are no less taught from their own circumstances, to consider, that in their call, it was grace manifested to the foolish, and to the weak, and to the base things of the world. And, Reader! I beseech you to pause, and pass not away for a moment from the consideration of the Church of Corinth in those days, in which Paul sent this Epistle, and take home the same doctrine now, for it equally holds good in all ages of the Church. We have reason to bless God, that while he saith, not many are called from among the great, and noble, and wise men of the earth, that the Lord did not, say, not any. For, though but few, yet there have been some. In the days of Christ himself, we find Joseph, an honorable counselor, and Nicodemus among the rulers of the Jews. But, indeed, for the most part, we find the Lord's people gathered from among the humbler walks in life, poor in worldly circumstances, as well as poor in spirit, made rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom. But it should be observed also, that the expressions here used by the Apostle, when he saith, that not many wise men, and mighty, and noble, are called, he adds to the term, not many wise men after the flesh; and the same after the flesh, is to be subjoined to the mighty and the noble. For their worldly wisdom, and their might, and their nobility, are all earthly. Not that wisdom which maketh wise unto salvation, neither that might which is founded in divine strength, neither that nobleness of soul which distinguisheth the Church of God. So, it like manner, the foolish things of the world, and the weak, and the base, which are Chosen, they are in worldly wisdom foolish, and it human policy weak, and in all their own attainments base and despised; but they are in spiritual things, both wise, and strong, and dignified. The Holy Ghost by Peter, calls them, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people. And the Lord Jesus com mended John to write them to the Churches, as made kings and priests unto God and his Father: 1 Peter 2:9; Revelation 1:6. Reader! may it be your happiness and mine; through grace, to be enabled to enter into the proper apprehension of those words by the Apostle, when he saith, For ye see your calling, brethren!