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One Sunday morning three people attended a church service seeking help through the preaching of the Word. One was a businessman who had failed and was contemplating suicide. The other was a young man whose wages were insufficient to support his extravagant way of life and he was planing to steal from his employer. And the third was a young lady who had been tempted from a life of virtue. As they mingled with the congregation the choir arose and gave a magnificent rendition of a classical anthem, then the pastor stepped to the pulpit and addressed an eloquent prayer to God. Then he opened his notes and delivered a scholarly address entitled "Is Mars inhabited?". The three spiritually hungry persons who came looking for bread were fed stones. The businessman committed suicide; the young man stole from his employer and ended up in prison; the young woman returned to a life of shame. Those three people discovered what thousands and thousands have discovered through the centuries: there is no peace, no power, no forgiveness, no salvation in the philosophies or wisdom of men.
First Corinthians 1:18-25 puts forth the essential contrast between God's wisdom and the wisdom of the world. It is a contrast between the foolishness of men, which men think is wisdom, and the wisdom of God, which men think is foolishness. Paul teaches that what is foolishness to the world, the preaching of the cross, is wisdom to God, and what is wisdom to the world, philosophical systems devised by man, is foolishness to God. Paul contrasts with the wisdom which comes from philosophic inquiry and disputation ("the wisdom of words", 1 Corinthians 1:17) with the wisdom of God revealed through revelation.
Human wisdom, epitomized by philosophy, has always threatened to overshadow revelation. Martin Lloyd-Jones commented,
The whole drift toward modernism that has blighted the church of God and nearly destroyed its living gospel may be traced to an hour when men began to turn from revelation to philosophy.
What is philosophy? The word philosophy appears only once in Scripture in Colossians 2:8: "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy..." It comes from the Greek word philosophia which is formed by two words, phileo which means love and sophia which means wisdom. Therefore the etymological meaning of philosophy is the love of wisdom. Some synonyms for philosophy are theory, thought, position, and view. Throughout history, man has been fascinated with wisdom and pursued it. Philosophy is man's effort to determine the ultimate causes in the earth and the universe. Throughout the history of the world, man has pursued an understanding of the cause of matter, the destination of matter, and the intent and purpose for matter. Man has sought to explain the reasons for his existence, the purpose of living, and all of the phenomena of the universe. Philosophy is man's attempt to solve the mysteries of the universe.
The ancient Greeks of Paul's day loved philosophy and built their culture around it. They believed that philosophy was all- important. But Paul taught that a Christian really has no need of human philosophy because where it happens to be right it agrees with Scripture, and is therefore unnecessary; where philosophy is wrong it disagrees with Scripture, and is therefore misleading. All that we need is Scripture, not the philosophies of man. Just as in Paul's time, the church today has not escaped the problem of man-made philosophy invading the church. Some Christians frantically look almost everywhere except to God and His Word for values, meaning, guidance, and help. But only God can tell us what life is about, our origins, our destination, why we are here, the standards for right and wrong. Philosophy can't help us, we must look to revelation; only God can gives us these answers. Someone has defined human philosophy as a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat that isn't there.
God sent Paul to preach the gospel not in the "wisdom of words" (1 Corinthians 1:17) because man's wisdom is not necessary to the gospel. Paul realized that he could not to use the methodology of the Greek professional philosophers and their human wisdom, but he was commissioned to preach the gospel, the message of Christ crucified.
The problem at Corinth was that some of the Corinthians had become impressed with Greek wisdom, and they were glorying in the wisdom of man. When men begin to glory in human wisdom they begin to glory in men, and when men begin to glory in men then the church becomes divided. That is what had happened in Corinth. In 1 Corinthians 1:10-17 Paul established the fact that there were divisions in the church; from 1 Corinthians 1:18 through chapter three, Paul deals with the causes of those divisions. The first cause was that men and women at Corinth were glorying in human wisdom. If they had gloried in revelation, there would not have been any division.
Paul attacked their love of human wisdom by stating that he has been commissioned to preach the message of the cross. It is that message alone that brings peace, forgiveness, and salvation.
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18)
The conjunction 'for' links Paul's reference to the cross of Christ in verse 17 to verse 18. The Greek word for preaching or message is logos. Logos was translated "utterance" in 1 Corinthians 1:5, but it would be better translated doctrine. The doctrine of the cross is proclaims an event of historical and theological significance. It points to Christ who died the death of a criminal but whose death concerned the eternal destiny of man. This doctrine of the cross is the doctrine of atonement. The doctrine of atonement explains what exactly happened at Calvary and the meaning of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross. Every believer should understand and be able to explain the doctrine of the atonement because it is the heart of the gospel. To understand the atonement you must first understand that man is a sinner. God created man and established a perfect harmonious relationship with him. God enjoyed perfect communion and fellowship with Adam; Adam walked with God and enjoyed perfect harmony with Him. The fellowship between God and man fulfilled God's purpose for man.
Genesis 1:27 (NKJV) "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them."
But that time of perfect fellowship was a probationary period for man. God gave Adam only one commandment:
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." (Genesis 2:16-17, NKJV).
Something came between God and man because Adam turned his back on God's will and sinned. Sin broke the beautiful relationship that existed between man and God; their fellowship was severed and man was alienated from God. Because God is holy, He turned His back upon man and man died spiritually. Spiritual death was introduced into the human race and death passed upon all men according to Romans 5:12:
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned (NKJV).
Adam was every man's representative when he sinned so that every person born into this world is born a sinner; he is spiritually dead, separated from God. Man in this condition of spiritual death can do nothing to appease God's wrath or earn God's favor because he is spiritually bankrupt.
Because of this condition God introduced a program to redeem man; He literally bought us back for Himself. God invaded human history in the form of the man Christ Jesus. Jesus left heaven to be born as a baby and live a sinless life and then die a substitutionary death at Calvary. On that cross Jesus took upon Himself our sin and received the judgement of God that we deserved as sinners. Because he was an innocent infinite sufferer He satisfied fully and completely the righteous demands of a holy God and God was propitiated. Propitiation is the turning of God's wrath away from the sinner by a sacrifice made to satisfy God. Sinners deserve God's wrath because they have violated His holy standard.Believing sinners are declared righteous through redemption on the basis of propitiation. Romans 3:23-27 clarifies the doctrine of atonement and propitiation:
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified [declared righteous] freely [without cause] by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.
God's righteousness was demonstrated because He punished sin at Calvary. God's justice was satisfied by the death of Jesus Christ: sin had been paid for. Man can now once again have fellowship with God through faith in the sacrificial work of Christ.
Although God has been propitiated by Christ's work on Calvary, men are still alienated from God because of their sin. Everyone is born a sinner and has lived as a sinner separated from a holy God by his sin; this is the condition of every person. Paul was given a message for those sinful men: although sin has alienated men from God, the very God whom we have offended has provided the way whereby the offense has been dealt with. His anger, his wrath against the sinner has been satisfied. And now the message calls men and women to be reconciled to God by faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The message of Paul was presenting was the message of the cross. Heaven can be a present possession through faith in what Christ has done. That is the message of the cross and the doctrine of atonement. That message alone brings peace with God, forgiveness of sins, and eternal life. Paul goes on in 1 Corinthians 1:18 to say that there are only two kinds of people in the world--"those in the process of perishing and those in the process of being saved". The words perish and saved are present participles and denote action that is in the process of occurring. They are not on the verge of perishing or being saved, but in actuality are perishing or being saved. John 3:36 teaches that unsaved people are condemned already; they are perishing right now. Remember salvation has three tenses: Past--justification; Present--sanctification; Future-- glorification. We are being saved (sanctified) right now.
Both of these groups will respond to the message of atonement in diametrically opposite ways. The distinction is in their attitude toward the cross: those who are perishing consider the message of the cross foolishness. Foolishness is from the Greek word moria from which we get the word moron. Human wisdom cannot understand the cross because to the natural mind the cross is moronic, offensive and unacceptable. How can we believe that we live through One who died, we are blessed by One who was made a curse, we are justified by One who was Himself condemned. That is moronic to the lost man.
Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, says,
One sacrifice however great is insufficient to pay the debt of sin, the atonement of sin requires self-humiliation on the sinners part. That God's wrath should be vented upon his beloved son is divinely unnatural, such a theory is man made.
Human wisdom considers the message of the cross foolishness but to those who are being saved the message of the cross is the power of God. It is that message that frees men from sin and death. Paul says, "I preach the message of the cross because it alone has the power to save."
There is nothing wrong with human wisdom in certain categories, such as medicine and auto mechanics, but human wisdom has its limitations, and it has no part in how a man can be right with God. Human wisdom has nothing to add to our relationship with God. We must rely on His revelation. Notice the word us in verse 1:, "unto us which are saved". Paul is talking about himself and the Corinthians. The Corinthians belong to the group of the saved in spite of all their sins and failures. Paul spent a great amount of effort to make sure that the Corinthians understood their position: they were saints by calling; they were sanctified; they were saved.
For the rest of 1 Corinthians one Paul emphasized the proposition that he has just made that God's apparent foolishness is wisdom beyond natural man's comprehension.
For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
Paul quoted from Isaiah 29:14. When Isaiah wrote this, the people of Juda were threatened by an attack from Sennacherib, king of Assyria. The wise men counseled the king to make an alliance with the Egyptians so that the power of Egypt would be behind them. As the wise men were expressing their wisdom, God's spokesman, Isaiah, appears on the scene and says, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." God clearly denounced human wisdom for the deliverance for His people.
2 Kings 19:32-35 (NKJV) Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: 'He shall not come into this city, Nor shoot an arrow there, Nor come before it with shield, Nor build a siege mound against it. By the way that he came, By the same shall he return; And he shall not come into this city,' Says the LORD. 'For I will defend this city, to save it For My own sake and for My servant David's sake.'" And it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the LORD went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses; all dead.
How many times do God's people today look for human wisdom to solve problems? God delivered Judah without relying on human insight. The wise of Corinth were no more effectual to the saving of souls than the wise of Judah were in staving the threat of Sennacherib. The great stress in these verses is upon the activity of God. God will destroy human wisdom, and make the wisdom of the world foolish. Paul took Isaiah 29:14 and used it as a proof text for his thesis that the 'foolishness' of God is infinitely more effective than man's wisdom.
In 1 Corinthians 1:20 he calls upon the wise of every nation to disprove his theses: "Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?" That is a theme of the Old Testament. For instance when Midian was oppressing Israel Gideon's wisdom was to gather together a massive army. God told him to prune the army to 300 men without weapons, just lamps, empty pitchers, aempty-handed. Shakespeare's Macbeth summed up this emptiness:
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.
According to Scripture, life is not summed up in a philosophy but in a person: "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men" (John 1:4). Jesus said "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." (John 14:6).
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