Soli Deo Gloria
To God Alone be the Glory

Most of us also know that the investigations into the cause of the tragedy pointed out some serious shortfalls in human judgment and materials management. The New York Times put it frankly: the ultimate cause of the space shuttle disaster was pride. A group of top managers failed to listen carefully to the warnings of underlings who were concerned about the operational reliability of certain parts of the booster rocket under conditions of abnormal stress. The people in charge were confident that they knew best and that they should not change the launch schedules. They were wrong.

Pride is a very destructive force. It literally places self above God. Pride is an attitude of self-glorification, an attempt to deny our dependence upon God. In 1 Corinthians 1:26-2:5 Paul stresses that man is totally dependant upon God's wisdom for salvation and that God's wisdom leaves no room for human pride or self-glory. The wisdom of God crushes man's pride.

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 dealt with the causes of those divisions, and the first cause was that men and women at Corinth were glorying in human wisdom. They were boasting in man and man's wisdom which is prideful and destructive. 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 dealt with God's wisdom of the cross, which is foolishness to the world. The next segment of Paul's letter, 1 Corinthians 1:26-2:5, tells us that God uses the message of the cross to eradicate human boasting. The cross exalts God and gives all glory to Him.

The first way that God glorifies Himself through the cross is through the people He chooses to Himself:

For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. (1 Corinthians 1:26)

Paul says to the Corinthian church, "Take a good look at yourselves. Look at your congregation--what do you see?" He points out that there are not many wise or people of supreme intelligence, intellectual giants; not many mighty or great, influential, powerful, politically mighty people; not many noble, well-born people from high ranking families, royalty. Wise, mighty and noble define what the world thinks makes a great man. The world bases greatness on knowledge, education, power, money, and rank. The converts to Christianity were not generally from the higher ranks in society. God called people who the world looked at as nobodies. The word "calling" refers to the saving call of God, the effectual call that results in redemption rather than vocation.

Communism contends that only the weak and oppressed turn to Christ because they need religion to strengthen them and keep them up. The Bible completely denies that; God calls weak and oppressed people to Himself for salvation. In the early church the great majority of Christians were slaves because God called slaves to salvation rather than Roman emperors, Jewish Pharisees or Sadducees, or Greek philosophers. God chose slaves.

Take a good look around you: who are your brothers and sisters in Christ? There are not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble. Please notice that he doesn't say not any but he says not many. Selina, the Countess of Huntington was a famous Christian worker used greatly of God to help many of God's people. She said, "I thank God for the letter 'M' in many." God has called a few people from among those who are wise, mighty, and noble. But for the most part, God has called the foolish, the politically weak, and those not well born.

Paul continued and explained why God did not choose mighty, wise, and noble people:

But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are (1 Corinthians 1:27-28).

Did you notice the emphasis in these verses? Three times Paul says, "God has chosen". Why is it so hard to accept that God chooses people for salvation? Because realizing that God chooses people ultimately destroys the idea that an individual can get to heaven of his own volition: he has to be chosen. Some people use John 3:16 to argue that whosoever wants to can be saved, therefore God cannot possibly choose people to be saved. What if a person wants to trust Jesus Christ but he is not chosen? That is impossible because apart from God's election nobody would want to come to Christ according to John 6:44: "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day." (NKJV). The word translated 'draws' has the idea of an irresistible force. If a person has any desire for Jesus Christ it's only because God has called him. Arthur Pink said, "God's sovereign election is the truth most loathed and reviled by the majority of those claiming to be believers. Let it be pla inly announced that salvation originated not in the will of man but in the will of God, that were it not so none would or could be saved. For as a result of the fall man has lost all desire and will unto that which is good and that even the elect themselves have to be made willing. And loud will be the cries of indignation against such teaching. Merit mongers will not allow the supremacy of the divine will and the impedance of the human will. Consequently they who are the most bitter in denouncing election by the sovereign pleasure of God are the warmest in crying up the free will of fallen man." Man in his falleness wants a part in his salvation because he wants to exercise his pride. He wants to assume some responsibility for having believed; he wants some credit for having made the right choice. A correct understanding of God's election disallows any believer from feeling superior to any unbeliever.

The idea of God choosing people, particularly weak people, is a recurrent theme in Scripture:

Deuteronomy 7:6-8 (KJV) For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: But because the LORD loved you..."

Why did God choose Israel? Because he loved Israel. He didn't sit in heaven and say, "I hope some nation will believe in Me and choose Me." God chose them! Most people are not bothered because God chose a nation, but they are upset that God chooses individuals. Did God choose Abraham because he was searching for God? No, Abraham was a pagan moon worshiper.

The idea that man has some personal integrity and freedom that God dare not violate opposes the Bible:

Psalms 65:4 (KJV) Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple.

The nature of our election rests in God's sovereign choice as we see in Acts 13:46-48:

Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, "It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us: 'I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, That you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.'" Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. (NKJV)

To most of Paul's and Barnabas' audience, the message of the cross was foolishness, but to the ones God had chosen it was the power of God.

Not only are we bothered that God chooses, but we are also disturbed by the types of people He chooses. God has chosen the foolish, weak, base, and despised things, at least that is what the world thinks of God's choice. James 2:5 bears this out:

Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him? (KJV)

Christianity teaches that those who matter to no one else matter intensely to God. We Christians are the foolish, weak, base, and despised of the world but the chosen of God.

People have used the lowliness of Christians as an argument against Christianity. Sometime close to A.D. 178, the philosopher Celcus wrote one of the bitterest attacks upon Christianity that was ever written. He said "Let no cultured person draw near [to Christianity], none wise, none sensible; for all that kind of thing we count evil; but if any man is ignorant, if any is wanting in sense and culture, if any is a fool let him come boldly."

Why has God chosen foolish, weak, base, and despised people? According to the text, He did it to shame the wise and mighty and to bring to nought the things that are. He is demonstrating to all men that we are all sinners and in need of divine grace. We are all incapable of earning God's favor; we could never get to heaven on our merit, no matter who we are or what we have accomplished.

1 Corinthians 1:28 says that God chose things which are despised and things that are not. The root form of the word 'despised' means to be considered as nothing. The people who society considered as nobodies are the chosen of God. The phrase "things that are not" translates the most contemptible expression in the Greek language. We could translate if "the nonexistent." "Being" was everything to the Greeks so to be called a nothing was the worst insult. The world may mock us and hate us and consider us to be nothing, but we are the choice of God. That's exciting and encouraging. How many believers long for fame and fortune? Thank God that you are one of His chosen ones.

Have you ever wished for the salvation of some athlete, or entertainer, or influential person because of the impact he could have for the Lord? But one reason that the Lord chose for the church to be made up of simple, humble people was to testify to the world that He doesn't need the world's rank, influence, and wisdom.

According to God, the greatest man who ever lived, apart from Jesus Christ, was John the baptizer. He had no formal education, no money, no political position, no social pedigree, no impressive wardrobe or oratory. Yet Jesus said in Matthew 11:11,

Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

This man fit none of the world's standards but he fit all of God's standards. What made him so great? First, John faithfully fulfilled his calling as a herald: he was consumed with pointing people to Christ and his work of atonement. "John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, 'Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!'" (John 1:29, NKJV). Secondly, John was a humble man who sought no personal glory as he said in John 3:30 (NKJV): "He must increase, but I must decrease."

God chooses men like John, the foolish, weak, base, and despised of the world so that "no flesh should glory in his presence" (1 Corinthians 1:29). The Greek conveys the idea that God purposely chooses lowly people to do away with boasting before Him. Those who are elect have no basis for glorying before God since we are not elect because we are wise, politically powerful, or well born. We are elect because of God's choice, and God alone deserves the praise and glory for our salvation.

The word "glory" is from the Greek word kauchaomai, which means to boast or to pride oneself in something. Paul frequently reproves the readers for the sin of boasting (1 Corinthians 3:21; 2 Corinthians 10:17; 11:12,18). That men had no cause for boasting was an emphatic note in Paul's presentation of the gospel.

Ephesians 2:8,9 (KJV) For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.
Romans 3:27 (NKJV) Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.
Romans 4:2 (NKJV) For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

Our boasting is not in ourselves, which is the essence of sin because it is pride, but in Christ whose work alone has brought salvation.

Paul has established that believers have been sovereignly chosen by God for salvation and Paul continues in 1 Corinthians 1:30 to teach the origin and effect of the believer's position:

But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God; and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

Notice that our union with Christ originates "of him" which speaks of God. Paul very clearly teaches that the believer's position originates with God. This is the crescendo of Paul's argument found in 1 Corinthians 1:18-30 that human wisdom plays no part in man's salvation. In 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 Paul teaches that God elects men to salvation, God chooses those who will be saved, and He choose those who seem like the least desirable candidates. He chose you to be in Christ not because of anything you are or have done but because of His good pleasure. Paul does not eliminate human responsibility; all men are responsible before God. Man's salvation originates with God's initiative and it culminates with God's perfection of it. Salvation from beginning to end is the work of God. If God is the source of all we are and have, where does pride fit in? There is no cause for pride.

Each individual's salvation originates with God. But what does Paul mean when he says, "You are in Christ Jesus"? Dr. H. A. Ironside told a story that illustrates this phrase. He visited a sheep ranch at the time of year when the lambs were being born. As he looked out over the flock, he noticed a lamb that was rather ugly and very weak. He commented to the sheep rancher that it would be an act of mercy to kill that lamb rather than let it live. The rancher called for a young man and asked him to bring the lamb. When the lamb was brought near Dr. Ironside discovered that it was actually a lamb wrapped in the skin of another lamb. The rancher explained that during lambing season a sheep rancher faces two major problems, orphaned lambs that no other mother sheep will accept and ewes who die mourning the loss of a newborn lamb. To solve this problem, ranchers would take the skin of the dead lamb and wrap it around an orphaned lamb, and then take that orphaned lamb to the mother that had lost her lamb. The mother would smell the skin of the outer lamb and would accept the orphan as her own. She would accept it because it was in the skin of her own lamb. What a great illustration of our being in Christ! God accepts men and women who are in his Son Jesus Christ as it says in Ephesians 1:6. This phrase "in Christ" is found only in the epistles of Paul. Paul used it six times in 1 Corinthians and one of the most remarkable uses is found in verse thirty of chapter one: But of him are ye in Christ Jesus.

The rest of verse thirty tells us the effect of our union with Christ: God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. Paul has very forcibly argued that the apparently foolish message of the cross--the doctrine of atonement--is, in fact, the wisdom of God. It is that message that brings a man salvation and it is God's wisdom. The Greek text suggests that righteousness, sanctification, and redemption explain the word wisdom, and are subordinate to it. When God brings an individual into union with Jesus Christ all the riches involved in His wise plan of salvation belong to that individual. The riches of God's wise plan of salvation are righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. These three constitute the fruit of God's plan of salvation; they explain God's wisdom.

Righteousness, sanctification, and redemption are very important Christian doctrines. Righteousness means to be right with God and to conform perfectly to God's standard. The definitive passage of righteousness in the Old Testament is Deuteronomy 25 where Moses exhorts the children of Israel to use honest weights in their homes and business transactions. In their culture, goods for sale were weighed to determine the value. A dishonest seller would use a fifteen ounce weight, but charge for a pound. A dishonest buyer would use a seventeen ounce weight and only pay for a pound. Moses told them to have right weights to make sure they conformed to the standard. Righteousness is perfect conformity to a standard; our standard is the holy God and we all fall very short. So Jesus Christ gives the believing sinner His righteousness according to 2 Corinthians 5:21. God declares us righteous because of our standing in Jesus Christ. This is a legal or forensic act: we are righteous because of our union with Jesus Christ. Righteousness is one of the riches of divine wisdom.

Sanctification is the second of the riches of divine wisdom. It means to set apart for God's use and God's possession. There are four aspects of sanctification: primary (election), positional, practical, and perfect. Here Paul is referring to positional sanctification as he did in 1 Corinthians 1:2. We have been set apart by God for His possession and use. We have been declared holy! We are as holy as Jesus Christ. This is also one of the riches of divine wisdom. We are righteous and we are holy.

Redemption is the third of the riches of divine wisdom. This word would have triggered the thinking of every man and woman in the days of the New Testament because it suggested the freedom of a slave resulting from the payment of a ransom price. The word is used three times in Scripture to speak of the whole process of redemption (Ephesians 1:9.) The other uses speak about the final aspect of deliverance from evil and sin into the very presence of God. The use of the word redemption in 1 Corinthians 1:30 speaks of our final redemption or glorification as in Romans 8:23:

Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. (NKJV)

Redemption or glorification also is one of the riches of divine wisdom.

Paul tells us that as a result of our union with Christ we are possessors of all that is involved in the wise plan of salvation. The three doctrines of righteousness, sanctification, and redemption summarize the whole plan of salvation as Paul teaches in the first eight chapters of Romans.

God has given believers the riches of His wise plan of salvation "that, as it is written, 'He who glories, let him glory in the LORD,'" (1 Corinthians 1:31). In other words, since our salvation is all of God, we have nothing to boast about in and of ourselves. The quotation is from Jeremiah 9:23-24. The doctrine of election teaches us that all the glory and praise for our salvation belongs to God who has chosen us to be in Christ. Look back at 1 Corinthians 1:29-31: verse thirty states that salvation from beginning to end is solely a work of God. Verses twenty-nine and thirty-one bracket this teaching with a reminder that all glory belongs to God. Soli Deo Gloria! To God alone be the glory!

In 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 Paul continues his theme. 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 defended his basic thesis: human wisdom plays no part in man's salvation. Since that is so, what message should we deliver to the world? Paul uses himself as an example: because human wisdom plays no part in man's salvation, his message, his method, and his motivation were not based in any way upon human wisdom:

1 Corinthians 2:1-2 (NKJV) And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Paul's message was "Christ crucified", foolishness to the Greeks and a stumbling to the Jews. Paul is not saying that this is all he talked about, but this was the core of his message: "Because Christ was crucified on your behalf God can forgive you. His righteous demands have been satisfied".

In verse three Paul shifts from his preaching to his person: "I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling." These phrases simply describe a spirit of dependence and subjection to God's authority which marked his ministry. In Philippians 2:12 Paul uses these same words to describe how to live the Christian life.

Since Paul spoke the message in a spirit of dependence and subjection, he could also say, "And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power" (1 Corinthians 2:4). The methodology that he used also reflected his theology. Paul did not use the persuasive words of man's wisdom. The Greek professional speakers in Corinth had devised very elaborate and beautiful systems for concluding an argument. They were so profound and so intellectual that they were very persuasive in bringing people to their point of view. Instead of the arguments or wisdom of men Paul had a demonstration of the Spirit and of power. The word demonstration occurs only here in the Greek New Testament and it is a very strong word that conveys the idea of a convincing proof as in a court of law. Paul's methodology was to depend upon the Spirit of God to bring a man or woman to Jesus Christ.

When men depend upon their own wisdom to accomplish God's work, the results can be disastrous. King David ignored God's instruction for transporting the ark of the covenant and had men put it on a cart. As the cart moved over some rough ground, the ark wobbled and one of the men nearby touched the ark to steady it. God immediately struck the man dead. God's methods produce God's results; human methods produce tragedies.

Today our methodology reflects our theology. The church uses many man-made methods to try to bring men to Christ which are merely human tactics to accomplish God's work. One of the contemporary means of human persuasion is the altar call at the end of the service. This is a recent development in the church which began in America in the middle of the nineteenth century. The altar call was designed to get people to make a move, to come to the front of the church and receive Jesus Christ. More often then not, the altar call is a gauge for the pride of the pastor and the wisdom of man. Paul saw no place for calculated theatrics and techniques to manipulate a response because he knew that the Holy Spirit would minister through the message of the cross. Saving faith does not consist of walking an aisle or praying at an altar; saving faith is trust in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Even that faith is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8,9).

Paul told the Corinthians that he did not use impressive orations "that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God," (1 Corinthians 2:5). Faith neither originates in nor is supported by human wisdom. Earlier in this century Billy Sunday, the baseball player, preached to millions, but the doctors and bishops and theologians of his day could not get the ear of the people. They sometimes mocked at the million converts of Mr. Sunday, but they envied him. Moody, with a fifth grade education, and Spurgeon, who never went to college, show that the power of God is in the message and not the messenger or the methodology.

God sent Paul with the message of the cross in order that faith should rest on or exist in divine power so that no one could boast. The main point is that the whole of salvation is God's work. The Corinthians were made Christians by divine power. All the work and initiative in salvation are the Lord's and therefore all the glory is His also. Soli Deo Gloria!