September 5, 2004

THE PREACHING OF THE CROSS

1 Corinthians 1:18

   "For the preaching of the cross is to them than perish foolishness, but unto us who are saved, it is the power of God" (1 Cor. 1:18). Sharper contrasts are hard to find: "foolishness" versus the "wisdom and power of God," "them that perish" versus "us who are saved," the "wisdom of men" versus the "wisdom of God." To each side the other seems foolish!

   Paul was careful "lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect" (1:17). Neither baptism nor any issue could compete with the "message of the cross." Paul surveyed the world's wisdom and found it wanting. The world in its quest of wisdom to "find out God" confessed their ignorance by erecting a statue to "the unknown god."

   To Israel Moses said, "keep therefore and do them (the statutes and judgments which he had taught them), for this is your wisdom and your understanding..." (Deut. 4:6). But Israel Failed to recognize God's wisdom and did not hold it fast. After completing His revelation to Israel God was silent 400 years. During this time the Gentiles blossomed and boasted in the wisdom of Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Zeno and the like. Yet through Isaiah God had said, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." And again, "Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world?" (1 Cor. 1:19-20).

   One put it well, "The cross of Christ exposes the vanity and hollow-ness of all the world's wisdom. The Greeks of could boast of Homer, the father of poetry; of Herodotus, the father of history; of Strabo, the father of geography; of Thales, the father of philosophy, and of Galen the father of medicine, but this galaxy of stars pales into insignificance when viewed in the light of the cross."

   That "the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom" did not originate with Solomon's proverb 9:10. God's wisdom was evident when God told Adam not to eat of the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Gen. 2:17). Under Satan's influence Eve rejected God's word and "saw that the tree was...to be desired to make one wise...." From that day to this, God's wisdom is challenged by man's wisdom!

Ivan L. Burgener