God's Wisdom

God’s Wisdom

“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.  
For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” 
Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?  
For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.  
Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom,  but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,  but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  
For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. 
Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.  
But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  
He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are,  so that no one may boast before him.  
It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.  
Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.” 
When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.  
For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.  
I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.  
My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,  so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power. 
1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5
Here we have Paul pointing out that Christianity, and the preaching of the cross is foolishness to both Jew and Greeks.
The Jews were looking for a conquering Messiah not a suffering one. The Greeks by their way of thinking could not understand that a great man who claimed to be all Jesus did, would let himself go to the cross.
Even today one has to admit that for a someone who is to be saviour of the world to be put to death is illogical at least to man’s way of thinking. But then God does not do things the way man does them.
God did not have is son born to high birth. He chose a poor girl and her carpenter husband to look after his child. And while the message of Jesus is for all. His ministry reached the average person on the street first.

The message of the Gospel requires nothing from the individual but faith.
Kenneth L Barker states,
“The Corinthian Christians themselves were living proof that salvation does not depend on anything in themselves, so that those who are saved can only “boast in the Lord” (v. 31). Their salvation did not spring from the cleverness of human intellect or the centers of human power but from the free grace of God." 
( Zondervan’s NIV Study Bible copy right 2002)
Paul makes it clear,
“It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.  
Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.” 
                                                                        1 Corinthians 1:30,31.
That is the beauty of Christianity it is God reaching down to man. Saying you are saved by My Grace not by your works.
In sending Jesus down to this earth to be born of parents of low birth, to live among and preach to average people, means God fully understands all that man is going through.
Think about it. Jesus experienced everything it is to be a man. Everything from the mundane such as walking along a dusty road. To feeling the sun and rain. To constantly being harassed by his enemies and ultimately suffering and dying for a crime he didn’t commit.
Man’s logic would be to come in power wipe out his enemies and attempt by force to convert those who didn’t believe.
I like the words of Napoleon when it came to Jesus he got it right saying,
“I know men and I tell you, Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love; and at this hour, millions would die for him.”
“I search in vain history to find similar to Jesus Christ, or anything which can approach the gospel.  Neither history nor humanity, nor ages, nor nature, offer me anything with which I am able to compare it or to explain it. Here everything is extraordinary.”
  Think about it.