1 Corinthians 1:18-25

Butler's Comments

Unity Operates Through the Instrumentality of the Gospel (1 Corinthians 1:18-25)

18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19For it is written,

I will destroy the wisdom of the

wise,

and the cleverness of the clever I

will thwart.

20Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

1 Corinthians 1:18-20 Because the Gospel is Revelational: Unification of men and women from all different strata of humankind in one brotherhood of peace and love is operative only by the instrumentality of the gospel of Christ. That is so because only the gospel of Christ is the final, complete and perfect revelation from God. It alone is the divinely-sanctioned, perfectly-delivered, and supernaturally-functional instrument for man's redemption, Paul says the word (Gr. logos, teaching, doctrine) of the cross is foolishness (Gr. moria, moronic, stupidity) to those who are continuing to perish. However, God's declaration and demonstration that in the cross (and the resurrection) of Jesus Christ he atoned for all the sins of all the world is the dynamic (Gr. dunamis, power, dynamic) of God to those who are continuing to be saved through it. The Greek prepositions apollumenois (perishing) and sozomenois (being saved) are present tense, denoting a continuing action. Those who continue willfully to perish, reject the fact and doctrine of the cross as moronic. It does not make sense, from a strictly human perspective, that someone else should suffer (or could suffer) for my sins. It does not seem reasonable; it does not seem fair. Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam, former head of the World Council of Churches, wrote the following:

We hear much of the substitutionary theory of the atonement. This theory to me is immoral. If Jesus paid it all, or if He is the substitute for me, or if He is the sacrifice for all the sin of the world, then why discuss forgiveness? The books are closed. Another has paid the debt, borne the penalty. I owe nothing. I am absolved. I cannot see forgiveness as predicated upon the act of some one else. It is my sin. I must atone. (A Testament of the Faith, 1958, pg. 144)

That is precisely why the doctrine of the substitutionary, vicarious atonement of Jesus Christ on the cross at Calvary must be established on the basis of the historically-verified resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It is a doctrine that is unacceptable to human pride. It is a doctrine that must be accepted on the basis of faith (a faith based on verification). It is a doctrine revealed. Jesus teaches that man's willingness to accept revelation from God is primary in the matter of kingdom citizenship (see comments on Matthew 11:1-30, The Gospel of Matthew, Vol. II, pp. 426-594, by Harold Fowler, College Press). So long as there are those claiming citizenship in the kingdom of God unwilling to let God give arbitrary, indisputable, seemingly-irrational revelations, there will be division. No nation can have a dependable, unified army if it has no final authoritythe commander-in-chief.

1 Corinthians 1:19 is a quotation of Isaiah 29:14 as God's prophecy that he would, in the messianic era, deliver a divine revelation which would destroy dependence upon human pride and wisdom for salvation. The student should study both Isaiah Chapter s 28 and 29 in their entirety. Isaiah is predicting the messianic kingdom to come as one in which men would humble themselves and let God teach them by revelation rather than presumptuously thinking they knew all they needed to know through their own wisdom. Isaiah has a great deal to say (and so do all the prophets) about the fact that God is aiming to build in the messianic age (the church) a kingdom filled with people willingly surrendered to total guidance, in every area of life, under the revealed word of his Messiah. That is a fundamental issue of the prophets; they shall all be taught by God (see Isaiah 54:13; John 6:45). Through thousands of years of history God allowed one human philosophy, religion, and political system after another to come and go. They each repeated themselves, so that even in Solomon's day he could say, There is nothing new under the sun.

God is onehe is not divided. His mind, will and purpose are all united. The unity of God's revealed will (the Bible) may be thoroughly demonstrated by simply comparing it with the pronouncements and writings of the scribes and debaters of the ages. Philosophers, theologians, scientists, teachers and sages have contradicted and negated one another consistently since the world began. Their inability to find unity in human tenets has been the cause of men dividing themselves from one another and from God. But the Bible, because it is a divine revelation of the One Unified Being, God, produces unity when every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God is destroyed by the gospel and every human thought is taken captive to obey Christ (cf. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5). The power of the gospel to change wicked, idolatrous pagans into loving, believing, hoping people demonstrated the utter foolishness of the alleged wisdom of the ancient philosophies and philosophers. Claiming to be wise, the ancient philosophers exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and became fools (see Romans 1:18-32). That was not simply theoreticalthat was demonstrated in life! It still is today! Human unity operates through the instrumentality of the gospel, or it doesn-'t operate at all!

1 Corinthians 1:21-23 Because The Gospel is Reportable: The gospel is real. It is history. It is not theoretical or ephemeral. Human beings make theories. God does things in history and in reality. God was wise enough to give men the freedom to theorize if they choose. In this freedom God is able to demonstrate vividly the finitude of man. Since man without God is able only to theorize he should acknowledge his limitations. Man should welcome an Absolute Being with absolute wisdomespecially since such a Being has revealed Himself in history. When God decided that man's inability to redeem himself had been sufficiently established in the demonstration of the foolishness of human theories, the Son of God was sent to the world to establish historically and experientially the absolute wisdom of God.

The KJV translation of 1 Corinthians 1:21 is unfortunate. Paul is not saying that preaching is foolishness, or that the world will be saved by the foolishness of preaching. Many people preach. Politicians preach; philosophers and moralists preach; terrorists and anarchists preach, so it is not the methodology of preaching that the world calls foolish. The RSV is much clearer when it translates, ... through the folly of what we preach to save.. The world calls the Christian message, the gospel of the cross, foolish. But, clearly, it is the message of the gospel that saves human beings from lawlessness and wickedness, The Greek phrase, tou kerugmatos clearly intends the reader to understand that it is the thing preached (the message) which the world calls foolish. But that message is of the accomplished redemption of Christ and God has chosen to save through it. This redemption was wrought upon the cross and verified by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Its proclamation and acceptance saves men unto the glorious destiny for which God created them. T. R. Applebury wrote: While the basic facts of the gospel are the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, the gospel is not limited to these facts, for it takes the whole Bible to tell the whole story of the whole counsel of God about salvation through His Son. In the Old Testament it is seen in prophecy, promise, and type. In the New Testament it is seen in the facts of the life of Christ; in the history of conversion to Christ; in the explanation of the essentials of righteousness; in the application of the gospel to daily life; and, finally, in the prophecy of the victory of Christ and of those who accept His gospel. (Studies in First and Second Corinthians, by T. R. Applebury, p. 23, College Press, 1963). If the Christian message (kerugmatos) was only of a crucified, dead Messiah, it would be foolishness. Any claim to atone for the sins of the whole world by someone who had no power to conquer death would be an absurd, abortive claim. But the Christian message, authenticated by eyewitnesses, friends and enemies alike, is of a Messiah who conquered death. Therefore his claims of atonement are trustworthy and will transform or regenerate those who continue to believe him. God transforms the minds and personalities of sinners through the word of his Son's redemptive program, the gospel. But man must believe that. God created man with the capability to believe and respond to God's promises and commands. So Paul says, God was pleased to save men through the agency and instrumentality of his word. Paul uses the Greek present tense when he writes the word believe (Gr. pisteuontas) indicating that those who are being saved (see comments, 1 Corinthians 1:18) are those who are continuing to believe.

While those continuing to believe the facts of the gospel are being saved, those continuing to demand signs and continuing to seek wisdom from some source other than the gospel are being lost! The Jews continually demanded signs. Paul uses the present tense Greek verb here, aitousi, indicating that the Jews were not satisfied with the signs Jesus gave of his Messiahship, but continued demanding them. Jesus called these Jews, an evil and adulterous generation for continually demanding signs (Matthew 12:38 ff.) when sufficient signs were already promised (Jesus-' miracles and his resurrection from the dead). God is not pleased with people who continually put him to the test, asking for signs, when sufficient signs have been given (cf. Exodus 17:1-7; Numbers 14:22; Deuteronomy 18:18-19; Luke 16:30-31). Elevating spiritual (miraculous) gifts above teaching and preaching the word line upon line and precept upon precept is a clear indication of spiritual immaturity (cf. Isaiah 28:7-13; 1 Corinthians 14:20 ff.). The Jews were even demanding a sign from Jesus when he was hanging on the cross (Matthew 27:41-44). Jesus pronounced condemnation on whole cities (cf. Matthew 11:20-24; Luke 10:1-20) for demanding signs and then not repenting when many signs were done. It is not one's proximity to supernatural demonstrations or even persons which saves, but faith in the deity and divine work of Jesus. Jesus said some at the judgment would claim proximity to his fleshly presence as merit for salvation (cf. Luke 13:22-30) but to no avail. It is not the possession of supernatural gifts which signified the salvation of the Christians at Corinth (for they came behind no other in such gifts). That which saves is faith in the reportable, reliable redemptive work of Christ on the cross and at the empty tomb. Without the word being preached there can be no faith (Romans 10:17); without the seed (Word) being sown, there can be no fruit produced (Luke 8:11 ff.).

1 Corinthians 1:24-25 Because the Gospel is Reliable: Unity operates through the instrumentality of the Gospel because the Gospel is the only source of power available to man to break down barriers of racial, cultural, and religious divisions. It is reliable first, of course, because it is authenticated by miracles and signs and fulfilled prophecies (Hebrews 2:3-4). But the world should now acknowledge its reliability because it has been demonstrated through 2000 years as the only workable instrument of true spiritual unity for the human race. Producing human spiritual unity in love and peace through universal human philosophy, culture and government was tried for 700 years by four successive world empires (Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome). That did not produce! In fact, it produced the oppositeslavery, hatred, war and wickedness. Only the righteousness of God in the redemptive work of Christ (which the world calls foolishness) is powerful enough to effect the unity of the human race under the constraints of love, peace, justice and righteousness. That is what is taking place in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ because that is where redemption is made available. The church, dwelling place of the living word of God, is the living organism in the world, kept alive by God's Spirit, where men may be redeemed. The church is the only place where men do not lift up sword against one another and where they learn war against one another no more. In the world are the lawless. For them only a superficial form of unity and temporary restraint against wickedness is maintained by enforcement of law (cf. 1 Timothy 1:8-11; Romans 13:1-7). But for the citizen of God's kingdom, all arbitration is done peaceably and with love by the power of the Spirit of Christ in their minds and hearts (cf. Colossians 3:1-24).

The Gospel is the only reliable dynamic for bringing about spiritual oneness between man and God and man and man. Christ proved it by the supernatural verification of his redemptive plan; history had proven it by experience. It is imperative that all those who profess to be followers of Christ focus all their energies to the proclamation of that message.