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Friday, February 19, 2016

God's Wisdom Reveals Man's Folly


As I have been continuing to enjoy what God’s Book is teaching me about how “the word of the cross… is the power of God” (I Corinthians 1:18), I have had to consider why so many people believe they are smarter than God.

Today, I got my answer:

“Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For 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.” (I Corinthians 1:20-21)

I thought of all the wise men, and scribes, and religious leaders, and debaters, who tried to beat Jesus in a battle of wisdom, and left knowing that he once again made them look foolish.

I thought of others like the magicians of Egypt, and the Pharaoh who would not let God’s people go, and the mob that called for Jesus’ crucifixion, and the religious elite who tried to stop the church from growing, and even a man named Saul who tried his best to destroy the church. All were shown to be utterly foolish in their attempts to stand against the wisdom and the purposes of God.

So, it is one of these, Saul who became the apostle Paul, that God now records in his Book for all to read, that God has “made foolish the wisdom of the world.” Richard Dawkins’ attempt to deny God is proven as foolish. Bill Nye’s claim that the Church’s preaching of Jesus as the Christ, as Creator, as the crucified Savior, will be erased from future generations, is proven as foolish.

Why is this?

Because God did something in his wisdom that makes it impossible for Worldlings to know God through their wisdom. It pleased him to bring his message into the world through his Son’s birth of a virgin, his first bed a manger, his first witnesses shepherds, making disciples of fishermen, growing his kingdom in the hearts of prostitutes, and drunks, and tax collectors.  

To this day, “through the folly of what we preach”, God continues to “save those who believe.” Where religions and governments seek to persecute the church into oblivion, people are turning to the “word of the cross” in growing numbers. Where scientific publications seek to stamp out belief in Jesus as Creator and Savior by denying equality to Jesus’ brothers, people are coming to Christ because they cannot escape “the word of the cross”.

And so, while the world says we are foolish to believe in a Savior who died for sins, God speaks the word of the cross into the hearts of the poor in spirit; he brings them to mourn the sinful condition of their souls; he leads them to meekly admit that they are unable to fix themselves, and so he graciously awakens in them a hunger and thirst for the righteousness they see in Jesus Christ, offered to them as the free gift of God.

As the poor in spirit see the power of God changing their hearts through the word of the cross, they come into the kingdom of heaven through repentance and faith; they are comforted in all the ways sin has broken and ruined them; they discover their adoption as sons, and co-heirs with Jesus Christ, and their hunger for the righteousness they long for is satisfied through their faith-relationship with Jesus Christ.


The bottom line is that, anyone who takes God on in a battle of wits and wisdom will be proven to be foolish. Anyone who repents of the foolishness of the sinful world, and turns to Jesus Christ in faith, will discover the joy of knowing God’s wit and wisdom forever. Who wouldn’t want a Father like that?

© 2016 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)

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