GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
1 CORINTHIANS 1:25
25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.
For you and me and for everyone with faith in Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God by saving us through the sacrifice of the cross is all the proof we need that Jesus is God, that he suffered in our place, and purchased the forgiveness of our sins with his own blood and prepared a place for each of us in heaven (John 14:1-2). This is subjective proof, the kind that is evident to the one who has it, like knowing a kitten is soft by petting, that a flower smells pretty by smelling, or that a child loves you through the simple act of hugging. But Paul wants to show another kind of proof: the objective proof that God’s wisdom and power are divine and supreme.
The thing that is foolish on God’s part, or that seems foolish to the outsider, and that seems weak, is the same message of the cross. Paul will return to this same abstract truth at the end of the next letter: “To be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God’s power” (2 Corinthians 13:4). Grammatically, we want to be clear that Paul doesn’t actually say, “God’s foolishness” or “God’s weakness.” He uses the third Greek gender, the neuter, to refer to something outside of God and which is not part of God nor one of his attributes. He says, “The thing that is foolish on God’s part,” and “the thing that is weak on God’s part,” or maybe more clearly: the weak thing God uses, and the foolish thing God uses. The crucifixion was an act of man, of the Romans and of the Jewish high priest and his cronies, but it was picked up, like David’s smooth stone when he went out to meet the Philistine (1 Samuel 17:40), and put to a better use. The crucifixion was picked up by God and used to fulfill his plan to rescue man through the sacrifice of his son for our sins. The priests used knives on their sacrifices. Abraham picked up a knife to offer his sacrifice (Genesis 22:10). Christ could have been murdered with a knife or a sword, just as the sin offering was slaughtered (Leviticus 4:33). He could have been hanged, for Moses’ words that we apply to Christ could surely have been applied to a hanging: “Cursed is anyone who is hung on a tree” (Deuteronomy 21:23). Luther says: “Although these words (‘hung on a tree’) were not spoken of Christ, St. Paul, in Galatians 3:13, refers them to him specifically. And although Christ did not die as an accursed criminal, the words are nevertheless applicable; for he wanted to bear the curse obediently for our sakes… He was holy and righteous, and he made others righteous” (LW 22:230).
When Christ was condemned, the devil and the high priest of the Jews wanted everyone to think that he was cursed by God. They made sure that he was mocked and mimicked. “‘You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!’” (Matthew 27:40-41. And again the Apostle tells us: “In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. ‘He saved others, but he can’t save himself! He’s the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, “I am the Son of God”’” (Matthew 27:42-43). They wanted their mocking to create the illusion that Christ was punished justly. “But not so fast!” Luther declares. “A person can be dealt with unjustly. The tree on which one hangs does not convict and curse. You may behead someone, but it doesn’t follow automatically from this that justice was done him. Everyone knows that many a man suffers injustice.”
So the manner of Christ’s execution did not really matter. His blood was shed, however it was shed, to atone for our sins, like a bird’s neck being wrung (Leviticus 1:15) or a bull getting its throat cut (Leviticus 1:5). The matter of his death, not the manner, was key. The matter was the penalty we all owe for our sins. And John says: “Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up: ‘You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.’ He did not say this on his own,” John explains, “but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation” (John 11:49-51). This is truly why they plotted to take Jesus’ life– because they were misled by their own unbelieving priests into doing the devil’s work. But the devil was mistaken, too. He may have sought to kill Jesus to silence him once and for all, but he silenced himself instead, and brought about an end to his power.
Christ has won the victory over the devil, over sin, and over the grave. Certainly this seems foolish, and this seems weak. But this foolishness is wiser than man’s wisdom. This weakness is stronger than any strength in man. This is how God saved us. Me and you. And he will never let us go.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – 1 Corinthians 1:25 Foolishness, weakness