1 Corinthians 1:24 Commentary and Bible Study

There is a lot about sovereign election in these words. ‘To them that are called’, by God and by his mercy and kindness, and by his initiative. The whole world is resistant to God and none of us would have believed in him, but God has overruled in the case of millions and has broken through into our hearts and called us by a prior work of grace. The apostle does not make any difference between saved Jews and saved Gentiles: they are all one in Christ Jesus. There is only one New Testament church and it is composed of saved Jews and saved Gentiles. ‘Christ the power of God.’ Christ is the power of God. He created the world; he sustains the world. He alone purchased salvation by his atoning death. He alone by and through his Holy Spirit works in hearts and brings us to himself. He is the power of God. Christ can break through by his mighty power all the brainwashing of the world that made me a worldling, aspiring for things in this world, wanting things for myself, putting number one first, spurning God and slandering him. The power of God broke through all the propaganda and all the brainwashing of the world and bought me to Christ. It is a work of grace. It is a miracle of God. ‘And the wisdom of God.’ How wise is the method of salvation! Throughout history the nations of the world have wanted power and influence and territory. Ideologies have arisen and people have wanted to capture the minds and the hearts of the millions. How have they done it? Usually by force, by conquest, or else by cunning. Sometimes they have seized the power of education taking over the world of fiction and films and books, so that they can gradually turn a whole nation into people who were once against homosexuality into people who are for it. What is the wisdom of God, by contrast? That those who are redeemed will be won not by force, not by cunning and manipulation, but by the power of love. The wisdom of God! The exclusive power of God. The apostle Paul puts it this way, ‘Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.’ There is nothing wiser, nothing kinder than the way of salvation. There is nothing more powerful because, the foolishness the so-called foolishness of God, is wiser than men. Christ is God who died as a criminal, on a cross! Foolish! No, it is infinitely wiser than anything created by man. All man’s ideologies collapse and pass and are superseded by something else, but the gospel goes on and saves for ever. It is wiser than man. Even the method of God is wiser than the method of man: that he should use humble means to convert even the great and the noble and the wise if he chooses, so that the work and the power and the glory is so evidently his. It is so wise, because it brings glory to God. The foolishness of God is wiser than men. And the so-called weakness of God. Of course, there isn’t any weakness really, but in the estimation of man, the weakness of God. He used fishermen as disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, and yet they turned the world upside down, and the weakness of God was stronger than men.