Read: 1 Corinthians 1:26-31
God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. (v. 27)
Yesterday we considered how the cross was dismissed as “foolishness” to the Greeks. But it wasn’t just the Greco-Roman world that found the cross absurd. It was also the Jewish community, God’s covenant people. Paul wrote that Christ’s crucifixion was “a stumbling block to Jews” (v. 23). The Greek word Paul uses here is skandalon—scandal!
Why? Because Deuteronomy 21:23 is clear that whoever is hanged on a tree is cursed by God. This explains why so many in the Jewish community rejected Jesus as the Messiah. In their view, God would never place his messengers, especially the Messiah, under a curse!
But to those whom God has called, wrote Paul—both Jews and Greeks—the crucified Christ is the power and wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom; and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
Rather than boasting in their own wisdom and strength, Paul called them to boast only in the Lord and what he has done for them! They were “nobodies” by human standards, but God made them into “somebodies.” And so it is with us. When we embrace Christ and what he’s done for us on the cross, we experience God’s true wisdom and power. We become a community of somebodies, gripped and transformed by this scandalous yet wonderous cross.
As you pray, thank God for his amazing grace and the way he has chosen you in Christ to be his very own.
Brian Keepers has been an ordained pastor in the Reformed Church in America for more than 20 years. He is currently serving as the lead pastor of Trinity Reformed Church in Orange City, Iowa. Brian is married to Tammy, and they have two daughters and a granddaughter.
