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The foolishness of God wiser than men:
v. 20. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
v. 21. For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
v. 22. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom;
v. 23. but we preach Christ Crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block and unto the Greeks foolishness,
v. 24. but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God.
v. 25. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
In a series of rhetorical questions the apostle brings out the foolishness of this world's wisdom when compared with the wisdom of God. Where is the wise? Where are all the wise men of the world with all their wisdom? What has become of all the learned Greeks whose wisdom was praised so highly? Not one sinner has ever been converted by their sayings and writings; not one person has obtained salvation by following their rules of conduct. Where is the scribe? What is true of the heathen philosophers is true also of the Jewish lawyer and his insistence upon the righteousness of works. All this is false wisdom and must vanish before the light of eternal truth. Where is the disputer, the rhetorician of this world? The men that prided themselves on their ability to sway multitudes according to their will, to make them accept as right and true whatever their skill dictated, are vanished with the others that were filled with intellectual pride. Did not God render foolish the wisdom of the world? So far as God was concerned, the wisdom of this world always was folly, but through the revelation of the heavenly wisdom in the crucified Christ God has judged and condemned this world's wisdom as foolishness. All the knowledge that has been acquired by men since the dawn of history, all the wisdom that is stored in countless minds, all the prevailing ideas of the present life, is vain where the heavenly wisdom is wanting, and utterly foolish if it attempts to measure the wisdom of God or to judge spiritual matters. This thought is carried out further by the apostle: For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom knew not God, it was God's pleasure through the foolishness of preaching to save those that believe. Although the entire world proclaims the wisdom of God, although His wisdom is evidenced both in the works of creation, Rom_1:20, and in the history of the world, Act_17:26, yet in all this wise plan of the world's government the world's wisdom failed to win the knowledge of Him. Because the children of the world became wise in their own imaginations, therefore their foolish hearts were darkened, Rom_1:21. God cannot be comprehended by intellectual speculation, and all the efforts of the philosophers to penetrate into the mystery of His essence are bound to meet with abject defeat. And since thus the world, with its own wisdom, could not find the way to the wisdom of God, therefore it pleased God, according to the good pleasure of His will, to lead men to the knowledge of His essence by a way which alone can bring sinful mankind to Him. By that which is considered the foolishness of preaching, by the proclamation of a message which is ridiculed as unreasonable by the wise men of this world, God brings salvation to the believers. "God's sovereign grace rescues man's bankrupt wisdom: God saves by faith. " Through the very same message of salvation which seems to man the essence of foolishness, God takes away the conceit of this human opinion and works faith in his heart.
In what way the wisdom of the world defeats its own ends is further explained by the apostle: For seeing that, while both Jews require signs, and Greeks seek after wisdom, we, on the other hand, preach Christ crucified, vv. 22-23. That was characteristic of the Jews, they were not satisfied with the words of salvation, but demanded signs from heaven, Joh_4:48; Mat_12:39; Mat_16:4; their proud self-righteousness was not so easily brought into captivity under the obedience of Christ. And of the Greeks it was characteristic that they sought wisdom; they wanted philosophic proof, logical demonstration, they wanted to be convinced by reasonable arguments, Act_17:19; Col_2:4. The preaching of the Cross was therefore in emphatic contrast to both positions. It offered no sign, but merely referred to the greatest miracle that was ever seen in the world, the death and resurrection of Christ, Joh_2:18-19; it brought no reasonable arguments, but simply preached Christ crucified, announced the salvation of mankind through the merits of Him who died for all. This Christ is indeed, as revealed in this message, an offense, a scandal, to the Jews; they will not accept Him, and therefore their perversity causes them to fall over Him as over an obstacle placed in their path. And to the Gentiles in general, not only to the Greeks, Christ the Savior is foolishness, the way of redemption as taught in the Scriptures savors to them of madness. But to them that are called by God, chosen by Him in His great mercy, that have heard and heeded the call by grace, whether they belong to the Jewish or to the Greek nation, we preach Christ as the Power of God and as the Wisdom of God. In Christ the highest, the most glorious power of God, that of His atoning and saving love, was manifested. Christ is the Power of God unto us, because He is the Deliverer from sin, death, and the devil, because He has earned everlasting righteousness and salvation for us, because through His Spirit He sends us power from on high. And Christ is the Wisdom of God unto us, because in Him we have the fullness of spiritual understanding, because He can enlighten the darkness of our natural blindness, because He can find ways and means of leading us safely through all the temptations and dangers of this world to the eternal mansions above. And this is further substantiated: For that which is foolish in God, what seems to man's reason a foolish, weak policy, the redemption of the world through the death of His Son on the cross, is wiser than men. All the attempts of men to find a way to the mercy of God and to the bliss of heaven were absolute failures; but the way chosen by God, foolish, unreasonable according to the opinion of men, proved the wise, the feasible way. And what is weak in God, what seemed to man's foolish reason altogether lacking in intrinsic strength and efficiency, that is stronger than men. That is the mystery of the Cross, that Christ, in dying, conquered death, that in His yielding up the ghost death was swallowed up in victory, 2Co_13:4. The same wonderful strength has been imparted to the Church of Christ, since she, in the midst of all temptations and tribulations, when she seems all but conquered and expiring, has the divine strength to uphold her and to lead her on to final victory.