1 Corinthians 1:26-31 - Exalting Godly Wisdom

Introduction

I don’t know if you know it or not, but every sermon (if it’s a good one) is meant to be an argument. A Christian preacher’s job is to explain the text of Scripture and to aim to apply it to the lives of the people in front of him. And he must do this by way of argumentation. This is what the Bible says, this is what it means, and this is what we ought to think or say or do because of it.

Some sermons, like some passages of Scripture, are meant to be a call to action. God says we should do this or not do that, so let’s go out and obey! Some sermons, like other passages, are meant to be a call to believe. God says He is like this and not like that, so let’s admire and worship God for who He truly is!

Today, we’re going to study a passage that aims more directly at our belief and only indirectly at our actions. What we truly believe will always come out in how we talk and how we live, but our words and deeds begin with our hearts and minds.

A Christian author once said, “What comes to your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you.” I think that’s right, and my aim today is to lead us all toward thinking about God as He has revealed Himself in Scripture… as supremely gracious, supremely wise, and supremely glorious.

May God grant us a clearer view of Himself today, and may we praise and honor Him as He deserves.

Scripture Reading

1 Corinthians 1:26–31 (ESV)

26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.

27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Main Idea:

God chooses to save some sinners, not because of anything in them, but in order that He will be supremely glorified for who He is and what He does.

Sermon

1. Three Nots (v26)

Our passage today picks up where we left off last Sunday. In the previous verses, Paul was talking about a perspective of the gospel message, from the vantage point of “worldly wisdom” (v20). From a worldly perspective, the gospel message is “folly” or “foolishness” (v18). Neither Jews nor Greeks naturally believe it, because it is scandalous and moronic to them (v23).

In our passage, Paul is still talking about a worldly perspective, but this time it’s an evaluation of the people who believe the gospel. These are the “brothers” (v26), a common New Testament way of referring to “Christians.” And Paul is reminding them of how their unbelieving friends and neighbors see them. They are “according to worldly standards” (or literally “according to the flesh”) “not… wise,” “not… powerful,” and “not… of noble birth” (v26).

Paul wants to drive home the point that there is absolutely no reason that the Corinthian Christians should be arrogant and divisive among themselves. There is nothing about them (neither what they believe, nor who they are) that should earn them credibility or admiration among the world. Indeed, when God “called” them out of darkness and into the light of Christ, it was not because of anything in them. As we shall see, it was precisely the opposite!

Paul says, in v26, “not many of you were wise.” The term here is emphasizing the lack of education and learning. Now, it’s important to note that Paul is speaking in general terms. There were, no doubt, some among the Corinthian church who were well-educated. One of the reasons there were divisions among them is because at least some of them preferred the wisdom and eloquence of Apollos over the simplicity and directness of Paul. We are not to think that Christianity was a religion of only the ignorant or uncultured masses.

On the other hand, Paul is certainly pointing out that many of the Corinthians were in fact ignorant and uncultured. The Christians of the first century were largely similar to the Christians of the twenty-first century. And, like today, many of them were perceived by their fellow citizens as bumpkins.

The second “not” Paul mentioned had to do with their “power” or “might” (v26). It’s not clear whether Paul is referring here to their political or military or economic lack of strength, but the point is that many of them were not the sort of people who could be influential among Roman society. Today, we might say they were among the marginalized. They had no platform, they were not social media influencers, and they were not among the community or government leaders.

The third “not” has to do with their pedigree; “not many were of noble birth” (v26). The Greek word here is the one from which we get our word eugenics. In short, their genetics were nothing of great value. They did not have a strong family name, they were not well-bread, and they were not the sort of people anyone would find unusually significant or magnetic.

How is that for a pastoral letter from a spiritual father to his young church?! “Remember, brothers and sisters, when I first met you, and when God first called you into Christ, most of you weren’t prudent or powerful or possessing a good pedigree.” These are stinging words that had to be said because they seemed to have forgotten who they really were. They were talking and acting like they were somebodies when they were nobodies “according to worldly standards” (v26).

Friends, it is laughable when Christians talk and act with arrogance about who they are, what they have achieved, or what sort of influence they think they have in the world. But Christians today, especially in America, do this all the time!

The Old Testament people of God had to be reminded of this same truth. Moses told the people of Israel, just before they went into the Promised Land, “It was not because you were more [numerous or powerful]… that the Lord set his love on you and chose you… but it is because the Lord loves is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers… [that’s why] the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery” (Deut. 7:7-8).

And what was true of Israel in Moses’s day was true of the Christians in Corinth in Paul’s day. And it is true of everyone upon whom God decides to lavish His grace… God doesn’t pick His people based on anything in them.

2. Three Choses (v27-29)

These next verses directly correspond to the three “nots” that came before. The Corinthian Christians were “not” according to “worldly standards” “wise,” or “powerful,” or “of noble birth,” but God “chose” them for Himself anyway. God “chose what is foolish” (not wise), God “chose what is weak” (not powerful or mighty), and God “chose what is low and despised” (not noble or well-born). And God chose these sorts of folks on purpose! Paul’s point could not be clearer – it was precisely because of their “nots” that God “chose” them as His own!

Friends, it’s important for us to remember that God is never just doing one thing at a time. He is always doing all the things, and He’s always got His own good purposes in mind. He didn’t choose to save, to sanctify, and to redeem those Corinthian Christians just because He wanted them to have a more joyful, or more abundant, or more blessed life. He specifically chose the “foolish,” the “weak,” and the “low and despised” sinners of Corinth to be His treasured possession in order to “shame” and to “bring to nothing” the apparent strengths of the unbelieving world around them (v27-28)!

This is an echo of the very Old Testament example I’ve already cited – Israel’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt. Throughout the book of Exodus, one of the main repeated refrains is “so that you/he/they/everyone will know that I am the LORD” (Ex. 7:5, 7:17, 8:10, 8:22; note especially the contrast of Ex. 5:2). In fact, at one point God explicitly says that He could have ended the whole thing much earlier, and delivered the people of Israel with far less of the back and forth with the Egyptians. But God said to Pharaoh, “For this purpose I have raised you up, to show my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth… [and] so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth” (Ex. 9:14-16).

So, did God deliver the people of Israel from Egypt so that they might enjoy God’s presence and God’s blessings? Yes! But was that the only reason God delivered them? According to Scripture, is that the ultimate reason God delivered them? No! The ultimate reason God saved the people of Israel through the midst of God’s own judgment against Egypt was so that His name would be known and glorified in the world!

Friends, this is a constant and overarching theme of the whole Bible. God will be glorified above all because He deserves to be glorified above all. This is not only because He has made all things for His own glory, but it is also because He does all that He does for the same end or purpose – for His own glory.

A children’s catechism we’ve used in the Minter house for both of our boys begins with three fundamental questions and answers. Who made you? God made me. What else did God make? God made all things. Why did God make you and all things? For His own glory!

Friends, this is true from start to finish of all that God does, and this includes the salvation of sinners. If we want to know the ultimate reason why God has saved any sinner, we must not look to the sinner. The answer is simple and yet profound. God chooses to “call” (v26), and to save, and to bring sinners into union “in” or “with” Christ Jesus (v30)… for His own glory!

There is no doubt that sinners must hear the gospel and believe it. If you’re here this morning, and you understand your guilt before God and your need for the “righteousness and sanctification and redemption” that only God can give (these words show up in our text in v30, and I’ll explain them in just a bit), but for now, if you know that you need to be saved, then you are responsible to repent (turn from your sin) and believe or trust or have faith in Jesus (what Jesus has done and who Jesus is). You must repent and believe!

But the main point of our text this morning is not what sinners do in response to the gospel. Paul was writing to a church full of Christians who were talking and acting like they were something special, and Paul was reminding them that they aren’t the ones who deserve any praise or honor or glory for their present union with Christ. Our passage is not emphasizing what sinners do; our passage is emphasizing what God has done for sinners… And our passage not just pointing to what God did in Christ’s life and death and resurrection… it’s pointing to God’s sovereign act of choosing who He wants to graciously save in the first place.

You know, a few years after I first became a Christian, I learned about a very old Christian debate between those who want to emphasize man’s responsibility and those who want to emphasize God’s sovereign choice in salvation. My own wrestling with these concepts has been ongoing since then, but it doesn’t bother me as much today as it once did. One time Charles Spurgeon was asked how he could reconcile God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility, and Spurgeon said that he never needed to reconcile friends. For Spurgeon, there was no conflict between the two affirmations: God is sovereign over all things (including salvation) and a man is responsible for all he thinks and says and does.

If you are struggling to understand how these two can go together, then…

First, welcome to the club. Lots of Christians (past and present) have struggled to understand this concept.

Second, don’t imagine that there is no answer to your questions just because you haven’t yet found or heard a good answer. The whole Christian life is one of growth and correction and (Lord willing) increasing understanding of the gospel, of God, and of yourself. Keep at it. Keep reading. Keep asking. And listen carefully to those you trust, those with good character who are able to teach the Scriptures well. Don’t protect ignorance; try to learn what you don’t yet know.

Third, don’t condemn other Christians who may not believe exactly as you do on this. There are certainly some views that are more biblical and some that are more dangerous, but let’s give each other grace as we all grow together. If you and I are both trying to humbly and faithfully understand and apply the Bible, then we shouldn’t part ways simply because we don’t understand it and apply it exactly the same right this second. Let’s all remember how much we’ve grown, and let’s give each other time to grow.

Having said all that, we must acknowledge that our passage this morning could not be stronger in its emphasis upon God’s choosing. Paul says it three times in two verses (v27-28), and God’s choiceabout who is “in Christ” is the climax of the whole passage (in v30). We need to deal with the why question if we are to understand the point of this text. Why did God choose “what is foolish” (not wise), “what is weak” (not powerful or mighty), and “what is low and despised” (not noble or well-born)?

There is a sense in which the reasons are plural. God “chose” to save the sinners He did in order“to shame the wise” (v27), “to shame the strong” (v27), and “to bring to nothing things that are” (v28). But all three of these reasons culminate in one overarching purpose in v29 and following – “so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.”

Verse 29 says negatively what the next couple of verses say positively. The one purpose of God in choosing to save the sinners He does is so that they will not “boast” in themselves (v29), but thatthey will “boast in the Lord” (v31).

3. One Purpose (v30-31)

We’ve arrived now at the climax of our passage and the main thrust of Paul’s argument. There are glorious doctrines expressed here that all ring the same bell of God’s glory in the salvation of sinners. I’m going to address these last two verses in two parts: first, the wisdom of God, and then, the purpose of God.

According to our passage, the wisdom of God is personified in Christ Jesus. Paul says, Christ “became to us wisdom from God” (v30). But what does this mean? How did Christ “become” wisdom “from God”? And what does Paul mean that Christ Himself is the “wisdom” of God to “us”?

Let’s remember the underlying narrative here. Paul was writing to the Corinthians about their practical disunity and the absurdity of it. They were a divided church because they were stratified according to their economic status, their social class, and even their spiritual gifts. But Paul was urging them to remember the unity that all Christians enjoy by definition, since Christians are those who are necessarily united in Christ.

But none of them had gotten themselves into Christ! In fact, unbelieving sinners cannot get themselves into Christ because the gospel message centers on a crucified Savior, which is a naturally scandalous and moronic message to unbelievers. Worldly wisdom completely fails to deliver, and worldly people cannot know God because they aim to know Him by worldly methods and according to worldly desires for wisdom, power, and status.

But God has shown Himself to be wise beyond measure by bringing sinners into Christ through the preaching of a scandalous and seemingly moronic message. Indeed, it is through the work of a crucified Savior that God has provided “righteousness and sanctification and redemption” for guilty sinners who ought to face God’s judgment (v30). And here is where I’m going to give some explanation of these Bible or “churchy” words.

Righteousness is the legal demand of God’s moral law. Humans are God’s created things, and as such we all fall under God’s jurisdiction or legal authority. God’s law demands righteousness, moral virtue, and obedience. But none of us has ever lived a righteous day in our lives. We have not loved God with our whole hearts or minds or strength even for one second. And we have deliberately disobeyed what laws of God we do know about: We’ve lied, we’ve taken things that are not ours, we’ve disobeyed our parents and others in authority over us, and we’ve objectified other people in countless ways, treating them like objects for our pleasure or obstacles to our pleasure, rather than as fellow divine-image-bearers.

For all our sins, for all our unrighteousness, we deserve justice. But God has decided to send His own Son to live the perfectly righteous life that we haven’t, earning the status of “righteous” under God’s bar of justice, and to die underneath the penalty we deserve for our unrighteousness. As the Scripture says, God “made him who knew no sin to be sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). This is the wisdom of God! Sinners are made righteous, and God’s justice is simultaneously satisfied!

Sanctification is a term referring to moral purity or cleanness. It is a derivative of the word holyor holiness. Sin not only condemns us under God’s legal jurisdiction, but it also makes us unworthy of ever coming near to God on account of our moral impurity. We are tainted things. We are unclean things. We are unholy things. And we are not welcome in God’s holy presence.

As a matter of fact, unclean and unholy and impure things are inevitably destroyed in God’s presence because His own holiness demands it. This is why Adam and Eve could not re-enter the garden after they sinned. This is why the people of Israel couldn’t even touch Mt. Sinai when God came to meet them there. This is why Jesus’s disciples were terrified when they merely heard the voice of God from a cloud when God affirmed that Jesus was the true Christ or Messiah.

Friends, because we are unholy, because we are impure, because we are morally profane, it is only to our peril that we might come near to God. But God has condescended to come near to us in the person of the incarnate Son. Jesus is God with us, and in His death Jesus “sanctified” or “washed” or made clean all those who would “call upon” His “name” (1 Cor. 6:11; cf. 1 Cor. 1:2). This is the wisdom of God! Unholy sinners are made holy, and God’s own holiness remains brilliant and undefiled!

Righteousness, then, is a term of legal requirement, sanctification is a term of moral purity, and redemption is a term which refers to a financial or contractual obligation. One could be redeemed out of slavery, redeemed from a prison sentence, or redeemed from a financial debt. This term speaks to the obligation all humans have to live as obedient and grateful servants under God’s providence.

God is our creator; He has made us and everything else in all creation. We are tenants on His property. We are workers in His fields. We are consumers of His goods and services. And all of this is true about us by the sheer fact that we are breathing God’s air, living in bodies He gave us, and thinking with minds He formed by His own design.

For every good thing we have, for every good thing we enjoy, for the simplest pleasures of life to the greatest blessings, we own God gratitude and obedience. We should be thankful for all He’s given us, and we should use His stuff (including our own selves) as He has intended. But we do not. What may be the fundamental expression of sin in humanity is our deep and pervasive ingratitude. The Scripture says that even though we all can know at least something about God from simply observing creation itself, we do not “honor him as God or give thanks to him” (Rom. 1:21).

All of us who have ever had kids can understand this concept. It is as though our kids enjoy all of the blessings and provisions of our home, and yet they live as though none of what they have comes from mom or dad. When my sons are ungrateful, it pains and angers me as their dad… but I am a sinful father on my best days. What a sinful and wicked thing it is when I receive all the good I have from God and yet go on dishonoring Him in the way I use His stuff and showing Him no thanks at all for His exceedingly rich kindness toward me!

Friends, if you’re like me, then you’ve racked up a debt of ingratitude and dishonor that is unimaginable. Second after second, minute after minute, days turn into weeks, and then years become decades… and how many times have I received provision from God’s hand without even a thought of honoring Him with my time, my treasure, and my talent! The national debt counter hasn’t got anything on the ticker keeping track of my debts with God!

But the Scripture says that “the grace of God has appeared” (Titus 2:11)! In Jesus Christ, God “gave himself for us to redeem” those who repent and believe (Titus 2:14)! In John’s Gospel, the last thing he recorded from the mouth of Jesus when He died upon the cross was a single word “τετελεσται” which means “It is finished” or “paid in full” (Jn. 19:30). This was the word that a debt collector would write on the bottom of the bill when the last payment was finally made. And when Christ died, He stamped “It is finished” or “Redeemed” on the divine bill!

Friends, this is the wisdom of God! Infinitely indebted sinners have their accounts credited in full, and God’s ledger is perfectly balanced.

I feel like quoting another passage of Scripture here… “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?’ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever” (Rom. 11:33-36).

Notice how highlighting and explaining the wisdom of God in the person and work of Christ for sinners naturally leads us to worship! When we read about and think about how God’s wisdom has done what man’s wisdom and strength and status could never do, we cannot help but glorify Him!

This is exactly what Paul intends his reader to do in our main passage this morning. He is not trying to remove all boasting… he just wants the Corinthians to stop boasting in themselves. And he wants them to start boasting in the only one who deserves all glory and honor and praise!

Look again at v30-31 with me. Paul says that it is “because of him” [i.e., because of God] that “you are in Christ Jesus” (v30). Jesus “became to us,” Paul says, “wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (v30). But for what ultimate purpose?! See v31: “so that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’”

The ultimate purpose for which God has “called” and “chosen” the sinners He has to be the ones who are “in Christ” is “so that” no one may “boast” in themselves, but “so that” those sinners who are in Christ may “boast in the Lord.” God has set it up so that when His salvation through judgment comes in full, and everyone looks around at the great multitude from every tribe and people and language on earth who are standing before the throne and before the Lamb, there will be unimaginable boasting… but none of it aimed at those sinners God has saved through the midst of His judgment… Instead, all boasting will be “in the Lord” (see Rev. 7:9-17).

But, brothers and sisters, this boasting in the Lord, and not in ourselves, should not wait until the last day. In fact, Paul has quoted here another Old Testament prophet in a similar way as he did in our passage last week. Our v31 is lifted directly from Jeremiah 9, which has the same context as our passage today.

Like first-century Corinth, the people of Judah were prosperous, strong, and wise in their own sight. But they were also sinful and corrupt, and God was warning them of His coming judgment. “Behold,” God said, “the days are coming… when I will punish all” whose hearts are unrepentant (Jer. 9:25). Therefore, “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth” (Jer. 9:23-24).

In Judah, about 2,600 years ago, and in Corinth, nearly 2,000 years ago, and in our own day today… God’s gospel of grace speaks to guilty sinners who live in places and times when all around them seems to value the wisdom and strength and wealth of this world above all else. God knows that it is our tendency to want to be like the successful worldlings around us, and God knows that it is our tendency to even compete with each other over status and power.

But we would all do well to remember who we were when God first called us to Himself… and who we still are. We would all do well to remember that God regularly chooses the opposite of successful worldlings to be His people. And we would do well to remember that all of the best things we have – righteousness and sanctification and redemption – are all gifts of God, which come to sinners in Christ, so that we may give God all the glory and honor due His worthy name.

May God help us to remember such things, and may He help us to give Him all the glory for who He is and for what He does.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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