A Cord of Three Strands

January 31, 1999

In the morning fog of November 6, 1632, approximately 25,000 Swedish soldiers knelt in prayer. The Swedish Lutheran king, Gustavus Adolphus, led them in singing “May God embrace us with his grace.” The king had entered the foray of the Thirty Years’ War to salvage portions of Germany and Northern Europe for Lutheranism. The fog lifted. In the distance lay the German city of Luetzen set ablaze by imperial Roman Catholic troops. The king clapped his hands and shouted, “God’s will be done! Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, help me this day to fight to the glory of your holy name! Forward!” The troops quickly engaged the enemy. The line collapsed at one point, and the king rushed in to rally the men. He found himself in hand-to-hand combat with enemy cavalry. His horse was shot, then a bullet struck his left arm. “It’s nothing, my children! Forward quickly!” he shouted. He took another shot in the back and fell from his horse. The 38-year-old warrior king and savior of Lutheranism was dead, but as the message passed through the ranks, the troops rallied, and the Swedes won the most crucial battle of the war. Victory in defeat.

Gustavus Adolphus was wise, powerful, and of noble birth, but even he tasted of the way God works in this world. God works with a heavenly wisdom made perfect in “weakness” and “foolishness” according to worldly standards.

1. The cross forever means Christ obtains victory through what the world consider a cord of three strands: foolish things, weak things, and lowly things (vv. 27-28).

The victory was obtained through Christ’s despised life and death. Through the ages people have seen the incarnation as utterly foolish! “It seems to me that since the ‘fall’—without even thinking it odd—that man has had no trouble at all believing that he can be God. How he would do this I cannot conceive, tho, he certainly thinks that he can—and yet, he cannot bring himself to believe, that God can become…a man” (B.C. by Johnny Hart).

People may see it as even more foolish, a weak and lowly thing, that God in the flesh should die, nailed to a cross, to obtain forgiveness.

The victory is dispensed through the “foolishness” of the preaching of Christ crucified. What was true at Corinth remains true today: People look for a demonstration of religious truth in what they call “wisdom” or “the miraculous.”

Yet all the religious power and wisdom of God are delivered via the preaching of Christ crucified, a stumbling block and foolishness to unbelief. Through this Word of Christ comes victory and life!

2. The “foolishness” and “defeat” of the cross ever mark the victory of Christians in this life.

Christ has become the “wisdom from God” (v. 30). We would have the victory in and of ourselves! Christ would have us defeated! The Corinthians prided themselves in their religious knowledge and boasted in their competence compared to others. Paul drew them back to the humble “foolishness” of the cross, reminding them that apart from God’s doing and choosing, they were nothing (v. 26).

The Law renders us nothing in the sight of God, nothing but defeated and damned without Christ, that being “poor in spirit,” hew may make us something in himself (v 28).

What appears in the life of a Christian as mere “foolishness” and “defeat” actually presents our greatest victory and our only cause for boasting! Rendered foolish by God’s standard (Law), we are now prepared to receive true divine and heavenly wisdom in Christ (Gospel): our righteousness, holiness, and redemption—a three stranded cord (v 30).

The “foolishness” of Baptism, absolution, preaching, and the Lord'’ Supper are divine heavenly wisdom and forgiveness, the source of a joyous life!

Now afflictions, weaknesses, illness, and even death become our “strength”. They cause us to look away from ourselves to Christ, in whose weaknesses we take part. In such despised things we now boast. Death turns to life for us, and apparent defeat turns to victory.