5c The Christian Life Means Repudiating the Myth of Influence

The Unremarkable Evangelists

It’s not merely the facts of Christ’s death and the theological realities of the gospel that the world finds offensive. As Paul explains, sinners are just as likely to be offended by the messengers of God’s truth— what we’ll call the shameful society. He writes,

For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are. (1 Cor. 1: 26– 28)

Not only do we have a message that is hard to believe, but we also have a message that is delivered by people the world finds hard to respect. The Lord didn’t put His gospel into the hands of the most famous, the most notable, or even the most well spoken. He didn’t leverage social influencers or pop culture icons to proclaim His truth. He chose us. And that lack of star power and name recognition can be offensive to the world.

Paul delineates just how unimpressive God’s people are in the world’s eyes. He says there are “not many wise, not many mighty, not many noble”— that is, not many intellectuals, not many who wield power and influence, and not many highborn aristocrats. Rather, God has chosen the foolish, weak, base, and despised things of the world. The Lord is pleased to use the nonintellectuals, the unimpressive and insignificant, the unremarkable, and the forgettable to spread His truth. Paul even says He chose “the things that are not”— literally, the nobodies.

Why wouldn’t God use famous people as His spokesmen? Why wouldn’t He employ royals and monarchs, political heavyweights, or the most popular talking heads and tastemakers to promote His gospel? Paul tells us in verse 29: “So that no man may boast before God.” Salvation isn’t accomplished through the force of personality, and the gospel isn’t made more powerful by clever words or a silver tongue. God specifically chose His unremarkable evangelists so that they would never be the explanation for the work of the gospel. He doesn’t want His people to get confused about who is performing the transforming work of salvation in sinners’ lives.

Paul reinforces that point in his second epistle to the Corinthians. He writes: “For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves” (2 Cor. 4: 5– 7).

Again, we see that God wants to glorify Himself. There will never be a human explanation for any effective advance of the gospel. There cannot be a human explanation because we are nothing but “earthen vessels.” Clay pots were cheap, unrefined, breakable, ugly, replaceable, and valueless. We are clay pots. The glory of the gospel is indicated in verse 6 as light shining out of darkness— the light of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ. And we carry this gospel revelation to the world. God has determined to put the glorious message of salvation in a dingy, nondescript pot.

That idea is extended in 2 Timothy 2: 20 where Paul says, “In a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor.” Gold and silver vessels were those on which food was served— they’re the honorable vessels. On the other hand, clay pots were used to dispose of garbage and excrement. The Apostle Paul is essentially saying, “We have the glory of God in a privy pot.” Paul understood that messengers of the gospel must never overestimate their importance. From the founding of the church, it was never God’s plan to leverage worldly influence for the work of the gospel. The early preachers of the gospel were not the elite intellectuals of Egypt, Greece, Rome, or even Israel. The greatest scholars of the day were in Egypt, the most distinguished philosophers were in Athens, the powerful were in Rome, and the biblical scholars were in Jerusalem. By comparison, the disciples were painfully ordinary men. Not one was a priest; not one was a scribe; not one was a ruler of a synagogue. Not one was a Pharisee, and none of them had any educational credentials or occupied a position of influence. Up to seven of them may have been fishermen who made their living with their hands. One was a terrorist; another was a tax collector. From the world’s perspective, it was not an impressive group.

But for the true servant of God, the esteem of the world is unimportant. Paul’s priority was preaching Christ, and the progress of His kingdom depended on the Holy Spirit’s implanting the gospel in hearts.

We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are prudent in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are distinguished, but we are without honor. To this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty, and are poorly clothed, and are roughly treated, and are homeless; and we toil, working with our own hands; when we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure; when we are slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now. (1 Cor. 4: 10– 13)

It is a wonder of God’s sovereignty that He uses those that the world views as the scum and the dregs to deliver His gospel of grace. And we can preach His truth with confidence, knowing that no one’s salvation depends on us. We cannot empower anyone to new life. We are just the clay pots who enjoy the immense privilege of a high calling in the household of God.

The Humbling Truth

Finally, Paul identifies one last source of offense that the world cannot tolerate— the shameful sovereignty of the gospel. In 1 Corinthians 1: 30, he writes, “By His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.” There’s no room in God’s plan of salvation for man’s effort or merit. It’s not about a decision the sinner makes or a change he initiates. Paul says God’s people are saved “by His doing” alone.

The Lord’s sovereign work of salvation is on display throughout His Word. Paul puts it succinctly in his second letter to the Thessalonians when he writes, “God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth” (2 Thess. 2: 13). He expands on the same reality in his epistle to the Ephesians.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. (Eph. 1: 3– 6)

But the heart bent by sin and rebellion cannot tolerate a sovereign Savior. Sinners can’t stomach the idea that “our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases” (Ps. 115: 3). Their false sense of autonomy demands that they have some say in their eternal destiny and that they get some of the credit for “inviting Christ into their lives.” That’s why it’s so easy for people to reject the fundamental truth of the gospel— that “man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 2: 16)— and choose a false religion of works-righteousness, one that soothes their burning consciences by stroking their egos.

Ultimately, the unrepentant heart will not accept what the Bible says about its lost condition. Sinners refuse to believe that they are truly “dead in [their] trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2: 1). They want to believe there is still some life in the wretched corpse, that they still possess the means to reach out to God whenever they decide to. More than that, they want God to grade all mankind on a curve. Sinners excel at favorably comparing themselves to one another— they can always find a worse, more egregious example to point to, as though the righteous and holy Judge was moved by excuses and exemptions. And when they finally realize that they can’t plead down their sentence, they make a vain attempt for a mistrial by questioning God’s right to judge them in the first place. The Apostle Paul has an answer for that rebellious gripe too: “Who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, ‘Why did you make me like this,’ will it?” (Rom. 9: 20).

The tragedy is that the eyes blinded by sin cannot see the all-sufficient grace and mercy in God’s sovereign work of salvation.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. (Eph. 2: 4– 10)

The only hope for any sinner is the pride-slaughtering, paradoxical shame of the gospel. He must embrace the shameful stigma of the cross and the ignoble horrors of Christ’s death on his behalf. He must accept the shameful simplicity of the gospel and his inability to reason his way into heaven. He must acknowledge the shameful singularity of the gospel— that there are no other options for the salvation of his soul. He must agree with the gospel’s shameful sentence, acknowledging the dire consequences of his sin. He must embrace the shameful society of the gospel, that they are the lowly and those whom society does not respect. And he must submit to the shameful sovereignty of the gospel, surrendering his self-righteous works and clinging to the Lord Jesus for justification by grace alone through faith alone in Him alone.

Why are sinners irrevocably offended by the gospel? Why aren’t the church’s attempts to accommodate and curry favor with the world leading more people into God’s kingdom? How do we know the myth of influence is really a myth? Paul’s testimony to his own gospel ministry gives us the answer:

1 Corinthians 2:1–5 ESV

1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

If we truly want to be instruments God uses to bring sinners to salvation, we must follow the Word of God and pray for the Spirit of God to give repentance, faith, and eternal blessing to those who hear the truth.