By The Rev. Dr. Paul A. Leggett
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Sermon Text: I Corinthians 1:18-25
Sermon Theme
The wisdom of God is more than a concept. God’s wisdom is presented in Scripture as a person. According to the eighth chapter of Proverbs she is the first being created by God, more spiritual than physical. She is presented as a witness to God’s creation, “rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race” (Proverbs 8:31). However, this divine wisdom was soon replaced by “the wisdom of the world” (I Corinthians 1:20). Humanity, made in the image of God, plunges into sin from which it is impossible to know God. Christ is the ultimate wisdom of God. It is only in him and through him that we are able to know God and ultimately to know ourselves and our world.
Sermon Outline
- Creation. God’s wisdom is built into the very fabric of creation. However the reality of sin has canceled out all human perception of God’s wisdom in creation. Apart from God’s wisdom all human knowledge is completely incapable of leading anyone to the true God. In this respect all religions are equal. They are all equally inadequate. God’s wisdom is present in all creation. Yet, having been blinded by sin, we are unable to see it. Our blindness is self imposed and therefore, in the words of the apostle Paul, we are without excuse (Romans 1:18-23).
- Christ. Paul makes clear that the world distorted the wisdom of God to the point that “the world did not know God” (I Corinthians 1:21). This point cannot be compromised or minimized. In spite of the testimony of creation, the world of human history and culture cannot know God. This is not due to any imperfection in nature. The imperfection is the reality of human sin. Throughout its history the church has struggled with the heresy of “natural theology.” This is the view that human beings can learn something of the true reality of God on their own which then only needs to be supplemented by the gospel. However this view invariably leads to a distortion of the gospel (Galatians 1:6-9). John Calvin, whose five hundredth birthday we are observing this year, sounded this warning following the witness of Scripture. The worship of the golden calf is never the worship of God no matter what we may think (Exodus 32:1-5). The wisdom of God is not a concept. It is a person, the person of Jesus Christ. We only know God through Christ as he is proclaimed throughout all of Scripture (John 5:39; Matthew 11:27).
- Clarity. God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom. Christ himself is the “wisdom of God.” The vast majority of people believe in “God,” but in what kind of God do they believe? The world regards the message of the gospel as foolishness. Yet the gospel is “the power of God.” Paul’s experience in Athens is a model of his mission to the Gentiles (Acts 17:16-34). He begins by relating to the Athenians on their level. He looks carefully at the expressions of their religion, as false as they may be. He quotes favorably from their own poets. However he is not saying to them that learning about Zeus can help lead one to the true God. He is saying that the word of God is “not chained” (II Timothy 2:9). It can speak through anything, even the writings of an idolatrous Gentile. Yet that word can only be the true Word of God, Jesus Christ, according to the Scriptures. There is no way of knowing God apart from Scripture. Yet the Holy Spirit can bring the message of the Scriptures through any medium. The Spirit continually speaks the truth of scripture. That is our only standard. In the world we need to witness to Christ, “the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
Questions for Us
- What does it mean to say that we are blinded by sin? What are some examples of this blindness in our own experience?
- Jesus is the wisdom of God. According to Paul the world finds this wisdom to be “foolishness.” What are some of the ways we see the world dismissing God’s wisdom as foolishness?
- If there is no true knowledge of God apart from Christ how do we communicate the gospel to non-believers? What are some of the lessons we can take from Paul’s example of witnessing to the Athenians (Acts 17:16-34)?
