Lessons #25 and 26
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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual exposition not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +
+ GWT = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New English Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+AMP = Amplified Bible, UBS = United Bible Society +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
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The message of the cross is superior to world’s wisdom (1 Cor 1:19–21)
19 For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” 20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.
The overall concern of the passage we are considering is to convey that the message of the cross is superior to world’s wisdom. In our last study, we stated that the apostle by quoting from Isaiah 29:14 wanted to convey the point that the Lord is responsible for bringing about the different responses of people to the message of the cross. That this is the case is further explained in verse 20 where the apostle posed four questions, three of them we considered in our last study. Recall the first question Where is the wise man? is intended to convey that there is not one person with understanding or characterized by wisdom that exists anywhere on this planet when it comes to understanding the message of the cross, unaided by God the Holy Spirit. The second question Where is the scholar? conveys that there are no educated persons or teachers anywhere that could understand the message of the cross without the Holy Spirit aiding them. The third question Where is the philosopher of this age? implies that those who engage in discussions where only human logics are deployed are helpless regarding understanding of the message of the cross. Their ability to give well-reasoned arguments to the positions they hold is of no value regarding the message of the cross. This brings us to the fourth question.
The fourth question of 1 Corinthians 1:20 that is rhetorical is Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? This rhetorical question surely demands the answer “yes” in keeping with the quotation of the apostle of Isaiah 29:14 that we considered. Thus, it is an assertion that God made foolish the wisdom of the world as reflected in some English versions, such as the NCV that translated the question as a declaration with the reading God has made the wisdom of the world foolish.
The expression “made foolish” of the NIV is translated from a Greek word (mōrainō) that may mean “to make tasteless,” as the word is used in the declaration of the Lord Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount, according to Matthew 5:13:
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.
The clause if the salt loses its saltiness of the NIV is more literally if salt becomes tasteless. The Greek word may mean “to make foolish, show to be foolish,” as it is used in describing those who are the objects of the wrath of God in Romans 1:22:
Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 1:20, the word is used with the meaning “to make foolish” in the sense of to cause to be characterized by lack of good sense or judgment hence can mean “to cause to become nonsense.” Of course, some English versions such as the TEV and the CEV adopted the meaning “to show to be foolish” in their translation. For example, the TEV rendered the question Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? as God has shown that this world’s wisdom is foolishness! While this translation does not state anything that is not true, but it weakens the assertion of the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul. The apostle did not mean to say that God showed how foolish the word’s wisdom is, but that God is the One who made the world’s wisdom foolish. To use the meaning “to show” removes the emphasis of the Holy Spirit through the apostle that God is the cause of the foolishness not just showing it. We should not try to weaken the declaration that makes God the ultimate cause of the foolishness associated with the world. This is because several times, the Scripture asserted the truth that God is the One who does something with human intelligence. Job declared this truth several times. He indicated that it is God who makes judges fools in Job 12:17:
He leads counselors away stripped and makes fools of judges.
The expression “makes fools” is translated from a Hebrew word (hālǎl) that in the Hebrew form (Poel) that the word is used here in Job 12:17 means “to make fool of”, that is, “to turn another into one who has no capacity for understanding, implying a condition which can be ridiculed.” There is no doubt that the action involved is attributed to God. Job also indicated that God is responsible for taking away the capacity to distinguish between right and wrong, that is, discernment from elders in Job 12:20:
He silences the lips of trusted advisers and takes away the discernment of elders.
He goes on to assert that God takes away understanding from leaders of people of this earth in Job 12:24:
He deprives the leaders of the earth of their reason; he sends them wandering through a trackless waste.
Prophet Isaiah declared the same truth that Job stated several times in Isaiah 44:25:
who foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners, who overthrows the learning of the wise and turns it into nonsense,
Thus, we contend that to indicate that God shows the wisdom of the world to be foolish is not what the apostle intended to convey. The Holy Spirit wants us to know that God is the One who turned the wisdom of the world into nonsense.
Be that as it may, the question Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? is intended to state that God is the One who is responsible of doing something with the thought of people in this world so that it becomes devoid of meaning when it comes to the message of the cross. You see the word “wisdom” here refers to “the capacity for rational thought, inference or discrimination (and the application of it).” So, what the apostle conveys is that when it comes to the message of the cross, the Lord rendered the capacity of the people of the world for rational thought into something that makes no sense. Thus, the people of the world could not understand the message of the cross. It makes no sense to them. This is the point the apostle intended to convey in 1 Corinthians 1:20.
We should remember that the three verses of 1 Corinthians 1:19-21 that we are considering are concerned with the point that the message of the cross is superior to world’s wisdom. Thus, the apostle having conveyed that fact that our human intellect has nothing to do with comprehending the message of the cross, that is, the gospel, proceeds to demonstrate the superiority of the message of the cross to world’s wisdom by showing in a sense contrasting effects of the two.
The contrasting effects that we will get to shortly provide both the explanation and the reason human intellect has nothing to do with comprehending the message of the cross. That the contrasting effects that we will consider shortly provide both the explanation and reason human intellect has nothing to do with comprehending the message of the cross is evident in that verse 21 begins with the phrase for since. The Greek phrase translated for since appears only twice in the Greek NT both in this epistle to the Corinthians. Its second usage is given in 1 Corinthians 15:21:
For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.
The usage of the phrase for since in 1 Corinthians 1:21 is probably to help us in interpreting what follows in the verse as both an explanation and reason that when it comes to understanding the message of the cross human intellect unaided by the Holy Spirit is of no value. We say this because of the meanings associated with the Greek words used. The word “for” is translated from a Greek conjunction (gar) that may be used as a maker of reason or cause with the translation “for” or as a marker of clarification or explanation in which case it may be translated “for, you see” or it can be used as a marker of inference with the meaning “so, then, by all means.” Its use in our passage of study is in the sense of a marker of explanation. This is because it is unlikely that the apostle would use together two conjunctions that convey reason. You see, the word “since” is translated from a Greek conjunction (epeidē) that may be used as a marker of time with the meaning “when, after” as it is used to indicate what Jesus did after He finished His sermon that was similar to the Sermon on the Mount that Luke recorded in Luke 7:1:
When Jesus had finished saying all this in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum.
The conjunction may be used as a marker of cause or reason with the meaning “because, since”, as it is used by Apostle Paul to provide the reason Epaphroditus desired to see the Philippians and was distressed about them, as stated in Philippians 2:26:
For he longs for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill.
There is nothing in the context of 1 Corinthians 1:21 that warrants understanding our second conjunction as a marker of time, so the only reasonable interpretation is to understand it as being used by the apostle as a marker of reason or cause. This being the case, we are correct to indicate that the apostle used the phrase for since to indicate that verse 21 serves both as an explanation and reason for human intellect not to be of help in understanding the message of the cross and so God did what is given in verse 21 of how He saved some. Anyway, we contend that verse 21 is concerned with contrasting the effects of world’s wisdom and the message of the cross.
The point of the apostle in contrasting the effects of world’s wisdom and the message of the cross is simply this: World’s wisdom cannot do what the message of the cross does. It is this point that is conveyed in 1 Corinthians 1:21. We begin by examining what it is the Holy Spirit through the apostle tells us the wisdom of the world cannot achieve. It is that it could not possibly lead to the knowledge of God. It is this fact that is given in the first clause of our verse, in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him.
The Holy Spirit through the apostle reminds us that when we deal with the message of the cross, we should be mindful that we view it not from human perspective but from God’s viewpoint since He is the absolute standard for measuring anything or any concept. In other words, whatever you want to measure in the spiritual life, to ensure that you are correct, you should reference it to God. Thus, the apostle reminds us that when we think of wisdom that is necessary to comprehend the gospel message, we should relate it to that of God. In effect, it is as we consider God’s wisdom that we can correctly evaluate human wisdom. It is this point that is conveyed in the phrase in the wisdom of God. This phrase may be understood to mean as far as the wisdom that characterizes God is concerned or with reference to the wisdom that characterizes God or even in the sphere of the wisdom that characterizes God. This notwithstanding, since world’s wisdom is mentioned in our passage, it is probably that the apostle meant for us to understand he was concerned with the area of the activity of wisdom so that his point would be that to correctly understand his declaration about the world’s wisdom, we should relate it to the wisdom that characterizes God to help us understand how useless human wisdom is when it viewed with regard to God’s wisdom.
In any case, the apostle wanted us to understand that human wisdom could not lead to true knowledge of God as in the clause the world through its wisdom did not know him. To understand that this clause is concerned to indicate that human wisdom is of no value when it comes to true knowledge of God, we need to understand what is meant here by the phrase the world and what is conveyed in the word know in our passage. This, of course, requires we examine the Greek words translated “world” and “know.”
The word “world” is translated from a Greek word (kosmos) that may mean “earth, world” in contrast to heaven as used for Jesus’ description of His mission in John 18:37:
“You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
It may refer to the system of practices and standards associated with secular society (that is, without reference to any demands or requirements of God) hence means “world system, world’s standards, world.” It is in this sense that Apostle Paul used it in Galatians 6:14:
May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
It is this sense of a world characterized by sin and practices contrary to God’s word that the apostle used our Greek word translated “world” in Ephesians 2:2:
in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
The Greek word translated “world” may mean “the universe,” that is, creation in its totality as in Philippians 2:15:
so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe
It may mean “the world “as the habitation of humanity, as in 1 Timothy 6:7:
For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.
The Greek word translated “world” may mean “totality, sum total” as that is the sense of the word in James 3:6:
The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
The phrase a world of evil may be translated the sum total of iniquity. The word may mean that which serves to beautify through decoration, hence means “adornment, adorning” as it is used in 1 Peter 3:3:
Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes.
The word may mean “the world” as a reference to humanity in general as in 1 John 4:14:
And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
Jesus Christ came to save humanity not the planet earth so that the word “world” in this passage refers to “humanity.”
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
In the same meaning, it can refer to arrive at the knowledge or even be acquainted with someone as it is used by Apostle Paul regarding Christ in 2 Corinthians 5:16:
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.
The translators of the NIV used the meaning “to regard” in translating our Greek word here since, for example, the sentence we once regarded Christ is more literally we have known Christ. The word may mean to acquire information through some means and so means “to learn (of), ascertain, find out.” Thus, it is in the sense of to find out that our Greek word is used to describe Apostle Paul’s desire to learn about the faith of the Thessalonians, as we read in 1 Thessalonians 3:5:
For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter might have tempted you and our efforts might have been useless.
The word may mean to grasp the significance or meaning of something and so means “to understand, comprehend” as it is used to indicate the disciples of Jesus did not comprehend what He said to them about His coming death and resurrection when they were on their way to Jerusalem as reported by Luke in Luke 18:34:
The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about.
Of course, it is in this meaning of grasping the significance of something that our Greek word was used in the apostolic prayer of Paul for Ephesians to comprehend Christ’s love for them although our word is translated “know” in Ephesians 3:19:
and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
The word may mean to be aware of something, that is, “to perceive, notice, realize”, as it is used to describe that the woman Jesus healed of her bleeding realized or perceived it, as recorded in Mark 5:29:
Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
The sentence she felt is more literally she knew, that is, she realized or perceived that she has been healed because her bleeding stopped. The word may mean “to acknowledge, recognize” as it is used in Galatians 4:9:
But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?
Although the NIV translated our Greek word with “know” twice but the sense of the Greek word in this passage is that of “to acknowledge.” Thus, the clause now that you know God is translated in the NEB as now that you do acknowledge God.
We have examined the range of meanings of the Greek word translated “know” in our passage of 1 Corinthians 1:21, so the question is in what sense did the apostle use it. It is in the sense of “to arrive at knowledge of someone” in real way or experientially.
The meanings of the two Greek words we have considered will enable us to understand what the apostle meant to convey in the clause of 1 Corinthians 1:21 the world through its wisdom did not know him. This clause means that unbelievers who are not of the elect could not through human understanding arrive at the knowledge of God. This means first that humans in general could not without the help of the Holy Spirit know anything about God. It is true that God has left for us evidences of His existence through creation but without the Holy Spirit working and without God’s special revelation given through the Scripture, no one could understand the God behind creation. No one could come into an experience whereby the individual will know that God exists because of personal relationship with Him. It is because of this truth that scientists in general are unable to come to knowledge of the true God of creation through their scientific endeavors. Likewise, Philosophers in vain try to understand God. It is not only that human understanding does not help to know the true God in a real way, but human understanding is of no value in understanding the message of the cross. The message of the cross once understood enables one to come to the true knowledge of Jesus Christ or the saving knowledge of Him. A person who is brought to the point of knowing Christ in a real way has the knowledge of God since the God revealed to us is Jesus Christ. There is no training or education on this planet that will bring a person to understand the person of God or the person of Jesus Christ, that is, to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Thus, one truth the apostle intended to convey regarding 1 Corinthians 1:21 is that world’s wisdom or human understanding cannot lead one to arrive to the knowledge of the true God or a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
The second truth the Holy Spirit wants us to get from verse 21 is given in an ironical manner. This truth is that God decided to bring eternal salvation to some through the message of the cross that is considered by the unbelieving world as ridiculous thought or message that makes no sense. It is this truth that is given in the last sentence of the verse God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.
The Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul wants us to know that the means of bringing salvation to the elect was one that was decided in eternity as the event of the cross was also decided in eternity. The event of the cross is the death of Christ that was certainly decided in eternity, as implied in Revelation 13:8:
All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.
There is, of course, the problem of translation of this passage in Revelation regarding the clause the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world since some English versions read simply the Lamb that was slain and connect the phrase from the creation of the world with the verbal phrase have not been written. In effect, many commentators do not accept that the slaying of the Lamb should be regarded as something done from creation. However, the idea of the Lamb being slain from the creation of the world is not difficult to conceive since the Lord Jesus Christ was chosen before creation of the world, as stated in 1 Peter 1:20:
He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.
We should ask as to what Jesus Christ was chosen, if it is not for Him to die on the cross. This being the case, it is proper to conclude that as far as God is concerned, Jesus Christ was slain before creation although not realized until a point in time. This aside, it is our assertion that the means of saving the elect through the message of the cross considered by unbelievers as foolishness was decided in eternity.
Our assertion that the means of bringing eternal salvation to the elect was decided in eternity is based on the statement of the NIV of 1 Corinthians 1:21 God was pleased. The expression “was pleased” is translated from a Greek word (eudokeō) that may mean “to be well pleased” as it is used to describe the attitude of God the Father to God the Son, the Lord Jesus, following His water baptism in Luke 3:22:
and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
The word may mean to consider something good, better, or preferable, hence it means “to prefer, to choose as better, resolve, determine” as the word is used by Apostle Paul to describe his preference of being with the Lord in 2 Corinthians 5:8:
We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
The word may mean “to delight in” as it is used to describe the attitude of the lost or the perishing in 2 Thessalonians 2:12:
and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 1:21, it is probably in the sense of “to determine” that is intended with the implication of taking pleasure or finding satisfaction. In effect, God first decided and then was pleased with His decision.
Again, God’s decision was that the means of providing eternal salvation to the elect is the message of the cross as in the clause of 1 Corinthians 1:21 of the NIV through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. The means of eternal salvation is given in the verbal phrase through the foolishness of what was preached. The word “foolishness” is ironical since it is used not as God views the message of the cross but as those who are perishing do. The translators of the NIV turned the noun used in the Greek into a verbal form. We state this because the verbal phrase what was preached is translated from a Greek noun (kērygma) that may mean a public declaration hence “something proclaimed aloud, proclamation, preaching” by a herald sent by God. The translators of the NIV used the meaning “proclamation” to translate our word in Romans 16:25:
Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past,
But they used the word “preaching” in translating our word in Titus 1:3:
and at his appointed season he brought his word to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior,
Either meaning may be used in 1 Corinthians 1:21 since preaching in this context is not the act of proclaiming biblical message but the content of the message. Although many do not make any distinction between teaching and preaching of the word but in truth preaching is targeted towards unbelievers while teaching is for believers. This distinction is implied in the communication of God’s word by Jesus Christ in His last days on this planet, according to Luke 20:1:
One day as he was teaching the people in the temple courts and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, together with the elders, came up to him.
You will notice that Jesus was said to be teaching and preaching the gospel, indicating He was involved in two different activities related to proclaiming God’s truth. Thus, there is a distinction between the two. The distinction is also implied in the instruction of the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul to Timothy concerning his function as a pastor, as we read in 1 Timothy 4:13:
Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.
We have given an extensive treatment of the difference between teaching and preaching so if you want to get the details you may listen to lessons #477 and 478 in Luke in our website. That aside, because unbelievers who are of the elect are those that are benefited through the declaration of the word of God mentioned in our passage, it may be preferable to use the meaning “preaching” in our passage of 1 Corinthians 1:21 not in the sense of act of preaching but as a reference to the content of what is proclaimed.
Be that as it may, it is our assertion that the means of salvation God decided in eternity is the message of the cross. We say this because the expression the foolishness of what was preached or more literally the foolishness of the preaching. It is the message of the cross that is considered foolish by the world of those who are perishing. Furthermore, the Greek has a definite article before the word translated “preaching.” The use of the definite article is to refer to the only known proclamation of the Christian message, which is the message of the cross, that is, the gospel of Jesus Christ that focused on His death and resurrection. Thus, what is preached according to the NIV refers to the message of the cross which is the means of eternal salvation.
It is through the preaching of the message of the cross that God decided to His own pleasure to bring eternal salvation as in the verbal phrase to save. The word “save” is translated from a Greek word (sōzō) that is used in a physical or a spiritual sense. In a physical sense it may mean to preserve or rescue from natural dangers and afflictions, hence “to save, keep from harm, preserve, rescue.” To save in the physical sense may mean “to heal”, that is, to rescue from torment of diseases or to be restored to health, as the word is used in Luke 8:48:
Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”
The sentence your faith has healed you is literally your faith has saved you. The literal translation may imply that there is a physical healing as well as a spiritual healing. To save may mean to keep from dying as in the instruction of Paul to the centurion taking him to Rome about not allowing the sailors to abandon ship, as we read in Acts 27:31:
Then Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved.”
To save may mean “to deliver”, that is, to bring out safely from a situation fraught with mortal danger, so the word is used to describe Israel’s deliverance from Egypt in Jude 5:
Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe.
The sentence the Lord delivered his people is literally having saved the people. In a spiritual sense, the word may mean to save or preserve from transcendent danger or destruction hence “to save/preserve from eternal death” with the implication of being preserved from judgment and from all that might lead to eternal death, for example, sin. It is in this sense that the word is used when Apostle Paul offered eternal salvation to the Philippian jailer in Acts 16:31:
They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”
It is, of course, in the spiritual sense of being saved from eternal death that the word is used in 1 Corinthians 1:21. Thus, it was God’s decision to save the elect from eternal death using the preaching of the message of the cross.
I have been stating that God decided to save the elect through the preaching of the message of the cross, so you probably wonder how I can state this when the word “elect” does not appear in our passage. True, but the concept is found in the clause those who believe of the NIV that literally reads the ones believing. The word “believe” is translated from a Greek word (pisteuō) that may mean “to think/consider (possible)” as that is the sense of the word when it is used to describe the response of the early church towards Paul after he was converted, as we read in Acts 9:26:
When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple.
The verbal phrase not believing that he really was a disciple may be translated not considering possible that he really was a disciple. The Greek word may mean “to be confident about.” It is this sense that is intended in the use of our Greek word in describing the reservation of some believers from eating some food, as we read in Romans 14:2:
One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables.
The sentence One man’s faith allows him to eat everything is more literally One believes he may eat all things that may be translated the one is confident about eating anything as suggested in the standard Greek English lexicon (BADG). The word may mean “to entrust” as Apostle Paul used it to describe his commission from God regarding the preaching of the gospel in Galatians 2:7:
On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the Jews.
The word may mean “to believe” with several nuances. To believe may mean to consider something to be true and therefore worthy of one’s trust as the word is used to describe the response of the Thessalonians to Apostle Paul’s testimony to them about the Lord Jesus Christ, as implied in 2 Thessalonians 1:10:
on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.
To believe may mean “to trust” with the implication of total commitment to the one who is trusted. This meaning of believe or faith is used in the Scripture with either God or Christ as the object of trust. It is in this sense that it is used to describe believers who are expected to live a lifestyle that is in keeping with faith in Christ in Titus 3:8:
This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.
It is “to believe” in the sense of “to trust” with the implication of total commitment to the one who is trusted that the word is used in our passage of 1 Corinthians 1:21.
The clause those who believe of the NIV or the literal translation the ones believing indicates the apostle had in mind a specific class of humanity. This class is characterized by believing in Christ. It is because of this we contend that the preaching of the message of the cross is for the salvation of the elect. This is because no one believes on his or her own. Only those who are of the elect that God enables to believe. The Lord Jesus was quite emphatic that no one can believe so as to be saved unless the Father aids the person, as recorded in John 6:65:
He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.”
The verbal phrase come to me here means “to believe” as demanded by the immediate context. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul asserted that only the elect believes, as we read in Acts 13:48:
When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.
Those appointed to eternal life are the elect and they are the ones who believed. To enable us not to forget this point, the Holy Spirit conveyed through Luke that it is the Lord who enlightens a person, so the individual will believe, as stated in Acts 16:14:
One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.
The passages we have cited are sufficient to establish the truth that only those who are of the elect that believe. This being the case, we are correct to assert that God decided to save the elect by means of the preaching of the message of the cross. The world thinks the message of the cross is foolishness, but God says otherwise. He decided ahead of time that what the world calls foolishness is indeed His method of bringing salvation to the elect. No wonder the apostle through the Holy Spirit expressed wonderment regarding God’s wisdom in Romans 11:33:
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!
In any event, the second point the apostle wanted to convey in 1 Corinthians 1:21 is that it is through the preaching of the message of the cross that the world think is ridiculous that God decided to bring salvation to the elect. There is no other way to salvation since the Holy Spirit tells us through words of Peter that there is no other way of salvation than Jesus Christ who died on the cross in the record given in Acts 4:12:
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
The point of 1 Corinthians 1:21 is the message of the cross is superior to human wisdom as it relates to salvation. It does what human wisdom cannot, that is, bring a person to know God in a saving way
02/23/18