| << | Contents | >> |
Articles 2014-2017
Paul saw the possibility of nullifying the cross of Christ in his preaching and determined he would not do so.
For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect.
Was it actually possible for the apostle to cancel out such an event so significant and essential to the eternal purpose of God as Calvary? Indeed, it was a historical fact that God had become a man and had taken into himself the sins of the whole world. He then died, rose again, and ascended back to Heaven. How could anyone nullify that concrete event?
Yet Paul was clear. He could function in ministry in such a way that the effect of the cross would be lost. If he came to the Corinthians relying on his own words of wisdom, his own eloquence of speech, his I.Q., or educational degrees, he would nullify the value of the cross of Christ in the midst of God’s people.
For the message (Greek, LOGOS) of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
The message, the thought-out strategy, the philosophy, and paradigm of God seems absurd to those who are perishing. They snicker while they declare the insignificance of the Church. “You talk about irrelevance, it’s that crowd meeting together on a Sunday morning.” But to us who have met Christ and are being conformed to His likeness, this very template of the cross reveals God’s power. Our problem is that we tend to identify God’s power primarily with miracles and healing while not properly recognizing it in the paradigm of the cross, Heaven’s strategy to transform the whole earth.[3]
At the cross God destroyed the whole world and all the satanic forces empowering it. While that complete destruction has not yet been fully manifest, everything that opposes Christ has been crucified. He who knew no sin took the whole identity of the world and its penetrating sinfulness into himself and He died. At that moment, He broke its power and crushed Satan. Again, that destruction has not yet been fully manifest. But notice what the Bible says.
Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.
The writer says that God would bring about the debilitating overthrow of our enemy through our Lord’s death. Notice that he is not referring to Christ’s return at the end of history. Of course, we know that the final manifestation of Satan’s destruction will occur when he is thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:10). But let us be clear. It was the death of Christ that destroyed him. The world and all its empowering forces of darkness are like a flower that has been cut off at the root. There may be a certain beauty and a fragrance that lures the unsuspecting, but to those with insight it has been crucified.
But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
To Paul the destruction of the world had occurred. While this event is not yet fully apparent, it has been established in the eternal counsels of God.
If we could see from God’s perspective, we would behold the incredible change that occurred two thousand years ago. From the moment of Christ’s birth, eternity began breaking into time. And then from the day of His ascension and the subsequent outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the new creation began emerging within human history. Like the smallest seed, the new heavens and the new earth have begun to take form in the souls of men.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here.
(2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV)
Jesus stated that unless we are born again, we would not be able to see God’s kingdom. But whether or not people see it, it has been growing visibly for two thousand years (Luke 13:19). And it has been expanding invisibly for the same time period (Luke 13:21).
And while many cheerfully and with great hope promote various political and religious philosophies, at the same time, they consider as poor and irrelevant those who gather regularly in Christ’s name. “How foolish, how silly are those people.” But in reality, believers represent the future of the human race. The future of humanity will not be found amongst the political movements and the philosophies of this life. The future of the human race is sitting in the throne room of God.
The gathered church is to reveal on earth Heaven’s throne room, the place where Christ’s people assemble in the presence of the enthroned King of the nations. Church liturgy need not be complicated. We do not need clerical robes, incense, stained glass, or a consecrated building. All we need are people who love the Lord with all their hearts and who want to sit at His feet. As we worship and then wait upon Him, some begin to prophesy, others share an exhortation, while some bring instruction from His word. When such activity is done accurately and in humility, Heaven is revealing on earth the wisdom of eternity.
But notice God’s promise.
For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.”
Notice that Paul was quoting from the Old Testament era looking forward in time (Isaiah 29:14). The prophet was referring to how God would destroy the wisdom of the proud among His people. But Paul’s apostolic perspective brought greater insight. To Paul, God had already fulfilled this verse in reference to the whole world. Notice the past tense that he uses in the very next verse.
Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
There is nothing more destructive to wisdom than to turn it into foolishness. At Calvary God made foolish the wisdom of this age in order to establish and manifest on earth the expression of another wisdom. Calvary accomplished His purpose. May God help us to see His power that brought about at the cross the end of everything opposed to Him so as to then reveal among men His wisdom. While the reigning philosophies and religions of this age are slowly coming to nothing, humanity’s hope can be found before the throne of the living God.
So what exactly is the wisdom of the wise that God turned into foolishness? Turn on the various television and radio news and talk shows. If you want to know how the world works, there are experts for everything. If the nations are facing the possibility of a disease epidemic, the media will bring out some medical specialists. If there are military problems, they will bring out spokesmen for the military. The same holds true for issues dealing with economics, education, politics, etc. And as these people speak from a tried and tested wisdom on how the world works, many see them as wise, important, and successful.
But God says it all is coming to nothing. While it is true that there are Christians who are experts in medicine, economics, and education, it is also true that they never found their way into God’s presence by relying on their natural expertise. Let us read the above verse again.
Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
Look around. Can you find any scribes or debaters of this age who have discovered God’s throne room through their own wisdom? And notice the past tense. The Lord has already made foolish the expertise of this age by preventing anyone from ever discovering Him by relying on it.
For seeing that in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom knew not God, it was God’s good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching (Greek, KERUGMA) to save them that believe. (1 Corinthians 1:21 ASV)
The simple proclamation (Greek, KERUGMA) of God’s word releases His power to save those who hear. Proclamation is not so much educational training in practical matters but a simple statement of ultimate reality. When the Lord quickens a word in our hearts to share with others about who He is or what He has done or what He will do, the content of our message will not necessarily concern whether the listener likes it or not, nor even at this point what their response should be. It is just a decisive statement of what is so.
When we stand in God’s presence and He empowers us to declare for example that Jesus is Lord or that He is presently building His Church, then He will personally permeate our words and back them up with the Spirit of conviction. We may not be speaking at full volume or in front of a crowd. In fact, we might just be whispering or quietly sharing one-on-one with a friend over the phone. But when God permeates the declaration of ultimate reality, the power is present to stun the listener. Suddenly their whole worldview has been confronted by perhaps just a single sentence. “What? What was that? Jesus is what?” To be clear, the power that created the universe is present where its Creator is speaking. The power to change nations, the power to change the lives of listeners and literally turn them to God is found in anointed proclamation.
How we need the Lord to speak in us and then through us to others. Such proclamation causes people to ask questions. “If what you are saying is true, what should I do?” Like Peter, our response for those who have never been born of the Spirit is clear. Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call. (Acts 2:38-39)
Too often, believers preach the above verses before those listening have faced the King’s proclamation. As a result, they are not questioning their own paradigm, their own view of reality. And the preacher is answering questions they are not asking.
To put it simply, we are not saved because we are sorry for our sins and are then baptized. These acts apart from God’s personal intervention cannot save anyone. God alone is our Savior. But when He confronts our own personal world of delusion with the declaration of His person and purpose, the human heart cannot remain unscathed. “If what I’ve just heard is true, what must I do?”
And while there is a great need for practical response teaching in the Church, it must come because of Heaven’s proclamation through those who stand in the presence of God, who behold Him, and who wait upon Him for words of Spirit and life. Here is the power to save those who believe.
Is it not amazing that God would release such authority among His people?
For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom.
Notice that Paul doesn’t say that the Jews only used to seek for signs when Jesus was on earth; they were still looking for them. On the other hand, the Greek Corinthian believers lived in a culture known for seeking wisdom. And they needed to be aware of their tendencies.
Even though Jesus healed the sick, cast out demons, multiplied bread and fish, walked on water, and even raised the dead, yet the Jews still wanted to see a sign. Finally, He told them that they were an evil generation that would get no sign except the sign of Jonah who actually became one to his generation (Luke 11:29 - 30). What was the sign of Jonah? As the prophet was in the belly of the fish for three days and nights, so the Son of man would be in the heart of the earth (Matthew 12:39 - 40). As the prophet came forth from the fish, so Christ would arise from the earth, and the deliverance for mankind would be rooted in the seeming impossibility of resurrection.
To be clear, the prophet did not go to Nineveh because he wanted to; he went because he was afraid not to.[4] He had said “no” once already and bore on his body the marks of his disobedience. The Bible says that he was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights before he prayed. You talk about stubborn. “I don’t care, I’m not going.” You are getting digested. “I don’t care, I’m not going.” Your hair is getting eaten off; your skin is becoming bleached. “I don’t care, I’m not going.”
Finally after three days, the Bible says that he turned toward the Lord (i.e., he humbled himself) and prayed. In effect, he acknowledged that he had been cast into Sheol and that he was going to die. But he would die looking unto the Lord, looking toward His holy temple. Then he ended with the statement, “Salvation is of the Lord”. There is nothing I can do to change my circumstance. I keep kicking the fish from inside and he just won’t vomit me up. No matter what I do, he just keeps belching and swimming. I cannot get out of here.
The truth is, like Jonah, the present day Church is unable to arise and bring deliverance to the nations. In fact, when I was recently coming out of a meeting, I felt the Spirit of the Lord say this: If My people in America could only see their barrenness, their total inability to bring forth my kingdom, how quickly I would move in this nation. Rejoice, O barren, you who do not bear, for more are the children of the desolate than of the married woman.
Barrenness is the total inability to bring a child to birth. Abraham’s wife Sarah was barren. But when God moved upon her, His kingdom was extended as Isaac was born. The same was true for Isaac’s wife Rebecca and Jacob’s wife Rachel. Similarly, Hannah the mother of Samuel, one of Israel’s greatest judges was barren. Though motherhood for her was totally impossible, God moved and Samuel was born. Then just prior to Jesus’ birth, Elizabeth the mother of John the Baptist was barren. But an angel came to her and her husband Zacharias in their old age to inform them that God had heard their prayers. I wonder how long it had been since they had prayed for a child? They probably had given up years earlier. But God had not forgotten. And His kingdom again expanded when John was born.
Similarly, though Mary the mother of Jesus was not barren, she was a virgin; it was impossible for her to have a child. But in the midst of that impossibility, God overshadowed her, Jesus was born, and the Kingdom of God came forth.
We must see our total inability to extend God’s work on earth. Here is the sign of Jonah. Deliverance for Nineveh was simply impossible when you considered the prophet sitting in a fish’s stomach; deliverance for the earth seemed impossible when you considered Jesus lying in a tomb. Today, there seems no change possible for the nations when you consider the barrenness of the Church. But we must face our condition, not settle for it, and cry out to Him because of it.
His kingdom is indeed emerging. But it is arising from Him – His power, His wisdom, His initiative, and His timing. Jesus said that those who are poor in spirit are blessed because God’s kingdom is theirs. In other words, their own poverty of spirit will cause them to recognize their unfruitful condition and cry out for Him to arise in their lives and do in and through them what they cannot do themselves. The Kingdom of God is not revealed in what men do for God but in His glorious work in and through them.
but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness.
Someone of Greek descent might think, “How can a man on a cross on the other side of the Mediterranean have anything to do with me? I studied Aristotle and Socrates; I see how the world works; I’ve got common-sense insight. Therefore intellectual reasoning is where salvation ought to be found.” And to him the gospel just seems silly. Then someone of Jewish descent might say, “Wait a minute. Our Messiah was to be a great leader. He was to lead us against our enemies and into great glory. Our Messiah nailed to a cross by heathen Romans? I don’t think so.” And he would stumble at such a thought.
But God has released the gospel among us in order to offend everything rooted in the strength of man and in our expectations of what He ought to do and when He ought to do it. To be clear, God is increasingly revealing His rule among men in order to shatter everything rooted in the strength of man.
but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
To those who have been called by God, this message of Christ crucified has become to us Christ, the power and the wisdom of God.
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
While a man on a cross seems so weak and foolish when considering humanity’s needs, yet God’s solution was stronger and wiser than anything that men could ever come up with. Apart from God, even the smartest among us have never been able to understand much less solve the roots of humanity’s problems. “If we just implement socialism and make sure everyone has a college education, we will be able to fix everything. Or maybe if we just had more money, or more political unity.” But no matter what we try, we cannot fix the world because the root of our problems is the sin in our hearts.
So God came to earth and on the cross took into himself the sin of the whole world. At the moment that He became sin and died, sin died and its power was broken. So when He rose from the grave, He did so as the victor over the root problem plaguing all mankind. In all of human history there has never been a wiser or more powerful act to free humanity than the death and resurrection of Christ. The root of everything that opposed God was destroyed and buried. And for those who through faith and baptism have been plunged into Him in that event and in Him have arisen out of that grave, God has given the privilege of now living in Him in heavenly places.
The assembled local church is to be a gathering of believers seated in the heavenly realms before their enthroned King. There in His throne room, we come together in a jurisdiction different than the realm of this world with all of its false strengths, wisdom, and expertise.
For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.
God has chosen the foolish of the world not so that He can preserve society’s status quo but to put to shame what this world calls wise. And He has chosen the weak of this world to shame what the nations call mighty. In fact, He has chosen the base, the despised, and those the world considers to be nothing in order to bring to nothing everything around us that this generation thinks should be emulated. And He has done all this so that nobody can glory in His presence.
Paul has just given us God’s operative unfolding plan presently overthrowing the existing order.
But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God–and righteousness and sanctification and redemption–that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the LORD.”
If we are going to boast about anything, let us boast in Him, for He has become for us everything we need to succeed in His plan. Notice the above verse.
Christ has become our redemption. The difference between Jesus being our redeemer and being our redemption is that while a redeemer pays a price, redemption is the price paid. For example, if you were kidnaped and held for ransom, the one who pays the money for your freedom is the redeemer in that situation. But if he came and told the kidnapers to let you go and take him in your place, he would then become the price paid for your freedom. Calvary was where God came and took our place; Christ gave himself for our sins. Not only did He pay the necessary price, He became the price paid. So when God sees our sin – all of it – past, present, and future, He sees that the only value sufficient to redeem us from our horrendous condition could be fully paid if He took our place. As a result, He became our redemption.
Then Christ has become our sanctification. To sanctify means to set apart as holy. The unique element that sets us apart from the world is the presence of Jesus himself. Christians are not identified because they obey a list of rules or read the Bible. When someone tells me that he is a believer, I primarily look for the presence of Christ. I have heard politicians call themselves Christians. But if I do not discern Christ in their words and actions, then I have my doubts. It is the presence of God that sets His people apart from the world.
Thirdly, He became our righteousness. Righteousness is a Person. God sees His own blamelessness when He looks at our lives. The greatest gift ever given among men was the gift of God himself. When He exposes sin in our hearts, all we can do is ask Him to forgive and cleanse us. Then we must simply receive the reality of His presence for He is our righteousness. Scripture promises that those who receive the abundance of grace and of His righteousness will reign in life (Romans 5:17).
Finally, Christ has become to us wisdom from God. To be clear, there are two wisdoms – the wisdom of this age and Christ the Wisdom of God. Wisdom is not so much about what we know; it is about what we do with what we know. This is an important distinction. Some have made knowledge the essence of Christianity; proper theology trumps everything else. And while sound teaching is indeed vital, sound wisdom has to do with appropriate living so that Christ is revealed as we walk out what we have been taught.
Some might ask what proper church order looks like.
“Hopefully it looks like Jesus.”
“Well, no, that is too simplistic. We need a list of practical and step-by-step actions to be taken when we come together. We need some divine order here.”
While some practical and administrative instructions can be helpful, what we are ultimately looking for is Christ the Wisdom of God revealed among us. If the gathered local church is an expression on earth of the heavenly throne room of God, then He wants to reveal His lordship and headship among us. When we gather, we need to ask what His purpose is for us that day. “What do You want to speak to us today Lord, what songs do You want to sing (Hebrews 2:12)?” As we wait on Him, we simply want to express corporately what is on His heart. Remember, the Wisdom of God, the person of Christ will be revealed as we walk out properly what we have been taught.
To be clear, our message is not primarily about our need for plurality of eldership, missions, home groups, or proper church structure. As good as these truths are, our theme is the lordship and the headship of the Lord Jesus Christ. His lordship requires our obedience; His received headship reveals our oneness. As we obey Him, He will integrate and coordinate us with others and His headship will then be made known as His body functions properly. He has become to us what we are to do and how we are to live. He has become our wisdom, the proper application of what we have been taught.
Obviously, we will be quite imperfect in our response to Him both individually and corporately. So how do we do this? How is Christ, the Wisdom of God to be revealed among us as we properly apply God’s truth? We must study His word, seek to walk in the Spirit, and also submit to others who can help sharpen us in this lifestyle of practically applied wisdom. Our example is Jesus who did not come primarily to proclaim the Law, though He did study it and walk it out perfectly. He came to reveal the One who had sent Him. And because He walked in perfect union/obedience with His Father, He was the ideal expression of what was written and as a result expressed in flesh the Wisdom of God. Our challenge is to learn Him.
Donald Rumble – March 2015
Search Comments
This page has been visited 0055 times.
| << | Contents | >> |
10 per page