God Laughs At Our Wisdom
by Pastor Andrew Wolfenbarger
05/30/2023
1 Corinthians 1:21 - “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
We live in a day where libraries of information are available in mere seconds by typing your topic of inquiry into a search engine. For example, a Google search on “light refraction” returns 126,000,000 results and takes only .53 seconds to gather the various articles, resources, and book references. It may take you a lifetime to read through every one of these. This information is the conglomeration of thousands of years of human development and investigation. Even still, God determined in His wisdom that it would be futile to reveal Himself to us through intellectual understanding (wisdom). Here are a few reasons to consider why He may have determined this:
1. The finite can never understand the infinite
God is (by definition) infinite. This is such good news for us because there is no end to God. There will always be more love for Him to communicate, more grace to give, and more mercy to pardon. Our limited mind can comprehend enormous measurements, tall mountains, or extremely deep wells. However, we cannot fathom the immeasurable, or mountains with no terminating peak and wells with no bottom. Even in mathematics, "infinity" is a theory. Our limited minds cannot comprehend a limitless God. Whatever we may imagine about Him falls short of fully grasping His transcendence. No amount of information could reveal God to us. The preaching of the cross reveals to us enough about God’s love, mercy, and grace that He may express His passion and provision for sinful man.
2. Not everyone has great wisdom
Human history has taught us that not everyone is equally gifted intellectually. Standardized testing may give a glimpse of where we stand amidst our peers. If men like Solomon, Socrates, and Einstein represent the pinnacle of human wisdom and God could somehow be ascertained by these men; where would that leave the rest of mankind? The answer is lost and searching for answers. Instead, God chose to reveal Himself in a way that even little children can understand.
3. Knowledge promotes pride
According to 1 Corinthians 8:1, “Knowledge puffeth up,”. Human wisdom tends to make us boastful. Ironically, we discover very little knowledge ourselves. Most of it is communicated or learned from someone else. Still, we are prone to be prideful about that which we can comprehend in greater depth than others. This pride is repulsive to God; therefore, He could never manifest Himself through a medium that would create within us a spirit of self-worship. He chose to use the clear declaration of revealed truth from His Word. Preaching can be comprehended in any language, in any setting, and by almost every person. That is why God calls preaching foolishness. Not because it is communicating nonsense, but because the wisdom of men is inclined to reject the simplicity of preaching the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.
1 Corinthians 1:25 - “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”
Today, would you rejoice with me that every man, woman, and child may know the free offer of Christ’s atonement because the wisdom of God has chosen the foolishness of preaching to communicate His love?
05/30/2023
1 Corinthians 1:21 - “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
We live in a day where libraries of information are available in mere seconds by typing your topic of inquiry into a search engine. For example, a Google search on “light refraction” returns 126,000,000 results and takes only .53 seconds to gather the various articles, resources, and book references. It may take you a lifetime to read through every one of these. This information is the conglomeration of thousands of years of human development and investigation. Even still, God determined in His wisdom that it would be futile to reveal Himself to us through intellectual understanding (wisdom). Here are a few reasons to consider why He may have determined this:
1. The finite can never understand the infinite
God is (by definition) infinite. This is such good news for us because there is no end to God. There will always be more love for Him to communicate, more grace to give, and more mercy to pardon. Our limited mind can comprehend enormous measurements, tall mountains, or extremely deep wells. However, we cannot fathom the immeasurable, or mountains with no terminating peak and wells with no bottom. Even in mathematics, "infinity" is a theory. Our limited minds cannot comprehend a limitless God. Whatever we may imagine about Him falls short of fully grasping His transcendence. No amount of information could reveal God to us. The preaching of the cross reveals to us enough about God’s love, mercy, and grace that He may express His passion and provision for sinful man.
2. Not everyone has great wisdom
Human history has taught us that not everyone is equally gifted intellectually. Standardized testing may give a glimpse of where we stand amidst our peers. If men like Solomon, Socrates, and Einstein represent the pinnacle of human wisdom and God could somehow be ascertained by these men; where would that leave the rest of mankind? The answer is lost and searching for answers. Instead, God chose to reveal Himself in a way that even little children can understand.
3. Knowledge promotes pride
According to 1 Corinthians 8:1, “Knowledge puffeth up,”. Human wisdom tends to make us boastful. Ironically, we discover very little knowledge ourselves. Most of it is communicated or learned from someone else. Still, we are prone to be prideful about that which we can comprehend in greater depth than others. This pride is repulsive to God; therefore, He could never manifest Himself through a medium that would create within us a spirit of self-worship. He chose to use the clear declaration of revealed truth from His Word. Preaching can be comprehended in any language, in any setting, and by almost every person. That is why God calls preaching foolishness. Not because it is communicating nonsense, but because the wisdom of men is inclined to reject the simplicity of preaching the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.
1 Corinthians 1:25 - “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”
Today, would you rejoice with me that every man, woman, and child may know the free offer of Christ’s atonement because the wisdom of God has chosen the foolishness of preaching to communicate His love?
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