Contemplate these questions while you dwell in 1 Corinthians 2:6-16:

1. What distinction does Paul make between worldly wisdom and the wisdom of God in this passage, and why is it important for understanding salvation?

2. How does the role of the Spirit of God play a crucial part in our ability to comprehend and accept the message of the cross, according to Paul's teaching?

3. In what way does the message of salvation through Christ's sacrifice challenge conventional human wisdom, and why is it essential to recognize our reliance on God rather than our own efforts for salvation?

Transcript:

 So, we come to a really awesome passage today, or at least it's awesome in my opinion. In fact, I read this this morning earlier when I was doing some Bible and commentary reading, and I just, I read it twice. I was excited to read it a third time as I read it for you today. This is just a great piece of scripture for us to understand how God works and just to understand the depth of what God has done for us in giving us this gospel.

And so, as it starts out, we see that Paul is trying to help them to understand and to us to understand what he said before. He's sort of, um, kind of looked down on wisdom, right? But he wants us to understand that this wisdom that he's looking down on Isn't all wisdom. It's this worldly wisdom, this, this wisdom that the people were, were seeking in this age from the teachers that were around them and from these people who were good speakers, but they were maybe pagans or just concerned more with the things of this world.

And so, it wasn't the wisdom that was from God. And that's what Paul wants us to understand here. Look, look at verse 6. Yet among the mature we do.  There is wisdom that is coming, that this gospel that Paul is saying is foolishness to the world isn't foolishness. It's the wisdom of God, but the world sees it as foolishness.

And we see this, as he says, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, they're doomed to pass away, right? They are just earthly things.  They are going to end, they're going to have a beginning and they're going to have an end. Uh, they are going to pass away. But we see here what Paul has to say in part a secret and hidden wisdom of God now It's not hidden because we proclaim it clearly.

It's not that it's something that is secret. What Paul is driving at here is this idea is it's from God. It's not going to be understood unless you have the Spirit. And God decreed this before the ages for our glory. Look, this was the plan all along. This is, this is the big story of our salvation.

And so, it says here, verse 8, that none of the rulers of this age understand that, or understood this. For if they had they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.  They are, they were against Jesus. This was his message. This is who he was. But God used that, God used that lack of understanding to bring salvation to us through Jesus.

And we see as we come to the end of this passage in verse 14, we see how we are able to understand this. Even though all these other people, these people who Paul says have the wisdom of the world, they can't understand it. But we see how we understand it. We have the Spirit of God.  Verse 14, the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God for they are folly to him.

And he's not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things but is himself to be judged by no one. For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ.  Because the Spirit indwells us, we are able to understand this wisdom that is from God.

This wisdom that says, All the things that are high and lofty of this world are brought to nothing by God. This wisdom that says, Even though the cross would seem like it is foolishness to you, that is how God saves. God is saving through weakness. God is saving through the power of Jesus coming, taking on our flesh, dying for us.

That is how this is happening. And we cannot understand this. We can't come to faith in this without the work of the Spirit of God in us.  And what a blessing that is. Because...  Our wisdom, our way of doing things is completely off. We are not going to get things right. So, God comes to us and says you need my way of salvation, my way that seems foolish because it's not you that's going to do it.

It is going to be God that is going to do it. It's through Christ that it is done. And so, we are given this gift of faith to understand and to believe by faith and to trust that we do not save ourselves, but we are saved by grace through the power of God.  And we hold on to this. What a rich blessing this is for us because this means that it's not about you and I.

Because as I said, if it relies on us, We're going to mess it up But instead it relies on God it relies on what he has done God has come to us and given us this amazing gift of faith And we can know that we are saved because it is not what we do. It's not from our wisdom It's not from our actions It has nothing to do with the power that is within me instead is the power of God unto salvation And so may we trust in that, trust in that message that we have been given, that gospel, and may we cling to it tightly as we step out into God's world today and trust that He is the one who has saved us.