Is God Pleased with Foolishness?
The fact that this church exists at all is proof that God chooses foolish things over wise things, so that nobody might boast before him. You are not wise, righteous, holy and redeemed because of your backgrounds, Paul points out to them, but because you are “in Christ Jesus”. You were foolish people who heard a foolish message preached in a foolish way—and God has demonstrated his wisdom in you so powerfully that the smartest people on earth are left scratching their heads and wondering how he did it. So if you’re going to boast about anything, you should boast in the Lord.
In our preaching and witnessing, our message and our very existence show we are foolish, weak and lowly. So if we are going to blow our trumpets about anything, it had better not be ourselves or any human leaders. Rather, “let the one who boasts boast in the Lord” (1:31).
Paul writes about this in his first letter to the Corinthians, skewering human pride. He does this by drawing a series of contrasts—wise/foolish, strong/weak, influential/ lowly—and showing how the gospel puts us on the “wrong” side of all of them.
Foolish method
Christian preaching is fundamentally foolish, at least in the eyes of the world. The world, in Paul’s day, had all sorts of wonderful techniques to make its messages more acceptable: wisdom, eloquence, intelligence, legal reasoning, philosophy.
Our generation has added the power of advertising, popular music, newspapers, movies, websites and television shows which push a particular vision of the true, the good or the beautiful, and by presenting it well make it seem more plausible. Meanwhile the church is stuck with a method that looked foolish in ancient Corinth and looks even more foolish now: preaching. Not with tricks or stunts. Not with high-budget special effects or virtual-reality immersive experiences. Not with wisdom or eloquence, “lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power”. Just proclaiming what God has done in Christ and trusting that God will use that message to turn people’s lives the right way up.
Hopefully this is obvious, but this is not an argument for long, dull, rambling, monotone, unimaginative sermons. I have sat through a few of those, and they have nothing to do with Paul’s point here. In this very letter, Paul proves himself a master of punchy, witty, direct, well-illustrated, concise, rhetorical, funny and incisive communication (and I spend a good deal of my time trying to communicate like that myself).
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The Glorious Equalities & Inequalities of Heaven – Part 1
All of us will experience fullness of joy, and pleasures forever more (Psalm 16:11), these pleasures are not going to be absolutely identical for all. There is an equality under grace (we are all sinners justified and saved by grace and nothing we receive will be because anyone can boast in themselves), but that equality does not mean uniformity.
Earlier this year, we spent some time as a church thinking about what happens to us when we die. We thought about the final hope of Jesus’ resurrected, glorified people in the new heaven and earth. Theologians call this the ‘eternal state’.
But is this eternal state identical for every individual or is their variation in the degrees of glory and happiness we will each know? I think it’s a bit of both.
What we all receive
Generally speaking, all believers will receive the joy of seeing God face to face, of being with Jesus, and being like him (1 John 3). There will be fullness of joy for all of God’s people. James speaks of a crown that believers receive, as the reward of eternal life (James 1:12). This is the inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you… i.e. all believers (1 Peter 1:4). Not one single person in heaven will have any flicker of unhappiness, in God’s presence.
This equality of joy fits in with the doctrines we know and love well: of justification and blessing from God on the basis of faith alone, in the work of Christ alone, by grace alone. This is the reward we have by faith in the work of Christ, earned by him. Paul teaches us that any gifts we receive from God can never be earned: ‘By works of the Law, no human being is justified in his sight’ (Romans 3:20). So, receiving these things in heaven, being in God’s presence isn’t grounded on our obedience. Believers will stand in heaven and be in the new creation, accepted, loved, forgiven, justified on the basis of Christ’s work. Romans 5:19 says, ‘by the one man’s obedience the many will be counted righteous.’ Jesus will say to all of his people “come and enter into the joy of your master” (Matt 25:23).
We love the equality of grace, that we all receive these things… by faith.
What we receive in different degrees
The danger though, is that we overextend the doctrines of faith alone, in Christ alone, by grace alone…
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Robert Scotty Hastings, 1913-2003
In presbytery meetings if someone was needed to finish populating an ordination commission or take a seat on a committee, Scotty was often willing to help. He always had a word of encouragement for other ministers and provided wise assistance to many pastors during his numerous years of ministry. He was a kind and patient man.
When we met I was told that everyone called him Scotty because of his homeland. He looked the part with his thick white hair, matching bushy moustache, glint in his eyes, and ever-present smile. If he had been Irish, I would say he had a leprechaun-like quality about him. During a conversation I made the mistake of calling him Scotch which elicited a polite but emphatic response, “Scotch is a drink; people from Scotland are Scots.” I purposed not ever to make that mistake again. His wife Ruth was always cordial as she showed guests needlework and trinkets from her homeland Sweden scattered throughout their home. I never asked them how a Swede and a Scot managed to get together, but they were a loving couple that were hospitable to all and faithful in ministry together.
One time my wife and I were dinner guests of Scotty and Ruth. As we waited for the meal, I was seated in the living room chatting with Scotty when I viewed his study through a pair of glass doors, so I asked if he would show it to me. Setting in front of his desk was a nice wood book case with glass doors where he shelved his prized antiquarian titles. It was a nicely done piece and it was obviously made by hand. The touch of handicraft was observed in a few smidgens of misalignment and some saw kerfs that had passed their stop marks, but it had a wonderful patina with its surfaces colored by time and touch. Scotty informed me that his father had built the case many years ago in Scotland. When Scotty was a lad and the family finished eating dinner, the table was cleared so his father could turn it into a joiner’s bench for sawing, planing, chiseling, and fitting panels and joints to create furniture for the house, extended family, and selling to others.
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Trust and Obey
Peter has described to us the character of God, His work of redemption, and the reality of our suffering, and likewise calls us to the exercise of faith by entrusting ourselves to God and doing what is right. We lean in to the storms of life and press on in our earthly calling toward our heavenly hope in Christ.
Commit their souls to God in doing good (1 Peter 4:19, NKJV)
One of the most well known conclusions in Scripture is found in the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all” (Eccl. 12:13). Not only is this the summation of the book, it is encompassing as the chief end of man.
That statement serves as a corrective lens to life for safe passage in our journey through a fallen world, lest we be led astray by our experience. When we behold the righteous faltering and the wicked prospering, when we witness seeming chaos and contradiction, we may draw wrong opinions about God and His dealings with us.
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