Bible Reading and Commentary:

Read: 1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Because the false prophets in Corinth were taking pride in their eloquence and learning, Paul now contrasts God’s wisdom and power with the worldly wisdom peddled by the proud Corinthians. We should not reject human philosophy or eloquence outright but we should point out the ways in which the message of Christ’s cross appears offensive and foolish to unbelievers who depend on human reason or good works. Reason cannot conceive of a crucified Son of God, or of a Savior who submits to death on a cross, or of salvation based on grace rather than human performance. Therefore, human wisdom finds the sorry cast of characters that God calls to preach the gospel and populate the church repulsive. Throughout salvation history, God consistently works in power through faithful people who are weak, uneducated, poor, and despised. So the glorious foolishness of the cross demolishes all human pretension and boasting. At the end of the chapter, there is special significance in Paul’s description of Christ as the believer’s “wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.” This statement serves as a beautiful summary of Christian proclamation and faith, highlighting that fact that salvation is by God’s grace alone through Christ alone. It also should remind Christians that only Christ deserves praise and glory in his church.

As Christians we follow Christ here on earth which leads into eternity. This world holds nothing for us. Our focus is on Christ. Being witnesses for the only true God includes telling others of what Christ did on earth but also of how we will spend eternity with him.

John Calvin: Paul lists in passing what and how great a treasure is found in Christ and at the same time, states that our entire mode of existence is found in him. First, Paul says, Christ has been made our wisdom. By this he means that we find absolute perfection of wisdom in him, because in him the Father reveals his fullness to us, that we might not desire to know anything except him. Second, Paul says, Christ has been made our righteousness. By this he means that in his name we have been accepted by God because he has expiated our sins by his death, and his obedience has been imputed to us for righteousness. For since the righteousness of faith consists in the forgiveness of sins and gracious acceptance, we obtain both through Christ. Third, Paul calls Christ our sanctification. By this he means that we, who by nature are unholy, are born again by his Spirit into holiness so that we might serve God. From this we also gather that it is not possible for us to be justified freely through faith alone without at the same time living in holiness. For these graces are joined together as if by an inseparable bond, so that anyone who attempts to separate them, at the same time, tears Christ apart. Fourth, Paul says that Christ has been given to us for redemption. By this he means that we are delivered by his goodness from all bondage to sin, and from all the miseries that flow from it. And so, is the first gift of Christ that is begun in us, and the last to be perfected. For salvation begins when we are rescued from the labyrinth of our sin and death, but in the meantime we groan for the day of final resurrection, yearning for our final redemption (Calvin’s commentary on 1 Corinthians 1:30).
Martin Luther: May a merciful God preserve me from a Christian church in which everyone is a saint! I want to be and remain in the little flock and that church where there are fainthearted, the feeble, and the ailing, who feel and recognize the wretchedness of their sins, who sigh and cry to God incessantly for comfort and help, who believe in the forgiveness of sin, and who suffer persecution for the sake of the Word, which they confess and teach purely and without adulteration. Satan is a cunning rogue. Through his fanatical activity he wants to trick the simpleminded into the belief that the preaching of the gospel is useless. “Greater effort is necessary,” they say. “We must lead a holy life, bear the cross, and endure persecution.” By such a semblance of self-styled holiness, which runs counter to the Word of God, many a person is misled. In him, not in ourselves, we have perfection (Col. 2). I find comfort in and cling to the words of St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 1, that Christ “became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. (Sermons on John 1, citing Col. 2:10; 1 Cor. 1:30)