Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Scandal of Grace: God’s Upside-Down Calling and the End of Boasting (1 Corinthians 1:26–31)

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The Scandal of Grace: God’s Upside-Down Calling and the End of Boasting (1 Corinthians 1:26–31) · Reformed Thinking

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  Hello and welcome back. You're listening to Reformed
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  Thinking. It's good to be here.
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  We have a deep dive in front of us today that, well, it's one of
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  those it's going to challenge us, might make us a little
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  uncomfortable. I think that's a good way to put
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  it. It's a text that takes a
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  sledgehammer to some very common ways of thinking.
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  Both in the world and if we're being honest, often inside the
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  church as well. It really forces us to re
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  evaluate how we keep score. It absolutely does.
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  It's a passage that is designed to dismantle human pride from
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  the ground up. It forces you to look in the
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  mirror and see something, well, something you might not want to
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  see at first, but then on the other side of that, it turns out
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  to be the source of incredible freedom and joy.
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  We're going to be looking at First Corinthians chapter 1,
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  specifically verses 26 through 31.
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  OK, so before we dive right into verse 26, I think we have to set
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  the stage. The sources we're working from
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  today, they start by identifying a really specific cultural
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  mindset. They call it the meritocracy
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  trap. And that is the perfect term for
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  it. It really is.
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  Because we are just swimming in it.
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  Yeah. We live in a world that, for all
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  intents and purposes, worships at the altar of meritocracy.
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  I mean, from the time we were little kids, we're basically
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  catechized to believe that our worth is completely tied up in
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  our achievements. It's all about what you can do,
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  what you've accomplished. Totally.
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  We track the Forbes 400 list to see who the wealthiest people
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  are. We idolize the Ivy League.
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  We get obsessed with experts and influencers and people with blue
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  checkmarks next to their names. It is the air that we breathe.
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  The unwritten rule of our culture is actually pretty
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  simple. The strong survive, the smart
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  prosper, and everyone else is, you know, kind of left behind.
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  A social Darwinism, almost. It really is.
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  It's a survival of the fittest mentality that's been applied to
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  social standing, to your career, to everything.
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  If you contribute, you matter. If you're impressive, you
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  matter. If you're not, well, good luck.
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  And here's where it gets painful.
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  And our sources really point this out.
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  This idolatry of human capacity doesn't just stay outside the
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  church doors, it bleeds in. Oh, oh, constantly.
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  We fall into this temptation of pragmatism.
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  We start thinking, man, if we could just get some celebrities
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  on board. Or a few wealthy donors.
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  Yeah, or if we could get the endorsement of some
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  philosophical elites then, then the gospel would finally be seen
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  as respectable. We want the gospel to have a
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  seat at the cool kids table. And we start to judge the health
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  of our churches by the prestige of the people in the pews
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  instead of by the presence of the Lord.
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  That's it right there. And this is exactly what was
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  happening in ancient Corinth. The believers there were, you
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  could say they were drunk on this same spirit.
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  They lived in a city that was obsessed with status, with
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  rhetoric, with who you knew. So they were just reflecting
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  their culture. Completely.
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  And it was fracturing the body of Christ.
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  They were lining up behind their favorite, most impressive
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  teachers. It became, oh, I follow Paul.
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  Or, well, I follow the more eloquent Apollo's they were
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  turning the church into a debating society for spiritual
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  elitists. And then the apostle Paul steps
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  in, and he doesn't just, you know, gently correct them with a
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  few suggestions. He absolutely destroys this idol
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  of human pride. He forces the Corinthians, and
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  by extension us, to face a reality that is, well, it's
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  quite humbling. The reality is we are not the
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  spiritual elite, and what's more, we were never intended to
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  be. It's not a bug, it's a feature.
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  It's the whole design. God isn't scanning the globe for
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  potential movers and shakers to help his cause along.
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  He's not looking for influencers to boost his brand.
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  So what is he doing? He acts in total sovereign
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  freedom to call the foolish, the weak and the despised.
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  So the mission for us in this deep dive is to use Paul's logic
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  to smash that idol of pride and to really stare into what the
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  reformers would call the scandal of grace.
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  OK, let's get into the text. Section one of our discussion is
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  what we can call the reality of the Church.
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  Or maybe a better title would be the distinguished Nobility of
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  the Nobodies. I like that that's.
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  Paul kicks it off in verse 26 with a direct command.
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  He says for Consider your calling, brothers.
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  And that Greek phrase blippy 10 classen.
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  It's an imperative. It's a command.
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  He's not asking them to, you know, engage in some abstract
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  philosophy. He's telling them to look at the
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  hard data. It's as if Paul is saying, all
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  right, everyone, stop for a second.
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  Look around the room. Look at the person sitting next
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  to you. Look at the person across the
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  aisle. Who are we really?
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  It's such a tangible command. It's not think about your
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  calling in the theoretical sense.
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  It's look at it. Look at the actual people God is
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  call. Exactly.
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  And if the Corinthians were to honestly assess their own
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  demographics, the conclusion was just inescapable.
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  There weren't the a listers. Not even close.
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  They were not the cultural movers and shakers of the Roman
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  Empire. By and large.
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  They were the zeros, the nobodies.
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  And Paul even breaks it down. He categorizes the world's elite
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  into 3 distinct groups in this verse.
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  And these terms would have covered the whole status system
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  of the 1st century. He's very precise.
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  So the first group he mentions is the Wise, the Sophos
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  according to the flesh. And that little tag according to
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  the flesh is so crucial, isn't it?
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  It seems to be the key to the whole thing.
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  What does it mean? It means wisdom as measured by
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  human standards, wisdom from a worldly on a spiritual
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  perspective. In a city like Corinth, this
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  meant everything. It meant the rhetorical flair of
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  the sophists, who were like professional public speakers.
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  The people who could win any argument just by how they said
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  it. Absolutely.
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  It meant the speculative logic of the Greek philosophers.
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  It meant the credentialed intellect of the Academy.
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  Corinth prided itself on being a hub of intellectual activity.
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  A university town, in a way. You could think of it like that,
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  but then Paul says, OK, now look at the church.
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  And the church was glaringly deficient in these kinds of
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  scholars. They didn't have the endorsement
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  of the experts. They didn't have the pH DS of
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  the day filling their ranks. So that's the first group they
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  were lacking the intellectual elite.
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  Then Paul moves to the second category, the Mighty the Den, a
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  toy. Yes, and this refers to those
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  who wield actual influence in the world, the politically
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  connected. People with leverage.
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  That's right, the magistrates, the local officials, the
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  influencers who could make things happen in the civic
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  sphere. The early church was not filled
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  with Roman senators or provincial governors.
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  So what was it filled with? Primarily slaves, former slaves,
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  freedmen, and day laborers. People on the absolute lowest
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  rungs of the social ladder. People with 0 political clout.
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  OK, so not the wise, not the mighty.
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  And the third category he lists is the noble, the Eugenus.
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  This one is literally well born. This is the aristocracy.
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  This is old money people who could boast of a distinguished
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  lineage, a celebrated family name.
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  People who were born into status.
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  Exactly, and Paul is just systematically pointing out that
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  the Kingdom of God was not built upon a bedrock of blue blood or
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  dynastic heritage. He's taking away every possible
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  worldly thing they could brag about.
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  One after another, wisdom, influence, birth, all gone.
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  He's clearing the ground. But there is a very specific and
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  I think beautiful detail in how he phrases this.
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  He doesn't say not any. He says not many.
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  That is a vital distinction. It's so full of grace.
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  Why is that so significant? Because the grace of God is
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  sovereign and it is free. It is not bound by social class,
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  and so occasionally it does reach into the palaces of the
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  powerful, lest the rich and the noble be left entirely without
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  hope. We see a few examples of this in
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  Scripture, don't we? We do think of someone like
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  Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin, A wealthy man, or
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  Nicodemus, another ruler of the Jews.
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  God's call reached them. There's a wonderful anecdote
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  that one of the sources shares about Selena Hastings, the
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  Countess of Huntington. She was a major figure in the
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  18th century revivals. A very influential woman and
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  noble, of course. Right.
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  And she famously commented on this very verse.
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  She said I thank God for the letter M if it said not any
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  noble I would be excluded. But since it says not many, I
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  have been saved by a single letter.
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  That's a beautiful perspective. It shows a heart that truly
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  understands Grace. She saw her nobility not as a
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  qualification, but as a potential disqualification that
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  Grace had to overcome. But her case and others like
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  her? They're the exceptions that
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  actually prove the rule, aren't they?
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  They are the general pattern. The main thrust of God's
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  electing love is that it bypasses the peaks of human
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  society to fill the valleys. It goes to the overlooked and
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  the forgotten. Which then forces us to ask the
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  big question, Why? I mean, from a human strategy
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  perspective, this makes no sense.
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  Why does God construct His church this way?
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  It seems like a completely backward strategy if you're
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  trying to launch a successful worldwide movement.
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  You want the influencers, you'd want the people with money and
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  connections. But God's purpose is different.
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  The whole structure is a deliberate strategy to dismantle
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  the idol of merit. Say more about that.
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  Well, think about it. If the church were filled with
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  the wise, the mighty and the noble, what would we inevitably
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  conclude? That God picks the best and
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  brightest. That salvation is a reward for
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  human excellence. Precisely, We would think God
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  chooses us because we're valuable assets to His 'cause we
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  think He was lucky to get us. But by calling the zeros, by
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  choosing the nobodies, God demonstrates something critical,
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  that the cause of our election, the reason we are saved, lies
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  not in any attractiveness in us, the chosen, but solely in the
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  hidden counsel and good pleasure of the chooser.
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  Wow, so our lack of worldly status wasn't an obstacle that
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  God's choice had to overcome? No, it was the very condition He
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  delighted in. It was the canvas He chose to
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  paint on. That's it.
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  Exactly as John Calvin commented on this text, God prefers those
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  who are nothing. Why?
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  So that His glory and His glory alone may shine all the more
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  brightly. There's no competing light.
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  That is a staggering thought, and it moves us perfectly into
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  the second part of our discussion, the reasoning of
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  God. We've seen the reality that the
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  church is made-up of nobody's. Now we have to get into the
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  divine logic behind it, and this brings us right to the heart of
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  the theology of election. It does.
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  Verses 27 through 29 are the bedrock.
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  Here Paul lays out the why. And he does it with this this
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  relentless repetition 3 times. In these verses he uses the verb
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  God chose exilex auto hoofios. Well, the hammer bloke.
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  God chose. God chose.
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  God chose. It's not subtle.
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  He's clearly trying to drive a point home.
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  He's stripping away every last shred of the idea that we found
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  God or that we made a decision for Him based on our own
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  initiative, our own wisdom, or our own goodness.
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  It takes the credit completely out of our hands.
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  Completely. And this connects directly to
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  the heart of Reformed theology. Think of the Westminster
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  Confession of Faith, chapter 3, Section 5.
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  It states that God's election is unconditional.
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  What does unconditional mean in this context?
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  It means it's not based on anything God foresees in us.
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  It's not made with any foresight of our faith or our good works
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  or any other thing in the creature that would act as a
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  condition or cause was moving him to choose.
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  So God didn't look down the corridors of time, see that I
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  would choose Him, and then choose me because of that.
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  That's what the confession and what Paul here argues against.
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  The ultimate cause of election is found entirely within the
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  will of the chooser, not the worth of the chosen.
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  And Paul then describes this choice as a deliberate, you
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  could even say a strategic threefold reversal.
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  God orchestrates this great flip.
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  Let's unpack these, because they're stunning.
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  They really are. The first reversal is that God
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  chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.
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  Shame is a strong word. It's an aggressive word.
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  It's meant to be. We have to remember the wisdom
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  of the Greeks wasn't just an intellectual hobby, it was a
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  status symbol. It was a source of immense
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  pride. It's how they knew they were
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  better than the Barbarians, right?
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  And by bypassing the Academy, by revealing the mystery of the
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  ages, the gospel to uneducated fishermen and despised tax
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  collectors, God actively humiliates the intellectual
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  arrogance of the fallen human mind.
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  So he's making a statement. A massive 1.
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  He's demonstrating that the highest form of wisdom, the
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  knowledge of the holy, is completely inaccessible to the
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  unregenerate genius. You can't think your way to God,
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  but that same wisdom is freely given to the regenerate
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  symbolton, the person who comes with empty hands and a humble
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  heart. OK, so that's the foolish
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  shaming the wise. Then we get the second reversal.
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  God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.
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  This would have been just as shocking to the Romans as the
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  first one was to the Greeks. Even more so, remember the Roman
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  world worshipped strength dynamics.
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  Their entire empire was built on military might, on conquest, on
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  projecting strength. And God's message centers on a
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  crucifixion, the. Ultimate symbol of weakness,
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  shame and defeat. In the Roman mind, to be
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  crucified was to be utterly powerless.
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  Yet Paul says God shows this message, this event, to conquer
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  the strong. Through the weakness of the
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  cross, God overthrew the powers of sin, death, and the devil.
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  It's a total paradox. It is the divine paradox.
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  And the third category here is, I think, maybe the most
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  devastating to human ego. God chose things that are not to
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  nullify things that are. That Greek phrase Tom Mayonta,
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  is just breathtaking in its bluntness.
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  What does it really mean? Things that are not.
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  It means nonentities. It means people who, from a
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  social point of view, simply don't exist.
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  They don't register. They have no status, no voice,
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  no significance. They are the nobodies.
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  And the things that are. Those are the VIP's, the
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  somebodies, the people who think they are something whose
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  identity is wrapped up in their worldly status.
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  And the verb Paul uses for what God does to the elites is
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  interesting at Targiz. It's not just shame.
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  No, it's a stronger word. It means to render inoperative,
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  to unplug, to make idle or useless.
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  Unplug. I like that image.
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  The strategy is startling. When you think about it.
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  God unplugs the power source of the world's elite by building
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  his Kingdom and saving the world through the nothings.
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  He demonstrates that their influence, their wealth, their
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  credentials, their pedigree, all of it is utterly useless in the
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  economy of salvation. It's like bringing a billion
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  dollars to a transaction where the currency is grace.
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  Your money is no good here. That's a great way to put it.
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  And Paul ties all of this together with a specific purpose
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  clause at the end. In verse 29, he gives the
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  ultimate Why? So that no flesh might boast in
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  the presence of God. And that is the death knell of
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  all man centered religion. It's the final word.
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  When he says flesh there, he doesn't just mean our physical
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  bodies, right? No.
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  In Pauline theology flesh often refers to humanity in its fallen
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  state and it's sinful self-reliance.
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  It's mankind trying to make it on its own, apart from God.
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  So Paul is It's painting this picture almost like a courtroom
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  scene before God's throne. Exactly.
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  And in that courtroom, all human bragging is silenced completely
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  and finally. Because if salvation were based
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  even 1% on my intellect. You could boast in heaven about
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  how smart you were to figure it out.
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  Or if it was based 1% on my moral effort.
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  You could boast about your goodness, or if it was based 1%
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  on the exercise of your free will, you could boast about your
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  decisiveness. I made the right choice.
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  But God has arranged the entire plan of redemption in such a way
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  that every mouth has stopped. Every single one.
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  This is what destroys the prosperity gospel, which tries
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  to treat faith as a force that we wield to get what we weren't.
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  And it also destroys legalism. Yes, which treats holiness as a
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  ladder that we climb to earn God's favor.
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  Paul says no. The entire system is designed
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  from start to finish to eliminate boasting.
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  We are saved by a sovereign choice that we did not ask for
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  and that we certainly did not deserve.
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  So when we stand before the throne, our only possible
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  posture is 1 of stunned, grateful silence.
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  And that silence, that inability to claim any credit for
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  ourselves. That silence is the necessary
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  prelude to true worship. You can't worship God as long as
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  you're still secretly worshiping yourself.
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  Wow. OK, that is heavy.
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  It strips us bare. Which brings us to the third
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  section of our deep dive, the resource of the Believer.
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  If the previous verses took away our filthy rags and showed us,
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  we have no wisdom, no strength, no righteousness of our own.
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  Then verse 30 close. Us it's this amazing pivot, but
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  of him you are in Christ Jesus. That little opening phrase of
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  him or exot 2 in the Greek is a theological anchor.
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  It's so dense with meaning. What's the significance of it?
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  It asserts that your presence in the body of Christ is entirely
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  100% the result of God's initiative.
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  You are in Christ because of God.
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  This is the doctrine of monarchism.
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  Precisely monarchism versus synergism.
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  Synergism says we cooperate with God in our salvation.
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  Monarchism, which is the Reformed view, says that God
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  alone is the single active agent in regenerating the spiritually
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  dead Sinner. We.
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  Didn't find Christ, we didn't figure it out and then joined
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  his team. We were placed there.
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  The Father granted us to the Son from eternity.
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  We are in Christ because of a divine act.
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  And this phrase in Christ Jesus introduces what is arguably the
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  central doctrine of all of Paul's theology.
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  Union with Christ. It's everything.
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  It's not just that we are followers of Jesus, like a
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  student follows A philosopher. It's not just that we're
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  forgiven by him. It's something much deeper.
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  What is it then? It is an organic and a legal
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  union. Paul uses the metaphor of a
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  branch being grafted into a vine.
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  We are now organically connected to Christ.
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  His life flows into us. So it's a real living
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  connection. Absolutely, and it's also a
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  legal one. We are so identified with him
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  that in the eyes of God's law, everything that belongs to
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  Christ now belongs to us. Our sources describe this as a
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  fourfold Treasury or the Great Exchange.
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  Paul lists 4 specific titles that Christ becomes to us.
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  I think we need to walk through each of these because this is
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  the treasure chest of the Christian faith.
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  It really is. This is the positive side of the
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  gospel. OK, the first one is wisdom,
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  Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God.
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  Think about the context. The entire chapter up to this
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  point has been about the Corinthian obsession with
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  Sophia, with wisdom. They were chasing after it,
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  ranking teachers by it. And now Paul tells them to stop
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  chasing the shadow. Exactly, he says.
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  True wisdom isn't an abstract concept.
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  It's not a set of clever syllogisms.
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  Wisdom is a person, and we are in that person.
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  So what does it mean that Christ is our wisdom?
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  It means that in the cross, the very event the world calls
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  foolishness, God has displayed His ultimate prudence.
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  He devised a way to satisfy both His perfect justice and His
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  boundless mercy at the same time.
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  How do you punish sin and forgive the Sinner?
• 18:51
  The cross is the answer. It's the ultimate solution to
• 18:53
  the ultimate problem. Right.
• 18:55
  We don't need the endless speculation of the Academy.
• 18:57
  We have been given the very mind of Christ.
• 18:59
  We have access to the wisdom of God himself because we are
• 19:02
  united to the Son. That's incredible.
• 19:05
  OK, so the second title is Righteousness de Ciocino.
• 19:08
  This one is huge. This addresses our legal
• 19:10
  standing before a holy God. Our guilt.
• 19:12
  Our profound guilt standing before the tribunal of God.
• 19:16
  We are lawbreakers. We are functionally and legally
• 19:19
  unrighteous. We have nothing to plead in our
• 19:21
  defense. What in the Gospel?
• 19:23
  A stunning forensic transaction takes place.
• 19:26
  This is the doctrine of imputation.
• 19:28
  Martin Luther called it the Sweet Exchange.
• 19:30
  Explain that. What is imputed?
• 19:32
  Two things. First, our sin is imputed to
• 19:35
  Christ on the cross. He bears our penalty, but that
• 19:38
  only gets us back to neutral. The second part is that Christ's
• 19:41
  perfect righteousness is imputed to our account.
• 19:44
  His perfect record becomes my record.
• 19:46
  Yes, His act of obedience his entire life of perfectly keeping
• 19:50
  the law, and his passive obedience, His suffering of the
• 19:54
  penalty for our law breaking, all of it is legally credited to
• 19:57
  us. It's as if we wear his robes of
• 19:59
  righteousness. So when the Father looks at us,
• 20:02
  he sees the righteousness of his Son.
• 20:04
  That is the staggering reality of justification.
• 20:07
  By faith alone. We are as accepted and as loved
• 20:10
  by the Father as the Son himself is.
• 20:11
  OK, that's justification. The third title he lists is
• 20:14
  Sanctification Huggy Asmos. If justification deals with the
• 20:18
  guilt of sin, sanctification deals with the pollution and
• 20:22
  corruption of sin in our lives. And this is where a lot of
• 20:24
  Christians can get confused. Right, very confused.
• 20:27
  Many Christians operate with a kind of bait and switch gospel.
• 20:31
  They think justification is by grace, but sanctification is by
• 20:34
  hard work. They think, OK, God forgave me,
• 20:37
  now it's up to me to white knuckle my way to holiness.
• 20:40
  But that's not what Paul says. He says Christ is our
• 20:43
  sanctification. Right.
• 20:44
  It's another gift we receive through union.
• 20:47
  Primarily, this refers to what theologians call definitive
• 20:50
  sanctification. At the moment of conversion, we
• 20:53
  are definitively set apart for God.
• 20:55
  We are made holy vessels. Positionally holy.
• 20:58
  Yes, but that position then fuels our progressive
• 21:02
  sanctification, our actual growth in holiness because we
• 21:05
  are united to the risen Christ. The life giving Spirit is at
• 21:08
  work in US, breaking the grip of sin.
• 21:10
  We draw upon his life to mortify the flesh.
• 21:13
  So it's not just try harder. No, the pattern is you are holy
• 21:17
  in Christ, therefore you are to become holy in your daily life.
• 21:21
  It is also by grace through our union with Him.
• 21:23
  OK, that's Sanctification. And the 4th and final title is
• 21:27
  Redemption a Polytrusis. And you might hear that and ask,
• 21:32
  wait a minute, aren't we already redeemed?
• 21:35
  Didn't Christ pay the price on the cross?
• 21:37
  That would be my question. And the answer is yes, the price
• 21:40
  has been paid in full. But in the New Testament, this
• 21:42
  word redemption awfully has a future facing aspect.
• 21:46
  It looks forward to eschatology, to the final outcome, to
• 21:49
  glorification. So it's about the full and final
• 21:52
  application of that redemption. That's right.
• 21:55
  Specifically, it often speaks of the liberation of our physical
• 21:58
  bodies from the curse of sin, from sickness, decay, and death.
• 22:02
  Our souls are redeemed at conversion, but our bodies still
• 22:05
  await their redemption at the resurrection.
• 22:07
  One of our sources brings up the dispensational hope here, tying
• 22:10
  this to the idea of the pro tribulation rapture, where the
• 22:13
  body is snatched away to be fully redeemed before the
• 22:15
  tribulation. And regardless of one specific
• 22:18
  escheological timeline, the core idea holds true across the
• 22:21
  board. Christ himself is our
• 22:23
  redemption. He is the guarantee of our
• 22:26
  future physical resurrection. Because He was raised, we too
• 22:29
  will be raised. So the great exchange is
• 22:32
  complete. We bring our foolishness, guilt,
• 22:35
  corruption and mortality Our. Bankruptcy.
• 22:37
  And in exchange, through union with Christ, he becomes for us
• 22:42
  wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
• 22:47
  He provides infinite merit. It's the greatest deal in the
• 22:50
  history of the universe. Which leads us right to the
• 22:52
  verdict, the conclusion of the argument in Section 4,
• 22:55
  relocating the boast. Verse 31 gives the final
• 22:58
  command, quoting from Jeremiah 9.
• 23:00
  Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.
• 23:03
  The context of that quote in Jeremiah is really eliminating,
• 23:06
  isn't it? It's fascinating.
• 23:08
  Jeremiah was prophesying against the pride of Judah.
• 23:11
  He was contrasting the man who boasts sins in his riches or his
• 23:15
  might or his wisdom with the one whose boast is that he knows
• 23:18
  Yahweh. And Paul takes that text, which
• 23:21
  is explicitly about Yahweh, the God of the Old Testament.
• 23:24
  And he applies it directly to Jesus.
• 23:25
  In doing so, Paul's making a massive, undeniable theological
• 23:29
  claim. He's claiming Christ's full
• 23:31
  deity. Absolutely to boast in the Lord
• 23:33
  Jesus. This is to boast in Yahweh.
• 23:34
  He is the God of Israel made manifest.
• 23:36
  And there's a subtle but critical nuance here that the
• 23:40
  expert in our source material points out.
• 23:43
  The gospel does not eliminate boasting.
• 23:45
  No it doesn't. It relocates it.
• 23:47
  That is the perfect way to say it.
• 23:48
  We are creatures who are designed to exalt, to rejoice,
• 23:51
  to glory in something. We have to boast in something.
• 23:55
  That's how we're wired. The question is just what is the
• 23:57
  object of our boast? Correct.
• 23:59
  The unbeliever looks in the mirror to find something to
• 24:01
  boast about, their achievements, their looks, their intelligence.
• 24:05
  The believer looks away from the mirror and looks to the Savior.
• 24:08
  The object of our boast is relocated from self to Christ.
• 24:13
  So in a strange way, this kind of boasting is actually the most
• 24:16
  humble act a person can perform. It is the essence of humility.
• 24:20
  It's a confession. To boast in the Lord is to say
• 24:22
  with every fiber of your being, I have nothing in myself.
• 24:25
  I bring nothing to the table, but I have everything in Christ.
• 24:29
  It changes the entire conversation from look at what
• 24:32
  I've achieved to look at who saved me and what he has done.
• 24:36
  And when that becomes the culture of a church, it kills
• 24:39
  the spirit of competition in comparison.
• 24:42
  It drains the poison of pride out of the room and it breeds
• 24:46
  genuine, heartfelt worship. All right, this is where we need
• 24:49
  to land the plane. We've gone through the deep
• 24:51
  theology of the passage, but we have to talk about application.
• 24:55
  How does all of this affect our head, our heart, and our hands
• 24:58
  today? Let's start with the head, our
• 25:01
  thinking, the way we define success.
• 25:04
  This text is a direct confrontation to the modern
• 25:07
  church growth movement and its underlying pragmatism.
• 25:10
  How so? Well, the pragmatic approach
• 25:13
  often asks what works, what will attract people, and the answer
• 25:16
  is usually we need to be more impressive, we need better
• 25:19
  music, a slicker presentation and most of all we need to get
• 25:22
  some influencers on board to validate the message.
• 25:25
  We need to make it look successful by the world
• 25:27
  standards. Exactly.
• 25:28
  And Paul says that whole mindset is fundamental to lay at odds
• 25:31
  with the gospel. We have to stop thinking that we
• 25:34
  need the approval of the wise and mighty to give credibility
• 25:38
  to the cross of Christ. The cross has its own
• 25:40
  credibility. It is the very wisdom and might
• 25:42
  of God. One of our sources also brings
• 25:44
  up a critique of critical race theory and the social gospel in
• 25:48
  this specific context. This is sensitive ground, so
• 25:50
  let's tread carefully here. Right.
• 25:52
  And to be clear, we're reporting on the argument from the source.
• 25:55
  The argument is about the question of how a group of
• 25:58
  people should solve the problem of being despised or being a
• 26:02
  thing that is not OK. The source argues that some of
• 26:05
  these modern frameworks propose a solution through social
• 26:08
  revolution or through leveraging narratives of victimhood to
• 26:12
  seize influence from the things that are.
• 26:15
  It's a strategy that operates on the level of the flesh of
• 26:18
  worldly influence. A battle for worldly standing.
• 26:21
  Yes, but the gospel solution is radically different.
• 26:24
  The gospel doesn't tell the things that are not to seize
• 26:27
  control from the things that are through worldly means.
• 26:30
  It elevates them through a spiritual union with the King of
• 26:33
  the universe. Their dignity is found not in
• 26:36
  social victory, but in Christ himself.
• 26:38
  So the big take away for our thinking for our head is that we
• 26:42
  must stop trying to make the gospel cool.
• 26:45
  We have to stop trying to make it intellectually respectable to
• 26:48
  the secular Academy. Precisely, if we try to Polish
• 26:51
  the foolishness of a crucified Messiah to make it more
• 26:54
  palatable to the wise of our age, we rob it of its divinely
• 26:58
  appointed effect. OK, that's ahead.
• 27:00
  What about the heart? How does this change us
• 27:03
  internally? This is all about humility and
• 27:05
  gratitude. It's about the mortification of
• 27:07
  spiritual snobbery. That's a strong phrase.
• 27:10
  It needs to be because it's a subtle sin.
• 27:13
  If you happen to be one of the wise or noble whom God has
• 27:16
  saved, remember he saves not many, but He does save some.
• 27:21
  You have to come to this realization.
• 27:23
  Your worldly status was not an asset you brought to God.
• 27:27
  It was an obstacle that His grace had to overcome for you to
• 27:30
  be saved. It was something you had to be
• 27:32
  saved from, not with. Right it was one more idol that
• 27:36
  had to be smashed. Understanding this creates a
• 27:38
  beautiful dynamic in the church community where the.
• 27:40
  PhD sits next to the high school dropout.
• 27:42
  And neither feels superior. Both know they are beggars who
• 27:46
  have found the same bread. Both are standing on the level
• 27:48
  ground at the foot of the cross. It erases all grounds for
• 27:51
  comparison. It has to.
• 27:53
  If you truly understand unconditional election, you
• 27:56
  cannot feel superior to anyone inside or outside the church.
• 28:01
  Why are you a Christian and your neighbor is not?
• 28:03
  It isn't because you are smarter or more moral or made a better
• 28:06
  choice. The ultimate answer is because
• 28:09
  God, in His mysterious grace, chose you.
• 28:12
  That should break our hearts with gratitude and make us
• 28:14
  humble toward everyone. That's the heart.
• 28:16
  Finally the hands. How does this change our
• 28:19
  behavior, our social habits? It has to.
• 28:22
  Paul asks the Corinthians to consider their calling, to look
• 28:25
  around, and it begs the question for us, who do we actually see
• 28:29
  and value in our churches? Who do we invite to dinner?
• 28:32
  Do we gravitate toward the people who are impressive, the
• 28:35
  ones who can help our careers, or who make us look good?
• 28:37
  That's the challenge. This passage calls us to
• 28:39
  actively honor what Paul later in the same letter, calls the
• 28:42
  unpresentable parts of the body to seek out the lonely, the
• 28:46
  awkward, the people, the 1 old overlooks.
• 28:48
  It should even change who we listen to, yes.
• 28:51
  We need to recalibrate our ears, to listen for wisdom in
• 28:55
  unexpected places, to value the wisdom of the elderly St. who
• 29:00
  never finished high school but has walked with Jesus for 70
• 29:03
  years, perhaps even over the hotshot seminary professor with
• 29:06
  a string of publications. We need to align our social
• 29:10
  habits with God's own elective purposes.
• 29:13
  And there's a serious warning here for evangelism too.
• 29:16
  For the non Christian who might be listening.
• 29:18
  Or maybe for the person who is religious but is still relying
• 29:21
  on their own goodness. The message of this passage is
• 29:24
  stark, but it's also liberating. As long as you are standing on
• 29:28
  your own dignity, on your own wisdom, your own righteousness,
• 29:31
  you cannot have Christ you. Have to let go of that.
• 29:33
  You have to. You must be willing to admit you
• 29:35
  are a 0 before you can be filled with the infinite.
• 29:38
  You have to come with empty hands.
• 29:39
  This has been such a clarifying discussion if we were to try and
• 29:43
  summarize it all. The church is not a museum for
• 29:46
  the spiritual elite. It's not a Country Club for the
• 29:49
  righteous. It's a hospital for the humble.
• 29:51
  It's a gathering of the elect nobodies.
• 29:53
  That's it. And the final contrast is
• 29:55
  simple. The law, our own conscience, the
• 29:58
  world, they all say you are not wise enough, you are not strong
• 30:01
  enough, you are not noble enough.
• 30:03
  It's a message of constant deficit.
• 30:05
  Always. But the gospel doesn't deny
• 30:07
  that. It agrees.
• 30:08
  And then it says, But Christ is all of those things for you.
• 30:11
  I want to leave our listener with one final provocative
• 30:14
  thought to Mull over this week based on everything we've talked
• 30:17
  about. OK, if God deliberately designs
• 30:20
  the plan of salvation to absolutely kill your pride, then
• 30:25
  what part of your life or your church or your ministry are you
• 30:29
  currently building that relies on your own wisdom or your own
• 30:33
  strength? If the thing you're doing would
• 30:35
  still work without God's supernatural intervention, is it
• 30:39
  actually of God? That is the question that
• 30:41
  exposes everything it really is. This has been a deep dive into
• 30:44
  reformed thinking. Thank you for joining us.