1 Corinthians 2

Being impressed with a preacher’s intellect is not listed anywhere in the Bible as a necessary step in God’s plan of salvation. We are thankful for the great thinkers of the faith, and there is no doubt that they have been a blessing to us and to many others, but God did not give the apostolic leaders of the first century church the keys of the kingdom because He found them to be the most intelligent people available on the planet. Nor were they necessarily the most eloquent speakers of their day, or the most popular, most charismatic, or nicest folks available. All of these wonderful qualities have their place, but to rely on man’s intelligence, rhetoric, or personality is to empty the cross of its power.

This is why the Apostle Paul apparently rejected ways of communication that might exalt him above Jesus. Paul was a learned man, but as with many learned men who come to faith, his strength was not in his learning, but in his humble receiving of new learning by the Word of God and the Spirit of God. He says here that he “decided to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” when he came to the Corinthians. His method matched the Lord’s message and was accompanied by deeds of power that gave glory to God and not to Paul. Why? It was only through a crucified style of preaching that the faith of the church will not “rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

We preach Christ crucified. That is not to say that there are not complex issues in every branch Christian theology, and thorny dilemmas of Christian ethics. These things may seem deep to people, but there are issues that are far deeper still. The most amazing matters are the questions of the present heavens and of the life to come. God has a whole world of glory prepared for those who love Him, a world that no one in any of our theology or Bible classes has ever seen. Our ears have not heard the sounds of heaven, and there are wonders in that world which are even beyond our imagination.

Yet the amazing fact is that God has chosen to teach some of these things to the church by the revelations of His Holy Spirit, revelations now preserved for us on the pages of Scripture. Some of these revelations were packed away for us in the Hebrew Bible, waiting for His illuminating power and the movement of His saving providence, so that we would finally be able to see the wonder of the Zion to come in the words of the Old Testament. Other truths have come to men like Paul and John, New Testament men who have been brought in visions into the heavenly council like some of the prophets of old in order to reveal what God wanted us to know; truths that we can only truly embrace by the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

The glory of the present heavens, the wonder of the coming again of the Lord, the renewal of the earth, and the blessings of a reunited world, a new heaven/earth; these are the greatest topics for our consideration and meditation. If Pilate, Herod, Caiaphas, or any of the other rulers of this age could have seen one glimpse into that great world of glory prepared for us by God, they “would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” These revelations did not come to Paul, Peter, or John because they were smart men, or men that could speak well, or even because they were personable. They came by the Spirit of God, and we hear these truths and embrace them by this same Spirit.

The Spirit of God is not content that we should remain ignorant of the matters of this faith that we profess. He searches us out in the depths of our being, and finds the emptiness of lies and ignorance within us. He rids us of the fluff of sentimentality that has taken up far too much space in our souls for far too long. Taking the building blocks of the word preached to us, this same Spirit builds His residence within us, and grants to us faith and life, and all by the free gift of God. Now we have the mind of Christ planted within our hearts, something that may sound foolish to some, but which is nonetheless the most marvelous deposit of the world of immortal glory that could ever be granted to people in this evil age of decay.

Possessing the mind of Christ is a blessing of incomparable proportions. Through our Lord’s life within us we have access to rich resources of discernment for the life of the church and for our own struggle to live now for a glory that is yet to be more fully revealed. But more than any present benefit for successful living today that comes from having the mind of Christ by the Holy Spirit, the greatest blessing of having the mind of Christ is that Christ, the eternal Son of God, is in us.

At the very center of the world of glory that we have come to know through the Scriptures is this one and only Lord of glory, Jesus of Nazareth, a Man who was despised and rejected, a Man who suffered a death for us that did not appear glorious at all. It is through the glory of the cross, where our Savior was lifted up to die, that we have now been lifted up to live. The message that we have heard and received is about the glory that comes from God from beginning to end. Therefore, it is fitting that we who have the privilege of bringing that message to people should deliver the news of it in such a way that it becomes clear to the hearer that the wisdom that we needed so desperately has come to us from God, and that at root we know only one great thing: Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.