The Conquest of the Cross
Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. (1 Corinthians 1:20b-22 NASB)
Back when I was much younger, I knew even less about mechanical matters than the minute knowledge I now hold. Once I was stumped by my inability to turn a nut off a bolt I needed to remove. The harder I pulled the wrench, the less the results. Finally this vast storehouse of knowledge and ability toward mechanical things, aka my father, walked by and enlightened me with the words, “it probably has left-hand threads, you’re turning it wrong”. I was going at it from the wrong way. By then my frustration level was over powering any need to feel embarrassed. It was a relief to have the wisdom of my Dad.
Many people are turning to God in the wrong way and it is leaving them frustrated and holding to a false understanding of how well a person can come to know Him. Consequently they conclude that God pushes man away if he gets too close, that He keeps us from getting to know Him much like a recluse hides himself from society. To them, there can be no intimacy with God and so the Bible is filled with contradictions when God supposedly says, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden...(Matthew 11:28 NASB). They begrudgingly resign that the relationship one can have with God is mechanical, distant and even cold, i.e. no love, which reminds them of another contradiction: the Bible says, “God is love”.
Such folk are experiencing what everyone does who attempt to come to know God by their own method and ability. They think the answer to knowing God is a gaining of knowledge and wisdom. This is what Gnosticism of old and New Age of today subscribe to. God is gained by gaining knowledge. Besides being wrong, this approach is also dangerous. It misrepresents God’s heart for mankind and advances the notion that only a very select few achieve such degrees of wisdom. The lie of course is that they too will never reach what they are searching for. Why? They have it exactly backward. For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God…
How is it to be then that anyone can come to truly know the Lord? Friend, if this is the frustrating question of your heart, the answer is God with great pleasure does this through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. It is by faith. This faith must come first as the Apostle Paul reminds us of the heart of God who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4 NASB). Filling our heads by man’s wisdom thinking that will yield a relationship with God won’t work. It can’t work because it’s not God’s plan. Praise be to God, because this is nothing but another form of works righteousness of what I have to achieve to be saved. God opens the door to all through the cross.
I praise you Jesus that I am saved through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The salvation of my soul doesn’t rely on me, my wisdom or even the degree of my faith. It relies on You and Your wonderful, powerful, all sufficient work on the cross! I thank You for the conquest You achieved over my own wisdom and for the patient and enduring work of the Spirit to defeat the sin-polluted reason of my fallen nature.
