Listen Queue
There is nothing in your queue.
You can add media by tapping the “add to queue” icon located near the media player.
February 3, 2009
God offers only one method of salvation—yet from the time that Paul preached in Corinth till the present, perishing people have seen Jesus’ death as foolish and weak. The difficulty in making sense of a crucified Savior might tempt preachers to minimize the actual Gospel and pacify their listeners with less crucial, or less biblical, messages. Yet God’s plan for salvation supersedes all human wisdom, Alistair Begg reminds us. The only way for mankind to be reconciled to God is to accept the work of Jesus on our behalf.
18For the word of the cross is bfolly to cthose who are perishing, but to us dwho are being saved it is ethe power of God. 19For it is written,
f“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
20gWhere is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? hHas not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach2 to save those who believe. 22For iJews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23but we preach Christ jcrucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ kthe power of God and lthe wisdom of God. 25For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
26For consider your calling, brothers: mnot many of you were wise according to worldly standards,3 not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27But nGod chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; oGod chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28God chose what is low and despised in the world, even pthings that are not, to qbring to nothing things that are, 29so rthat no human being4 might boast in the presence of God. 30And because of him5 you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us swisdom from God, trighteousness and usanctification and vredemption, 31so that, as it is written, w“Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
1And I, when I came to you, brothers,1 xdid not come proclaiming to you ythe testimony2 of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2For I decided to know nothing among you except zJesus Christ and him crucified. 3And aI was with you bin weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of cthe Spirit and of power, 5so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men3 but din the power of God.
Copyright © 2024, Alistair Begg. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.
