{"id":225,"date":"2014-09-06T18:54:18","date_gmt":"2014-09-06T18:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/?p=225"},"modified":"2014-09-06T18:54:18","modified_gmt":"2014-09-06T18:54:18","slug":"wisdom-grace-and-the-mystery-of-the-cross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/?p=225","title":{"rendered":"Wisdom, Grace and the Mystery of the Cross"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul speaks of God’s “hidden wisdom.” Different cultures have different definitions of wisdom for practical purposes, but none of them can conceive of the hidden wisdom of the cross. Thus, Paul says in I Corinthians<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Jews demand signs<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>and Greeks look for wisdom,<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>but we preach Christ crucified:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>a stumbling block<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>to Jews and foolishness<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>to Gentiles,<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/sup><\/span>but to those whom God has called,<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>and the wisdom of God.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>For the foolishness<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>of God is stronger than human strength.<\/span> <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/sup><\/span>Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Not many of you were wise<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/sup><\/span>But God chose<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>the foolish<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things\u2014and the things that are not\u2014to nullify the things that are,<\/span><\/span> \u00a0<\/span><\/sup><\/span>so that no one may boast before him.<\/span><\/span> It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus,<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>who has become for us wisdom from God\u2014that is, our righteousness, holiness<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>and redemption.<\/span><\/span> Therefore, as it is written: \u201cLet the one who boasts boast in the Lord (I Corinthians 1:22-31).<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Both the Greek and Hebrew notions of what was rational and wise excluded God from saving the world through a great act of self-giving love. In both cases, the notion that an All Powerful, All Knowing God would condescend to be abused and crucified would never occur to them as being rational. Nevertheless, God chose to act in this completely unexpected way to save the world. In so doing, God revealed a wisdom–a wisdom of self-giving love–that the world would never have imagined possible.<\/p>\n

The same thing is true in our day and time. Those who are wise and powerful increasingly feel that they may retain and use their power by any means that allows them to advance their agenda. This is true on the left and on the right. Increasingly, those in power and those seeking power believe they are entitled to do whatever it takes to advance their agenda, no matter who gets hurt, what happens to the poor or the middle class, whatever the impact is on families and local communities. Possessed of unbounded arrogance and pride, they follow an ideological agenda irrespective of human consequences.<\/p>\n

\"OLYMPUS<\/a>God has another way. His way is a way of self-emptying. His way is a way of humility. His way is personal in the extreme. This is why when He came to dwell among us he could say, “My kingdom is not of this world.” His kingdom comes into this world one person at a time. It cannot be brought in by law, by regulation, by executive order, by militia, or by armies. I can only be brought into the world by personal acts of self-giving love.\u00a0This is why in Ephesians<\/em> Paul could say, “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not your own doing; it is a gift of God, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).<\/p>\n

The way of arrogance and false pride is excluded by grace. If those in authority began to feel that their power, position, wealth, and influence were the result of grace, the unmerited favor of the One Who Is and Will Be, they would act from a different premise and in different ways than they do. The world would begin to be healed by humility, a sense of service, and self giving love. We know that this is true because, when God determined to institute his Kingdom, it is the path He chose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul speaks of God’s “hidden wisdom.” Different cultures have different definitions of wisdom for practical purposes, but none of them can conceive of the hidden wisdom of the cross. Thus, Paul says in I Corinthians: Jews demand signs\u00a0and Greeks look for wisdom,\u00a0but we preach Christ crucified:\u00a0a stumbling block\u00a0to Jews … Continue reading Wisdom, Grace and the Mystery of the Cross<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4CzBH-3D","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=225"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":229,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225\/revisions\/229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}