1 Corinthians 1:17-25
By God's Power

For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Good News—not in wisdom of words, so that the cross of Christ wouldn't be made void. For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are dying, but to us who are saved it is the power of God. For it is written,

      "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
      I will bring the discernment of the discerning to nothing."

Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the lawyer of this world? Hasn't God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For seeing that in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom didn't know God, it was God's good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save those who believe. For Jews ask for signs, Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified; a stumbling block to Jews, and foolishness to Greeks, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

World English Bible

Paul had to write on this topic repeatedly in his letters to churches of his era, and we need to read this message repeatedly even more today. There is no power that we have, no knowledge we can share, and no wealth or strength or skills that God needs to bring about our salvation. We do not share in the act of redemption, we only receive it.

It occurred to me this week that our society easily conceives of a balance of power. Our political systems have conservatives and liberals that tug against each other, maintaining a balance of sorts. We think of our lives as divided between work and play and our days divided between daylight and night. Even our theological ponderings are sometimes divided between faith and works as we try to live both. We are intrigued by the Chinese philosophy of yin-yang, two elemental principles that both oppose and complement each other to achieve balance. In some quasi-religious mindsets, good and evil are those kind of opposing forces, and it is up to each person to choose good, reject evil, and sway the balance of the universe.

This is wrong, for only God is God. All the powers of evil are no match for God's power.

Just as those in the early churches, we have a strong sense that we ought to be able to earn our salvation. Religions of all types have required special actions by true believers, including incantations, sacrifices, gifts, special dress, or rites of passage that identify those who are part of the chosen elite, contrasted with those who are not as deserving as the devoted few. We sometimes even confuse the sacraments of Christian churches as actions that prove we are worthy of belonging to the movement. At times, our pride interferes, for while we can't match the value of what God has provided us, we want to feel we participate by answering God's Gift with gifts of our own.

This also is wrong—there is nothing that we have or can do that is deserving of God's forgiveness of our sins. That is why we need God's grace.

We can be misled by our reaction to the guilt that comes from recognizing our sins. In other parts of our existence, if we cause a mess, we are expected to try to clean it up, and we often respond the same way to God. To follow this path is to greatly underestimate the seriousness of sin. Cutting ourselves off from God through sinful rebellion leads to eternal death, and once we have started down this path, we are powerless to turn back. We are incapable of putting back together what we have broken.

We do not deserve salvation, we cannot earn salvation, and nothing we can do contributes in the least to our salvation. It is a gift from God, bought at a horrible cost. Still, Jesus was fully able to purchase what we cannot earn, and God's Love is strong enough to restore what we have broken. All we are to do is accept this gift, and then enthusiastically enjoy what God has done for us.