What about when Paul came to the Jews? Did Paul say something like this: “Well it’s obvious that we can’t get very far talking about Jesus as He walked around the dusty roads of Palestine. Let’s emphasize the transformation up on the mountain when Moses and Elijah came down. Let’s build that exciting event up. Let’s use something like that to try to get them hooked, and then once we get that far then we can talk about something else”?
What about the Greeks? How does one best try to reach them? Paul could have done something like this: “Greeks pride themselves in wisdom. Let’s go back and read all their literature. Let’s do everything we can to show that Jesus was really a philosopher, misunderstood as a Jewish itinerant evangelist. You mustn’t think of Jesus being a Messiah, or the Son of God, or anything like that. Instead, He was really a philosopher, far ahead of His time.”
You know perfectly well that Paul did not do that. When he preached to the Romans, he preached Christ crucified in weakness, but the power of God. When he preached to the Jews, he preached Christ, who came not as a sign but to die and to give His life as a ransom for many in the power of God. And when he preached to the Greeks, he did not preach Christ as the wisdom of man, but the simple Gospel of Christ, the Savior who died in order that by the power of God we might be saved. It was the same message, whether it be to the Romans, Greeks, or Jews.
That brings us to the final point that Paul develops in the first verses of chapter 2, which is the implication of all this for the preaching of the Gospel. Paul understood that the power of God was to be found not in the power of men nor in the wisdom of men, but in the simple Gospel of the preaching of the cross. That is precisely why Paul was so determined to preach the message that he did.
Paul says quite clearly that when he came to Corinth, he did not come with Greek eloquence or superior wisdom as a Greek philosopher may have done. Rather he came as one who proclaimed the simple testimony from God, namely, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And, moreover, says Paul, “When I came, I did not come in power like a Roman might have come. I did not come as a conquering general. I didn’t enter Corinth as Julius Caesar.” No, he says, “I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power” (2:3-4).
It is the same today. I suppose there is a place for trying to establish some kind of contact with the way people are thinking in our culture, but we have to be very careful in how we go about that. There are tools, such as technology, that can help us in some ways. But we have to remember that the power of God is not in the technology or in any other human instrument of communication. The power of God is not in how persuasive we can be. The power of God is not in how wise we can be so that people will be impressed with us.
The power of God is in the simple Gospel, that Jesus is the Son of God and that He died and rose again for you. That is the Gospel, and that is why God can take a person who is of very humble ability and use him or her to change the lives of others. If that person is faithful to that Gospel, and if he shares it, and if he preaches it, God operates in power through that Gospel. In this God accomplishes what no other branch of human learning and wisdom can do: He saves people from their sin. It is only in the Gospel that one can discover that he or she is a sinner and cannot save themselves. You find God to be a God of love, who is the Savior of sinners just like you. And you find the power of Jesus to reach down, and to change your own rebellious, hardened, and sinful mind. He humbles you and makes you into the kind of person who is a replica of His own Son, Jesus Christ.
Isn’t that the wisdom of God? What makes better sense than this? How wonderful to know that there is a God who made us. And even though we have ruined ourselves by our sin, God loves us and has not given up. Furthermore, this God who created us in His image is working through the death of His Son on the cross to restore that image in you and make you one who is going to live with Him for all eternity. You do not find that anywhere in all the world. But you do find it in the Word of God.
