1 Corinthians 1:18-25 - Scandalous

Chad Werkhoven
Jul 22
3 min read

What if the first thing you saw in church was an electric chair?

Church interior, pulpit, stained glass, and red drapes. But instead of a cross on the wall, it features a large electric chair. Text reads: "Scandalous? So is the cross." Illustrates 1 Corinthians 1:18-25.

1 Corinthians 1:18-25 (NIV)

18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written:

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;

the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” (Isaiah 29:14)

20 Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

Canons of Dordt

Point 1 - God's Unconditional Election

Point 2 - Limited Atonement

Point 3 - Total Depravity

Article 6: The Saving Power of the Gospel

What, therefore, neither the light of nature nor the law can do, God accomplishes
1. by the power of the Holy Spirit,
2. through the Word or the ministry of reconciliation.
This is the gospel about the Messiah,
1. through which it has pleased God to save believers,
2. in both the Old and the New Testaments.

Summary

The cross has become a ubiquitous symbol of Christianity. Even the most reformed of Reformed churches, who eschew any other sort of iconography in their sanctuaries, will still likely have a large cross affixed to the building. People wear it as jewelry and tattoo it on their bodies. The symbol has become so commonplace that it hardly is even noticed anymore.

But it's a really odd practice. In fact, writes Paul, those who are perishing consider it to be foolishness (mōros). Afterall, crosses represent one of the most heinous forms of capital punishment ever developed, from which the condemned would hang in agony, often for days, as they slowly suffocated before a jeering crowd.

Imagine how shocked you would be if you were invited to come hear a message from an upstart religious faction, which is what Christianity was when Paul penned these word, and you walked into their assembly and the first thing you saw was a giant likeness of an electric chair. It's no wonder that the Jews considered the cross as a stumbling block (skandalon) and the Greeks considered Christians to be morons.

Yet to us who are being saved, the cross is the power of God! We know that this cruel, ugly instrument of death illustrates the punishment sin deserves, and that it demonstrates the love of our Savior who humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:8).

Dig Deeper

Commentator Verlyn Verbrugge explains well how today's passage connects with the doctrine of total depravity that we've been focused on these past few weeks:

For all of their so-called wisdom, the intellectuals of this age, who should have been able to find God by his revelation in nature, have failed to do so. Instead, they have created gods out of their own imagination. Thus the only way to find what God is really doing in this world is to have God reveal it, which is precisely what is done through the church’s preaching about Christ and his cross—God’s means of salvation for a world separated from him. The only way to receive this salvation is to “believe,” to put one’s trust in, this Christ.

This is what good preaching does. It 're-scandalizes' you each and every Lord's Day. All week long, the world slowly but surely creeps into your life with its 'wisdom,' pulling you farther from the foolishness of the cross and further into the philosophy of this age. As you listen to, read along, and think about God's Word, the Holy Spirit jolts you into once again understanding that the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

AAA Prayer (About)

ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who will destroy the wisdom of the wise and frustrate the intelligence of the intelligent through the preaching of Christ's cross;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you would make preparing yourself to hear Biblical, Christ centered preaching each Lord's Day one of your top priorities in life;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: