God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are, that no man should boast before God.There are two realms and two respective coins of realm. The realm of the world has one coinage. It is significant that its coinage has not changed for ten thousand years. When Paul was characterising the world—the Athens of his day, or the world of Unbelief—he was arguing by the Spirit that the world does indeed have a coinage, but that it was not God's currency. God's currency is very different.
I Corinthians 1: 27—29
The coinage of the world is as current in those circles today as it was ten thousand years ago at the dawning of the human race. Its coinage has always been wisdom and signs. Paul said there were two types of groups representing Athenian worldly thinking. The first were the Greeks seeking wisdom. The second were the Jews seeking signs. By “Greeks” Paul was referring to all unbelieving Gentiles. By “Jews” Paul was indicating all unbelieving, messianic resistant Jews. These Jews and Greeks were all part of the same complex: the world of Unbelief.
The wisdom of the Greeks sets the mind of man as the plumbline of all truth. By it, knowledge was obtained which would lead to mastery over of the world and redemption of mankind. By reason would men be saved and delivered. The mighty of the world, therefore, were those mighty in humanist autonomous reason. Salvation came by Plato and Aristotle and their applicators—such as Pericles, Democritus, and Alexander.
The signs of the Jews set revelation from the gods as the plumbline of all truth. By it men would be saved. By divine intervention of the gods all would be put to right. The intervention of the gods always involved displays of supernatural power, portents, signs, divinations and anointings. The mighty amongst the Jews—and all those who followed—were those who were the “holy men”, the miracle workers, the dream weavers, the sign-anointed. These, were regarded as the mighty, the sages, the lamas, the truth-wielders.
Such was the coinage of the world. And it has always been its currency down to this day.
The coinage of the Living God is starkly different—which is to say that the coinage of the world is utterly useless, and those who cling to it and boast in it are trading in counterfeit. The coinage of the realm of God is twofold, just as the world of Unbelief has two coins. It has a distinct medium, and a distinct message. Firstly, it is a preached message (the medium), and it is Christ crucified (the message) (I Corinthians 1:21,22).
A preached message is an affront, an insult to the world of Unbelief. It assails the very essence of what it means to be a respectable Unbeliever. It gives no room, no recognition to autonomous reason, where man determines truth for himself. It cuts right through the root of human pride. It allows no judgment, no weighing, no dividing and conquering of the truth: it is the authoritative declaration of God to man. “This is the truth: walk ye in it, or be damned.” Not, “does this seem reasonable to you? Judge for yourself.”
This preached message is an absolute affront to autonomous reason where a man presupposes that he will determine, judge, select, and affirm the truth for himself using his own rational powers, his own authenticating proofs, his own assumptions and presuppositions—as it seems good to him. This very glory of the Greeks is foolishness to God. This glory of autonomous wisdom has not lead to the world coming to know the True and Living God. So, in the dawning of the New Covenant, autonomous reason is rejected once and for all. Reason can only have any place at all, be true at all, if it first of all submits to the authority of a preached message.
But the content of the message is also foolishness to the world. The message proclaims a sign from God—but a sign which is deeply offensive to the world of sinful flesh. It is the sign of Messiah crucified.
The world wants signs of glory, of power, of prestige, of anointing. God gives only one sign, which is a terrible stumbling block to the world of Unbelief. It is the sign of God's anointed One being put to death, executed, at the hands of godless men. It sets God against man as nothing else could have done. It secures the damnation of all Unbelief and unbelievers. It shatters the hopes of any further favour from God. It sets an irreconcilable gulf between God and the world. It seals the destruction of the world of Unbelief as nothing else could. It is indeed the only sign that the world of Unbelieving flesh shall ever be given.
While the world of Unbelief continues to look for a vote of confidence from the gods, an accommodation of sorts where the gods will yet show their favour, Messiah crucified shatters all such pretensions. It is therefore the great stumbling block.
But to those who used to be Greeks or Jews, who are called by the Spirit out of darkness and Unbelief, the preaching of Christ crucified is the very power of God and the wisdom of God. Christ crucified becomes the exact means of powerful and effective atonement and cleansing of all their sin. The preaching of Christ crucified becomes the very ground and foundation of knowledge and truth. The very foolishness of God is wiser than men; the weakness of God is stronger than men (I Corinthians 1: 25).
Our faith, then, rests not on the pseudo-wisdom of men, but on the power of God. Our faith is neither assailed nor threatened by the mocking cavils of men; because is rests on the wisdom and power of God, it remains as unshakable as God Himself. Our faith boasts in God alone, not man.
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