v 26 – “For consider your calling, bretheren, that there were not many wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.”

  • Calling
    • We are called by God to his worship and to roles defined by him and granted to us in the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives
      • List of giftings
      • List of offices
    • These roles are ordained by God for the service of (in order):
      • His church (1 cor 12)
      • Our families
      • The community
  • Brethren
    • His audience, again, is not just the leaders (eldership) of the churches in Corinth, but all of the members. We are all members of one another – members of one body for the service of God’s body and to the glory of God through our care and love for one another.
  • Descriptions of the members of the body of Christ in his church:
    • Worldly standards, or a worldly story, would conclude that only the wise according to the worldly standards (those who follow TheScience(tm)) – those who are physically powerful – commanding, and those of the noble class.
  • God’s standard is not like the standards of mankind.
    • God chose the uneducated to educate the so-called wise of the world in the ways of God so that those who are prideful in their wisdom (which comes from man) would understand that God’s ways are not like man’s ways.
    • God chose the physically weak in the world – those who are not commanding in their presence nor their speech, to shame the strong and commanding in this world, to humble them and show that it is not by their own power (which is derived from worldly means) that God honors or instructs, but that it is through the power of God alone.
    • Whereas nobility is derived from direct lineage and not from anything we have done (as is found in scripture regarding God’s election of his saints), that is where the similarities end. God did not choose the genetic descendants of Abraham as his people, but those who, despite their genetic lineage, followed after the FAITH of Abraham (Rom 9). God uses the lowest of the people – those whom no one in a worldly sense would recognize or honor, to show that God’s election is derived by his own will and nothing that we do that grants ourselves this salvation or this honor.
      • God’s choice of
      • Isaac over Ishmael
      • Jacob over Esau
      • Joseph instead of Naphtali (?)
      • Judah for his lineage instead of Naphtali
      • Benjamin through which David would come
      • David over his older brothers
  • Our power – our authority, comes not from our own understanding (wisdom), nor our own abilities (power), nor our own lineage (perceived greatness), but by the will of God, to the glory of God alone. Not our own glory. If this were a story of human origin, it would only highlight the indwelling honor and glory of man, even if found in humble origins, to elevate mankind to high honor. God, instead, chooses the least educated (acts ), the weakest (Paul’s list of physical ailments), and the lowliest of people. Why? So that God gets the glory.
    • Gideon and his battle
    • The battles of God in the Pentateuch and in Joshua where it is God who wins the battles
    • Psalms where David speaks of God as the one who both trains his hands for war, and gives him confidence so that he may leap over a wall and into battle knowing that God will provide the outcome – because he is on the side of the Lord that no matter what happens, he knows that God will win.

v 27-28 – “But God chose what is foolish in the world – To shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world – To shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not – to bring to nothing the things that are,”

  • God, in order that he would be the one to receive the glory for the transformation and salvation of men, refuses to follow the worldly standards of glory and honor and fame. God chooses the least likely protagonist to be his hero – the most despised to be the one whom he will save so that no one can say that it is on the merits of that man that he is saved, but by the work and to the glory of God alone.

v 29 – “so that NO HUMAN BEING might boast in the presence of God. “

  • Why is this? Because God alone gets the glory. This is the argument he had with the Israelites – they knew the commandments of God yet they shaved off the sharp edges to make it palatable – to make it “do able” so that people would not buck against it and see it as what it was – impossible. Why are God’s standards for mankind impossible for us to keep? Because of our indwelt inability – our born-in sin nature. It is part and parcel of who we are – we seek our own glory – our own fame – our own salvation. We cannot stand to let someone buy us gas when we have no money, but we must find some way to pay it back or simply pay it forward. That way our guilt is abated. We must seek to justify all of our unrighteous acts so that we seem to be the victor. God knows our hearts – he knows our frame, and so crafted his salvation for us that we cannot attain it by our own will or exertion so that he alone would be the one to receive all of the glory for our salvation. This is why he has chosen to do the work for us, on our behalf, then apply it to those who “simply believe” – because never would anyone believe this on their own. This is foolishness to the world – literally stupidity.
  • Works are comforting because we feel that we are actually participating in our salvation – it provides to us some semblance of control over this situation, and makes it palatable to our sin-soaked and self-focused attitudes, but it is by the work of God alone that we are saved.
    • God calls us to himself – electing us before we had even committed any sin against him, so that we cannot claim the glory for our election
    • God applies our sin to the God-man Jesus the Christ
    • God does the work for us on the cross – taking our full and final payment for our sin
    • God redeems our souls to himself and to his glory
    • God provides the regeneration in our hearts so that we can hear his commands and respond to them
    • God provides the faith we need to believe in this word that we now understand through our regenerated hearts
    • Finally we reach a breaking point, and realize that we are not bound to our own ability to drive our salvation, but that God has purchased it for us and we cry out to him in praise and worship -calling outwardly to him to save us (Rom 10)
    • God then continues to lead us to glory
      • bringing us to completion in our salvation
      • sealing our hearts and minds, though allowing us to fall and rise again – not getting re-saved, but re-establishing our hearts to his plan and showing us that we are incapable of doing it on our own. allowing us to be tested so that we can see how far we have come, but how far we still need to go.
    • God eventually brings us home to himself so we can live with him in eternity – serving him in peace – no more troubled by our sin, but serving him with a single-minded purpose that can only come from a mind cleansed of our sinful desires and self-worshipping attitudes.
  • God is the hero because he is the only one who could do it.