The Cross, the Spirit, and the Spiritual Man
Open your Bibles, please, to 1 Corinthians 2. Once again, Pastor Greg has read this passage for us. We’ll be looking, Lord willing, this morning through verses 6–16. The title of our message is “The Cross, the Spirit, and the Spiritual Man.” The Cross, the Spirit, and the Spiritual Man. We’ve read through the entire passage already. Let’s look for now just at verses 6 through 10:
We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing. No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written, no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed it to us by His Spirit.
This is the word of the Lord. Let’s look to the Lord in prayer.
Our Father, this is a marvelous passage unfolding for us your purpose in grace, and in particular how that applies to the church fellowship here. And we ask that you would give us then a greater, more clear understanding of it. And then we ask that your Spirit would apply it to our hearts in such a way as to have that intended effect. We ask in His name.
It would be easy to misunderstand the Apostle’s argument here—all of this talk about God’s nullifying of human wisdom. It would be easy to misunderstand his argument as though he were disparaging wisdom in every sense. And some, in fact, have taken this passage in that kind of a way to justify what amounts to a pure mysticism, and they would appeal to this kind of a passage for it. In fact, this passage has been appealed to in that way: “I’m taught of the Spirit. And being taught of the Spirit, you can’t question what God has taught me. In fact, because I’m taught of the Spirit, I don’t need books. I don’t need teachers. I’m taught of the Spirit. And who are you to judge what the Spirit has taught me? Indeed, I am,” to use the language of later in the passage, “I am a spiritual person.” And we have, then, a division between the believers of the spiritual and those who are not so spiritual.
Well, in all of that, we have to remember, first off, that the same apostle who wrote this passage wrote in other passages—in fact, later in this very letter—that God has given us teachers. And he is just not addressing here the question of how we learn, how we study, and how we understand the Bible. We’ll get to a little bit more of that in a minute. But Paul’s stringent opposition here to human wisdom does leave us with these sharply distinct categories: human wisdom versus spiritual or divine wisdom.
And to understand the apostle rightly, it’s very important, as it is in every context, but particularly here it’s important that we follow his argument with a close eye on the context. And you remember this discussion began in chapter 1, verse 10, where he’s dealing with the problem of divisions in the church. Beginning in verse 17 of chapter 1, he has said that the answer to these divisions in the church—”I am of Paul,” “I am of Apollos,” that kind of elitism—the answer to that is found simply in a better understanding of Christ crucified. And so he’s been unfolding how the gospel works and what effect that should have in our getting along with one another here in our relationships together.
Keep in mind then that the inadequacy of human wisdom that he has talked about through chapter 1 is specifically in reference to divine things. Specifically, it’s in reference to the cross. And he’s not argued categorically that people are stupid. He’s not arguing that human wisdom counts for nothing and that the human mind is useless or anything like that, but rather what he’s been arguing is that human wisdom has proven unable to obtain that life-transforming knowledge of God. Indeed, that one means by which we are able to obtain the knowledge of God, that is the cross of Christ, the world thinks in its great wisdom it’s foolish. And so the inadequacy of human wisdom is in reference to the gospel. It is in reference to Christ crucified. They just don’t get it. And that then is the inadequacy of human wisdom. And in that sense then God has brought the wisdom of this world to nothing, as he says in verse 6.
And so he clarifies, verse 6: “We do, however, speak a message of wisdom.” There’s a turn. “We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing.” Paul is not taking up a new category here. “I’m going to talk about wisdom now, but it’s not the same message I’ve been talking about.” I am talking about a wisdom, but the wisdom I’m talking about is the wisdom that the world thinks is foolish. It is, in fact, the wisdom of God displayed in the cross. He’s obviously not saying then earlier that the gospel truly is foolish, but he’s borrowing their categories and now he’s turning the tables and says, “we do speak wisdom.” And the great wisdom of God is displayed in the cross, even though the world in its wisdom thinks that it is foolish.
I’m going to try to open up this passage then in three steps. If you’d like them ahead of time in case you fall asleep, you may have them. Number one: the wisdom of the cross. Number two: the Holy Spirit’s revelation of that wisdom. And then number three: the people who understand that wisdom.
1. The Wisdom of the Cross
Number one then, the wisdom of the cross, verses 6 through 9, as we have just seen. And as I’ve mentioned, to follow Paul’s argument here, we have to keep in mind that he’s continuing a discussion that he began in chapter 1. You remember when the argument turned in chapter 1, he had addressed their factionalism in the church, and he says that God has sent me not to baptize but to preach the gospel, not with words of wisdom lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. And he’s still unpacking that argument here and showing us actually all the way through the end of chapter 4 how this relates to this problem of factionalism in the church. True wisdom, he says simply, is the message of the cross. He’s not taking up a message now that’s distinct from the cross and calling it wisdom. He’s simply turning and redefining things as they should be and saying this message of the cross is true wisdom, the supposed folly of the world.
Now notice how he describes this wisdom in verse 7. This is important for us: “No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God has destined for our glory before time began.” We speak of God’s secret wisdom. If you have the older translation, it’s translated “mystery.” It’s a common terminology in the New Testament. And he speaks of it later: speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden, or literally the wisdom of God in a mystery. The wisdom of God in a mystery.
Now the reason that the NIV translators here translated it as a secret rather than a mystery, I think is a helpful reason. To us, a mystery is something difficult to understand. If it’s mysterious, we think it’s hard to decipher, hard to understand. In the first century, this terminology borrowed from the Greek world around it, “mystery” did not mean difficult to understand. It meant something impossible to understand, something impossible to come up with. And the reason it’s impossible to come up with is because it’s hidden. And so I think, helpfully here, the NIV is translated “a secret.” The gospel was a secret, something that had been kept hidden for ages but is now revealed to us in the coming of Jesus Christ.
And again, this is common language in the New Testament. You might remember in Matthew 13, for example, the parables of the kingdom. Jesus describes them. He says, “I’m telling you this in parables because you, my disciples, are given to know the mysteries of the kingdom.” That is, this is something that’s veiled. It’s been hidden, but now it’s being revealed. Romans 11, verse 25, Paul speaks of the mystery of the hardening of Israel during the time of the Gentiles. This is something that was not clearly revealed before this age. In 1 Corinthians 4, verse 1, Christ’s ministers are described as those who are entrusted with the mysteries of God. That is, our job is simply to unfold and unpack and explain this secret, this mystery, that has now been revealed to us in Christ. In Colossians chapter 1 verse 26, the mystery is simply the gospel that has been kept hidden through ages past but is now revealed.
So what Paul is saying here then in verse 7 is that the cross, the message of the cross, the gospel is something that was previously hidden, something that was previously kept secret and so now it’s something new that’s being announced. Now that’s a fascinating way to describe the cross in one sense at least, and you might have already thought about it, and that is all through the New Testament we are reminded that the message of the cross is something that was prophesied in the Old Testament. We were told about this. In fact, in this very letter Paul will say in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verses 3 and 4, that the Gospel tells us that Christ died according to the Scriptures. And we’re told that all the time, that this Gospel we preach is in keeping with what the Old Testament scriptures had to say.
And in fact, in a fascinating passage in Luke chapter 24, the Lord Jesus criticized his disciples just after his resurrection for being so slow to understand what the scriptures had told them. All of this is in keeping with what the Old Testament scriptures have said. Well then, how can it be both? How can we have the gospel, the message of the cross, described as a mystery, something secret, something that’s been hidden but now revealed, and at the same time, it’s something that was prophesied and you were told this and you should have known?
Well, if you know anything about theologians, this is the makings of a good theological fight. And in fact, right here is one of the major rubs between covenantal and dispensational theologians. Dispensational theologians tend to emphasize the fact that this gospel age is a mystery, something that was secret and not prophesied. Covenantal theologians tend to emphasize the other, that it was prophesied and should have been understood, and they tend then to read the Bible in kind of a flat way so that the church is something of the new Israel.
Well, there’s certainly more to all of this than we can explore in a Sunday morning message. But at least part of the solution, part of the solution is that this secret terminology that we find in the New Testament merely points to the way, the way in which the gospel, the message of the cross was prophesied and anticipated in the Old Testament scriptures. It was there, but it was veiled in shadows, types, anticipations of various kinds, sometimes even some rather explicit prophecies, but never so explicit as to make the crucifixion of Christ obvious. There were prophecies of this suffering servant coming. There were announcements of a new covenant that would be made. There were announcements of a new priesthood that would be established after the order of Melchizedek. Various things like that.
And looking back from this perspective, it is all so obvious. But the fact of the matter is, no one ever came along before the fact and had it all put together. It was hidden. It was a secret. It was a mystery. Could they have known it? Well, there was. Should they have known it? Well, Jesus criticized his disciples for not seeing it. It was there. He should have seen it. But the fact is, no one ever got it until after the fact. From our perspective, it’s all so very clear. But before the fact, it was hidden. It was veiled. And from one perspective, at least, it was necessary that the thing remain so hidden.
And Paul talks about that in the next verse, verse 8: “None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory.” That is, if it were all so perfectly obvious as to be expected, who would have carried it out? Imagine the Jewish leaders saying, “Hey, this is the Lord of Glory, God’s promised Messiah, let’s crucify him.” Who’s going to do that? So from that perspective, at least, it was necessary for it to remain hidden. But what a powerful argument it was, after the fact, to be able, as Peter did on the day of Pentecost, to open the Scriptures and say, “Look what you’ve done. You’ve crucified the Lord of glory.” And all of this is the outworking of God’s determination to nullify human wisdom. Prophesied though it was, no human mind ever put it together. And sinful men so badly understood it, so badly misunderstood it, that they crucified the Lord of Glory and didn’t even know it. It was a secret. And according to verse 7, all of this is in keeping with God’s eternal purpose for us. He had destined this for our glory before time began.
2. The Holy Spirit’s Revelation of This Wisdom
Now then, Paul takes this a step further. In hindsight, at least, the message of the cross is obvious. The public demonstration of Jesus in his crucifixion, his resurrection, is a clear public demonstration that he is God’s promised Messiah. No one could see it before the fact, but now after the fact, it’s all so very clear and so very obvious. But that raises a question. If it is all so very obvious, why don’t more people believe it? If it’s as plain as the nose on your face as it certainly seems to be, looking back at the Old Testament Scriptures—how it was prophesied and all—if it’s all so obvious, why don’t more people believe it?
And that brings us then to our second point: the Holy Spirit’s revelation of this wisdom, or the Holy Spirit’s revelation of this mystery. The public external evidence for the truth of the gospel message, he says here, is simply not enough. There must also be a private inward illumination of the Spirit enabling us to see what is otherwise so very obvious. Look at verse 9 and 10. And here he quotes sort of an amalgamation of a couple of passages from Isaiah 64 and 65:
However, as it is written, No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him. But God has revealed it to us by his spirit.
This secret, he says, is something that’s still hidden. And it’s still hidden and it cannot be grasped unless and until it is revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. So there’s a sense in which it is so obvious now after the fact, but there’s another sense in which you won’t get it unless the Spirit of God himself opens your mind to see it.
Now this verse, verse 9, I think has been misused, misapplied in probably most of its history, at least what I’ve heard with it. You often hear this verse quoted at funerals: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” And that sounds so anticipatory, doesn’t it? That we’re going to know it all in glory. I’m sure something like that is probably entailed in this verse, but that is clearly not the point that Paul is establishing here. We have a chorus that we sing that’s taken from this verse as well. And the best I can understand the chorus anyway, it seems to be saying something like, “You have no idea how great this is, this gospel is, and one day you will,” kind of a take on it. And again, I think something like that may be entailed in this, but it’s not the point that Paul is driving at here. What he’s driving at here is that this gospel was a mystery that’s hidden and that remains hidden until, by the illuminating work of the Spirit, we are enabled to understand it. Notice it again: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed it to us by His Spirit.” We have it. It was hidden. The world can’t see it. The rulers of this world can’t see it. But we get it. And the reason we get it is because the Spirit of God has opened it up to us.
There are basically two ways that you can come up with information, two ways to learn. We can learn empirically through experience, through our senses, or what we may call rationally or philosophically—we might reason our way up to something. And Paul says in verse 9, no, neither one works. No eye has seen, no ear has heard. It’s never entered into the heart of man. But God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. God the Spirit reveals this truth of the message of the cross to us or it remains hidden forever.
And now he goes on to explain that. Again, verse 10: “God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God that we may understand what God has freely given to us.”
He’s reasoning here from simply a very obvious human level. On a human level, who knows really what’s in the mind of another man? Only the man himself knows that. How much more then can we say, who knows God’s purpose except that God’s Spirit himself has let us in on it? The objective black print on a white page isn’t enough. Historical demonstrations, not enough. But God has revealed this to us by his Spirit. No one then can possibly get the message of the cross apart from the Spirit. It is the gift of the Spirit then Paul is arguing here that makes all the difference. So also he says in verse 13, in regards to my preaching, “this is what we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths and spiritual words.” That is, even in my preaching it was the Spirit of God that made the difference. He gave this to us.
And now arguing again from the standpoint of man’s inability, notice the statement he makes in verse 14: “The man without the spirit”—I think the King James translates this “the natural man,” a good translation—”the man without the spirit does not accept the things that come from the spirit of God because they’re foolishness to him. And he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” Notice here three statements he makes about the man without the spirit, man in his natural condition. Number one, he does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. There’s a refusal on his part. In context, simply, he’s presented with the message of the cross and he thinks it’s foolish. That’s what we’ve been seeing through chapter 1, right? So number one, he does not accept the things from the Spirit of God. Why? Number two, because they’re foolishness to him. And why is it foolish? He can’t understand it.
You’ve noticed that before, haven’t you, when you’ve witnessed? You explain the gospel, and there’s nothing that difficult about the gospel, is there? The words aren’t difficult. The message is not difficult. You’ve sinned. You need a Savior. Christ is the Savior sent from God himself. He is, in fact, God himself, come as the Savior. And simply by resting in him, you may be saved from your sin. Is there anything about that that’s difficult? But yet, when you’ve witnessed for Christ to your friends, your family, you see there’s just like a mist. It’s so frustrating sometimes, isn’t it?
When I taught at Penn State, I remember experiencing this in a powerful kind of way. Every semester, every semester, I would make it so plain, as plain as I knew how, a hundred times over: this is how, according to the New Testament, a person becomes a Christian. According to the New Testament, this is how you’re saved. And we talk about grace, we talk about faith, and I would say it every way I knew how to say it. And I would say, “Now look, on the exam, you’re going to see a question that says something like, ‘According to the New Testament, how does one become a Christian?’ or ‘According to the New Testament, how is one saved?’ And don’t you tell me that it’s by your work. Don’t anyone write down it’s by keeping the Ten Commandments. Don’t anyone put that. What are you going to say?” And we go right to the answer: by grace, by faith. Go through the whole thing.
And every semester, every semester it seemed, somebody would write on there: “We’re saved by being sincere,” “We’re saved by doing the best that we can.” And at first you’re just horrified. “Am I that unclear in my teaching? What’s wrong with me?” And he can tell me the way it’s written. He’s not protesting. He’s not trying to argue. He just doesn’t get it. He’s following his heart. And in his heart of hearts, that’s the way he thinks he’s going to be saved. Do you know that the only difference between him and you is the gift of the Spirit? God has revealed it to us and made us see it—itself otherwise so obvious and so clear.
And that’s what Paul means at the end of verse 16 when he says, “we have the mind of Christ.” By means of the Spirit of God, we are brought “into the know.” And we’ve been given this awesome privilege of understanding the message of the cross, and so by that understanding being brought to saving faith in Christ.
I have to stop and just make this observation before we go on any further. One of the great tragedies or deficiencies of Christian theology today is that this perspective on things has been almost entirely lost. We want so much to speak of the human factors in salvation. We want so much to speak of free will or human ability or whatnot that we’ve stripped conversion of the supernatural. It has become a mere decisionalism. “Say these formulaic words, pray this formulaic prayer, you’re in.” And we’ve lost all concept of the necessity of the supernatural workings of the Spirit of God in that equation—that until the Spirit of God opens the mind to grasp the message of the cross, he can say whatever words he likes, but he’ll never get it. There’s a blindness. It’s hidden. It’s just not accessible apart from the illuminating work of the Spirit of God. And this passage, as clearly as any passage could, reminds us of that, that apart from the sovereign workings of the Spirit, we’ll never come to faith in Christ. The determining factor in our salvation, then, is not anything from our side. The determining factor in our salvation comes from God’s side.
3. The People Who Understand This Wisdom
Now all of this sets us up to understand Paul’s primary point in this passage. And so we’ve seen the wisdom of the cross, the Holy Spirit’s revelation of that wisdom, and now number three, the people who understand this wisdom.
The Corinthians were enamored with human wisdom. That’s what Paul is attacking throughout this whole portion of his letter. They were dividing over externals, human factors brought in to help the gospel, as though it could. There was quite clearly in all of that a triumphalistic kind of spirit among them. “I am of Paul.” “I am of Apollos.” “Well, I am of Cephas,” and so on. A kind of spiritual elitism had come in. “We have arrived. We in the Paul party, we know. We in the Apollos party, we’ve got it. We in the Cephas party, now we understand. We’ve been brought into the know.” And whatever it was that they were using to make those determinations, Paul equates it with this wisdom—human wisdom. And you’ve brought these external factors in to make a difference in the church. “We’re the real,” as Don Theobald likes to say, “the elite of the elect. We’re spiritual. We’re the mature. When you understand what I understand, then you’ll really have arrived.”
And Paul here, it seems, is borrowing their terminology but filling it with a different kind of content. Let’s glance back through what we’ve seen in that regard. Verse 6, what is the wisdom that he speaks of? It’s the message of the cross and nothing else. It’s not anything else that’s been brought into the discussion. The true wisdom is simply the message of the cross. And notice he says, “we speak a message of wisdom among the mature,” or the older translation, “among those who are perfect.” That’s the word there. Oh, evidently we had some in that factionalism talking about “we are the ones who have really grown up,” you know. Who are the mature here? Who are the perfect? Those who grasp the message of the cross, right? Christians. Not some subset of Christians. Just Christians.
Notice verse 7, then. Who is it that’s been brought into the know? These things that were hidden. Well, it’s exclusively Christians, and by virtue of the fact that they are believers, they’ve been brought into the know by the Spirit of God. Verses 9 and following: who is it that has the Spirit? Well, it’s Christians. That’s what explains how they are Christians. That’s what explains how they understand the gospel. It’s not some subset of Christians who have the Spirit. Did you receive the Spirit? It’s not some subset of believers or super saints. It’s just Christians. That’s all. Verse 15: who are the ones who are spiritual? That’s those who believe the gospel. They’re spiritual simply because they have the Spirit who has enabled them to embrace the gospel. It’s not some elite subset of Christians, but those who are spiritual are simply believers, who are believers simply because the Spirit has illumined their minds. By virtue of the fact that they have the Spirit, they are, therefore, spiritual. It’s not some elite subset of believers.
And Paul’s point here is that true wisdom is the message of the cross, and it’s the cross and it is the Spirit of God who has come because of the cross that makes this divide in humanity and nothing else. It is Christians as Christians who have been brought into the know. Don’t you dare stand over some other Christian as though you’re in some superior class to him. If there’s a spiritual elite, it is an elite that’s been created by the Spirit of God bringing him to faith in Jesus Christ. And that applies equally to every one of us in Christ. Don’t imagine that some human factor can be brought into this that renders any of us superior in any way.
And that’s Paul’s emphasis then in verse 15, a verse that has been widely misunderstood and wildly misunderstood for that matter: “The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment.” Well, you can see how that verse can be abused, huh? “We can judge all things. Nobody can judge me. I’ve been taught by the Spirit.” Paul is not subdividing believers here. He’s not saying the Christian is enabled to judge all things absolutely. “Only the Christian, only the spiritual man can understand advanced mathematics or whatever.” He’s not making any kind of that statement. He’s not saying that super saints are above criticism. “We’re not subject to any man’s judgment.” His point is simply that only the person who has the Spirit of God can judge spiritual things. And therefore, no one without the Spirit of God can possibly understand or judge him.
What Paul has in mind in this verse is evident every time we hear someone from the world talk about spiritual things. Isn’t it amazing, otherwise brilliant people can say such drivel? “Well, I think…” Oh boy, here we go. On the talk shows: “Well, what do you think about,” you know, I’ll name some religion or God, “Well, I don’t want to believe in a God that…” And you sit there: how can people otherwise so smart say stuff so dumb? We were watching a television show the other night at home, and they were just pumping us full of all of this postmodern stuff and the pluralism and equality of all religions, and it would be how not only wrong, but stupid it would be for anyone to think that one religion is above another. And they just pumped it through the whole show. And we’re just sitting there dying. “Why do we keep watching this drivel?” Every time you hear the world speak on the things of God, they illustrate what Paul is speaking of here. They can’t judge anybody. They don’t get it. They’ve not been brought into the know as we have by the Spirit of God. We know it only because the Spirit of God has taught us.
And so it is the cross and it is the Spirit of God whom we receive because of the cross that divides humanity. Here is wisdom: those who embrace the gospel. Here are those who are mature: it’s those who understand the message of the cross by means of the illuminating work of the Spirit. Here are those who are in the know: it is those who have been enabled by the Spirit to grasp the message of the cross. It’s those who, because of the cross, have been given the Spirit of God to understand the meaning of the cross and so then have been brought to faith in the Christ of that cross.
Now, it’s ironic that this passage has been used by some to establish various gradations of Christians—spiritual Christians as opposed to carnal Christians and so on. And we’ll see more of that in the next passage in chapter 3. “You can’t judge me. The Spirit has taught me.” And all of this kind of language here has been abused in all kinds of ways. “I don’t need teachers.” And so Paul, we’re telling us here the mechanics of how to understand the Bible. A professor in undergraduate school, Christian school, who told us, “Young men, you’re going out to the ministry, you don’t need all those books. You’ve got the same Holy Spirit that those men had.” And I’m sitting there thinking, “Why in the world am I paying all this tuition to listen to you?” And of course, the point is that I have the same Spirit that they had, but the Holy Spirit doesn’t have the same brain with me that he had with them. And so we all need teachers. And Paul’s just not getting at that kind of point here.
All of that misses Paul’s point entirely. Not only does it miss it, it cuts across his point entirely. In Christ he is telling us, because of His death for us, we are people of God because He has, because of the cross, given us the Spirit of God. And because of Him, the Spirit of God, we have been enabled to see what the rulers of this age have not been enabled to see. We’ve been brought into the know and made to understand the gospel.
Paul is still driving, then, his point to the Corinthians in their divided congregation. The solution to their factionalism in the church is to understand and focus on the message of the cross. There’s something equalizing, something leveling about that, isn’t there? The solution to the factionalism is to understand and focus on the message of the cross. Here there are no haves, no have-nots, and there are no spiritual as opposed to those who are not spiritual, but rather here is simply unspeakable privilege that’s shared alike by us all.
And since this passage is given to correct their categories and the way they think of one another, we’ve got to be careful to make sure it shapes ours. What is your notion of spirituality? What is a spiritual person? Is there a spiritual Christian as opposed to some other kind of Christian? And are you that spiritual Christian as opposed to some other breeds of Christian? A spiritual person, he is telling us here, is one who, because of the cross, has been given the Spirit of God to understand the meaning of the cross, and so has been brought to faith in Christ. In other words, then, all of those who have the gift of the Spirit are therefore spiritual. We are spiritual because we have the Spirit to teach us the gospel.
Now, there is no question that there are varying levels of maturity and understanding among Christians, and that is why God has appointed teachers. But what one Christian has in his understanding of the depths of insight into the Scriptures or whatnot is not something he has because he’s in another class of Christian. No Christian has been outclassed in that sense. Whatever superior insight anyone may have into the message of the Gospel must by that very fact simply make him and lead him to an increased sense of humble gratitude for the great love of God displayed in the cross.
We saw in our studies in chapter 1 that one way to split a church (verses 10 and following), we saw that one way to split a church is to elevate one good ministry over all others. Pick out one good ministry that you favor and then, don’t just pursue that, but pit that ministry against others. Elevate it above others and judge other people accordingly. So, for example, make pro-life activism the real test of spirituality. “If you get it, that’s what you’ll pursue.” Or make support of foreign missions the test of those who really get it. And elevate that above all other ministries. Or support of your favorite missionary above all others. Or elevate Christian doctrine above Christian piety. Or elevate Christian piety above Christian doctrine and judge others who disagree accordingly. “They don’t really get it. They don’t understand as I do.”
And Paul is stressing then in answer to all of that that all of these good things, all of these good things, must be viewed, first of all, as the outworking of Christ crucified. As cross-centered Christians, we must find our unity, our reason for being, and even our self-identity in Christ crucified. If you’re going to be a one-issue Christian, Paul says this has got to be the issue. In fact, that’s what he’s calling us to here. Here’s the one-issue Christian you have to be: you must center on Christ crucified. Paul said it in verse 2, didn’t he? “I determine not to know anything among you but Jesus Christ and him crucified.” Everything else is an unpacking of that.
And that, he says, is how we must first of all view ourselves. For example, we are Reformed Baptists. How do we find our self-identity? Who are we? In your heart of hearts, who are you? God help us if we find our self-identity and our reason for being in trouncing the Arminians and the dispensationalists. Who we are, first and foremost, Paul says, must be cross-shaped. We must see ourselves first and foremost as cross-rescued, Christ-centered Christians. That’s what we are. And anyone who shares that self-identification, we gladly own him as our brother. We don’t find our identity even in the great doctrines of God’s sovereignty or in our ability to refute those who deny it. We find our identity first of all in Jesus Christ crucified. That’s who we are. And everything else is an outworking of that. And if we oppose Arminianism, it is not—may it never be—because of some cheap party spirit that resides in our sinful hearts. If we oppose Arminianism, it must be only because we see it as stealing away the glory that belongs to Christ crucified. That’s our center of gravity. That’s who we are.
And then, of course, let us never forget from the teaching here that this understanding we have of Christ crucified is Spirit-given. Only because He has opened our eyes and let us in on a secret do we understand it. Only because He’s revealed something to us that He has withheld from the elite of this world do we understand it. Brothers and sisters, there’s no room for boasting here. No room for triumphalism. No room for spiritual elitism, one-upmanship. There’s only room here for the glad but humble praise of rescued sinners boasting in an ugly, shameful, offensive cross, where in weakness our great Savior has accomplished our redemption. May God give us to glory in nothing else but Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Let’s stand together and be dismissed in prayer.
Our Father, the great thing, the great thing that You have done for us is that You sent us Your Son who has taken our place, borne the penalty of our sin, rescued us from the curse of our sin, and brought us into fellowship with You. Whatever else we have, we have because of that. And may we learn what it is to glory in the cross of Jesus Christ. And all of the various issues that we pursue, so many of which are so legitimate and so necessary and so good, may we learn to see them as the outworking of Jesus Christ crucified. May we see ourselves first as gospel-centered Christians, Christians who in their heart of hearts we feel ourselves as sinners rescued by divine grace through the work of a divine Savior on a cross bearing our sin. We pray in His name. Amen.
As we leave today, let’s leave with the hymn 270 in the Trinity Hymnal: “The Church’s One Foundation Is Jesus Christ Her Lord.” And let’s just think the first and the second and the last verse. Number 270.
The Church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ, her Lord.
He is His new creation by water and the Word.
To be truly bright within our holy church
And to the life divine.
Elect from every nation and honor of the earth
For God is on earth and all He makes me blessed.
The day of glory comes, yes, to the Lord she presses.
His hand she places on earth, yes, she is so dear to me.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave?
Three quick words. First, all are invited to stay for lunch. Please do so. Secondly, if you are strong and able-bodied,