Friday, November 19, 2010

The Foolishness & Weakness of God.......?

Yesterday I shared a verse through a text to about 8 to 10 people. Something I do every now and again to encourage my friends and fellow saints in the faith. The verse I shared was 1 Corinthians 1:25 which says- "For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." Now that is insane to think about! When I first read that verse, I didn't understand it, but even despite my lack of understanding of it still made my heart miss a beat. Now that I understand it though it just messes me up for a couple minutes after reading it. Think about it this way: The world's most smartest man's intellectual and wisdom-filled mind doesn't even come close to comparing to the "foolishness" of God, and the world's most powerful man's strength and power doesn't even come close to the "weakness" of God! Doesn't that just blow your mind!?
To me this verse is the most impactful verse that displays man's lowly, weak, wretched, and imperfect state, and God's infinitely righteous, holy, pure, and perfect state. Chapters 1-3 in Romans Paul goes in depth in displaying man's sinful, wretched, and imperfect. For example verses 29 to 31 in chapter 1 lists some of the fruit of man's sinful nature: "They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. This is only one of the few times the Paul lists of these fruits of our sinful nature through the epistles that he's written. Then take Romans 3 for example that states clearly that "None is righteous, no not one; no one understands; no seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one (verses 10-12 in chapter 3).
The Old Testament also shows the comparison between imperfect, finite man and perfect infinite God. "for no one living is righteous before You." (Psalm 1432b). There's one verse for ya!
Take Moses's encounter with God on Mount Sinai in Exodus 33:12-23. The Lord allows Moses to see His back, but not His face, "But you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live." (vs. 20). Then we have Isaiah who says in Isaiah 6:5, "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!"
So as you can see the Bible is filled with stories like these. A sinful, wretched man cannot see the Lord and live. See that contrast between us and God!? Think about what happens though, when 1 Cor 1:25 collides with the Gospel! Wretched sinners who deserve hell for eternity, namely the wrath of God almighty, actually receive His grace and mercy through the blood of Christ! This is how God, the Father showed His infinitely great love toward us! Christ took our place on the cross, bearing our sins, and drinking the cup of the wrath of God. This was done so that we may be forgiven, and be reconciled to God. We don't deserve heaven, nor do we deserve to seek after Him in His Word, and in prayer. We only deserve hell for eternity! So here, in the gospel, we see God's great love displayed. Think about His love! Oh what a marvelous love! Here's how I can put His unfathomable love on display see: My love for my friends and family is like hatred compared to God's love for them! Wow!
There we have it! God's character and attributes are unfathomable compared to ours! We don't even come close actually! We not even close to be on the chart! From 1 Cor 1:25 I went stemmed it to many different directions. I challenge to to meditate upon that verse throughout the rest of the day. You might be like me, of how every time I read it I stop breathing for a second or 2, or my heart misses a beat, or....I get twitchy for a couple minutes. May every time we read 1 Corinthians 1:25 make us tremble in fear before the Lord, our God!

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