God is wise, powerful, embodied in Christ

Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. 1 Corinthians 1:22-25 NIV

God is…

1. wise. God is really, really wise. Even his foolishness is wiser than the wisest human. It looks incredibly stupid to have the death of death come through dying, but God is wise enough to know that that is how death will actually end – by dying.

2. powerful. Going back to that “death of death through death” thought…* How incredible is the message of Romans! All wrapped up in that power that comes through the death of Christ. That gospel is the POWER of God that brings salvation (Romans 1:16). I love those words. Power. God brings power.

3. Embodied in Christ. Christ. God knew that the death of the Living One would bring life. It’s really hard to comprehend such a mystery. It seems to me that it is a mystery that has to be experienced rather than comprehended. It is easiest to believe that life exists when one is experiencing that life. Thinking about life doesn’t seem to convince one of it all that much. It is foolish to think that death could die through a death, but I am so glad that God knew it was true.

Therefore I am…

1. Teachable. God is wise and has given me the mind of Christ. I can think like God. I can have God’s wisdom. I can live with the same power and wisdom that Christ has. He has given it to me and to every other believer.

2. Powerful. Nearly every night I fall to sleep in a t-shirt that has John 14:12 printed on it, “I tell you the truth anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these.” I am not sure what translation that is. The t-shirt doesn’t say. In my case, it would be, “She will do even greater things than these.” God is eager to use me as a vessel of the Holy Spirit if only I will surrender to being used. Holy Spirit is most eager to flow through me. Scripture seems quite confident of that!

3. Part of the body of Christ. I have been thinking about marriage because I am working on preparing a teaching about Matthew 19. Think about this story: Man was created. Woman was taken from man’s body. Man leaves the body of his parents to be united with his wife. They become one flesh – again. Weddings are really about the reunion of the genders, or perhaps about the restoration of the “one flesh.” Just look at Matthew 19 and Genesis 2 for yourself. Now think about the church. The church becomes the church through Christ’s body. The church is now literally the physical body of Christ on earth. One day we are told there will be a wedding between Christ and the Church. The completeness of that oneness is very appealing to me. The analogy is not exact. Analogies never are; that’s why they are analogies. Some things fit and correspond, and other things do not. That said, oneness with Christ and his body sounds really amazing to me!

4. The phrase, “the death of death through death” is a term I learned from my professor Dr. Tommy Givens at Fuller Theological Seminary.