The Wisdom of Men and the Power of God

Basing ministry on the true foundation of faith

The power of God
So is it not reasonable, and is it not very urgent, that in all our efforts to win and to strengthen faith, we draw people's attention not to the wisdom of men but to the power of God? And so now we must ask, what is that? Chapter 1, verse 18: "The word of the Cross is folly to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." First Corinthians 1:23 reads: "We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God."

Therefore, the power of God in 1 Corinthians 2:5 in which our faith should rest is the divine power unleashed by the death of Christ to save sinners—to justify the ungodly. When Jesus was at his weakest in the agony of the Cross, God's power was at its strongest, lifting the infinite weight of sin and condemnation off the backs of all who would believe on him. Because Jesus died and bore the punishment of our sin, all the power of God, who created the universe, was loosed for the benefit of God's elect. As Paul said in Romans 8:32: "He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, surely (by his infinite power) he will give us all good things with him."

But don't make a mistake here. Just as the wisdom of God is foolishness with man, so the power of God is viewed by men as weakness. God wills it that way: chapter 1, verse 27: "God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong." The divine power in which our faith rests is not the power of a May Day in Red Square; it is not the power of big business or bloc voting; it is not the power of personal savvy and cool self-assertion. The power in which saving faith rests is the power of divine grace sustaining the humble, loving heart and radiating out through weakness.

That is the inimitable power that we see in Christ—meekly, humbly, lovingly mounting the cross for our sin. The power of God's grace sustaining the humble, loving heart of Christ and radiating out through his weakness: this is the resting place of saving faith, and this is the demonstration of the Spirit and power (1 Cor. 2:4). 

So I commit myself as your pastor and call upon you to commit yourself as ministers in the church to act and speak in a way that will lead people to trust not in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

The means of Paul's ministry: suffering and weakness 
Now let's shift the focus from the aim of Paul's work to the way he achieved it. I mentioned earlier that in our day, just as in Paul's day, there are peddlers of the gospel who seem to have forgotten that at the heart of our faith is "an old rugged cross, an emblem of suffering and shame," and that to trust Christ crucified is to be identified with him in the humiliation of his death, and that only in the age to come will we be glorified with him, and that while this age lasts, we walk the Calvary road. Oh, to be sure, not without joy—indescribable joy and full of the hope of glory—but always joy in weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, calamities. 

Watch out for the slick preachers who never mention these things, for whom the Cross is a mere token symbol, for whom the exceeding sinfulness of all our hearts is scarcely mentioned, who use power, wisdom, fame, and luxury to beckon the selfcentered, middle-class American to consider himself Christian at no cost to his pride and self-sufficiency.

Contrast the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:3, "I was with you in weakness and in much fear and trembling." Paul would have never made it on the major networks. Remember what his enemies said of him in 2 Corinthians 10:10: "They say, 'His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech of no account.'" There is a brand of Christianity today that would have asked of Paul, "What good can he do for Christ? Why, he'll just turn everybody off. What Christ needs is shiny people, people with education, power, status, flair. Otherwise, how are we going to be able to sell Jesus to the public and get America Christianized?"

Paul's question was not so much, "What good can I do for Christ?" but rather, "What good can Christ do for the world through unworthy me?" It was not, "How much power can I muster for Jesus?" but, "How much power can Jesus show through my weakness?" Remember 2 Corinthians 12:8 and following? Paul said about some special infirmity that he had: "Three times I besought the Lord about this that it should leave me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' I will all the more gladly boast in my weaknesses that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

Paul knew that if he was to be an agent of the crucified Christ to win people to faith in him, then he had to follow the way of Calvary. That is, he had to draw people's attention not to his own power, wisdom, status, or flair, but to the power of God made perfect in weakness. He knew that if human power or beauty or intelligence or class got center stage, whatever conversions happened would not be conversions to the crucified Christ.

If it is the power of God manifest in the weakness and death of Christ that kindles and sustains saving faith (as 1 Corinthians 2:5 says), then the way to reflect that power in our lives for the sake of others is to carry the death of Jesus in our own bodies. This is how Paul described the power of his own ministry. He said in 2 Corinthians 4:7-11: "We have this treasure (of the gospel) in earthen vessels (our weak bodies) to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For while we live we are always being given up to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh." 

Now I hope you will understand when I say: I come to you as your pastor today with weaknesses (which you will learn soon enough) and in much fear and trembling. Not that I distrust the power and promise of God but that I distrust myself. Not so much that I will fail—as the world counts failure—but that I might succeed in my own strength and wisdom and so fail as God counts failure.

There is a kind of paradox here. We are told: Be anxious for nothing. "Fear not, for I am with you, be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will hold you up with my victorious right hand" (Isaiah 41:10). Yet Paul trembles as he undertakes to preach the gospel; I tremble at the awesome responsibility of ministering the word to this church. Is it because Paul and I lack faith? Partly, yes. Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.

But there is another reason why we tremble. During this age in which the sinfulness of the human heart remains even among God's people, and in which the temptation to self-exaltation and self-sufficiency is relentless, God has appointed that his servants tremble with a profound sense of insufficiency, so that we will never forget that it is God's power and not man's wisdom which creates and sustains saving faith. [On July 13, 1980, John Piper preached the following installation sermon at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis.] 

By John Piper