1 Corinthians 1:22,23

A MESSAGE FOR JEW AND GREEK

‘The Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: but we preach Christ crucified.’

1 Corinthians 1:22

St. Paul is here contrasting the expectations which men would naturally form of the Gospel of Christ with what that Gospel really is. He divides the world into two parts. Some, like the Jews, were requiring a sign; and others, like the Greeks, were seeking after wisdom. The same message of the Cross came to both.

I. A sign refused.—‘The Jews require a sign.’ These words immediately carry our thoughts to those occasions in the Gospels when this very demand was made from our blessed Lord Himself. His answer was, ‘A wicked and an adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it.’ No sign should be given, because no sign could be given. They were asking for some portentous work of wonder, some startling phenomenon which they might see or hear, bearing testimony to the Lord. It could not be given.

II. Conditions which could not be accepted.—‘And the Greeks seek after wisdom.’ They did not require a sign, but they had their conditions which they expected to be satisfied. A message from God, they said, must be addressed to the intellect of man and be in accordance with its forms. There must be an orderly system of doctrine, supported by adequate arguments, like the schemes of philosophy to which they were accustomed. Above all things, the intellect must grasp the whole, the chain of reasoning must be complete. Now St. Paul laboured over and over again to make the Corinthians feel that the Gospel which he preached was not addressed to the intellect of man. If it were measured by the mere intellect it must be accounted ‘foolishness.’ It could not be otherwise. The forms of the intellect might stretch until they broke, but they never could embrace it. It was too high for their measuring-lines to reach, too deep for their plummets to sound. It was addressed to something in man which was far above the understanding.

III. The true sign and the true wisdom.—‘We preach Christ crucified.’ This was the sign before which St. Paul himself had bowed down to the dust. This was the wisdom before which he had felt his own understanding shrink and dwindle into nothing. He knew that no words of his could make the sign plainer or the wisdom wiser. He was determined that he would not weaken the message of God by mixing it up with that wisdom which he had felt and known to be foolishness. He had nothing to do with any explanations. And the same message comes to you. Gaze steadfastly upon ‘Christ crucified.’ Ask for no explanations. Ask not how or why this thing should be. Be sure of this, that whatever explanation you may hear, whatever opinion you may form, will be infinitely short of the truth, for His ways are not as your ways, nor His thoughts as your thoughts. Therefore draw near with reverence and awe, and see this great sight. Gaze upon it until it has found its way to your heart and you hear it speaking there. It will speak for itself more mightily than the wisest words of man can speak for it. It is the sign of God’s salvation, for it signifies His grace and truth, His perfect righteousness, His everlasting love. It is the beginning and the end of wisdom, for it fills the heart with fear, and by gazing upon it man learns to know God.

Illustration

‘In the words of a modern writer, “Christ is Christianity.” Christianity is a great historical religion, it can be traced back to a founder with whose career and history we are familiar, and there are other great historical religions, e.g. Buddhism and Mohammedanism, which can be traced back to personal founders; but unlike all other religions, Christianity claims to be more than historical, it claims for its founder an abiding presence in the world in every age, its founder is not a being of the past, but a being of the present, and hence Christian preaching in the Apostolic age and in our own is not setting forth a body of divinity, a chain of doctrines, or a code of duty, which owe their origin to Jesus Christ Who lived eighteen centuries ago, but it is preaching Jesus Christ Himself in all that He is revealed to be, Perfect God and Perfect Man, uniting the two natures in One Person, now living, in heaven, in the Church, in the hearts of His children.’