Posted by Michael Bunker
editor@lazarusunbound.com
“For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).
Apollos had come with wisdom…
Peter had come with power…
From within had come schisms, sectarianism, humanism, mysticism and prideful arrogances.
From without had come philosophers, oracles, magicians and rampant materialism.
But Paul says, “I determined not to know any thing”.
As if to say, So… you think you know something? Do you know the mind of God that you might instruct Him? Do you confess that the infinite, personal, Creator God of the Universe has spoken? What wisdom is there that proceeds from the fallen mind of man and seeks to envelope infinity?
So Paul says that he will not overwhelm you Corinthians with flawed and finite human reasoning… But he will know Christ among you. He says, “I will not dazzle you with learning or spiritual power, though I could… but I will know Christ among you.”
I determined…
With a prior determinate counsel, I have set my face like a flint to make known to you the riches of Christ’s atonement.
…not to know anything…
To declare unto you nothing but the blood atonement and our reconciliation with God.
…save Jesus Christ…
The first and the last, the Alpha and the Omega, God of very God. The penal substitute and sacrificial offering. Your nearest kinsman and your perfect High Priest.
…and Him crucified.
The wrath of the Father poured out upon Him, our perfect, sinless substitute. His bones out of joint, His soul poured out like wax. The God/Man suffering and becoming sin on behalf of his elect sheep.
“I know Him, though He was crucified” is the sense of the Greek text. Paul teaches that, “Though He placed His body between a fierce and wrathful Father, and wicked, rebellious sinners, and although the Father’s sword of vengeance came down upon His only begotten Son in our stead, I determined to know Him and teach Him and declare Him CRUCIFIED unto you.”
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor.
“For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor.
In Chapter 4, verse 1 of this letter to the Corinthians, Paul calls himself a “steward” of God’s true mysteries and wisdom. What is a biblical steward? He is a man who manages the house of his master and he is totally accountable to the master of the house. God expects to hold his stewards accountable. Knowing his great responsibility, and knowing the foolishness of these Corinthians, Paul says,
“For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).
Paul, as a good steward, knows the sickness which pervades the master’s house. He said earlier to these Corinthians,
“But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor.
Oh, how Christ has brought to nothing the thoughts and vain imaginations of this world. Oh, how He has crushed man’s wisdom into the ground.
The Jews had proposed to work and “miracle” their way into heaven.
The Greeks had proposed to think their way there.
Oh, how foolish is the wisdom of the world!
You foolish Jews. You foolish Greeks. I say this knowing that there are foolish Jews and Greeks even today, in every fellowship that calls itself Christ’s Church.
The Jews are religious. They love church dress. They make broad their phylacteries and tithe religiously. They memorize scriptures and abstain from fouling themselves with those things that are unclean. Their wisdom would not allow for a lowly Messiah, a suffering servant, or a crucified King. Jesus Christ is a stumblingblock to them. They counted on election and predestination to operate according to THEIR OWN BLOOD, and they would not accept that it would only come according to His perfect blood! They would not be taught by fishermen and tax collectors. They would not be purchased by a lowly carpenter’s son.
The Greeks love wisdom. They love human philosophies and ideas. The Greeks among us love the trappings of life. They may hate what we call “religiosity”, but they do so love to have their ears tickled. Some Greeks even love church. They love the dress and the smell and the fellowship and even the buildings. They love doctrine and do their best to eschew what is evil. Despite the plain teaching of God’s word, the Greek will readily believe that some of Christ’s precious blood has gone to waste. They accept that it was shed for many who will yet perish in the flames. But we know that this is not so, as the scripture says unto them which are the called, Christ Crucified is the power and wisdom of God. No, the Greeks will not have Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. They will not be a purchased price. Their lives are their own. They will say that God loves everyone, or He loves no one, but they will not have a God who peculiarly loves His own elect. The Greek will only have a finite God. They must have a God like themselves, or they will have no God at all.
Mankind, both Jew and Greek, will embrace the wisdom of words and in doing so he will have the Cross of Christ made of no effect.
Both Jews and Greeks will scoff at God’s Sovereign election. They will reject His effectual call. They will laugh at His perfectly particular redemption which Christ gave for His own chosen people. They will not have Justification by faith without works. They will not have a Sovereign God who shows mercy only on whom He will show mercy. They will cast off Christ’s precious blood (as they do the words of His Holy Bible) as a strange thing that they know nothing of.
To the Jew, Christ crucified is a stumblingblock. To the Greek, Christ crucified is foolishness.
I can prophesy unto you many smooth things, and you will hear me. I can tell you that God loves you, and you will smile. I can give you rules to keep and works to do, and you will thank me. But if I tell you that you must be born again… you will likely beg the Elder to not have me preach unto you ever again.
The wisdom of man has made religious sinners comfortable and humanist sinners deaf. But unto the called, the Cross of Christ is power and wisdom, redemption and salvation. We will gladly look at the Cross, and consider what our master was doing there.
Unto the called, Christ Crucified is everything. It means that Christ has finished the work that the Father had sent Him to do in securing the salvation and redemption of His elect. Unto the called, the Cross of Jesus Christ means it is finished, and our God is satisfied that justice has been done.
Christ Crucified is reconciliation, and restoration. The Jews and the Greeks will gnash their teeth when they come to the judgment, but to those of us who are neither Jew nor Greek, we can rejoice that judgment has already been done. Our redeemer yet liveth to make intercession on our behalf!
The central reality of the Cross of Jesus Christ is what separates true Christianity from all things that pretend. Religion in all its forms cannot envelope infinity. Philosophies of men cannot explain the universe or man, although they have tried to do so for centuries. An infinite, personal, Creator God must not be apprehended with soulish devices. He is Spirit, and He will only be worshipped in Spirit. All the wisdom of man will be brought down, and all that exalts itself will be made low. Infinity will not bow to the finite.
Knowing Christ Crucified makes us good stewards of the master’s mysteries, and it is the only cure for a weakened church.
I am your servant in Christ Jesus,
Michael Bunker