The Scandal of the Stumbling Block

In our modern “age of the influencer,” we are conditioned to savor connections with the great, the skilled, and the intellectually elite. We gravitate toward polished human pedigrees and sophisticated arguments, much like the “fleshly disciples” in Corinth who boasted in the names of their favorite teachers rather than Christ Himself. We wrongly assume that the path to God must be paved with human wisdom, yet the Apostle Paul presents a mindset that is “upside down” to the way of this dying world.

At the heart of the gospel lies a Great Divide: “the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God”. This is not merely a difference of opinion; it is a collision of worldviews. To the “wise, the scribe, and the philosopher of this age,” the cross is an intellectual offense. The Jews demanded miraculous signs, and the Greeks sought philosophical sophistry, yet Paul offered them a “stumbling block”: Christ crucified!

Why does God choose what the world calls “foolish”? It is because human nature, since the Garden of Eden, has been prone to being “wise in our own eyes”. We believe we can achieve righteousness through our own intelligence or influence. To shatter this pride, God “made foolish the wisdom of the world”. He chose the weak, the lowly, and the despised things—the “things that are not”—to nullify the things that are, ensuring that “no one may boast before him”.

True power is not found in the “flavor of idolatry” we find in human personalities—including the teachers you hear today, such as Zach or me—but in the “brutally beaten” Savior on a wooden cross. Every earthly accomplishment and “golden statue” of self-glory must be nailed there. When we stop boasting in men, we finally see the preeminence of Jesus Christ, who alone is our wisdom, righteousness, holiness, and redemption.