Thoughts on Easter pt. 2 "The Cross as Wisdom"

The Cross as Wisdom

For Paul, there is a connection between the power and wisdom of the cross.  The wisdom of God, in a very violent way, defeats the wisdom of the world: it crushes it.  "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside." (1 Cor. 1:19)  The Greco-Roman culture of the time was one that touted the very best wisdom of the world.  Building upon the wisdom of the great Greek philosophers, the scribes of the time looked high and low for the greatest wisdom of the age.  In fact, many sought out Paul to learn the great "wisdom" that he taught (Acts 17:16-34).  His wisdom was "strange to [their] ears" and he was seen as "an idle babbler . . . of strange deities." (19)  The end of the verse tells us why, "Because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection."  Because we know Paul (in his own words) always preached "Christ crucified," this was surely a part of the babbling that went on as he preached.  But how does this wisdom crush the wisdom of the wise?
The Roman culture of the day, and our own culture as it echoes theirs, taught as wisdom the necessity of self-love, self-advancement, and personal achievement.  The wisdom of God, however, is the antithesis of the world.  We are to despise ourselves, consider others as better, forgo all rights we think we have and serve those around us in any way we can.  This is the wisdom that Jesus lived by, and in so doing ascended to the right hand of the Father, being "the First born of the dead and ruler of the kings of the earth." (Rev. 1:5)  It is by living by the wisdom of the cross that we will see the truth of Jesus' statement "the last shall be first, and the first last." (Matt 20:16)  Jesus, putting Himself last for all men and all creation, became the first born of the new creation and began a movement of life governing wisdom not yet seen in this world.
To be a disciple of Jesus Christ is to live by His wisdom.  Living by the wisdom of the world sets us up as our own Gods.  We become our own governing deity, controlling our own destiny and by so doing we think of ourselves as worthy of praise from those around us for all of our accomplishments.  But God will share His throne with no one.  By reaching His holy hand into the sewage of our sinful lives, God has placed us "in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, that, just as it is written, 'Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.'" (1 Cor 1:30-31)  By being "in Christ" we were given a new wisdom for life.  Christ Himself became our wisdom!  All that God sees as wise He sees in His Son.  We are inextricably tied to the wisdom of God as we are in Christ.
God's wisdom throughout the ages has been to raise the lowly high, make the useless usable, and put the inferior at a table with the best the world has to offer.  Living by this wisdom is what brings us the power that so amazingly not only transforms us but also is the power by which God transforms the world.  The power of the cross to crush sin is the wisdom of God in "Christ crucified" . . . the same power that conquered sin once and for all conquers sin in our daily lives as we live by the wisdom of God in Christ.