“Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:20-24).
Why was the saving gospel of Jesus Christ rejected by so many in apostolic days? Three reasons are given in this text: prejudice, reason, and pride.
Generally speaking the Jews were expecting a Messiah to deliver them politically and restore the kingdom to Israel. God told of this prejudice through Isaiah some seven hundred plus years earlier when the Scriptures said “Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; he was despised, and we did not esteem Him” (Isaiah 53:1-3). Jesus, a suffering servant, was not what the Jews were anticipating.
The Greeks were steeped in their own human wisdom or human reason, and the message of the cross – that the Son of God came to earth, lived as a man and then suffered and died a most shameful death in order to redeem mankind – was foolishness to many of them.
And for many, both Jew and Greek, the gospel of Christ is an offense to their pride, for the message of the cross of Christ tells of the awfulness of sin – sin that every accountable human being has committed.
These same three reasons continue today.
Prejudice is an adverse judgment formed beforehand. Some today are looking for religion that is entertaining and will make them feel good. When they hear the gospel tell them about the one right way, a way that includes teaching of sacrifice, service, obedience, and subjection to the authority of Christ, it is not what they are seeking. They have a preconceived idea about what the way of Christ should look like, the simple gospel is not that to them, and they are unwilling to open eyes, ears and heart to the truth.
Others subject the truth revealed in the Bible to human reason, whether it be the philosophies of men, theories of science, the culture of the day, or their own think-so. To the contrary, a faith that pleases God accepts God at His word even when all our questions are not answered. We understand this principle in other relationships in life. Children are rightly taught to obey without why’s answered, or if a “why” is given, they are expected to accept it whether or not it meets their reasoning. We obey laws without knowing all the why’s for which they were legislated and whether or not the why’s meet our criteria of reasonableness. But in religion, some will not obey unless the truth of the gospel meets their reasoning. And thus the gospel is rejected. The gospel is from the mind of God, and his ways are higher than our ways and his thoughts than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9).
Finally, pride, described by C. S. Lewis as the “complete anti-God state of mind,” stands in the way of receiving the gospel. We live in an age where sin that was once rarely mentioned because of its shame is openly celebrated with pride. In order to be saved, one must know he needs to be saved, and that involves knowing the exceeding sinfulness of one’s own sin (Romans 7:13) and being humble enough to admit sin, turn from it, and submit to God.
Prejudice, human reason, and pride are not peculiar to
those outside of Christ. Christians too
must beware lest these prevent spiritual growth and continued faithfulness. -Larry Jones