Ransacked...

The apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1 concerning divisions in the church. More specifically, he addresses the issues that people are having regarding their identity, status, power, and their respected connections to great people. Interestingly enough, this is coming from Paul, someone who was of the highest status within the Jewish religious sect, and who was trained and more educated than ninety percent of the population. If anyone could use the argument of connection to powerful people, it was Paul.

The people in Corinth were debating about who was following the most "popular" people. "I follow Paul; another I follow Apollos; another I follow Cephas; and still another I follow Christ" (1 Cor. 1:12).

Paul makes it clear that it is only Christ and his work on the cross that is worth something. To say that something else gives credibility and power, is to belittle the cross and makes less of what Christ did and is doing. "For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel - not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power" (1:17).

It is the cross on which all power rests. If we at all negate or move the cross and the person of Christ from being the central point on which our faith rests and lies, we "empty the cross of its power."

"For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.
Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."

There is nothing in my capacity that can save me, but its Jesus' life and work on the cross. Like Dr. Metzger once said, "We have to be ransacked by God's love." When we throw ourselves onto the person of Jesus, we find the power, because of Christ's work on the cross. I as tap into this truth, I am humbled. I find that my self gets in the way of Christ and the cross. I am broken. As we are broken by the Spirit, we find the power of Christ at the heart of the cross, the ultimate site of brokenness.

The irony of the sovereign hand of God...