Mark Me With The Fools

What's the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to you?
When have you felt the most foolish?

I've done some pretty dumb stuff in my life. I once backed my minivan right into a bus. That's foolish. We don't want to look foolish. We naturally bristle at anything that might make us look like an idiot, and we certainly don't want people to call attention to it! However, the way that Apostle Paul redefines foolishness at the outset of his first letter to the Corinthians makes me want to say: Mark me with the fools!

1 Corinthians 1:18–31
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
What is this ‘word of the cross’ that Paul references? The word of the cross is the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel is news about an historic event, the crucifixion of an innocent Jewish man on the outskirts of Jerusalem. The gospel is about the cross of Jesus Christ, which is the way men and women who are guilty and indebted sinners, can be reconciled to God their Creator. 
Paul immediately makes two key distinctions that relate to how this word is received. This word of the cross, the gospel, is foolishness (folly) to those ‘who are perishing.’ The word of the cross, for those who are perishing, is laughable. The gospel is a joke, a mockery, something only idiots would believe. This is certainly the way I used to think about it. 
Paul then makes his distinction. For those who are being saved, the gospel is the power of God. This brings to mind Paul’s thesis statement in Romans 1:16-17: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” 
The gospel is the word of Christ’s cross, and the gospel is also the power of God made available to sinners. Those who ‘are being saved’ are already experiencing that power. Paul cements his point by quoting the Old Testament. This quotation echoes with pieces of Jeremiah 8:9, Isaiah 29:14, and Job 5:12-13. The central idea behind the quotation is that rejecting God’s Word, the gospel, is unwise, and God will catch those unwise in their craftiness. Those who reject the gospel are these unwise. They reject the gospel and are the true fools. Those who accept the gospel are the truly wise, who receive God’s power, at work on their behalf. 
"Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe."
Paul further bolsters his argument. He puts forth four rhetorical questions for his diatribe. He sets up his potential detractors and debated issues, to cripple them. What is his point? God is not found in the ‘wisdom of the world.’ We don’t reason our way to God, and we don’t arrive at Him on our own. 
How then, do we gain access to God? How do we understand Him? Paul says, God is pleased to save ‘those who believe’ through the folly of what is preached. God delights in saving fools who simply hear and accept the gospel. Those who are “foolish” enough to believe that Christ died for their sins, and rose for their justification, are the fools of faith that God delights in. 
"For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men."
Paul continues to build his argument by highlighting the barriers people have to accepting the folly of the gospel. What keeps people from simple faith in Jesus Christ crucified? Jews demand signs, and Greeks seek wisdom. Jews are looking for Exodus-level, Red-Sea parting miracles of God. Greeks are looking for reason, intellect, and knowledge to be the solution. However, the pleasing solution to God is the preaching of Christ crucified. These are the barriers that keep truly foolish people from simple faith in Jesus.
Next, Paul references those who are called. These called people of God are those foolish enough to see their need for Him. Every person who has ever lived, apart from Jesus Christ, has sinned in God’s sight. Because God is a just and holy Creator, He must punish sin. The cross is where God punishes the sin of all who are called, of all who believe in Jesus Christ. Put another way, if you believe, you were called. If you are called, you believe. 
We must preach Christ crucified. We must see the heinous and depravity of sin for what it is. We must see the beauty of God in sacrificing Himself on our behalf, to reconcile us to Himself. Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
For those who hear the gospel and receive Christ with the empty and open hands of faith, Christ becomes for us the wisdom of God and the power of God. God’s wisdom is superior to our reason. God’s power is superior to our strength. God makes it available to us in Christ. 
"For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God."
Paul now reminds the Corinthians of their calling. He reminds them of who they were at the time they received the gospel. He reminds them of who they were at the time the believed in Jesus Christ. It is good practice for any believer to remember who we were when we received Christ. It helps us to see God's work, and to praise Him that He didn't leave us where we were. The Corinthians, like all of us (if we are being honest with ourselves), were a lowly bunch. Not many were ‘wise,’ ‘powerful,’ or of ‘noble birth.’ The Corinthians weren’t the cool kids, the rich and powerful, the wise and well-read. The Corinthians were normal, sinful, weak creatures just like all of us. 
However, God chose them. Paul says, God chose the weak. God chose what is low and despised in the world. God takes things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are. Why does God choose us in this manner? Paul answers, “So that no human being might boast in the presence of God.” 
Why would God pick people from the scrap heap of this world? God is a master carpenter, and He likes to take the warped lumber husk that we sinners are and make us into a new masterpiece of craftsmanship to display His. He delights in finding the lowly, humble sinner on the scrap heap who is crying out for help, hope, and healing. God delights in taking the lowly, weak people of faith and making something beautiful out of them. God goes seeking the lost, and He looks at those who believe and says, “I can work with this!”
The gospel message puts forth Christianity, the only worldview that doesn’t levy requirements on people. Every other faith requires of the person to work for their salvation. But God credits sinners with Christ’s righteousness, simply through faith in Christ crucified. Therefore, we have nothing to boast about. We have not boast to God about our great record of obedience, good church works, kindness, good parenting, generosity, or anything else. We simply say, “Thank you.” The fact that we are sinners saved by God’s work in Christ gives us nothing to boast about. The fact that Christ gave himself for our sins means that God gets all the praise and glory. We have no boast in ourselves, rather we sing joyfully, “Nothing of my own I bring, simply to thy cross I cling.”
And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
The word of the cross is word about God’s work. Salvation is God acting on our behalf. Paul says, because of God you are in Christ. God did it. It wasn’t your wisdom, or your power that saved you. It was Christ, God in the flesh, who saved you. 
Christ becomes for the sinner wisdom from God. There is a limit to the wisdom that can be found in the world if a person does not know Christ. The truly wise in this world are the fools who have Christ. 
Christ has also become for sinners “righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” Because of God, we fools who believe the gospel are “in Christ Jesus.” As a part of that union, of being in Christ, we receive all of Christ. The way to receive all of Christ is through faith, the very thing the wise of this world count as foolishness. In Christ we receive righteousness. We are justified, accepted, okay, at peace with God. In Christ we receive sanctification. The holiness of Christ is received by the sinner, and then we joyfully get to work out that salvation. 
Finally, in Christ we receive redemption. We are set free! We are delivered from sin and condemnation because of Christ’s death. We are no longer prisoners or slaves, but free children, sons and daughters of God, because Christ has purchased us with his blood. Thus the Scripture is fulfilled by the foolish faithful: “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” Paul calls to attention Jeremiah 9:23-24: “Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.”
For all who are foolish enough receive the gospel, we delight in giving God all the glory and honor. We delight in praising the risen and ruling Christ. We are happy to be marked among the fools of this world. We’re okay looking like idiots, because God’s power is at work in us. We just can't believe God would pick us! We’re okay being fools in the world, because our boast is in God Himself. 

What are you boasting in?