RESPONDING TO GOD’S POWER AND WISDOM
The biblical Word of God declares that Jesus Christ is the ultimate expression of the power and wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:18-25; Hebrews 1:1-3). But people respond to Jesus in different ways. How do you respond?
RESPONDING TO THE POWER AND WISDOM OF GOD IN CHRIST
The biblical Word of God declares that Jesus Christ is the ultimate expression of the power and wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:18-25; Hebrews 1:1-3). But people respond to Jesus in different ways. How do you respond?
God used Jesus to perform all kinds of miracles exemplifying God’s absolute power and wisdom (John 1:1-3, 14). The Bible tells us “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him” (Acts 10:38). However, people responded to him in diverse ways. Some did not believe his power was of God. Other said his power was of the devil (Matthew 12:22-32). But a man born blind whom Jesus healed, said, “if this man was not from God, he could do nothing.” Disciples were eyewitnesses of the things Jesus did; when they saw him resurrected from the dead, they recognized him as “my Lord and my God” (John 20:26-28).
After seeing Jesus subsequent to his resurrection, Paul, who had persecuted believers, started believed in Jesus as “Lord.” Then Paul began to preach the gospel of “Jesus Christ and him crucified” to much of the world (Acts 9; 1 Corinthians 2:2).
In preaching, Paul recognized that people responds to the gospel in various ways. “For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a [c]stumbling block and to the [d]Greeks foolishness, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:22-24).
Some people today who look for a sign from God, fail to recognize the sign that Jesus gave: “for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40).
Like the Greeks, who responded to the gospel as foolishness, some people today respond to the wisdom of God as foolishness. It appears that some whom God has created with relatively higher knowledge of science and technology tend not to believe in Jesus as God’s resurrected savior of whoever believes, and sustainer of all things created (Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:1-4). They seem to think they can solve the problems of life themselves; although the Lord God said, “apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). But “the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4). However, “the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Corinthians 1:25).
RESPONDING TO THE POWER AND WISDOM OF GOD IN BELIEVERS
God desires to portray his power and wisdom through whoever believes in his Son Jesus Christ as the Bible says (Mark 16:15-16) For those who believe in his Son, God gives the Holy Spirit to live in them (John 14:15-17).
The Spirit provides you with power and wisdom to live as God wants. The Spirit enables you live in the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). And the Spirit guides and enables you to confidently preach the gospel of “Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected” to people around you and the world (Proverbs 3:5-6; Acts 1:8). Jesus said “when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” How then are you personally responding to the power and wisdom of God in lifting Jesus up?
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