Folly as Proof of Faith

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.

1 Corinthians 1:18 is a ‘go to’ scripture for me. It seems an odd place to find security and confidence, and yet I find both of these in abundance there. It always reminds me that my salvation is of God and is irrevocable – I didn’t create it and I can’t mess it up.

Having entered into conversation with a young man in the past several days who is a staunch atheist because (in his words) faith cannot be proven by science or objective reasoning, I have once again come back to this scripture as an argument for faith and its origin. If by blind human faith I chose to believe the gospel, I would have to give up the argument by conceding that a belief founded in faith cannot be proven. I would, in all fairness, have to concede that I am a fool.

But in the end faith is proof of itself. As Paul says, the word of the cross (the gospel) is folly to those who are perishing. It is utter foolishness. God, in the person of the Son, was born to earth as a baby, lived among humankind for 33 years, performed many miracles, was put to death by Roman crucifixion at the urging of his own chosen people, was buried for 3 days and then rose to life again, ascending back to heaven. Nothing in that statement seems very far-fetched, right? Unless you are viewing it from a fallen – purely human – perspective, in which case it is completely absurd. It seems obvious that to believe that you would have to be insane or influenced to that belief by something other than your own reasoning.

People outside the church find this line of reasoning somewhat intriguing, while those inside find it insulting. Because we have been taught that belief influenced by something other than our own will and reasoning would make us robots or pawns we take it as insult that someone would label our “choice” as foolishness despite the fact that scripture itself acknowledges that the message that led us to make that “choice” is ‘folly to those who are perishing’. By insisting that we were at least partially responsible for our salvation, we deny the truth of the scripture that the gospel is and can never be other than folly to the unregenerate human mind. As a result we lack confidence in our salvation and confidence in the word of the cross to save others. I think this is why, at least since I’ve been a Christian, there is so little preaching of the gospel and so much thrashing about with personal testimony and ‘seeker friendly’ services. We secretly realize that the gospel is folly and an offense to the world at large and have abandoned it in preference to social justice and apologetics – things which seem to be more palatable to human reason.

If we believe that we are responsible for our salvation in any way – despite the fact that scripture says the Son secured our salvation, the Father draws us to that salvation and the Spirit brings the new birth – then our position is the one that becomes folly. Far from being robots or pawns we are those upon whom God has shown greater mercy not only in sending His son as a substitute for our sins but in drawing us to that truth. If all of that is true then our approach to evangelism is revealed to be folly as well. Any appeal to human reasoning by human reasoning in an attempt to lead another into salvation must be dismissed if salvation does not come about by human reasoning. Any attempt to influence the will of another must also be abandoned if salvation is not an act of human will. (So then it [salvation] depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. Romans 9:16)

The beautiful thing about this is that it takes us out of the equation. We no longer have to defend our faith as if it were our personal choice and reflects our ability to reason properly. This is good because from the standpoint of a lost person it is completely indefensible and unreasonable and they will have no problem telling us so. This keeps us from becoming angry and argumentative with those who disagree with our faith. We were chosen to believe, and so we believe.  We no longer feel the pressure to try and convince someone to believe because we are responsible only to preach the foolishness of the gospel. The believing is up to God. Because this was Paul’s viewpoint, he would say to Timothy:

…the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will. 2 Timothy 2:24-26

God alone can grant repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth through the foolish message of the cross. That is the gospel truth.

God Bless