How Reliable Is Man's Wisdom?/How About God's?

 How Reliable Is Man's Wisdom?/How About God's?


Paul's words of 1 Corinthians 1:21 form the basis of this treatise.  Here they are: "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," (ESV).  My thesis is this: With regard to life's most important question--the knowledge of God, or justification before Him--God assures that man's wisdom will fail; and that His [God's] wisdom will succeed only through the preaching of the Crucified Christ.

 

What is the basic core essence of man's wisdom with regard to the knowledge of God, or justification before Him?  Does it not always devolve down to fallen humans' works, performances, deeds, activities; and their (vain) speculations about the being and character of God?  I believe it does.

 

God's Wisdom [capital "W"], on the other hand, is, properly, The Person of Jesus Christ Himself.  This fact does not make God's Wisdom unknowable; and it does not render it [His Wisdom] non-rational, nor lacking broad dissemination over all reality.  In other words, all reason, all rationality, all truth, all wisdom, all reality is found in and centered on the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity; and the One through Whom the Blessed Trinity created the universe.

 

But how is this "Wisdom" to be known--especially by fallen and sinful human beings?  This is where Paul's argument (above/from 1 Cor. 1), "connects" heaven and earth in the Person of Jesus Christ.  Wisdom is known through the preaching of the Crucified Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 1:22-24; 2:2).  Without a Crucified Christ, there could be no communion between the Holy God and sinners; and there would be no positive knowledge of God (by us) at all.

 

So, the Greeks liked lofty speech and human wisdom; and the Jews preferred signs and works, (cf. 1 Cor. 1:22; 2:1; Rom. 10:3).  But, what did this get either one of them?  Answer: no knowledge of God; and no justified standing before Him.

 

Therefore, when it comes to "wisdom"--especially in the areas where it matters the most, whose "wisdom" is more reliable: man's or God's?  God's Wisdom has never failed; and man's wisdom has never succeeded.  None who have ever truly called with sincere faith upon the Name of the Crucified Lord Jesus, being preached to them, have ever been "ashamed," or disappointed.  In every case, they have been "saved," (cf. Acts 2:21).

 

Man's "wisdom," (better, accuracy in facts) with regard to subordinate things, can be helpful.  But even there, it must recognize, as it "trips" upon objective truth, that it is "bumping" into the Supreme Christ; and it must bow to the reality that all true Wisdom is found in God, and it is brokered through Christ.

 

"Wisdom" in the Pauline context (above), has to do with what is of supreme importance: the Knowledge of the True God.  This God cannot be known apart from Justification.  This Justification cannot be achieved through deeds or performances.  It is received by faith in the preached Gospel of The Crucified Christ.

 

Hence, is man's "wisdom" reliable?  No.  Is God's?  Yes!

 

Rev. Mark J. Henninger

Treatise #99

18 May 2026

https://theologicaltreatisesinretirement.blogspot.com

https://henningerdevotions.blogspot.com/

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