Derek Prince - Man Would Call This A Weakness In God, But...
This is an excerpt from: The Cross At The Center - Part 1
Then what is the purpose of the cross, how can we avail ourselves of it? I want to say something that's very easy to say but not always easy to live, which is the purpose of the cross is to bring us to the end of all our wisdom, and all our strength and to show us that they are totally of no avail whatever. And we can only begin to enter into the grace of God when we've come to the end of ourselves. A lot of you at the present time are going through problems and pressures in your lives and you're saying, 'What's God doing?' The answer is God is gently but firmly bringing you to the end of yourself where the best you can do doesn't even begin to be good enough. And you've got to come to the end of all that and release something that's totally from God which is good enough.
Again, I go back to 1 Corinthians because, as I've said, I particularly love these chapters. First Corinthians 1. I daresay God, in a way, prepared me to teach this kind of truth by letting me wallow in philosophy for a long while. 1 Corinthians 1:22-25. For the Jews require [or demand] a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom That's just as true today as it was when Paul wrote it.
And I will offer this comment, I don't believe we really have a right to offer the Jews a gospel which is not supernaturally attested. I won't go into that but I don't think there's any New Testament basis for it. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified What do we preach? Christ crucified. Not just Christ. It's easy to preach Christ as the great teacher the wonderful healer but it doesn't get the job done. We have to preach Christ crucified. to the Jews a stumbling block [it still is today], and to the Greeks foolishness [it still is today], but [thank God for the but] to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. When do we find Christ as the power of God, and the wisdom of God?
Only when we've come to the end of our own power and our own wisdom. And then Paul makes this marvelous statement: The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. In one word, what is the foolishness of God and what is the weakness of God? The cross, that's right. It's the ultimate in weakness. You can't think of anything more totally weak than a man dying in agony on a cross, breathing his last. And it's totally foolish that God should send His Son, the one perfect man, into the world and then allow Him to die a criminal's death.
So, it's totally weak and totally foolish. But when we come to the right point in our lives, when we come to the end of all our cleverness and all our wisdom and all our strength and all our righteousness, then we make this wonderful discovery that it's stronger than man's strength and wiser than man's wisdom. And again, I have to say because of my background in Greek philosophy, I find these words totally true. They're not an exaggeration, they're exactly correct. This is the way it is. In the cross God's weakness is stronger than our strength and God's foolishness is wiser than our wisdom.
But it's hard for most of us, or is it, to let go our strength and to let go our wisdom. We want to cling onto it. We saw a very beautiful little religious skit here where the young woman was offered the beautiful new garment in place of her shabby old coat. She was willing to get the garment, but she was very unwilling to let go of her own shabby old coat. That's how it is with many of us. I want God's wisdom, I want God's strength but I still want to hold on to my own, too. God does not deal on that basis. It has to come to the end of your own wisdom and your own strength before God will release His grace into your life.