We are useless, but God calls us useful through Christ.
We all want to be called and connected to something great. We yearn for significance and meaning in our puny lives on earth. We want to make a real difference in the world and people around us. However, many of us find we are simply useless in our attempts to change ourselves, much less our world. In our lives before Christ, we are useless to create real change inwardly or outwardly. However, in Christ, as sanctified believers, we become more and more useful as tools in the hands of our great God.
In 1 Corinthians 1, Paul, who was called to be an apostle of Jesus, speaks to the Church of God at Corinth, all those sanctified in Christ, to the saints, and all who call on the name of the Lord (this includes all believers!). He encourages us to consider our beginnings (Verse 1:26, NKJV). “For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called.” We the people who make up the Bride of Christ are generally unlikely to be regarded as wise, mighty or of noble birth. We recognize we are relatively ineffective as we are, not prestigious or royal. After this recognition, we are humbled further by the reality that despite this sad truth, we are called anyway! God Himself chose you and me. He hand selected us misfits of the Church to bring glory fit for a King! God gets to choose, and He chose you. John 6:44 says, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him … .” He sovereignly picks who plays on His Kingdom team, and He has called your name. The ones who are simply not spectacular are used to display His spectacular ways. Despite His call, it is OUR responsibility to submit to His voice in our individual lives, to uniquely share Him with others in this needy world. When we believe we can accomplish whatever He instructs us to do, our obedience ignites the power of Heaven. God activates our faith, and our faith, in turn, activates God.
Paul also exhorts us to consider our blessings (Verse 30, NKJV). “But of Him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God … .” We can think of our blessings and rattle off material things, circumstances or comforts. We can prepare a list similar to the one we recite at the Thanksgiving dinner table each year. These things are beautiful and to be praised, but these temporal things are not what Paul exhorts us to treasure as our blessings in this passage. We are encouraged to consider this amazing gift: because of God, we are joined with Christ! That trumps all! Because of Him, we are in Christ Jesus who became for us the wisdom of God. Because of this priceless gift, we can BEGIN to access the true and divine wisdom of our Heavenly Father and His Kingdom.
The Gospel is the clearest picture of His wisdom.
The narrative that a sinless God sacrificed His one, perfect Son to buy back the opportunity for relationship with sinful beings who rejected Him is heinous to our human minds! Would you sacrifice the life of your child to create an opportunity to be friends with your worst enemy? Never! This is complete FOLLY to our human minds. But because of His great love, we are declared justified. This is God’s wisdom — His stupendous wisdom. His radical, awe-inspiring, unthinkable wisdom. God is unchanging … but He changes us. These are the blessings of God in our lives.
Thirdly, Paul asks us to consider our boasting (Verse 31, NKJV). “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.” We are nobodies outside of Christ. We can only rightly boast in the Lord. Forget any human qualifications you think you have … give it all over to the Lord and His Grace, then watch Him show you that He is the only qualifier we could want or need for whatever He calls us to do. Human PRIDE tries to oppose this divine wisdom, but our sovereign God proves in our lives He is in control — bringing us from glory to glory for His name’s sake. When the Church unites to boast only in God, we become the enrapturing light that points a lost and confused world toward Heaven.
In Exodus 3 and 4, Moses was called by God to bring His people out of their slavery in Egypt. Moses repeatedly questioned God’s decision to send him, fearing he lacked what would be necessary to fulfill God’s request. Almighty God reassured him to the point of indignance (Exodus 4:14) as we read “Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses …” for his lack of submission. When Moses’s back-talking ceased, and he went in God’s power, he parted the Red Sea in the liberation of the Israelites! Faith activates God. We obey in faith: God is faithful. We go in faith: God goes before us. We grow in faith: God teaches us more. We testify as a result of our faith: God gets the glory.
We step out in faith as God lays new ground beneath us. We initially approach useless to the throne, and He humbles us further with His grace and goodness. Even so, God calls us in our weakness and insignificance to do something impossible, something God sized! What is God calling you to do? Foster children? Earn a degree? Pursue missions? Start a family? Join a ministry? Share the Gospel publicly? As with Moses, our excuses are futile. Yet God will form and make you a useful instrument for His glory as you obey each step of His course laid out before you.
Write out the things that make you insignificant.
Now, prayerful write out one or two BIG THINGS that God has put on your heart to accomplish, that seem impossible.
Write out a prayer for God to reveal a “next step” for each of these BIG THINGS as you re-read 1 Corinthians 1:28-29.