What’s your “this is what I was, and this is what I am now” story? Everybody has those stories. You might think back to high school. You were the athlete or the brain or the princess back in the day or the basket case or the criminal. You might think of the larger role you had in a child’s life before they grew up and moved out. Or what it used to be like before you jumped into retirement.
Sometimes it’s an entirely different kind of story with not a lot of joy. Our story includes a period of drug use…or fierce rejection of God…or a lifestyle that God calls wrong… or one really big mistake or a series of them By the grace and blessing of God, your life may be very different now.
You know, just like our church, the congregation in Corinth, Greece was full of people who could reflect on who they used to be and what they had become who had these personal stories that included some really distasteful things. Later in this letter to them, Paul would talk more about the changes they experienced, but to give you an idea, here’s a little of what he wrote: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor males who have sex with males, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor the verbally abusive, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And some of you were those types of people. We all have our stories, right? So, did they.
On a day when we hear about Jesus on a mountainside telling us that we are blessed, we also have the Apostle Paul explaining why that is and how it happens that we are.
WHY DOES GOD BLESS US?
Would you love it if your pastor told you that you’re not that smart, not that strong, and not that important? It sounds like that’s what Paul was saying to the Corinthians. But he really wasn’t insulting them. His point was that their church family just didn’t have many of the kind of people that the world tells us are very important. They had one, the city treasurer in Corinth (his name was Erastus), but no one else that we know of quite like that and Paul talks like this, so…they were mostly an ordinary group.
In that respect, there was nothing wrong with them. They just were not the powerful and influential types. The world is very good at reminding us who matters. Who’s wise. Who’s powerful. Who’s impressive. And…who is not. They were mostly “not.”
But God has a different view and a different way of going about things. And because we are used to hearing that worldly kind of thinking, we even think that way. And so, what he says catches us by surprise. Through Jesus, God reveals something about who we are that doesn’t disappear just because we might not be feeling very blessed because we don’t feel we measure up to other people we are painfully aware of our weaknesses and flaws or because our circumstances are not great…or life just feels like a burden…or the grieving seems like it is never going to ease up…or we feel overlooked.
But no matter what is going on, God says that you are blessed and that is because you have his grace. That grace of his might seem impossible to us and like foolishness to the world, but God is not foolish and his grace is not impossible it is real and divinely wise and it is pure love.
God Chose You—Not Because You Were Impressive
That blunt reminder Paul gave the Corinthians about their worldly standing (or lack of it)—which goes for us as a church family too—grounds us in reality, but might raise a question or two. Have you ever tried to work out in your mind how this is kind of the way it has been for God’s people since the time of Christ and yet Christianity spread wildly?
The Church was generally not made up of the social elites, the prominent, the powerful—you know, the ones who could make a difference and fund efforts for getting the gospel out there. You might remember that those people actually persecuted and killed Christians, trying to stomp them out entirely. Then why didn’t Christianity die a fairly quick death after they put Jesus himself to death—especially when they did everything within their considerable power to make it happen?
Because God is ALL-powerful and immensely loving and…he operates differently. He is not impressed with human beings who feel, or who are seen as, important in their little worldly realm. He does not operate on a merit-based system. He actually chooses people the world wouldn’t.
Imagine this: Two captains choosing teams on the playground. The first picks the tallest person. The second picks the fastest one. Then the strongest. Then someone with a particular skill. Meanwhile, you’re standing there thinking, “I wore the wrong shoes. I’m not that good. I’m going to be the last one picked.” Now picture this happening instead: the captain walks right past all the obvious talent, points straight at you, and says, “I want that one.” You turn around to see if there is someone standing behind you, but no one is there! “Wait, me?!”
That’s pretty much what Paul is describing. God didn’t choose us because we are impressive or accomplished. He chose us because of his grace his undeserved love. The world trains us to measure our value by strength, success, intelligence, influence, and appearance. If we’re honest, we buy into that more than we’d like to admit. So, we end up comparing ourselves to others all the time: to other students, to our friends, to other parents, to other families, to other people at church even. And when we feel inferior, we may start to wonder if God feels the same way the world does.
We need to listen to Paul: God didn’t choose you after you proved yourself. He chose you entirely apart from anything you did or didn’t do or anything you are or are not. Listen: But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
Do you see how God choosing you reveals something significant about him and not so much about you? God’s love makes him do something that is hard to understand—he loves to save people who can’t save themselves. How strange is this to our way of thinking: God knew exactly who you were when he called you definitely a person sinful from birth, possibly a person with an obvious sinful life or a shameful past. And he still chose you.
Jesus calls you blessed—not because you are strong or smart or have status, but because he is all of those things in a divine and eternal way we can’t begin to comprehend The world calls this foolishness; the Bible calls it grace
God Works Through Weakness—So No One Can Boast
So, he chooses us out of pure undeserved love. Is there another reason? Yes! He had a purpose. He did this so that no one may boast before God. Where some worldly thinkers may be prone to extreme pride or bragging or feeling superior to other people, God’s working in our lives doesn’t allow those things.
There can’t be pride, as if we’ve earned his love. There can’t be spiritual bragging, as if we deserve this elevated status we have as God’s child.
There can’t be any looking down on others, as if we are superior to them
Honest self-reflection should make us realize that we were foolish and weak and lowly, and that despite all that, God made us his. We weren’t lovable, but here we are God’s people because of his grace. He sent his Son to rescue us, and he sent the Holy Spirit to give us faith in him.
What a terrible misunderstanding it is if we think that it was in any way because of who we were that God chose us! If we think there was something in us, something better than some others, that moved God to reach out to us, that is nothing but a subtle boast. Listen to Paul break the illusion: God chose the weak God chose the lowly…God chose the despised…
Doesn’t this fit perfectly with what we heard Jesus say?
• Blessed are the poor in spirit.
• Blessed are those who mourn.
• Blessed are the meek.
• Blessed are the persecuted.
• Blessed are the insulted and slandered.
Humble, grieving, lowly, hurting…we see our weak, human condition in words like that. But we’re told that God takes us in our weakness and he blesses us! When we have nothing to offer, God gives us everything we need.
Your Identity Is Christ—Not Your Circumstances
Have you ever watched a kid running around with a superhero cape or mask on? They know they aren’t actually Spiderman or Batman, but they’ll tell you they are. And they walk a little taller and talk a little tougher. They feel and act differently. Protective and strong, they will fight the bad guys to keep you safe! (I may have recently been on the receiving end of this kind of protection from a 4-year old!)
Now imagine this: instead of pretending, an actual hero steps in front of you when you are weak and vulnerable and have nothing, and he says, “Don’t worry, you’re safe. You’re with me, and everything I have is now yours.” This is what Paul describes. Because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us the wisdom from God, namely, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
Paul isn’t talking about a “pretend” anything, is he?! What happened to Christ was very real. The cross that the world sees as foolish, the man on it they see as weak, were anything but that! The cross was God’s divinely wise plan to save people who could not save themselves. The perfect Christ was righteously strong through it all. For you.
• His wisdom covers your foolishness.
• His righteousness covers your sin.
• His holiness covers your impurity.
• His redemption covers your guilt.
Your status as God’s child does not fluctuate when your emotions do. It doesn’t change with your circumstances. It doesn’t disappear when life hurts. You may feel:
• weak,
• forgotten,
• unworthy,
• exhausted.
But neither those things nor your past define you who God has made you in Christ does. Doesn’t it make sense then that the only boasting we do is about what Jesus has done for us?! Why Does God Bless Us? Because he loves us even though we don’t deserve it. Which is also the reason we boast about him and not ourselves. Amen.
Now the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.