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By Jacob Banta
This past summer my class of McConnell Scholars had a wonderful opportunity to visit the Mediterranean world. Particular highlights included Rome and Athens. As a Christian it was a unique experience to be present where sections of biblical history unfolded. Specifically, I would like to reflect on my experience of being where the Apostle Paul once stood in the city of Athens and defended the faith. The Acts of the Apostles records Paul’s time in Athens as follows –
Acts 17:16-34
16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.
22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for
“‘In him we live and move and have our being’;
as even some of your own poets have said,
“‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
29 Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 33 So Paul went out from their midst. 34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.
In Athens I stood both in the ancient marketplace and upon the Areopagus. The marketplace was part of the ancient Agora, the hub of social activity sitting at the base of the Athenian Acropolis. The Areopagus was a rock outcropping on a lower level hill under the Acropolis’s high point. The Areopagus was a place where high ranking men of Athens would hold trials and debate important issues such as philosophy.
Paul spoke before the common men in the marketplace and then the next day presented the faith before the learned philosophers on the Areopagus. Some men took Paul to be a foreign babbler presenting a lower form of ideas than those held by the Greeks. But others wanted to hear Paul and his teaching. Paul explained that the philosophers’ search for truth ended in the reality of the gospel as revealed by God. True wisdom was by revelation and not by intuition. The gospel comes from the Greek word “euangélion”, which means good news. Paul presented a simple message that there will be judgment for those who worship an object or idea fashioned by the human mind. All idols are false gods before the true God who created all things, including the very hands that fashion idols in rebellion. The message of Christianity is good news because without it, man stands without hope before a holy God. The gospel offers salvation to those who repent, that is turn away from sin and turn to God by trusting the life, death, and resurrection of Christ for the forgiveness of sins. At this message some mocked the gospel for being foolish, yet others believed and became Christians. The same message to some was folly and to some wisdom for salvation.
To explore this idea more, Paul elaborates on the wisdom of the gospel in his letter to the Church in Corinth. Before looking there, notice that Paul’s defense of the faith to the wise Athenians was extraordinarily simple. It was a simple denouncement of the false religion and philosophy held by the Greeks then followed by a base level understanding of Christianity. At this simple argument people believed. Now to the letter to the Corinthians -
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
18 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. 19 For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 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. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
The reason why the gospel message is so simple is that the glory might be all to God and not to some perceived form of wisdom of man. The gospel could be summed up in four short sentences. God is the holy and perfect creator. Man was created to obey and love God, but in sin rebelled against his authority. In love, God sent Jesus to live a perfect life, die for the sin of man, and conquer sin and death through his resurrection. Those who turn from sin to trust Christ as Lord and Savior will have their sin forgiven and a restored relationship with God. Four sentences pointing to salvation achieved by God alone. Paul says this message is folly to those perishing. Some would argue that it can’t be that simple. They would say if God is so high above us, his salvation must be mysterious and seemingly out of reach. They would think it would take someone truly wise to understand the ways and salvation of God. But Paul understands that a simple message of Christ crucified shames those who would consider themselves wise. The salvation of the Lord is for those who would humble themselves to consider the foolishness of God to be true wisdom. God seeks for people to abandon their false pretenses of their earthly wisdom.
Paul challenges the one who would find God by his own wisdom and thus concludes that man cannot approach God by his own wisdom. Instead God chooses to reveal his wisdom to those that the world would look down upon. Truly men should boast not in themselves, but in the Lord alone. To the non-Christian I would ask, does trusting in your own illusion of wisdom prevent you from truly seeing the profound and simple wisdom of God. Only those who recognize their bankruptcy before God in humility truly see their ultimate need in Him. Only those who see their sin before a Holy God know their need for a personal savior to receive forgiveness of sin. To the Christian, I would encourage you to trust that the power of the gospel is in who God is and what he has already done in history, instead of any clever arguments you could speak with your own lips. We are but mouth pieces of the glorious message handed to us by our glorious and wise God. Paul knew that long ago and it has not changed for Christians today. We now walk in the footsteps of the many faithful and humble who have come before us preaching the word of the cross. The foolishness of God is what we cling to when all human wisdom misses the mark.
Psalm 14:1-3
1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds;
there is none who does good.
2 The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man,
to see if there are any who understand,
who seek after God.
3 They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt;
there is none who does good,
not even one.
Jacob, of Crestwood, Ky., is a member of the McConnell Scholar Class of 2024 at the University of Louisville. He studies civil engineering and political science.