27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of 1 Psa. viii. 2. Matt. xi. 25. Luke xix. 39, 40. that God had not consulted the wisdom, and power, and wealth of men in the establishment of his church. So the Syriac and the Vulgate render it. According to the flesh. According to the maxims and principles of a sensual and worldly policy; according to the views of men when under the influence of those principles; i.c. who are unrenewed. The flesh here stands opposed to the spirit; the views of the men of this world in contradistinction from the wisdom that is from above. Not many mighty. Not many men of power; or men sustaining important offices in the state. Comp. Rev. vi. 15. The word may refer to those who wield power of any kind, whether derived from office, from rank, from wealth, &c. ¶ Not many noble. Not many of illustrious birth, or descended from illustrious families-vyeveîs wellborn. In respect to each of these classes, the apostle does not say that there were no men of wealth, and power, and birth, but that the mass or body of Christians was not composed of such. They were made up of those who were in humble life. There were a few, indeed, of rank and property, as there are now; but then, as now, the great mass was composed of those who were from the lower conditions of society. The reason why God had chosen his people from that rank is stated in ver. 29. The character of many of those who composed the church at Corinth before the conversion, is stated in ch. vi. 9-11, which see. 27. But God hath chosen. The fact of their being in the church at all was the result of his choice. It was owing entirely to his grace. The foolish things. The things esteemed foolish among men. The expression here refers to those who were destitute of learning, rank, wealth, and power, and who were esteemed as fools, and were despised by the rich and the great. To confound. To bring to shame; the world to confound the things which are mighty; 28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and or that he might make them ashamed; i.e. humble them by showing them how little he regarded their wisdom; and how little their wisdom contributed to the success of his cause. By thus overlooking them, and bestowing his favours on the humble, and the poor, by choosing his people from the ranks which they despised, and bestowing on them the exalted privilege of being called the sons of God, he had poured dishonour on the rich and the great, and overwhelmed them, and their schemes of wisdom, with shame. It is also true, that those who are regarded as fools by the wise men of the world are able often to confound those who boast of their wisdom; and that the arguments of plain men, though unlearned except in the school of Christ; of men of sound common sense under the influence of christian principles, have a force which the learning and talent of the men of this world cannot gainsay or resist. They have truth on their side; and truth, though dressed in an humble garb, is more mighty than error, though clothed with the brilliancy of imagination, the pomp of declamation, and the cunning of sophistry. And the weak things. Those esteemed weak by the men of the world. The mighty. The great; the noble; the learned. 28. And base things of the world. Those things which by the world are esteemed ignoble. Literally, those which are not of noble, or illustrious birth (rà ayevĥ). Things which are despised. Those which the world regards as objects of contempt. Comp. Mark ix. 12. Luke xviii. 32, 33. Acts iv. 11. Yea. The introduction of this word by the translators does nothing to illustrate the sense, but rather enfeebles it. The language here is a striking instance of Paul's manner of expressing himself with great strength. He desires to convey in the strongest terms, the fact, that 1 things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: 1 Deut. xxviii. 63. Dan. ii. 34, 35, 44, 45. Job xxxiv. 19, 20, 24. 2 29 That no flesh should glory in his presence. 2 Rom. iii. 27. and abominable in all things. 'My son, my son, go not among them who are not.' Alas! alas! those people are all alla-tha-varkal.' When wicked men prosper, it is said, 'this is the time for those who are not.' 'Have you heard that those who are not are now acting righteously?' Vulgar and indecent expressions are also called, words that are not.' To address men in the phrase are not, is provoking beyond measure."-Roberts's Oriental Illustrations, &c. To bring to nought. To humble and subdue. To show them how vain and impotent they were. God had illustrated his plan by choosing the objects of least esteem among men. He is willing to admit all that could be said on this point. He says, therefore, that God had chosen the things of ignoble birth and rankthe base things of the world; but this did not fully express his meaning. He had chosen objects of contempt among men; but this was not strong enough to express his idea. He adds, therefore, that God had chosen those things which were absolutely nothing, which had no existence; which could not be supposed to influence him in his choice. And things which are not. (тa μh¶ Things that are. Those who on vra). That which is nothing, which is account of their noble birth, high atworthless; which has no existence. tainments, wealth, and rank, placed a Those things which were below con- high estimate on themselves and detempt itself; and which, in the esti- spised others. mation of the world were passed by as having no existence; as not having sufficient importance to be esteemed worthy even of the slight notice which is implied in contempt. For a man who despises a thing must at least notice it, and esteem it worth some attention. But the apostle here speaks of things beneath even that slight notice; as completely and totally disregarded, as having no existence. The language here is evidently that of hyperbole. Comp. Note, John xxi. 25. This was a figure of speech common in the East, and not unusual in the sacred writings. Comp. Isa. xl. 17. See also Rom. iv. 17. This language was strongly expressive of the estimate which the Jews fixed on the Gentiles, as being a despised people, as being in fact no people; a people without laws, and organization, and religion, and privileges. See Hos. i. 10; ii. 23. Rom. ix. 25. 1 Pet. ii. 10. "When a man of rank among the Hindoos speaks of low-caste persons, of notorious profligates, or of those whom he despises, he calls them allatha-varkal, i. e. those who are not. The term does not refer to life or existence, but to a quality or disposition, and is applied to those who are vile 29. That no flesh. That no men; no class of men. The word flesh is often thus used to denote men. Matt. xxiv. 22. Luke iii. 6. John xvii. 2. Acts ii. 17. 1 Pet. i. 24, &c. གུ Should glory. Should boast, Rom. iii. 27. ¶ In his presence. Before him. That man should really have nothing of which to boast; but that the whole scheme should be adapted to humble and subdue him. On these verses we may observe, 1. That it is to be expected that the great mass of christian converts will be found among those who are of humble life; and it may be observed also, that true virtue and excellence, sincerity and amiableness, honesty and sincerity, are usually found there also. 2. That while the mass of Christians are found there, there are also those of noble birth, and rank, and wealth, who become Christians. The aggregate of those who from elevated ranks and distinguished talents have become Christians, has not been small. It is sufficient to refer to such names as Pascal, and Bacon, and Boyle, and Newton, and Locke, and Hale, and Wilberforce, to show that religion can command the homage of the most illustrious genius and rank. 3. The reasons 30 But of him are ye in1 Christ Jesus, who of God is 12 Cor. v. 17. Eph. i. 3. 10, 11. wisdom, and made unto us 2 Eph. i. 17, 18; iii. 9, 10. Col. ii. 3; iii. 16. 2 Tim. iii. 15, 17. this verse is to be placed on this expression, are ye. You are Christians, not by the agency of man, but by the agency of God. In Christ Jesus. Note, ver. 4. By the medium, or through the work of Christ, this mercy has been conferred on you. Who of God. From God (and eoû). Christ is given to us by God, or appointed by him to be our wisdom, &c. God ori why men of rank and wealth do not oftener become Christians, are many and obvious. (a) They are beset with peculiar temptations. (6) They are usually satisfied with rank and wealth, and do not feel their need of a hope of heaven. (e) They are surrounded by objects which flatter their vanity, which minister to their pride, and which throw them into the circle of alluring and tempting plea-ginated the scheme, and God gave him sures. (d) They are drawn away from the means of grace and the places of prayer, by fashion, by business, by temptation. (e) There is something about the pride of learning and philosophy, which usually makes those who possess it unwilling to sit at the feet of Christ; to acknowledge their dependence on any power; and to confess that they are poor, and needy, and blind, and naked before God. 4. The gospel is designed to produce humility, and to place all men on a level in regard to salvation. There is no royal way to the favour of God. No monarch is saved because he is a monarch; no philosopher because he is a philosopher; no rich man because he is rich; no poor man because he is poor. All are placed on a level. All are to be saved in the same way. All are to become willing to give the entire glory to God. All are to acknowledge him as providing the plan, and as furnishing the grace that is needful for salvation. God's design is to bring down the pride of man, and to produce every-wise. Christ is often represented as where a willingness to acknowledge him as the fountain of blessings and the God of all. 30. But of him. That is, by his agency and power. It is not by philosophy; not from ourselves; but by his mercy. The apostle keeps it prominently in view, that it was not of their philosophy, wealth, or rank that they had been raised to these privileges, but of God as the author. Are ye. Ye are what you are by the mercy of God. Ch. xv. 10. You owe your hopes to him. The emphasis in for this end. Wisdom. That is, he is to us the source of wisdom; it is by him that we are made wise. This cannot mean that his wisdom becomes strictly and properly ours; that it is set over to us, and reckoned as our own, for that is not true. But it must mean simply, that Christians have become truly wise by the agency, the teaching, and the work of Christ. Philosophers had attempted to become wise by their own investigations and inquiries. But Christians had become wise by the work of Christ; that is, it had been by his instructions that they had been made acquainted with the true character of God; with his law; with their own condition; and with the great truth that there was a glorious immortality beyond the grave. None of these truths had been obtained by the investigations of philosophers, but by the instructions of Christ. In like manner it was through him that they had been made practically wise unto salvation. Comp. Col. ii. 3. He is the great agent by which we become truly eminently wise, and as the source of all true wisdom to his people. Ch. i. 24; iii, 10. Isa. xi. 1. Matt. xiii. 54. Luke ii. 40. 52. Many commentators have supposed that the beautiful description of wisdom, in Prov. viii, is applicable to the Messiah. Christ may be said to be made wisdom to us, or to communicate wisdom. 1. Because he has in his own ministry instructed us in the true knowledge of God, and of those great truths which pertain to our salvation. 2. Because he has by his word and Spirit led us to see our true righteousness, and sanctifica- tion, and redemption: 3 1 Isa. xlv. 24. Jer. xxiii. 5, 6. Rom. iv. 25. situation, and made us "wise unto salvation.' He has turned us from the ways of folly, and inclined us to walk in the path of true wisdom. 3. Because he is to his people now the source of wisdom. He enlightens their mind in the time of perplexity; guides them in the way of truth, and leads them in the path of real knowledge. It often happens that obscure and ignorant men, who have been taught in the school of Christ, have more true and real knowledge of that which concerns their welfare, and evince more real practical wisdom, than can be learned in all the schools of philosophy and learning on the earth. It is wise for a sinful and dying creature to prepare for eternity. But none but those who are instructed by the Son of God, become thus wise. And righteousness. By whom we become righteous in the sight of God. This declaration simply affirms that we become righteous through him, as it is affirmed that we become wise, sanctified, and redeemed through him. But neither of the expressions determines anything as to the mode by which this wisdom, &c. are attained. The leading idea of the apostle, which should never be lost sight of, is that the Greeks by their philosophy did not become truly wise, righteous, sanctified, and redeemed; but that this was accomplished through Jesus Christ. But in what way this was done, or by what process or mode, is not here stated; and it should be no more assumed from this text that we became righteous by the imputation of Christ's righteousness, than it should be that we became wise by the imputation of his wisdom, and sanctified by the imputation of his holiness. If this passage would prove one of these points, it would prove all. But as it is absurd to say that we become wise by the imputation of the personal wisdom of Christ, so this passage should not be brought to prove that we become righteous by the imputation of his righteousness. Whatever may be the truth of that doctrine, this passage does not prove it. By turning to other parts of the New Testament to learn in what 2 John xvii. 19. 3 Eph. i. 7. way we are made righteous through Christ, or in what way he is made unto us righteousness; we learn that it is in two modes. 1. Because it is by his merits alone that our sins are pardoned, and we are justified, and treated as righteous. See Note, Rom. iii. 26, 27; and, 2. Because by his influence, and work, and Spirit, and truth, we are made personally holy in the sight of God. The former is doubtless the thing intended here, as sanctification is specified afterwards. The apostle here refers simply to the fact, without specifying the mode. That is to be learned from other parts of the New Testament. Comp. Note, Rom. iv. 25. The doctrine of justification is, that God regards and treats those as righteous who believe on his Son, and who are pardoned on account of what he has done and suffered. The several steps in the process may be thus stated. 1. The sinner is by nature exposed to the wrath of God. He is lost and ruined. He has no merit of his own. He has violated a holy law, and that law condemns him, and he has no power to make an atonement or reparation. He can never be pronounced a just man on his own merits. He can never vindicate his conduct, as a man can do in a court of justice where he is unjustly accused, and so be pronounced just. 2. Jesus Christ has taken the sinner's place, and died in his stead. He has honoured a broken law; he has rendered it consistent for God to pardon. By his dreadful sufferings, endured in the sinner's place, God has shown his hatred of sin, and his willingness to forgive. His truth will be vindicated and his law honoured, and his government secured, if now he shall pardon the offender when penitent. As he endured these sorrows for others, and not for himself, they can be so reckoned, and are so judged by God. All the benefits or results of the atonement, therefore, as it was made for others, can be applied to them, and all the advantage of such substitution in their place, can be made over to them, as really as when a man pays a note of hand for a friend; or 31 That, according, as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. 11 Chron. xvi. 10, 35. Psa. cv. 3. Isa. xli.16. Jer. ix. 23, 24. when he pays for another a ransom. The price is reckoned as paid for them, and the benefits flow to the debtor and the captive. It is not reckoned that they paid it, for that is not true; but that it was done for them, and the benefit may be theirs, which is true. 3. God has been pleased to promise that these benefits may be conferred on him who believes in the Saviour. The sinner is united by faith to the Lord Jesus, and is so adjudged, or reckoned. God esteems or judges him to be a believer according to the promise. And so believing, and so repenting, he deems it consistent to pardon and justify him who is so united to his Son by faith. He is justified, not by the act of faith; not by any merits of his own, but by the merits of Christ. He has no other ground, and no other hope. Thus he is in fact a pardoned and justified man: and God so reckons and judges. God's law is honoured, and the sinner is pardoned and saved; and it is now as consistent for God to treat him as a righteous man, as it would be if he had never sinned, since there is as high honour shown to the law of God, as there would have been had he been personally obedient, or had he personally suffered its penalty. And as, through the death of Christ, the same results are secured in upholding God's moral government as would be by his condemnation, it is consistent and proper for God to forgive him and treat him as a righteous man; and to do so accords with the infinite benevolence of his heart. ¶ And sanctification. By him we are sanctified or made holy. This does not mean, evidently, that his personal holiness is reckoned to us, but that by his work applied to our hearts we become personally sanctified or holy. Comp. Eph. iv. 24. This is done by the agency of his Spirit applying truth to the mind, John xvii. 19, by the aid which he furnishes in trials, temptations, and conflicts, and by the influence of hope in sustaining, elevating, and purifying the soul. All the truth that is employed to sanctify was taught primarily by him; and all the means that may be used are the purchase of his death, and are under his direction; and the Spirit by whose agency christians are sanctified was sent into the world by him, and in answer to his prayers. John xiv. 16; xv. 26.¶ And redemption. (dπoλúтpwols). For the meaning of this word, see Note, Rom. iii. 24. Here it is evidently used in a larger sense than it is commonly in the New Testament. The things which are specified above, justification and sanctification, are a part of the work of redemption. Probably the word redemption is used here in a wide sense, as denoting the whole of those influences by which we are brought at last to heaven; so that the apostle refers not only to the atonement, but to the work by which we are in fact redeemed from death, and made happy in heaven. Thus in Rom. viii. 23, the word is applied to the resurrection, "the redemption of the body." The sense is, it is by Christ that we are redeemed; by him that an atonement is made; by him that we are pardoned; by him that we are delivered from the dominion of sin, and the power of our enemies; and by him that we shall be rescued from the grave, and raised up to everlasting life. Thus the whole work depends on Christ; and no part of it is to be ascribed to the philosophy, the talent, or the wisdom of men. He does not merely aid us; he does not complete that which is imperfect; he does not come in to do a part of the work, or to supply our defects; but it is all to be traced to him. See Col. ii. 10. 31. ¶ As it is written. This is evidently a quotation made from Jer. ix. 23, 24. It is not made literally; but the apostle has condensed the sense of the prophet into a few words, and has retained essentially his idea. He that glorieth. He that boasts or exults. ¶ In the Lord. Not ascribing his salvation to human abilities, or learning, or rank, but entirely to God. And from this we see, 1. That the design of the plan |