“Unto Us Which Are Saved It Is the Power of God”

Paul opens his letter to a divided, self-impressed church by relocating everything they value. The saving word appears in the first move.

Two Companies, One Message

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

1 Corinthians 1:18

Tois sōzomenois — to us who are being saved. The same message, the word of the cross, meets two responses and creates two companies. To one it is foolishness; to the other it is the power of God. Nothing about the message changes between them. What differs is what happens in the hearer.

Paul does not present saved and perishing here as a finished verdict on individuals but as two present standings disclosed by response to the cross. The preaching sorts. Those perishing hear folly; those being saved feel power. The cross is the dividing line, and where a person stands relative to it is where they stand, full stop.

Why the Cross Looks Foolish

Paul knows the cross is an offensive message, and he does not soften it. A crucified saviour was, to the Greek, absurd — wisdom did not arrive on a Roman gallows — and to the Jew, a stumbling block, for the law pronounced a curse on the crucified. Both reactions are the perishing response, and both are rooted in a wisdom that has no room for a God who saves by shame.

For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

1 Corinthians 1:21

Sōsai tous pisteuontas — to save them that believe. God deliberately chose a method the world would call foolish, so that salvation could not be credited to human cleverness. The world tried to reach God by wisdom and failed; God reaches the world by a message wisdom despises, and saves those who believe it.

God’s Choice of the Weak

Paul presses the point into the Corinthians’ own membership. Look at yourselves, he says: not many wise, not many mighty, not many noble. God chose the foolish things to confound the wise, the weak to confound the mighty, the base and despised, things which are not, to bring to nought things that are.

The purpose is stated flatly: “That no flesh should glory in his presence.” The whole design of salvation by a foolish-looking cross, extended to unimpressive people, is aimed at removing every ground of human boasting. In a church tearing itself apart over which teacher to follow and whose wisdom to prize, this cuts to the bone. Their salvation was engineered so that no one could boast — and they were boasting.

Christ Made Unto Us

Paul then locates everything in Christ rather than in any human resource: “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” If anyone wants wisdom, it is here, in the crucified Christ, not in the schools. And the conclusion follows: “He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”

Paul’s Own Preaching

Finally Paul makes his own ministry match the message. He came to Corinth not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, determined to know nothing among them save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. He came in weakness and fear and much trembling, and his preaching was not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.

The reason seals the whole argument: “That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” Paul deliberately declined eloquence so that the Corinthians’ faith would rest where their salvation rests — on God’s power, not on a preacher’s skill. The medium was made to fit the message, lest the saved come to lean on the wrong thing.

What the Word Means Here

The full sense: salvation as a present identity — us who are being saved — defined over against those who are perishing, and located entirely in the power of God through the cross. To be saved is to belong to the company for whom the word of the cross is not folly but power.

Its contribution to the gateway is the sorting function of the cross and the exclusion of boasting. The same message divides the world in two, not by the hearer’s cleverness but by God’s power at work in belief. And the whole arrangement — a foolish-looking cross, unimpressive people, an unadorned preacher — is built so that no flesh can glory, and the saved can glory only in the Lord.

This study is part of What Does It Mean to Be Saved?, an examination of every New Testament use of saving language in context, within Resource Cluster 3: Life in Christ. 91 of 91 passage studies are complete — see every occurrence.