The Boast of the Humble, Part 3

By Robb Brunansky

Published August 5, 2025

As we have seen in the latter half of 1 Corinthians 1, the Corinthians struggled with prideful boasting. Paul corrects this problem, telling his readers that the solution is to stop boasting like the proud and instead to boast like the humble; or to stop being obsessed with what others think about us and instead become obsessed with what others think about Christ.

To this end, Paul reminds us of three important truths. First, we saw our earthly position when God saved us. Our earthly position was nothing to brag about in the world’s eyes, so how much less impressive is it in comparison with our great Savior! Second, we saw God’s electing purpose, which is to abolish all human arrogance.

Next, we examine a third truth that helps us learn how to boast humbly about Christ, rather than arrogantly about ourselves. That truth is God’s effectual power as found in verses 30-31. Here, Paul focuses on what God has effectively done for us by sending His Son to be our Savior.

Verse 30 is massive. Calvin wrote of this verse, “[Paul] ascribes here to Christ four commendatory titles, that include His entire excellence, and every benefit we receive from Him.” The Holy Spirit so inspired Paul to write these words that we would finish this verse breathless with wonder at Christ’s beauty and glory, able to do nothing but boast in His manifold excellencies.

Paul notes that God’s effectual power has provided for us in Christ four treasures: wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Each of these terms is so significant to understanding why Christ is our only boast, so we will spend time unpacking them one by one, starting with God’s effectual power in giving us wisdom in Christ. There are three specific aspects of God’s wisdom displayed in His Word.

First, we see the sufficiency of God’s wisdom in Christ.

When Paul says Jesus became to us wisdom from God, he means that Christ is sufficient. We do not need wisdom that is not found in Christ. This was a major sticking point for Corinthian believers who were enamored with worldly wisdom, as it is with Christians in today’s world. Many are beguiled by the erroneous belief that they need Christ as the wisdom of God plus what the world has to offer. But Paul is clear that Christ alone provides all the wisdom we need.

Paul echoes these sentiments in a similar passage in Colossians 2:2-3, where his great desire and prayer is for his readers to have a true knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ Himself. This was the heartbeat of Paul’s ministry because he knew Christ was sufficient for everything we need. Outside of Christ, there is no wisdom; or if the world happens to say something wise, it stole it from Christ.

Paul has been making this point throughout this section in 1 Corinthians 1. He told us that the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and that God choose the foolish to shame the wise. God is opposed to the world’s wisdom because it is folly. This reality becomes readily apparent when we think about some of the things the world passes off as wisdom:

• “If it feels good, do it.” We know, though, that this approach to life ends in destruction and devastation.
• “Listen to your heart.” Yet we know that our hearts are deceitful and wicked.
• “Be true to ourselves.” But the wisdom of Christ tells us we need to die to ourselves daily, take up our cross, and follow Christ.
• “Look out for ourselves because no one else will.” However, God’s wisdom tells us not to look out for our own interests but the interest of others.
• “Maximize financial profit now and invest money for the future of our earthly lives.” But God’s wisdom tells us we should not store up treasure on earth but in heaven.

When we set worldly wisdom beside the wisdom of God in Christ, we see just how vacuous the world’s wisdom is, and how it leads to spiritual bankruptcy, emptiness, and ultimately eternal destruction. We must be convinced that Christ is the wisdom of God for us, and that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Him.

Second, we see the significance of God’s wisdom in Christ.

God’s wisdom is found in the word of the cross and message of the gospel. In the gospel of Christ crucified, we see how God solved the problem of sin, how God redeemed the slaves of sin, how God forgave those who were indebted to Him, and how God reconciled rebels to Himself. We discover, much to our shock, that everything we ever thought about God was defective. The gospel tells us the way of salvation, to be sure; but the gospel ultimately is the revelation of God in Jesus Christ.

In Ephesians 1:17, Paul prayed that God would give these believers a spirit of wisdom that results in the knowledge of God. When we understand God’s wisdom, which is Christ Himself, we understand God’s character, nature, attributes, and glory. God’s wisdom can be defined as the understanding of His thoughts and ways and the application of conforming ourselves to God’s thoughts and ways as revealed in Christ’s person and work. Jesus Christ perfectly reveals the fullness and wisdom of God to us.

Third, we see the supplying of God’s wisdom in Christ.

There are five practical things to be supplied with God’s wisdom in Christ. Each is related to the others, so all are needed to truly walk in the wisdom God has given in Christ.

The first is that we must be in Christ by faith.

The starting point of wisdom is salvation. Christ became wisdom from God for all Christians – and only for Christians – because the world has rejected God’s wisdom.

The second is to genuinely desire and seek wisdom.

Proverbs has much to say about the need to desire and seek after wisdom if we would obtain it. As believers, we must dedicate ourselves to the pursuit of God’s wisdom in Christ, recognizing that God’s all-sufficient wisdom is only found in His Son.

The third is to be saturated with Scripture.

Pursuing wisdom through God’s revelation in Christ occurs when we seek this wisdom in the written Word. In Psalm 19:7, David reminds us that Scripture makes wise the simple. Even those with zero wisdom find all they need in God’s revelation of Christ in His Word.

The fourth is to be faithful to participate in public worship with God’s people.

God uses His people to encourage Christians to grow in wisdom, so that no part of the body believes that it alone is the fountainhead of divine wisdom. In Proverbs 18:1, we read that those who reject the assembling together of God’s people are unwise. We must seek God’s wisdom in the assembly of His saints.

The fifth is to ask God for wisdom.

James 1:5 tells us that if we need God’s wisdom amid a trial; and we aren’t sure what to do, or how to persevere, or what decision to make, we need to ask for God’s wisdom in faith, knowing our heavenly Father gives wisdom to His children generously when we beseech Him.

God’s effectual power has granted to us divine wisdom in Christ. All the wisdom we could ever need is found in Jesus, for all the treasures of wisdom are found in Him. Christ’s wisdom reveals to us who God is, as well as God’s ways and thoughts, so we might conform our lives to His holiness.