To the Unknown God
“But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also, and stirred up the people” (Acts 17:13). The gospel message is either received or rejected and, often, when it is rejected, it is openly resisted. This was the case in Berea. Consequently, the brethren “sent away Paul…and brought him to Athens” (Acts 17:14-15).
Now, Athens was a city known for its philosophers. Acts 17 tells us that “the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing” (21). Yet, for all their “wisdom” the city remained “wholly given to idolatry” (16). In fact, Paul had even “found an altar with this inscription, To The Unknown God” (23). When these philosophers encountered Paul in the marketplace, they called him a “babbler” and others said that he “seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection (18).
Christianity will always be “strange” to the world and its wisdom because of the resurrection. This truth (resurrection) is intrinsic to the gospel message and essential to God’s plan of redemption. Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again the third day. This is the gospel (I Corinthians 15:3-4). Yet to the world and its wisdom, the message of the gospel is strange. The Jews rejected it for they “stumbled” at the concept of a Messiah who would die in supposed weakness rather than reign in power after delivering them from Rome. The Greeks thought it “foolish” that God surrender his own Son to die for his creation.
Man will never know God through the wisdom of this world. Paul reminded the Corinthians “the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (I Corinthians 1:22-25).
Christianity is not, nor has it ever been, the culmination of man struggling to find his way to God. On the contrary, it is God who took the initiative to seek and to save his fallen creation. Christianity then is a matter of believing the message that God has revealed concerning his Son, Jesus Christ. And so Paul reminds us, “the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God…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” (I Corinthians 1:18, 21; emphasis added).
Paul preached this gospel, the good news to the Athenians. “And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others [putting him off] said, we will hear thee again of this matter” (Acts 17:32). Is the gospel “strange” unto you? Do you stumble at the message of the resurrected Savior, Jesus Christ? The gospel is not a message that can be set aside. To put it off is to decide against it. God has made himself known in the Person of his Son. Cease from striving. Believe him today and be saved.
Randy Livingston serves as a chaplain for a local police department. He writes devotionals for his ministry which also appear at his blog, From the Chaplain. We republish this post by permission.
Steve Swayne, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons