Transformation is a hot topic, a hot idea (individuals, society, etc.). And the impulse within every individual to change or to be transformed (physically, intellectually, skill-set, etc) makes sense. Since we are all image bearers, we understand (even unbelievers) that there is something fundamentally flawed with us, we want to change. We can go about it all the wrong ways. Bruce Jenner (2015-2016).

Even as Christians, if we are not careful, we can fall into the thinking that the goal of transformation is to feel better about ourselves, positive self-esteem - to have a sense of glory in ourselves or reason to boast in ourselves. There have been (and still now are) preachers, with large followings, who peddled this kind of message. There was a well known preacher in the 20th century named Norman Vincent Peale who authored a book that keys into this entitled “The Power of Positive Thinking”. He later had a book entitled “Positive Imaging - The powerful way to change your life”. 

Perhaps the most crass example of this goal of transformation comes from another American preacher named Robert Schuller and what he coined as The New Reformation of Self Esteem and possibility thinking. The most well-known preacher today whose message is in this same vein is a man named Joel Osteen. Positive thinking, possibility, positive imaging, your best life now, become a better you - it’s all self glory. 

Well, this may seem so far from the path we would go down (AMEN!), but I would suggest that this sort of thinking in more subtle ways has crept into much of the church. And far from transforming someone to be more like Christ, it turns them in on themselves and they become more and more narcissistic and self focused. This message always finds a large audience because it is what we naturally want. 

Well, our text this morning is the medicine we need to cure us of such thinking. And the message from this text is truly transformative, because it frees us from this self-focus and truly transforms us from the inside out. It pulls us out of ourselves, takes our eyes off us, and puts them on Christ. Here’s the layout:

1) We are unimpressive

2) Christ is supremely impressive

3) Boast in Christ, not yourself. Glory in Christ!

Let’s see how our text unpacks this for us. 

We are unimpressive (v. 26-29)

The point is not that we go home today feeling bad about ourselves. The point is that we aren’t thinking about ourselves at all! Look at verses 26-29:

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 to 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. 

Now Paul is writing to Christians in Corinth. Corinth is an impressive city, steeped in Hellenistic culture - Greek culture. They had a high value for wisdom. And so human philosophy was a big deal. The word philosophy itself is made up of two words - philo (to love), and sophia (wisdom). There may have been 50 identifiable philosophical schools at this time operating in the city of Corinth. And Paul wants to press home the fact these Christians in Corinth did not become followers of Jesus because of their superior wisdom, or their superior strength, or the nobility of their bloodline. 

Verse 26 says, “For consider your calling” - he’s talking about when they were called by the Spirit and believed in Christ. Consider when the Spirit called you and gave you the gift of faith to believe in Christ - it wasn’t because you were wise and figured out the riddle of the gospel. No. It wasn’t because you were strong and could wrench yourself free from your enslavement to sin. No. It wasn’t because you were of noble stock and your grandmother made a deal with God. No. It had nothing to do with that!

Then Paul restates what he just said, except he does so positively. And notice the words repeated 3 times: “God chose”. God chose fools in the world’s eyes. God chose weak people according to worldly standards. God chose nobodies. And he did this then and still now to upend the world! Because it completely goes against the world’s ways!

Some might say, “Wait! God really does save smart people, successful people, strong people, individuals from prominent families.” True! But he saves in such a way that a smart person understands his salvation does not rest on his wit or learning. Listen to what Paul says a couple chapters later:

Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. (1 Corinthians 3:18)

Paul labors here to make the point that God saves people that are unimpressive. And those who think they are impressive in this world, need to be brought low before God. Paul is not concerned about our self-esteem. Why does God do this? Verse 29 tells us what God’s design in all this is: “So that no human being (sarx: flesh) might boast in the presence of God.” For God this is no minor issue (scriptures). There shall be no self-exaltation, no self-boasting before God’s throne. He saves and transforms in a way that we do not look in the mirror and say, “Good job!” Remember the story of Gideon? [Go through the story…. Judges 7:2 tells us God’s motivation for it all]

The LORD said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, “My own hand has saved me.” 

Brothers and sisters, we are unimpressive in ourselves. But that’s not the main point:

Christ Is Supremely Impressive. (v. 30)

And because of him (God) you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption… (v. 30)

This truly is a pregnant verse. If you get this in you, it changes your life! Jesus is the source and fountainhead of every blessing that ever comes to us (Spring in Minnesota). Ephesians 1:3 says God “has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ.” Every blessing. Those that are bestowed on us now and those that are reserved for later. Those two words “in Christ” are so rich with meaning. It refers to our union with him (used to be in Adam and received from him, now Christ). We have been united with Christ, and notice what is the effective cause of this union: “Because of Him you are in Christ”. Because of God. If you believe in Christ and are united to Christ, behind it all is God. It is because of Him. 

There are four effects of his union with Christ. It’s transforming! Christ has become to us “wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.” 

Christ is our wisdom. The message of Christ crucified was a foolish, idiotic-sounding message to the intellectual elite in Greek culture. It is not that dissimilar today. The gospel seems like such a foolish, weak message. A crucified Savior? Sounds pathetic. 

And yet, Christ is true wisdom. He is “the word” in John 1, the revealer of God’s truth. He is the ultimate and final message of God from Hebrews 1. Whereas he spoke by the prophets in times past, in these last days, “God has spoken in his Son”, who is the image of the invisible God. Christ is our wisdom. If you want to know true wisdom, get to know Jesus Christ and relate everything back to Him. Paul says in Colossians 2:2-3 that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found in Jesus Christ. 

And specifically when it comes to thwarting the false wisdom of the world, Christ crucified, though foolish to the worldly wise, is the true wisdom of God. Remember back in 2 Timothy 3, Paul reminded Timothy how the scriptures were able to make him “wise unto salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.” 

If you have received Jesus Christ and him crucified as a gift, you have received God’s wisdom. If you want to grow in wisdom, grow in your knowledge of Christ - who he is and what he has accomplished on your behalf. Seek to know and understand his words, his teaching. Jesus Christ is our wisdom. 

Christ is our righteousness.  No doubt this is referring to the free gift of God’s righteousness that comes to us as a gift when we believe in Jesus. We are born with a big problem. God is good and righteous. And we in ourselves are neither good nor righteous. And because of that we are under God’s righteous condemnation. BUT, the good news is that God justifies or gives the gift of righteousness to ungodly people who believe in Jesus. 

The reformer Martin Luther said this is the doctrine on which the church stands or falls. John Calvin said something similar. He said it is the main hinge on which all religion turns and the sum of all piety. It is massively important. Here’s what it means. The moment a sinner believes in Jesus Christ, the debt of sin is canceled and  their bank account is credited with perfect obedience of Jesus Christ - just as if they have never sinned, just as if we have perfectly and always obeyed. And in a moment, we go from being under the condemnation of God because of our sin, to being fully accepted by God because of Christ’s righteousness. 

At the cross a great exchange took place. God made Christ to be sin even though he never sinned. He took ours and it was counted as his. So that in Christ we might become the righteousness of God - even though we are NOT righteous in ourselves. He clothes us with Christ’s (2 Corinthians 5:21). It is not just that Jesus gives us something called righteousness, but rather that he himself is our righteousness. Jeremiah 23:5-6 says,

5 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 6 In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.’

What difference does this make at a personal level? How does this transform us? Let me tell you the testimony of John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim’s Progress. 

But one day as I was passing into the field, with some dashes on my conscience, fearing yet that all was not right, suddenly this sentence fell upon my soul, “Your righteousness is in heaven.” I thought I saw with the eyes of my soul Jesus Christ at God’s right hand. There was my righteousness. Wherever I was, or whatever I was doing, God could not say of me that I lacked His righteousness, for that was ever before Him. Moreover, I saw that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse, for my righteousness was Jesus Christ Himself, “the same yesterday, today, and forever. Now did my chains fall off my legs indeed.

Oh, that we would know this! Jesus Christ is our righteousness. 

Christ is our sanctification. Whereas righteousness refers to the impeccable, once for all righteousness of Christ credited to us, sanctification refers to the ongoing, progressive growth in righteous living, in holy conduct. Christ is our sanctification. The Spirit of Christ who is the Spirit of holiness, indwells each one of us (if we are in Christ), producing his gracious fruit in us. The point of this ongoing sanctification is that we become more and more like Jesus in our actual living, transforming us into the likeness of Jesus from glory to glory. 

Sanctification is something that must be a part of our lives to prove that we are truly born again. For without a changed life on the ground, there can be no assurance that we are saved at all (Hebrews 12 - pursue sanctification…). The change doesn’t come all at once. It takes a lifetime, but those who truly receive the gift of righteousness we talked about before, will show the effects of that righteousness in how they live. Jesus is not a partial Savior. He doesn’t save us from the consequences of sin, while leaving us under its dominion. Never! Christ is a sufficient, full Savior. He saves to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him! 

But the point that Paul is making is that Jesus Christ himself is our sanctification. He works it into us by his Spirit and truth. And as we fix our eyes on him, we can be confident that he most certainly will. “I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). Christ is our sanctification. 

Christ is our redemption. Sometimes redemption is used to refer to all the benefits we receive from Jesus. In context, because it comes on the heels of Christ our righteousness and sanctification, I believe it undoubtedly refers to final deliverance from sin and evil. Ephesians 4:30 says that the Holy Spirit seals us “for the day of redemption”, that day when the work of Jesus Christ will be consummated in the perfect salvation of his people - body, soul, and spirit. Christ is our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. 

What’s the goal of all of this? What is the design of God in pointing us away from ourselves and to Christ? Verse 31 makes it so clear.

Boast in Christ (v. 31)

So that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” 

This is God’s design. This is the purpose of it all. No boasting about self in the presence of God. No glorying in self. No talking about self. That steals glory from the only One worthy of it! There is only one Person who deserves to have the spotlight on Him - it is the Lord of glory! When worship becomes a show things have gotten off! When preaching becomes a platform for the preacher to strut around and get people to think “Wow he’s amazing”, things have gotten off! When the Christian life becomes an endeavor to glory in ourselves, things have gotten off - it is a stench to God.

On the other hand, when you come face to face with real, bonafide glory, the last thing on your mind is you - which is great! Nobody stands on the south rim of the Grand Canyon unimpressed and decides to turn around and dig a whole so they feel good about themselves. That would be the height of insanity. You stand on the south rim boasting in its glory, and probably completely unaware of yourself. And that is merely created glory. What about the God who made it? 

Are you gonna boast? Do you want to boast? We all do! It is not a question of whether we will boast, but what we will boast in. Let’s behold the glory of the Lord and boast in Him. He is supremely impressive and glorious. Let’s boast in Jesus Christ and all that he has done. Shout it from the rooftops! Sing at the top of your lungs - “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness!” “Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe…” Let’s glory in Christ!

He died for me, he died for me, with joy, huge joy I’ll sing. The praises of my dear Redeemer, for endless days shall ring.

Boast in Jesus Christ. Glory in the Lord. Exult with exuberant joy in Christ. He’s your wisdom, He’s your righteousness, He is your sanctification, and He is your redemption. Boast in Him because from beginning to end, Christ is all! Paul here quotes an OT passage. He says, “As it is written”, probably a Jeremiah 9, where the Lord says,

Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 9:23-24)

Conclusion

This is truth that transforms. Eyes off you, eyes on Christ. The glorious gift of forgetting about yourself and simply rejoicing in, boasting in, glorying in Jesus Christ alone. 

Don’t turn inward. Turn outward, look at Jesus Christ. Look to the cross. Look to the One who is your wisdom, your righteousness, your sanctification, your redemption. 

Think about how this would change your day to day life. You know where to go to get wisdom. Christ, his cross, and his teaching is your wisdom. You don’t need to try to get God to approve of you or accept you through your own effort. Christ is your righteousness. You most certainly are and will continue to grow up and mature because Christ is your sanctification. And the hope that evil, suffering, and sin will be vanquished forever is yours, because Jesus is your final redemption. He is everything. Joyfully boast in Him!