It Is Perfectly True that the kingdom age will be magnificent and, no doubt, well beyond what we have imagined. And the glorious eternal life God has promised to those who love Him will surpass anything we have seen or heard. No wonder we apply Paul’s words to the kingdom:
Eye has not see, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him (I Cor. 2:9 NKJV).
Yet this passage is not talking about the kingdom and we misquote it when we give it a kingdom application.
Context
Consider the setting of the verse:
We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written: Eye has not seen.. .(I Cor. 2:7-9).
Are we to think the rulers would not have crucified Jesus if they had understood the glories of the kingdom? There is really no connection between the two ideas.
Further, Paul goes on to say: “…which God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed them to us through His spirit” (v. 10). He is not here referring to his vision of the third heaven when were “heard in expressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter” (H Cor. 12:4). Rather, he is referring to all who “…have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak…” (I Cor. 2:11-12).
The context thus makes clear that which “eye hath not seen…” has been revealed to believers, and alludes to that which has already been given to the believer, and relates to the crucifixion of our Lord. In fact, if the Jewish rulers had understood Paul’s subject, they would not have crucified the Messiah. In other words, this passage does not refer to the future but to that which became clearly understood in the first century.
The larger context
Beginning at I Corinthians 1:17, the cross of Christ is the topic. Follow the theme as it dominates this section of the letter: Not with wisdom of words lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect (v.17)… the preaching of the cross (v.18).. .we preach Christ crucified (v. 23)…I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified (2:2).. .they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (2:8).
Further, Paul stresses that the cross runs completely contrary to human expectations: The cross is to them that perish foolishness (1:18)… Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness (v. 23).. .which none of the princes of this world knew (2:8). In fact, the crucifixion as a method of salvation fits perfectly with God’s working to exalt “the foolish things of the world to confound the wise…that no flesh should glory in his presence” (I Cor. 1:27, 29). So the whole of this section is developing points from God’s method of salvation through a crucified savior.
Contemporaries were stunned
While today the idea of a crucified savior is widely accepted, in the early years of the first century it was beyond what had entered into the heart of man. We know well of the disciples’ reaction as Christ went to the cross. They didn’t rejoice that finally God was providing salvation; they couldn’t believe what was happening. Even after reports of his resurrection and while walking side by side with the risen Jesus (whom they didn’t recognize), the two on the road to Emmaus would say: “…the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel…” (Lk. 24:2021). All the disciples were looking for the kingdom to be restored to Israel but none of them expected the cross.
Today, we are somewhat amazed at their blindness, for Jesus had told them plainly: The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day (Lk. 9:22). But a crucified savior was so far from their imagination that even when Christ’s words were exactly fulfilled they couldn’t fathom the idea.
The Jewish rulers, of course, felt they had forever discredited Jesus by hanging him on a tree. Being thus cursed by the law (Deut. 21:23; Gal. 3:13), they rightly assumed a huge stumblingblock was created in the way of any Jew believing in him. As Peter would say, however, they acted in ignorance of God’s plan, for it had never occurred to them that God would provide such a way of salvation (Acts 3:17). And to the Greeks, the idea of a great hero suffering the most ignominious form of death was complete foolishness. Their idea was for heroes, if they died at all, to die in glory.
The cross is awesome
The first century world was stunned by God’s way of salvation. It had never entered their minds it would be so.
It is stunning that God would so love the world that He would provide a propitiation for its sins through the death of His Son. Would God do that? With human thinking, all the great sacrifice should be on the part of sinners as they sought reconciliation with God. This level of divine love really is difficult to fully appreciate, even knowing the facts of history.
It is further stunning that the one to be “King of kings and Lord of lords” would so humble himself to a sacrificial death on behalf of others. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.. .Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it” (John 15:13; Eph. 5:25). Even though we know it to be true and remember it regularly in the memorial service, our own appreciation is seldom as full as it should be. Particularly living in a self-centered, self-indulgent society it’s difficult for us fully to empathize with such sacrificial love. Even in our domestic relationships where loving sacrifice should be easier to implement, it’s hard for us to follow the example of him who gave himself for us. The level of spirituality involved in the divine plan of salvation is simply foreign to the natural mind: “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God” (I Cor. 2:14).
Our community background may also hinder our full appreciation of what Jesus did for us. In rightly combating error, we have been forced to express that the Lord himself benefited from his sacrifice in that he, too, shares in the promises being thereby freed from the shackles of mortality. Because of our history, every time we hear emphasized what Christ has done for us, we are inclined to think, Well, he also benefited. While that is true, we must not let it diminish our appreciation for a method of salvation which originated, not with man, but with God. For such love, such sacrifice, would not be conceived in the natural mind.
The kingdom will be wonderful beyond our imagination, but let us not misquote the words of Paul. Let us read them in context and savor them as they draw to our minds the wonder of God’s way of salvation that He has now fully revealed to those who love Him.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One