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

The  old  translation  is  a  bit  of  a  tongue-twister but the meaning is simple enough: God’s relationship  with  man  is  not  seen  through  the prism of  man’s  wisdom.  Why?  Because  it  was conceived in His mind, thus it is born out of His wisdom (the wisdom of God). In His wisdom, He set up a plan to save man that is contrary to the wisdom of the world (human-level wisdom).

It  pleased  God,  Paul  says:  “by  the foolishness  of  preaching.”  Actually,  the  text would be better translated: “by the foolishness of what  was  preached.”   God  thought  well  of His  scheme of redemption,  because  it  is  precisely  what  a  so-called  wise  person  would  not  have  done.  The message  of  Jesus  seems  at  first  to  be  totally contradictory:  He  preached  “peace  to  victory” when  war  is  how  men  conquer.  He  preached loving our enemies, when the wisdom of  the world said  “distrust  and  keep  them  distant.”  He condemned the covetousness and obsession with self-perseverance that seems so fundamental to human nature.

His  message—now  preached  by  His disciples—was  seen  as  “foolishness”  to  those who rejected it. Those who believed it, however, found  in  it  salvation  from  sins  and  life everlasting. Stop trying to reinvent the wheel. Stop trying to out-do God. He’s a lot wiser than we are. He developed the system of salvation.

All we need to do is humble ourselves and obey it.