Some Christians, after just a few years of church attendance, reach the summit of spiritual understanding. Other Christians think they climb to that summit with just a few months of Bible study. After that point, there is nothing else for them to learn. At that saturation point, like rain-soaked soil, nothing else important can enter their minds. For those who are preachers, once they are ordained, or after they have been called to a sufficiently large church, there is nothing for them to learn. After all, they most likely have received one or two theological degrees from this or that seminary. Don’t criticize this man’s ministry or his knowledge of the Word of God. I have seen humble saints kicked out of churches because they dared to question the pastor’s intellectual attainments.
Not so with Pastor Paul. That man first studied Christ and the Word of God while in Damascus, Tarsus and Sinai. He was not a disciple sitting at the feet of other disciples; he sat at the feet of Christ Himself. He was taught by the Holy Spirit of God. He preached Christ in Damascus, Tarsus, Antioch, Cyprus, Asia, Macedonia and Greece. Yet after all his previous study and experience, he went to Athens and learned a few new lessons. In talking to intellectually elite and philosophically erudite, he saw things he’d not recognized before. For example, he learned that no one can out-wit either a dim-wit or nit-wit, especially if he possessed a PhD or a Doctor of Theology degree. No one can educate a mental feather-weight or a spiritual dead-weight. It is impossible to edify a dragon-fly or the spiritually stupefied.
Athens was one of the cultural and educational capitals of the Roman Empire, with the other being Alexandria. I don’t know that Paul expected to be well-received in Athens, but he certainly was not. Acts 17:1 – “Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you…. In him we live, and move, and have our being…. The times of (your) ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them. After these things Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth.” By the time he had walked the 51 miles between the two cities, the lesson had been firmly implanted. “And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”
The scripture immediately preceding that statement in I Corinthians 2 is one of the most pregnant pair of verses in all the Bible. “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” If you like, you might think of this as the summary of the value of Christ to each of His saints. This is better than to own your own gold mine. This is instant access to the knowledge of the greatest library in all the world. We could preach a dozen sermons from this single text. The majority would apply first to salvation, but that would be just the beginning. Out of those potential lessons, let’s just briefly touch on one – Christ Jesus is our WISDOM.
But first, what is Wisdom?
Here are some of the items that come from one of my books of quotations – Wisdom is the realization that you aren’t as wise today as you thought you were yesterday. Committing a truth to memory equals knowledge; committing it to life is wisdom. Wisdom is the right use – or the right application – of knowledge. Wisdom is to know what is best worth knowing and to do what is best worth doing. Wisdom is to the mind and soul what health is to the body.
Statements like these may be interesting and even fun, but they are not as important as what God says. “Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom.” “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.” “Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.” “The fear of The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.” Christ said, “Whosoever heareth these sayins of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man.”
If these are the criteria – if these are the standards of wisdom, then there is much false wisdom in this Christ-rejecting world. The “wisdom” of the intellectual was the fire upon which Paul had just burned his hand there in Athens. “For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 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. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, 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. For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence.”
There is useless knowledge – like statistics in sports. And then there is corrupted and pretended knowledge, like statements made about evolution and geology. To know the breeding habits of Ruby-throated hummingbirds, is as closely related to wisdom as digging holes in the sand on a beach with the tide coming in. There are false knowledge, useless knowledge and misused knowledge – all unrelated to wisdom.
Consider this – who is thought to be the wisest man in the Bible? Solomon, of course. “There came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all kings of the earth, which had heard of his wisdom” – I Kings 4:34. “And Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt.” I am certainly not going to disagree with the Bible, but I also think easy prove that sometimes he was one most lame-brained men in Bible. His knowledge and even his wisdom excelled in some areas, but at times he lacked spiritual wisdom. Just as no one is truly wise who is not a Christian, no one is truly wise who lives in sin, and Solomon was an expert in sin.
In contrast to Solomon, there is the person of our Saviour. The Lord Jesus told us on a couple of occasions gave us permission to compare Him to Solomon. And each of those scriptures conclude with the words – “Behold a Greater than Solomon is here.” But, it is both correct and inaccurate to say that “Christ was a wise man.” And here is the great difference – Christ Jesus was never meant to be our teacher – the one to pass wisdom on to the intellectually ignorant. No! As Paul says, Christ has been made unto us Wisdom itself.
In what way is the Lord Jesus the wisdom of the child of God?
Gill, taking a small step back, said that Jesus is our wisdom EFFICIENTLY as the author and cause of wisdom. But He is also our wisdom OBJECTIVELY, as the very pinnacle of Truth. Only as a person grows in and into Christ is that person truly wise.
Again, taking a backward step, Spurgeon said that Jesus is our wisdom; in His INSTRUCTION. If anyone learns what Christ taught, that man is wise, no matter what else he has never learned. If he knows John chapter 10 but can’t read the dial of a watch, or tie his shoes, he is still a wise man. Also, Christ is our wisdom in His EXAMPLE. He who lives in meekness and humility, as Christ was humble and meek, that man is wise. He who loves and helps his brother, his neighbor and his enemy is a wise man. And Christ is our wisdom in His PRESENCE, because “Christ in you is the hope of glory.”
A relative was exasperated at a young Christian man, who was leaving university for Bible school. “You have been brain-washed by those Baptists,” he shouted. “Yes, Uncle John, I have been saved by God’s grace – redeemed and sanctified. Now Christ is my only wisdom, and I am determined not to know anything except Christ.” How is Christ our wisdom? Another idea is: He has anointed us with His Holy Spirit and He is now our guide into all truth. “When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak.”
What is wisdom? To repeat myself before moving on – Spurgeon said, “Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know anything, or even all things, is not necessarily to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool.” But the problem is that such a fool doesn’t know that he is a fool. And yet – “to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.”
Spurgeon would be the first to say “Christ has been made unto us wisdom.” That is – the application of Christ to a person’s life is wisdom. Or more precisely – an understanding of our standing before the Lord is a step toward wisdom. “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.” And then there is the application of Christ’s redemption, understood by faith. And then comes the imputation of Christ’s righteousness – “justification.” And there is also God’s application of Christ’s sanctification.
So wisdom might be described as the right application of knowledge. But we aren’t talking about just any kind of knowledge – but the knowledge of Christ. Knowledge is the parent of love, wisdom is love itself. Knowledge of Christ is wonderful and important, but the application of Christ is everything. Millions of people think they understand the life of Christ, or they know the gospel. But they are not “IN Christ Jesus.” “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” Each and everyone of us need to be like Aaron at his anointing. We need Christ and His Spirit poured all over us; in our hair, in our beard, and dripping off clothing. We need Christ inhaled and ingested.
Who was the most notable Samaritan in history, even before the “Good” Samaritan? The Samaritans were not a part of ancient history, so don’t look for them early in the Old Testament. Perhaps the most notable Samaritan was the woman from whom the Saviour asked a drink of water. That lady had a reasonably good religious education, but it was confined to her limited background. She was filled with questions, but they were not as ignorant and insipid as the peoples of Jerusalem. The woman’s questions had been growing in her heart all her life. As this Jewish “prophet” sat before her at the edge of the well, she just kept pumping Him with questions. Question after question kept floating to the top of her heart like foam at the foot of a waterfall. But then all of a sudden they abruptly ceased. When was that? When she simply perceived, believed and received the Christ. “He of God, was made unto her wisdom, and righteous, and sanctification and redemption.”
We make a terrible mistake by placing more emphasis on the details of scripture than we do upon the Lord of the scriptures. It doesn’t matter in what part of the Bible you might be an expert – Prophesy, History, Theology, Legality. If you don’t know Christ well, you are not wise. Wisdom is the right use, the right application of the right knowledge. The better that you know Christ the more truly wise you really are.
But how does Christ become our wisdom?
Paul rightly says that He was “made of God” unto us – wisdom. It was part of the eternal counsel and foreknowledge of God that Christ become our wisdom. If it is God’s will that you be redeemed and righteous, then it is His will that you be wise – in Christ. Some people think that Christ’s schools makes us wise – Bible schools and seminaries. History and facts prove that seminaries produce more fools than wise men. Others think that Christ’s church makes people wise. Some listen to radio preachers and TV evangelists, thinking that wisdom will seep into their brains by media osmosis. No, Christ has been made of God unto us true wisdom. God in nature is God over us and above us. God in providence is God beyond us or sometimes beside us. God in the law is God against us. God in the gospel is God for us. But God in Christ is wisdom for the child of God.
In addition to Christ being made unto us wisdom, God has brought His saints into Christ. “But of him are ye IN Christ.” If the Lord had not been working at both ends, as the Saviour and on the Sinner, there would be no hope for any of us. Despite our education and our science, we’d all die spiritual Neanderthals.
I once read of a young naval officer, who was completing his first tour duty. The young man had shown great understanding of the working of his ship and his men. So he was given the opportunity to display his capabilities at getting ship underway. With a stream commands, he had the decks buzzing with men. Quickly the ship was steaming away from the dock. His efficiency established a new record for getting that destroyer out of port. He was expecting a commendation. So he wasn’t surprised to see a seaman approach with a message from the captain. But he found that it was not an invitation to the captain’s cabin, but a radio message,. It read: “My personal congratulations upon completing your underway preparation exercise according to the book and with amazing speed. In your haste, however, you have overlooked one of the unwritten rules: Make sure the captain is aboard before getting under way.”
You are a well-educated person. You make wise choices day after day, about dozens of things. You have helped to educate others, and guided others in their decision-making process. But I ask you this morning, “Is the Captain on board your life?” If you are not a child of God by faith in Christ Jesus…. If you have not been born again by the Spirit of Christ… Then you know nothing of true wisdom. As Christ Jesus said, “Ye must be born again!” You must repent before God and put your faith in the vicarious sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary.