Audio readings: Psalm 91:9-16 1 Corinthians 2:6-16 1 Chronicles 22, 1 Chronicles 23
1 CORINTHIANS 2
“When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified… My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power”. (1 Cor 2:2, 4, 5.)
Paul was always persuasive; however, he did not rely upon superior human wisdom, but on the Holy Spirit. Some of the cleverest people on the planet are atheists and remain unconvinced about their need for Christ; therefore it must be much more than human wisdom or clever argument that convinces a person to commit their lives to him. The power to change a person’s mind (also known as ‘Repentance’) and heart attitudes can only come directly from the Holy Spirit. It is God who enables repentance (2 Timothy 2:25; 2 Corinthians 7:10; Acts 11:18) and we should never presume that we can, unaided, pick and choose the time when we yield to Him. If you find yourself prompted to repent, then waste no time!
We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”—the things God has prepared for those who love him— these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. (vv 6-10).
The term ‘Mystery’ describes a deep hidden truth of key importance that God keeps hidden until the right season for it to be revealed to the world; the unique redemptive role for all mankind that Jesus as Messiah had was the ‘mystery’ that Paul refers to in these verses. Not only did it need be spiritually discerned, but by God’s design it would only be understood with hindsight (i.e. after the death and resurrection of Jesus). It was of crucial importance that its significance remained hidden beforehand, particularly from God’s enemies – both human authorities and all evil spiritual powers – since, if they had had advance understanding of what the Cross of Christ would achieve, they would have prevented His crucifixion in the first place! By God’s grace and plan, human wisdom was therefore insufficient to solve this ‘mystery’.
The above quotation from the Old Testament comes from Isaiah 64 verse 4.
However, there is certainly a place for wisdom, but not of human origin. Mature believers both need and appreciate the wisdom that God gives, day by day and minute by minute. This wisdom, including the full riches of understanding the gospel and our salvation, comes through the indwelling Spirit in each of us. That is the only way that we can know the thoughts of God’s heart and an understanding of spiritual realities – even the very vocabulary has to come from him! As we allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us and through us, we genuinely have the mind of Christ and can exercise the wisdom of God. Do we really believe this glorious truth?
“Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” is a direct quotation from Isaiah 40 verse 13.
Wisdom is all about choices (if you have no choice, you have no need for it) and we have so many options in our lifestyles these days that we need even more wisdom to handle them. Let’s ask from the One who really knows what’s best for us.
The Big Picture 