glorycloud's Diaryland Diary

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God is made unto us wisdom

"It is important to note that believers possess everything in union with Christ not merely privately but collectively. They are joined to Christ the Head as members of his body. Union with Christ is a personal soteriological principle, but it is also a communal soteriological principle. When I am joined to Christ, I am joined to all others who are joined to him.

Christ gives many benefits to those who are united to him by grace. Paul mentions four benefits, but they are not coordinate, rather, the latter three unpack the first. Christ "became to us wisdom of God," that is, "righteousness and sanctification and redemption" (1 Cor. 1:30). This wisdom clashes with the wisdom that the Corinthians prized-cultured rhetorical persuasion. Against this Paul has lauded the "folly" of God's wisdom, centered in preaching about Christ crucified. By God's grace the message of Jesus's crucifixion with its "weakness" and "folly" was shown to be actually a message of power and wisdom. C. K. Barrett's words are apt: "True wisdom is not to be found in eloquence, or in gnostic speculation about the being of God; it is found in God's plan for the redemption of the world, which, for all its own wisdom, had fallen away from God, a plan that was put into operation through the cross."

This same Christ, now risen and glorified, gives a salvation expressed in different pictures. The wisdom he became for our advantage includes righteousness, holiness, and redemption. Though these characterize the risen Christ, the thrust of Paul's message is that he imparts them to those united to him by faith. He gives righteousness, a forensic term that speaks of our acquittal before the bar of God's judgment, now and in the last judgment. He gives holiness, a moral term that speaks of God's having constituted us saints once and for all, of our gradual growth in purity, and our final presentation before God as spotless. He gives redemption, a term from the slave market that speaks of our deliverance from the bondage of sin by the payment of a ransom price, the blood or violet death of the Son of God. The wisdom that Christ became for us, then, is both theological and ethical. It has to do with God's truth in the gospel applied to life. In this verse Paul thereby previews much that he attempts to accomplish in this epistle. . ." pg. 91,92 Robert A. Peterson "Salvation Applied By The Spirit: Union with Christ"

"[26] For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
[27] 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;
[28] 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:
[29] That no flesh should glory in his presence.
[30] But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
[31] That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." 1 Corinth. 1:26-31

11:07 a.m. - 2015-01-19

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