Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 1:2, 23-24, 30; Rom. 6:6, 19, 22; Eph. 1:9, 11; 3:11
Ⅰ
Before mentioning Christ as the power of God and the wisdom of God in 1 Corinthians 1:24 Paul, in verse 23, declares, “We preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness”:
A
This indicates that the Christ who is the power of God and the wisdom of God for the carrying out of God’s economy is the crucified Christ, a Christ who did not do anything to save Himself— v. 24.
B
In man’s eyes, if a person is crucified, he is deemed powerless, because a powerful person would not allow himself to be crucified; nevertheless, the Christ who is the power of God was crucified.
C
Furthermore, from the human perspective, a wise person would find ways to avoid crucifixion, yet the Christ who is the wisdom of God was crucified—Gal. 2:20.
D
The crucified Christ is the power of God—1 Cor. 1:24:
１
In the cross of Christ we see God’s power.
２
It takes the power of God to defeat Satan, the world,sin, fallen man, the flesh, the natural life, the old creation, and the ordinances.
３
The death of Christ—His crucifixion—has become the power of God—v. 24.
E
The crucified Christ is the wisdom of God—2:7:
１
In order to accomplish anything, we need Christ as both power and wisdom—1:24.
２
Wisdom is for planning and purposing, whereas power is for carrying out and accomplishing what is planned and purposed.
３
When we experience the crucified Christ, He becomes to us not only the power of God but also the wisdom of God—Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20.
４
The crucified Christ as God’s wisdom is related to God’s deep and profound plan according to His good pleasure and also according to God’s way to fulfill His will—Eph. 1:9, 11; 3:11:
ａ
Since we have the crucified Christ as God’s wisdom, there is no need for us to seek a way to carry out God’s will.
ｂ
Simply by experiencing the crucified Christ, we spontaneously have a way to do God’s will.
ｃ
We become very wise in doing the will of God—Col. 1:9; 4:12.
ｄ
As long as we experience the crucified Christ, Christ will become to us God’s wisdom to fulfill His plan; we will have the wisdom of God to do His will—1:9.
F
When we experience the crucified Christ, we are terminated— Gal. 2:20:
１
All that we are, all that we have, and all that we can do—all is completely terminated.
２
When we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, as we are experiencing and enjoying Him, His crucifixion will terminate us.
３
Christ crucified is not only the power but also the way for us to be delivered from the flesh, the natural life, and the old creation.
Ⅱ
As those who are called by God, we need to know and experience Christ’s power and wisdom—1 Cor. 1:24:
A
First Corinthians 1:2 mentions “the called saints”:
１
The believers in Christ are called saints, not called to be saints; this is a positional matter, a sanctification in position with a view to sanctification indisposition.
２
To call upon the name of the Lord implies to believe into Him—Rom. 10:14.
３
All the believers in the Lord should be callers—Acts 9:14, 21; 22:16.
４
We have been called to call, called by God to call upon the name of the Lord.
５
To those called by God, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
B
Those who are called (1 Cor. 1:24) refers to the believers who were chosen by God in eternity (Eph. 1:4) and who believed in Christ in time (Acts 13:48).
C
To those who believe in Christ and call upon His name, He is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
D
Christ crucified is the power of God for saving us and the wisdom of God for fulfilling His plan:
１
Power is the ability, and wisdom is the way.
２
Christ is first our power, and then He is our wisdom, that is, our way.
３
Christ is the power of God to carry out God’s economy, and He is also the wisdom of God, the way of God, to carry out God’s economy.
E
Christ as the power of God strengthens us with a dynamic power, supplying and sustaining us in what we are and what we do:
１
In all our circumstances and conditions, Christ as the power of God enables us to suffer, to bear burdens, and to stand firm.
２
He also sustains us to the point of being unshakable; for this reason, Paul declares, “I am able to do all things in Him who empowers me”—Phil. 4:13.
３
Christ as the power of God is daily supplying and sustaining us through His divine dispensing.
F
Christ as the wisdom of God flows unceasingly from God to us to be our present and practical wisdom in our experience—1 Cor. 1:24.
Ⅲ
“Of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom to us from God: both righteousness and sanctification and redemption”—v. 30:
A
In this verse Paul does not say that Christ became our wisdom; instead, he says that Christ became wisdom “to us from God”:
１
The expression to us from God indicates something present, practical, experiential, and ongoing in the way of transmission.
２
For Christ to become wisdom to us from God indicates that there is the transmission of Christ as wisdom from God to us for our daily experience.
３
We need Christ continually as wisdom to us from God.
B
Christ became wisdom to us from God as three vital things in God’s salvation:
１
He is our righteousness (for our past), by which we have been justified by God, that we might be reborn in our spirit to receive the divine life—Rom. 5:18.
２
He is our sanctification (for our present), by which we are being sanctified in our soul, that is, transformed in our mind, emotion, and will, with His divine life—6:19, 22.
３
He is our redemption (for our future), that is, the redemption of our body (8:23), by which we will be transfigured in our body with His divine life to have His glorious likeness (Phil. 3:21).
４
It is of God that we participate in such a complete and perfect salvation, which makes our entire being—spirit, soul, and body—organically one with Christ and makes Christ everything to us.
５
This is altogether of God, not of ourselves, that we may boast and glory in Him, not in ourselves—Eph. 3:20-21.