Ponderings on 1 Corinthians Chapters 1 – 4 (15)

Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written,

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,

    nor the heart of man imagined,

what God has prepared for those who love him”—

these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.  (1 Corinthians 2:6 – 10, ESV).

It is easier to quote verse 9 out of context than to quote it in context. It is much easier to ponder it out of context than to ponder it in context. Out of context, standing alone, it makes a nice little verse to put on a coffee mug or on a calendar. It allows me to read it and go on with life.

But if I continue with verse 10, “these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit…” then I have a problem and a challenge. Is God revealing what He has prepared to me? Do I “see” this revelation in Scripture? Or is the word on the page dead letter? Is it lifeless? Is it nothing but information and data?

Do I “see” glimpses (or grand vistas!) of what God has prepared for those who love Him in daily life? In my relationships with others? In creation? Am I learning to “hear” life in Christ as a symphony of the words and works of God? Is the Holy Spirit tuning my soul to respond to the Master’s touch and direction?

This is not about speculation designed to puff us up or dazzle others with our pseudo knowledge of the future and the unseen, this is about beholding Christ again and again and again until we truly know “the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb” as our Temple (Rev. 21:22).

The context of 1 Corinthians Chapter 2 is the “foolishness of God” being wiser than men (1 Cor. 1:25); that our “faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God” (1 Cor. 2:5). The wisdom and philosophy of Greece was not the way of the Gospel, any more than the “works of the Law” of Judaism.

If I read 2:10 then I must ask, “How is the Holy Spirit revealing Christ to me today? As a way of life? Am I seeing Jesus revealed through both the Old and New Testaments? Is the Old Testament pulsating with images of Jesus Christ from Genesis through Malachi? (Luke 24:27, 44 – 45). Are these images building on one another and playing off one another…are they drawing me deeper and deeper into my Lord Jesus?

Am I “seeing” Him who is invisible (Hebrews 11:27)?

Have we received the Spirit who is from God? Then if we have, let us learn to know the things that are freely given to us from God (1 Cor. 2:12).

What does this look like in our lives? In the lives of our churches?

Behold My Servant (4)

Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law.

Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it:

“I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.

I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.” (Isaiah 42:1 – 9).

The Servant of Yahweh will “bring forth justice,” and again he will “faithfully bring forth justice”, and again a time will come when he will have “established justice in the earth.” How then, can we have a false dichotomy that seeks to separate the Gospel from justice?

Consider that a dimension of the Gospel is all about justice, all about the righteousness of God and the unrighteousness of man. Consider that Christ, and those who belong to Christ, have been “called in righteousness” – Christ in a righteousness of His own, the righteousness within the Trinity; those who belong to Christ called in the righteousness of Christ (2 Cor. 5:21).

Consider that Paul presents the righteousness of God and the unrighteousness of man throughout Romans chapters 1 – 8, with a particular emphasis from 1:16 – 5:11. Is it too much to say that this section of Romans is the first course of the foundation of the Gospel as it unfolds in Romans? (Perhaps Romans 1:1 – 7 is the cornerstone – the Confession).

In other words, an awareness of justification, of righteousness and unrighteousness, and of justice permeates the Gospel; it therefore should saturate our thinking and our perspectives. God’s justice should animate our lives, it should be a way of life in our Way of Life, Jesus Christ.

Justice and righteousness and equity are rooted in the Trinity, they cannot be separated from the Trinity any more than love can be separated from God the Trinity. How then, can professing Christians draw a line in their thinking and actions which says, “We will speak of righteousness and unrighteousness and justice when we preach the Gospel, but we will not cross a certain line beyond which, words and actions may be construed as a “social gospel”.

This is schizophrenic. This is against the Nature of God. This is asking a Christian to suppress the justice and righteousness of the Trinity that lives within the Church for political, social, economic, or other reasons…including faulty theological reasons.

The man or woman who has received the marvelous mercy and grace of God in Christ, the woman or man who has been to the Cross and within whom the Cross lives – that man or that woman, of all people, ought to have an overwhelming sense of justice and equity, knowing that when they were without strength Christ died for them, knowing that when they were still enemies that God reconciled them through the death of His Son, that while they were still sinners Christ died for them.

If the Trinity lives within the people of Christ, then brining forth justice is what we should find ourselves organically doing, it should be the pattern of our thought-life, it should be a desire that quickens our hearts, that enlivens our souls.

To turn our eyes away from injustice, to fail to seek justice for all, is to forget who Christ is and who we were…and who we are in Him. To fail to participate with and in our Lord Jesus Christ in bringing forth justice is to deny who Christ is and to deny our identity in Him.  

How are we responding to our calling, in Jesus Christ, to bring forth and establish justice? How are our churches responding?

Does the world see the Servant of the Yahweh working justice in and through His Body?