The Spirit Reveals for Your Glory

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” [Is 64:4].

these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. (1 Cor 2:6-10)

I remember the joy of hiding presents for our children at Christmas. Most of the time we would buy presents a couple of weeks before and put them somewhere in the house they would not find them. We would then work late into the night on Christmas Eve wrapping and putting the presents under the tree. The smell of the Christmas tree just made it all the more wonderful. (You can tell one of my love languages is the giving and receiving of gifts.) As we wrapped the presents we experienced a joy because we were giving gifts from love and in which we knew they would be delighted (with very few exceptions). We had taken time to source the present but knew there was a specific time to give the present. (I remember one Christmas, as a child, receiving a bicycle that I had completely forgotten I had chosen months before! I was delighted! I think it was a Raleigh Chopper!) In the same way, God had a gift that remained hidden for generations. God had this wisdom-gift hidden until the right time. Paul is writing to the Church in Corinth who are obsessed with ‘wisdom’. There was a movement within the church that started to split away from the mainstream called The Gnostics. They sought to say there was a wisdom (gnosis) that only certain truly spiritual people could discern, an elite as it were. They thought they were the only ones who really knew, who were truly wise. But Paul goes on at length to explain that the gospel is so simple it becomes a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles (1 Cor1:23). This wisdom is not found in a way of thinking, but in a way of believing. Wisdom is not about knowing or amassing information, it is about knowing how to apply it. This wisdom is glorious and deeply spiritual. It cannot be discerned through natural means. It cannot be seen by physical eyes. It cannot be deduced by the most learned of scholars. This is a wisdom that is revealed. This wisdom is Jesus Christ, who has become for us the wisdom of God (1Cor1:30). It is worth reading the wisdom literature (Proverbs, Job and Ecclesiastes) through the lens of Jesus – who is ‘wisdom’. The question we need to ask ourselves is: how is this gift of wisdom revealed to us? Remember that even the Apostle Paul never met the pre-glorified Jesus. Jesus, the wisdom of God, is revealed to us by God through his Spirit: these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit (1 Cor2:10). These matters are deeply spiritual and eternally important. This gift is meant for our comfort and our good. Jesus is a gift for us from the abundantly generous character and nature of God. God reveals his generosity and also his patience. Generally, when I buy a present I want to give it straight away to enjoy the joy and the process of giving. However, here we see that this wisdom was:

• Planned outside of time - as it was hidden […] before time began.

• Dispensed within Time - we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden. The tense is important: ‘has been’. This wisdom was hidden but it is now revealed. God held back this gift until the right time. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless Christ died for the ungodly Rom 5:6)

• Of a Different Order of Reality: not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. This passage reminds us that if we had been able to ‘know’ this by normal means people would have known who Jesus was and not crucified Him. Jesus is spiritually discerned.

• Meant for Our Glory – God revealed Jesus (the wisdom of God) so we might benefit. Gordon Fee puts it like this: ‘for our glory’ is eschatological [end of all time] language, referring to the final goal of salvation, namely that God’s people should share in His own glory. Hence the crucified one is in this context also called the ‘Lord of glory’.

This is the part that excites me the most. God is sharing of His glory and giving it as it gift to us in and through Christ Jesus. This is the ultimate wisdom of God. That we might share in his glory. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us (Rom 8:17-18).

When we receive Jesus as our gift and surrender our lives to his work something amazing happens. We all, with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2Cor3:18). It is all gifted to us through Jesus and this gift is glorious and made for the process of our glorification.

We see that the wisdom of the Godhead: three-in-one, is infinitely and intimately involved in changing us into our perfect created purpose thus reflecting the Creator of all. Our glorification then brings glory back to the LORD of Glory.

All this work done in us and through us is the work of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we must surrender to this process as painful as it might be (see Eustace transformed from a dragon back to a boy by Aslan in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader).

This is the glorious work of the Spirit. I encourage you to hunger for more of this kind of work by the Spirit of God. It will only bring you good and make you glorious for His glory. This is the wisdom Paul declared and you can declare because the Spirit reveals to you by His Spirit.

Have a glorious week.

Blessings

Fraser