This is the first part of a short series focusing on the riches found in Christ. I pray this series will encourage at least one dear saint. The first part of our four-part series focuses on a common theme I hear among Christians struggling to understand doctrine and theology. It is my burden that they be unburdened from anything other than dependency upon Christ, in whom are all the unsearchable riches.
1 Corinthians 1:30
But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption
If we were to scour the entirety of the Old Testament and find every little detail that points the soul to Jesus Christ and his great work of redemption on our behalf, we would find that we need several lifetimes to mine beneath the surface of understanding. It has been said of Charles Spurgeon that his preaching was so remarkable because every bit of scripture was used to point to the redeeming work of Christ. Spurgeon’s preaching has been compared to a jeweler, who holds up a diamond to the light to inspect it for quality and finds that when light hits the jewel, light is cast forth from the diamond in every direction, bathing the room in a myriad of colors and splendor. Such was the way he preached Christ, bathing his hearers in the splendor of Christ’s majesty and beauty. If Spurgeon was still alive and preaching (he would be 190 years old), there would be no danger in that light diminishing through any fault of the jewel, for the richness of Christ and the treasures that are found in Him are limitless. Paul calls the riches of Christ ‘unsearchable’ in Ephesians 3:8, not because they are unknowable, but because they are so vast that they cannot be fully explored. Truly, we should spend our lives like cave explorers, searching through the depths of the rich caverns of Christ.
When we became Christians, we knew very little of the magnitude of all that Christ is, we simply came to understand our helpless estate and desperate need of rescue. One way we know that we are maturing in Christ is that we still understand we have not arrived, but we press on toward the prize of that upward call of God in Christ Jesus. We search, we press, we pray, and we scour the pages of God’s Word, and as we do, we gain Christ. Not facts about Christ or first century life nor about moral examples to follow, we gain Christ, “who has become for us wisdom from God.”
Paul writes something more astounding than just that Christ has become wisdom for us from God; he tells us before he pens those words that, “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus.” Believer, if you have placed your faith in the person of Jesus Christ, then you are “in Him.” Paul makes that abundantly clear through his letters. Union with Christ is the bedrock of all the doctrines that Paul lays out; it is the foundation upon which the house is built. Christian, in Christ you are – and in Him is wisdom.
This is good news, Christian! Oh, how I love to meet a hungry soul eager to learn about Christ! Yet, what I often hear is, “My understanding is not where I want it to be,” or “I can’t understand the deep doctrines of the faith; I guess I’m just simple.” That is a fundamental misunderstanding of how we learn Christ or why we learn Christ. Read this carefully, “Of God you are in Him, who became for us wisdom.” Christ is our wisdom. You are in Christ. You have only but to abide in Him to be made a partaker of these treasures of wisdom. In Him you are – and in Him is wisdom.
We are to abide in Christ, the Great Revealer, Wisdom incarnate. Our job is to abide in Christ, who is ready to communicate to us knowledge from God. Do you have a desire to grow? Feast upon Christ. Do you have a desire to know Christ? Good, He has a desire to reveal.
When you abide in Jesus, God’s redeeming love, His power, and His infinite glory will – as you abide in Jesus – be revealed to us. We go wrong because we seek knowledge rather than seeking Christ. There are a thousand questions we can ask about different things in regard to our spiritual life – and these can become a burden to us, wearisome even – if we forget that we are ‘in Christ’. God has made Christ to be our wisdom. Always let our first care be to ‘abide in Him’ with an undivided heart. When the heart and life are right (rooted in Christ), knowledge will come as Christ sees fit.
Believer, abide in Jesus and expect from Him, confidently, I might add, that He will reveal whatever teaching we need. Do not think of our spiritual life as a mystery or problem we must solve – abide in Jesus. Surrender your own wisdom and depend upon Jesus for the reality of truth to be made known. Not mere facts, but the reality of truth, that is what shakes us to our core.
Consider with me that beautiful tree in the garden of Eden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree itself was not evil in nature; there was nothing wicked about it. The tree was not the source of sin; mankind was. God gave a clear mandate to Adam and Eve to abstain from its fruit in Genesis 2:17: “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Adam disobeyed God and lost the right to eat of the Tree of Life, lost the right to eternal life. But you are no longer ‘in Adam’, you are ‘in Christ’! (1 Corinthians 15:22 NKJV) You belong to the one who said, “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:54 NKJV)
Believer, your job is to abide, Christ’s job is to provide, and oh, what a provider we have. Does He not richly bless us with Himself? Is He stingy with His treasure? To draw upon Spurgeon, that Christ-centered preacher, we began with, “Oh, how richly you are fed! The flesh of God’s own Son is the spiritual food of every heir of heaven. Hungry souls, come to Jesus if you would be fed.” Go to the Word of God hungry, dear saint, and the promise is you will not leave hungry. In Him you are – and in Him is wisdom.
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