01.10. The Spirit As The Preacher Of Gods Wisdom
The Spirit As The Preacher Of God’s Wisdom
Now God has sent yet another Messenger from heaven to proclaim His wisdom to us. While 1 Corinthians 1:1-31 shows us Christ as the wisdom of God in person, 1 Corinthians 2:1-16 presents us the Spirit as the One who makes the secrets of God’s wisdom known to us. The treasures of God’s wisdom, which God has prepared for those who love Him, are now revealed by the Spirit of God. The Spirit thus continues the revelation of God’s wisdom in the Person of Christ. This is the divine order. Christ had to come first and to finish the work which God had given Him to do. Because of this He Himself was exalted at God’s right hand in heaven, whereupon the Holy Spirit was sent to this earth as the Witness of Christ’s finished work. Now the Spirit takes of that which belongs to the exalted Christ, and discloses it to us. As the Lord told His disciples: "He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you" (John 16:13-15). The Holy Spirit shows us all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that are hidden in Him. He acts like Abraham’s servant, who took a bride for Isaac and adorned her with his riches (see Genesis 24:1-67). Thus the Holy Spirit speaks of the heavenly things of which Christ Himself had already borne witness (John 3:11-16; John 3:27-36). He adorns the bride of Christ with the riches of heaven. Here in 1 Corinthians 2:1-16 these heavenly things are called, "the things which God has prepared for those who love Him" (1 Corinthians 2:9), "the deep things of God" (1 Corinthians 2:10), and "the things that have been freely given to us by God" (1 Corinthians 2:12). The Holy Spirit knows all these things perfectly. He searches them and He came to this earth especially to disclose them to us (1 Corinthians 2:9-12). So in 1 Corinthians 2:1-16 the Spirit is the Bearer of the wisdom of God. The secrets of God’s wisdom and the hidden depths of God’s heart have been revealed to us through the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:10 a). The apostle then compares this with our human spirit: only the spirit of a man himself knows his deepest thoughts. Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:10-11). But since we have received the Spirit who is from God, we also know the things that have been freely given to us by God (1 Corinthians 2:12).
Having the Spirit of God is the key to understanding the wisdom of God. We have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God. The spirit of the world gives an understanding of the wisdom of this world, but the Spirit of God teaches us what divine wisdom is. We have already mentioned the contrast between the two forms of wisdom. The world is full of the things that are not from God. An unbridgeable gap exists between the Father and the world, between divine and worldly wisdom. For all that is in the world is not of the Father, but is of the world (1 John 2:16).
It is only by the Spirit "who is from God" that we can understand the things of God. The Holy Spirit was sent to this world by the Father and the Son to tell us heavenly things, the things which God has prepared for His own. The Spirit enlightens the eyes of our understanding, that we may know these things - the depths of God’s wisdom. This is the purpose of the mission of the Spirit: to communicate to God’s children in this world which does not know God, the things that God has given us in Christ even before the world was.