Wisdom Incarnate: Christ as Divine Wisdom
This study explores Christ as the incarnation of divine wisdom, examining how God's wisdom differs radically from worldly understanding and delving into the profound doctrine of the incarnation.
The Foundation of Incarnational Wisdom
The study of Christ as wisdom incarnate inevitably leads us to examine the doctrine of the incarnation itself. (Wisdom Incarnate: 1-19-25, 03:00) As we seek to understand how Christ embodies God's wisdom, we cannot ignore that He is fully Divine and fully human. This truth forms the bedrock of our faith and shapes how we understand divine wisdom.
The Creeds and Christ's Two Natures
The historic creeds provide essential guidance for understanding Christ's dual nature. (Wisdom Incarnate: 1-19-25, 05:00) The Athanasian Creed declares: "Therefore it is the right faith that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ the son of God is at the same time both God and man." This confession is fundamental to seeking God's wisdom - if we try to take away one of Christ's natures or lessen either one, we are no longer talking about the second person of the Trinity.
(Wisdom Incarnate: 1-19-25, 06:00) The Creed continues: "He is God begotten from the substance of the father before all ages... he is man born from the substance of his mother in this age." Christ exists before time itself, yet at the appointed time, He was brought forth in creation through Mary. He is "fully man fully God... although he is God and man he is not two but one Christ."
The Nicene Creed similarly confesses: "God from God light from light true God from true God begotten not made... of the same Essence as the father." (Wisdom Incarnate: 1-19-25, 09:20) These creeds were written in response to heresies that consistently tried to make Christ something other than the second person of the Trinity, fully God and fully man.
The Limits of Human Understanding
(Wisdom Incarnate: 1-19-25, 11:00) While the church fathers provided steadfast confessions of the incarnate Christ, this doesn't mean we fully grasp or understand this mystery. The Athanasian Creed wisely states that whoever desires to be saved "must above all hold the Catholic faith" - it doesn't say we must understand every nuance, because we don't and we can't.
Job's response to God illustrates our proper posture before divine mystery: Job 40:3-5 - "See I am a small account what shall I answer you I lay my hand on my mouth I have spoken once and I will not answer twice but will proceed no further." (Wisdom Incarnate: 1-19-25, 12:15) Job realizes he's been sticking his nose into something he doesn't understand. God is so far beyond what we could ever understand that what He reveals to us, we praise Him for revealing.
Beginning with Fear of the Lord
True wisdom begins with proper reverence. Proverbs 9:10 declares: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight." (Wisdom Incarnate: 1-19-25, 18:20) When we step back and consider the Creator and maker of all things - everything that ever was, ever is, and ever will be - and how everything is held together in Him and through Him, our minds simply cannot comprehend it.
(Wisdom Incarnate: 1-19-25, 19:30) We fear the Lord because He is greater, awesome, and powerful in wisdom beyond what we can wrap our brains around. This reverent fear and awe before the Lord is the beginning of wisdom - that's our starting place. When we are so sure of our own ideas and thoughts, we are not wise and not even ready to begin being wise. But when we come to the Lord and say "help" - teach me Your ways - that fear of the Lord, honoring and revering Him, becomes the beginning of wisdom.
God's Counterintuitive Wisdom
1 Corinthians 2:6-12 reveals how God's wisdom differs from worldly understanding. (Wisdom Incarnate: 1-19-25, 25:00) Paul writes from the perspective of one "who once was blind who does now see who was wise in the ways of the world and who is now wise in the way of God."
"Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom though it is not a wisdom of this age... but we speak God's wisdom... none of the rulers of this age understood this for if they had they would not have crucified the Lord Of Glory." (Wisdom Incarnate: 1-19-25, 25:30) God reveals truth to us through His Spirit, for "no one comprehends what is truly God's except the spirit of God."
The Cross as Divine Love
(Wisdom Incarnate: 1-19-25, 28:00) The cross expresses God's passion for human beings and all creation. This kind of love between creator and creatures is "not only unpredictable to human reason but entirely unthinkable." Divine wisdom does something that appears foolish - it's an extreme expression of identification between God and suffering creation.
The Passion of Christ represents God's intimate love that took Him to the cross. (Wisdom Incarnate: 1-19-25, 29:00) It's God's intimate love for His creation that He endured the most humiliating execution. The passion that Christ has for you is so intimate and deep that it becomes a beautiful and extreme expression of His love for us.
How God Differs from Us
Psalm 103:8-12 reveals God's character: "The Lord is merciful and gracious slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love... he will not always accuse nor will he keep his anger forever... he does not deal with us according to our sins nor repay us according to our iniquities." (Wisdom Incarnate: 1-19-25, 31:00)
Unlike human relationships built on grudges and tit-for-tat exchanges, God operates counterintuitively. When we confess our sins and hear "you are forgiven," it's done - it's over. Our sin is no more because Christ has taken it upon Himself. "As far as the East is from the West so so far he removes our transgressions from us."
Christ Revealed in Scripture
Isaiah 53:4-6 prophetically reveals the suffering servant: "Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases... he was wounded for our transgressions crushed for our iniquities upon him was the punishment that made us whole and by his bruises we are healed." (Wisdom Incarnate: 1-19-25, 35:30)
This passage is so clearly messianic that it's often avoided in synagogue readings because it points unmistakably to Jesus as the promised Savior.
Practical Application
Like the psalmist in Psalm 86:10-11, we pray: "For you are great and do wondrous things you alone are God teach me your way oh Lord that I may walk in your truth give me an undivided heart to Revere your name." (Wisdom Incarnate: 1-19-25, 14:30)
And with Psalm 131:1-2: "Oh Lord my heart is not lifted up my eyes are not raised too high I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me but I have calmed and quieted my soul like a weaned child with its mother." (Wisdom Incarnate: 1-19-25, 16:20)
When we seek after what the Lord will reveal to us, we can be still, rest, and be at peace, knowing that what we are supposed to know, we know - and what we are to know, God will tell us and show us through Christ, who is wisdom incarnate.