The secret hidden wisdom

Today we begin to take a look at what I call God's secret hidden wisdom - through which alone we can comprehend all that has been made ours through our identification with Jesus. This is really one of my favorite themes in the New Testament, because before God revealed Himself to me I was a professional philosopher and I was seeking after the very thing that Paul speaks about here - the wisdom of this world. It is precisely that - philosophy. I was searching for wisdom but I never found that hidden wisdom of God, until God completely changed me; until I became a new creation in Jesus Christ. Then the door was opened up for me to search out this hidden wisdom.

This is what Paul says now in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 4-10:

“My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with the demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.”

Paul didn't use long complicated, sophisticated intellectual phrases that only a few people could claim to understand. I remember reading once in the German philosopher, Emmanuel Kant; there was one sentence of his that extended for more than two pages without a period. How many of you would like to study that? Aren't you glad that God didn't put His wisdom in that form? However, Paul goes on to say in verse 6:

“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.”

It's a different kind of wisdom that relates to ruling - that's the theme of this wisdom, but it's not understood by the rulers of this present age. Then Paul describes this wisdom:

“No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.”

Notice, it's a secret wisdom, it's a hidden wisdom, but there's a special purpose to this wisdom. God destined it for our glory. That's a breathtaking phrase. Paul goes on a little further:

“However, as it is written: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him" - but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.’”

The natural senses of man cannot appreciate this wisdom; his natural reasoning cannot attain to this wisdom; all that is excluded. But there is another way to attain to this wisdom - God has revealed it to us by His Holy Spirit. And then Paul concludes:

“The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.” (NIV)