As for himself, when he came amongst them as heathens, he did not use the human wisdom of Greek philosophers in declaring to them the testimony of God. His theme was, as he described above, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. God had chosen weak vessels to confound the wise, and he was with them in weakness, and fear, and in much trembling. He thus gloried in the cross as putting an end to all power in his flesh; he rejected all enticing words of man’s wisdom as his weapon, but he spoke in demonstration of the Spirit and in power, so that their faith might not stand in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God. The Spirit of God then was his energy, and he testified of Christ the wisdom of God.
Howbeit, he spoke indeed wisdom amongst them that were perfect (that is the saints), yet not the wisdom of the world, nor of the princes of this world which come to nought. But they spoke the wisdom of God in a mystery, hidden indeed, but which God ordained for the saints’ glory before the world began. This mystery, this hidden wisdom, came into the world embodied in a Person, but none of the princes of the world knew this, else they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. Prophets might speak of these things (mentioned in ver. 7), but did not understand them, as the passage from Isaiah quoted shews:
How was it then revealed? The Person in whom it was centered was taken up into the glory, but God had sent down the Holy Ghost as the Revealer, and no one could reveal such things but Himself. This was the present portion of saints, as contrasted with what went before, when the prophets wrote. It was the dispensation of the Holy Ghost, and we required His power as the Revealer, for even with regard to a man, what man outside knows the things of a man, but the spirit of man that is in him? So of the things of God; no one outside knew anything of them, but the Spirit of God. Now the apostles and saints had received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that they might know the things that are freely given to them of God. And if they had received them, they could not but speak of them, not in the words that man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Now as to receiving these things, the natural man does not do so, for they are foolishness with him, neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned, but he that is spiritual discerneth all things, yet he himself is discerned of no man. For what natural man has ever known the mind of the Lord, that he might instruct Him? (Isa. 40:1313Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath taught him? (Isaiah 40:13)). But we, who have received the Spirit of God, have the mind of Christ.
What want we then with any other wisdom? All natural wisdom, as represented by the princes of this world, crucified the Lord of glory. God has placed Him in the glory. He is our wisdom. The Spirit sent down is the Revealer of it (ver. 10). He alone knows the mind of God. He is the Communicator of it in vessels prepared by Him, and those vessels have received it, and have written it down in Spirit taught words, by the Scriptures of the New Testament, having the mind of Christ. This is indeed a mystery, but now revealed and all ours in Christ. We have the mind of Christ. Oh, may the Lord give us understanding hearts, to take in this, that the cross shuts out all human power and wisdom, as well as everything else of man, and that in Christ revealed by the Spirit is centered all the wisdom of which God is the source. It is the wisdom of God. God is the source of it (ver. 7). Christ is the center of it (ch. 1:30), and the Holy Ghost the Revealer, communicating it in Spirit-taught words (ch. 2:10-13). This is Christianity as opposed to human wisdom and schools of thought. Thus God’s wisdom is to be found alone in Christ and the church. Human wisdom is outside both.