How Christ Becomes Wisdom to Us from God as Righteousness, Sanctification and Redemption

Have you ever felt short of wisdom to live your human life? I know I have.  Whether in our personal life, marriage life, family life or professional life, we often sense a lack.

But as believers, the Bible brings us the good news that “Christ became wisdom to us from God.” But how can Christ become wisdom to us in our daily?

Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 1:30,

“But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, Who became wisdom to us from God: both righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”

From this verse let’s consider how we can experience Christ as wisdom in three practical steps…

How Christ Becomes Wisdom to Us from God

Wisdom is our way—the freeway in our Christian life 

I believe most Christians are familiar with John 14:6 where Jesus says, “I am the way…” But I doubt that many of us have linked Christ as our way, to Him being wisdom to us in our Christian life today.

In the Life-study of 1 Corinthians, Witness Lee made this profound statement that touched me very much:

“Righteousness, sanctification, and redemption are the materials used in the construction of the freeway in our Christian life. Have you ever realized that wisdom is our way, our freeway, and that righteousness, sanctification, and redemption are the materials used in making this freeway? This is very true to our Christian experience.” (p. 117)

Righteousness, sanctification, and redemption are the materials used in making this freeway

 God’s wisdom, as the freeway for our Christian life, includes three materials—righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

How Christ becomes wisdom to us as righteousness

 Most of the time when problems arise in our daily life it’s because of our reactions to our environment—to something our spouse, children, fellow believers or others, have said or done.

Their actions may have been wrong, but our reactions were just as harmful and often worse. We have to confess, we’re not right or righteous in our dealings with others.

But when, instead of reacting, we call on the Lord Jesus first, He becomes wisdom to us as righteousness. We’re enlightened to see we’re the one who is really wrong.

We condemn ourselves first, not the other party. We realize that our reaction is wrong and confess it to the Lord. In this way we experience Christ becoming wisdom to us as righteousness in relation to our spouse, children, or fellow believers.

Instead of arguing or getting angry, we become very calm. We enjoy fellowship with the Lord and then–instead of reacting–we respond to the other party according to the Lord in our spirit. This preserves the harmony in our marriage life, family life or church life.

How Christ becomes wisdom to us as sanctification

 When we react to others in anger—especially to our spouse or children, we become very common. We’re not much different from unbelievers—accusing others while excusing ourselves. We point out others short comings and appraise our own successes.

But from experience this kind of attitude is not wise.  We become like Job’s friends, wasting worthless words. But if instead, we call on the Lord Jesus first, we not only become righteous, but we’re also sanctified. We’re kept from being a common arguing spouse or parent.

We express Christ, and even impart Christ to others in a calm way. The more we exercise our spirit to call on the Lord Jesus, the more He becomes in us a response that is sanctified toward every situation.

I’m still learning this lesson, that is, to stop, turn to the Lord Jesus and call on Him first. Then His word of wisdom to us at that moment might be, “Don’t say or do anything now. Just pray.” As we listen, we’re being sanctified–saturated with Christ as our wisdom.

Easy to say, but not easy to practice. This requires a life-time of learning.

How Christ becomes wisdom to us as redemption

 Redemption includes mainly three things: being brought back to God, being terminated, and being replaced by Christ. Whenever, we react to our environment—becoming offended or losing our temper, we’re far off from God.

But when we stop to call on the Lord Jesus, enjoying Him as our righteousness and sanctification, we’re spontaneously brought back to God. We’re terminated, that is, our old, offended self is on the cross with Christ. Then He becomes our real replacement—the proper husband, wife, parent or co-worker.

I need this. How about you?

I invite you to join me in this life-long learning in the experience of Christ as wisdom.

By experiencing Christ becoming wisdom to us as righteousness, sanctification and redemption, we’ll have the materials for the freeway of our Christian life. We’ll have Christ as our divine way, enjoy Him as the solutions to our problems, and grow up into Him to be the church He desires.

If you’ve been helped by this post, please take a moment to leave a confirming comment.

References and Further Reading:

This post was inspired by messages 9 and 13 in the Life-study of 1 Corinthians, by Witness Lee.

Here is a hymn that strengthens the points in this post:

O God, in Christ all focused is Thy wisdom with Thy grace and click here to view the lyrics.