In 1 Corinthians 1:30 Paul says that Christ “became wisdom to us from God.” Paul does not say that Christ is wisdom to us; he says that Christ became wisdom to us. This indicates that at one time Christ was not wisdom to us but that later He became wisdom to us. Christ could not become wisdom to us before we were in Him. But when we believed in Christ, God put us into Him, and then Christ became wisdom to us.
In 1 Corinthians 1:30 Paul does not say that Christ became our wisdom; he says that Christ became wisdom to us. For Christ to become wisdom to us from God indicates that there is a transmission of Christ as wisdom from God to us for our daily experience. Paul composed verse 30 in the way he did in order to indicate to the believers that Christ should continually become wisdom to us from God. Christ as wisdom should unceasingly flow from God to us to be our present and practical wisdom in our experience. As we face certain problems and realize that we do not know how to handle them, we should apply Christ as our wisdom. If we remain with the Lord to receive His dispensing, He will be transmitted into us as the wisdom to handle various problems and matters. This is to apply Christ as wisdom in our daily life.
Wisdom may be understood as the way to do things. If we have wisdom, we shall know the proper way to do things. But if we are not wise, our way of doing things will be foolish. In order to have the best way to do things in our daily life, we must have wisdom. Christ as wisdom to the believers is actually the divine way. Hence, wisdom in 1 Corinthians 1:30 is equal to the way in John 14:6, a verse where the Lord Jesus says, “I am the way.” God’s way is His wisdom. If we enjoy His Christ and participate in Him, we shall have Him as our wisdom, as our way. How do we receive the wisdom we need? This wisdom comes from our enjoyment of Christ. Day by day and hour by hour we should live in the spirit and exercise the spirit to call on the name of the Lord Jesus. If we do this, we shall enjoy Christ and have Him as our wisdom, as our way of doing things. This is Christ as wisdom to the believers.
First Corinthians 1:30 indicates that Christ is our righteousness. Christ is the righteousness by which we have been justified by God so that we may be reborn in our spirit to receive the divine life.
Some of us may think that we have the righteousness of Christ. This is not correct. Our righteousness is not the righteousness of Christ; it is Christ Himself. Instead of saying that the righteousness of Christ has become our righteousness, we should say that Christ Himself has become our righteousness. God has made Christ, the embodiment of God Himself, our righteousness.
Christ is both our objective and subjective righteousness. As our objective righteousness, Christ is the One in whom we are justified by God. Justification is God’s action in approving us according to the standard of His righteousness. In Christ as our objective righteousness before God we are justified, approved, by Him.
As our subjective righteousness, Christ is the One dwelling in us to live for us a life that can be justified by God and that is always acceptable to God. When we live this Christ and express Him, He becomes our daily righteousness. Actually, Christ as our subjective righteousness is our life; He is the One whom we live and express as righteousness. This is the surpassing righteousness mentioned in Matthew 5:20. Therefore, objective righteousness is the Christ we received when we believed in Him in order to be justified before God (Rom. 3:26). Subjective righteousness is the indwelling Christ lived out of us as our righteousness in our daily living. As believers we need not only to receive Christ as our righteousness objectively but also to live Him as righteousness subjectively. In Christ, who is our righteousness, we have been justified and saved. But after receiving Christ we need to live Him so that He may become our subjective righteousness. This subjective righteousness is Christ lived out of us in our daily life.
Christ as our righteousness is for the believers’ enjoyment. Whenever we enjoy Christ and experience Him, we have Him as our righteousness not only objectively but also subjectively. This means that when we exercise our spirit to contact Him, we become righteous. The more we contact Him and enjoy Him, the more righteous we become in Him. Eventually, by having Christ wrought into us the believers become the very righteousness of God in Christ.
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