According to 1:24, Christ is also wisdom to us from God. Furthermore, in 1:30 Paul says, “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom to us from God: both righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” Here we see that Christ has been made wisdom to us from God as three vital matters in God’s salvation: righteousness (for our past), by which we have been justified by God so that we may be reborn in our spirit to receive the divine life; sanctification (for our present), by which we are being sanctified in our soul with His divine life; and redemption (for our future), that is, the redemption of our body (Rom. 8:23), by which we shall be transfigured in our body with His divine life to have His glorious likeness (Phil. 3:21).
Sometimes we may find ourselves forced into a “corner” by a particular situation. It seems that there is no way out. At such times we need to turn inwardly to our spirit. If we turn to our spirit, Christ will become our wisdom.
In 1 Corinthians wisdom refers to the high things of Christ—to Christ as our righteousness, sanctification, redemption, and even as everything to us. In this book wisdom, along with the deep things of God, refers to Christ. In this Epistle we see different aspects of Christ as our wisdom. To experience this wisdom is to experience Christ dispensing Himself into us.
I would encourage you to spend more time to pray-read verses such as 1:24 and 30. We need to dwell on these verses and muse upon them in order to assimilate Christ as power to us from God and also as wisdom to us from God to be our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. In our experience Christ should also be the hidden mysteries, mysteries that we cannot define but that we can experience. We need to get into the depth of the mysterious things of Christ Himself.
First Corinthians 2:9 and 10 say, “But even as it is written, Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not come up in man’s heart, how much God has prepared for those who love Him. For God has revealed them to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.” Here we see that the Spirit reveals to us the things God has prepared for us in Christ. In verse 12 Paul goes on to say that we have received the Spirit from God so that we may know the things which have been freely given to us by God.
In 2:10 we see that the things God has prepared for us are revealed to us through the Spirit. This verse tells us not that the Spirit teaches but that the Spirit reveals. To teach is related to our mind; to reveal is related to our spirit. To realize the deep and hidden things God has prepared for us, our spirit is more necessary than our mind. When our entire being becomes one with God through loving Him in intimate fellowship, He shows us, in our spirit through His Spirit, all the secrets of Christ as our portion. This is to reveal the hidden things planned by His wisdom concerning Christ, things which have never come up in man’s heart.
In God’s economy the Father plans, the Son accomplishes, and the Spirit comes to us to apply what the Father has planned and what Christ the Son has accomplished. Therefore, we cannot experience Christ as power and wisdom to us from God unless the Spirit applies Christ in our spirit. This means that if we would experience Christ, we cannot afford to stay away from the Spirit. Furthermore, we cannot separate Christ from the Spirit in our spirit, for He is the pneumatic Christ, the life-giving Spirit.
The Spirit reveals to us all that Christ is. This revealing is actually a dispensing. However, we may think that the revealing to us of the things of Christ is simply a matter of vision, a matter of the Spirit showing us something. Actually, revealing involves dispensing. If we do not have the divine dispensing, anything the Spirit reveals to us will be nothing more than doctrine to us. But when we have the divine dispensing as our enjoyment, then the revelation of the Spirit is not merely objective doctrine, but a subjective experience and enjoyment of Christ. In this way through the Spirit’s dispensing we see Christ experientially.
Suppose you are suffering in the midst of a particular situation. Instead of trying to handle the situation in an outward way, you inwardly turn to your spirit and enjoy Christ as power to you from God. At such a time you will have the sense deep within that the Triune God is dispensing Himself in Christ through the Spirit into your being.