In 1 Corinthians 1:30 Paul says not only that God has put us into Christ, but that Christ has become “wisdom to us from God: both righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” We need to pay careful attention to Paul’s expression. Paul does not say that Christ was given to us as wisdom. Instead, he says that Christ became wisdom to us from God.
Once again, we may use electricity as an illustration. Electricity is not merely given from the power plant. Actually, electricity is continually transmitted from the power plant to a building. The electricity flows from the power plant to the building. There is a continual transmission of electricity.
In a similar way, God does not merely give us Christ as our wisdom once for all. On the contrary, God has caused Christ to become wisdom to us. This means that, as electricity is transmitted from the power plant to a building, so Christ is continually transmitted into us from God to be our wisdom.
In order for a particular building to receive the transmission of electricity from the power plant, the building must maintain its connection to the power plant. If this connection is broken, the transmission of electricity will cease. Electricity is not given by the power plant to the building; it is continually transmitted from the power plant to the building. Therefore, there is the need for a continual attachment in order to have the continual flowing of the current of electricity. We need to see in this illustration that the electricity does not stay in the building. Rather, the electricity continually flows into the building.
In a similar way, Christ is not merely given to us as wisdom once for all. Rather, He is continually transmitted into us to be our wisdom. In order to receive this continual transmission of Christ as wisdom, we need to keep ourselves attached to Him.
Strictly speaking, what we have in 1 Corinthians 1:30 is not the giving of Christ as wisdom. What we have here is the dispensing of Christ as wisdom into us. As the dispensing of electricity should be a continual matter, so the dispensing of Christ as wisdom should be also a continual matter. Now we can understand what Paul means when he says that Christ has become wisdom to us from God.
In 1 Corinthians 1:30 we see that Christ also becomes our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. We have seen that Christ was 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 that we may be reborn in our spirit to receive the divine life; sanctification for the present, by which we are being sanctified in our soul, that is, transformed in our mind, emotion, and will, with the divine life; and redemption for the future, that is, the redemption of our body (Rom. 8:23), by which we shall be transfigured in our body with the divine life to have the Lord’s glorious likeness (Phil. 3:21). It is of God that we participate in such a complete and perfect salvation. In this salvation our entire being—spirit, soul, and body—becomes organically one with Christ, and Christ becomes everything to us. This is altogether of God, not of ourselves, that we may boast and glory in Him.
We should not regard the righteousness, sanctification, and redemption spoken of in 1 Corinthians 1:30 simply as objective matters. Actually, as our wisdom Christ is being transmitted into us to become our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. The very elements of righteousness, sanctification, and redemption are being transmitted into us in a subjective way.
A divine transmission is taking place from the heavenly power plant into our being. As the result of this transmission, Christ becomes to us a living and subjective righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Contrary to what we may have been taught in the past, there is no need for us to reckon Christ to be our righteousness. Righteousness here is not a matter of reckoning; it is a matter of transmission. Christ is being transmitted into us as our living righteousness and also as our living sanctification and redemption. This transmission is a matter of the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity.
In chapter one of 1 Corinthians we have some crucial matters. We have the enjoyment of Christ, we have Christ as the sphere and element into which we have been placed by God, we have Christ becoming wisdom to us from God, and we have Christ being transmitted into us to be our living righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.