1 Corinthians 1:24-25

POWER AND WISDOM

‘Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.’

1 Corinthians 1:24

Be careful that you understand those words rightly. Not only that Christ is Divine ‘power’ and Divine ‘wisdom,’ but much more than that. Christ embodies, Christ performs, Christ is God’s ‘Power’ and God’s ‘Wisdom’; and by Christ He uses the world; by Christ he guides the world; and in Christ we are to seek and find God’s ‘Power’; and in Christ we are to seek and find God’s ‘Wisdom’; for ‘He is made’ and constituted ‘the Power of God and the Wisdom of God.’

I. If the ‘Power of God’ resides in Christ, then the Power of God’ is now in One Who is in such perfect sympathy with us, and Who has done such great things for us, in His true love, that we may be quite sure that all that ‘power’ is engaged, not against us, but for us. The thought is so high, and the comfort so great, that we scarcely dare to appropriate it. ‘The Power of God’ is in me, by the simple fact that I am a Christian.

II. Who am I, to hold such a tremendous force?—How can I wield it? Therefore, let us turn to ‘The Wisdom.’ ‘Christ, the Wisdom of God.’ By God’s ‘Wisdom’ He made the heavens. What was that ‘Wisdom’? We have the answer in the opening of St. John’s Gospel: ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’ And Whom ‘the Word’ is, we are told immediately afterwards: ‘And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth.’ Therefore, ‘the Word’ is Christ.

III. But bring the thought a little more closely to yourselves.—The Bible is the Written Word—Christ is the Living Word. The Written Word would be as nothing without the Living Word. It would be as a casket without jewels. The Living Word is its life; it is dead without Christ. Therefore, what ‘Wisdom’ is in the Bible—is Christ! And it is just in proportion as you find and see Christ there, that the Bible will ‘make you wise unto salvation.’