The search for wisdom continues to be among humanity’s chief pursuits. Yet, what is wisdom? In the words of David Penchansky, “. . . God embedded knowledge in the structure of things. The wise person observes discerned patterns, which he or she extrapolates into principles. The wise ones live according to these principles.”[1] In this sense, to be wise is to live in harmony with God’s design in creation. When bringing into light God’s motivation behind His act of creation, which is love (Eph 1:3-6), wisdom may be understood as the means for a person to live his most blessed life, especially in relationship to God. Yet in the Apostle Paul’s writings, wisdom takes on an even more precise meaning. To Paul, it is the very person of Christ, put on display by the Father in the crucifixion and resurrection, that has become the very wisdom of God to the world (1 Cor 1:30; John 3:16). Here, the perfection of the wisdom of God results in the salvation and maturity of the saints in love. Inaugurated in Christ, this ultimate manifestation of the wisdom of God will arrive at the eschaton. This thesis will explore wisdom according to Paul, in order to better understand how ordinary people become saints in Christ, attaining the loftiest of human achievements: Christlikeness.
In Colossians 1:9-12 the Apostle Paul offers a prayer that details the central role of wisdom in the lives of the saints:
For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.[1]
Here, Paul prays that the saints would be filled with wisdom and understanding concerning the knowledge of God’s will. The will of God, here, refers to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Flowing out of this apostolic prayer, Colossians 1:15-20 reveals how this will of God, encompasses the redemption of all creation. Beyond personal salvation, the saints are brought into partnership with God’s cosmic redemptive work.[2]
David W. Pao expounds on this, saying:
“The knowledge of his will” is the knowledge of what God has done through Jesus Christ. This “will” is not concerned primarily with God’s private plan for individual believers; it is rather his salvific will as he accomplishes his plan of salvation. Paul later defines this “knowledge of his will” as “the knowledge of God” (v. 10) and “the knowledge of the mystery of God, Christ” (2:2).”[3]
In Paul’s apostolic prayer, wisdom and knowledge of God’s will, as revealed in the gospel of Jesus, are the means by which the saints bear fruit and participate in the expanding work of God. Thus, the good works of the saints (v. 10) flow out of and continue the work of the gospel.[4] This work increases both in the lives of the saints, inwardly, and in the redemption of all things, outwardly. Still, the increasing of fruit and the increasing in the knowledge of God, go hand in hand.[5] As the knowledge of God increases in the lives of the saints, so does the fruit of their labor in the gospel.[6] Thus, the fruit of wisdom is to live a life that pleases God by participating in His will and works.
To Paul, it is the person of Christ, put on display by the Father in the crucifixion and resurrection, that has become the very wisdom of God to the world (1 Cor 1:30; John 3:16). This wisdom Christology of Paul finds the knowledge of God as embodied and manifested in the person and work of Christ. Concerning Pauline wisdom, James Dunn writes, “It is the preexistence of the divine fullness whereby God’s presence fills the universe and which is now embodied (incarnate?) in Christ, above all in his cross and resurrection.”[1]
The wisdom of the Triune God in the cross and resurrection of Christ is new and defining. It is the displayed revelation of the love of God who sacrifices all things in order to be reunited with His fallen creation. This wisdom contains he power to redeem fallen humanity from the depths of destruction and bring it to the heights of glory. In the person and work of Christ, the concept of wisdom moves beyond the prophetic tradition of the Torah or a hermeneutical construct and becomes an embodiment of the sacrificial, unconditional love and power of God (Rom 5:6-11).
Hidden in this work of Christ is the obscure wisdom of the Christian faith. Paul’s prayer in Colossians is an intercession and invitation for the saints to grow in wisdom by gazing at this work of God and to also, as their Savior, embody this wisdom. This idea will be explored more later. For, now, it is important to establish how this embodiment of wisdom may take place.
This wisdom of Christianity according to Paul is something Paul K. Moser and Michael T. McFall call, “cruciform wisdom.”[2] The free will of a person plays a crucial role in cooperating with God’s will and Spirit. This arena, of the human free will, is where the crucifixion and resurrection may manifest in the life of the saint. Christ is the greatest example of this. In the cross, Christ surrendered His will in obedience to the Father. Throughout His life, Jesus displayed an unwavering trust in the Father, surrendering His will even in the face of obscurity, the unknown, and death.[3]
Perhaps the clearest passage to demonstrate Jesus’ surrender to the Father’s will is Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:41-44). There, though the Son of God desired the cup of the Father’s wrath to pass from Him, He placed the Father’s will over and above His own. The crux of attaining cruciform wisdom comes at the point that one must surrender her own will to the revealed will of God. This is done through the discipline of obedience. The wisdom of Christ is a cruciform wisdom. In imitation of the obedience of Christ, the saint surrenders, trusts, and obeys God’s will above his own understanding, desires, and knowledge.[1] The way of the cross, in turn, tests the obedience of the saints, who must continue to depend on God’s wisdom, that does not make sense to the natural mind.[2]
Christ gives to the Father an obedience free from any resentment. Rather, His obedience is full of great humility and trust. For such trust to exist, Moser and McFall explain, one must be assured of love. The assurance of love comes from security in relationship and in understanding the other’s intentions.[3] Dunn writes, “To know God is to worship him (1:21). . . . the “knowledge of God” includes experience of God’s dealings, the two-way knowing of personal relationship.”[4] In the Gospels, Christ displayed a deeply unified relationship with the Father. It is this very relationship of trust, love, and security with the Father that the Son shares with those who believe (John 17:23). To know and be known by God (even still, fully) is the very goal and summit of the life of faith and the pursuit of the saints.
Thus, cruciform wisdom is adopted in the battlefield of a person’s free will, where sin and brokenness abound. There, God in His grace and love meets her with the free provision of the cross and resurrection of Christ. Cruciform wisdom, a life fully surrendered to the will of God, takes place in context to an experiential, loving dialogue and relationship with the Godhead. Yes, the love of God is truly the greatest motivator for people to turn away from their own broken wills, and to hear the voice of wisdom that calls them out of the darkness, wickedness, and foolishness of the world.
From the first Creation to the New Creation, all of the redemptive acts of God are motivated by love, originating in the heart of the Father (Eph 1). The resurrection of Christ bears witness to the goodness of the Father’s loving will and motivates the believer to surrender and trust in God’s wisdom above his own. In the resurrection, God has proved His ability to save to the uttermost. As Moser and McFall write:
“His obedience, suffering, and sacrifice through the crucifixion are anchored in his trust in the God who raises his people from the dead. Cruciform wisdom, accordingly, does not view the crucifixion in isolation but understands it in relation to God’s desired resurrection of his people (see 1 Cor. 15:12-28).”[5]
Believers are enabled to live a life surrendered to God’s will, being brought into the same faith of Christ and of Abraham, who were convinced of God’s ability to raise the dead (Heb 11:19). Here, the Father’s raising up of Jesus from the dead gives definition to the cross, and the cross, in turn, gives definition to the resurrection. In Christ, God assures those of faith that His global plan of redemption, though a cross is required, will end in resurrection life. The saints are thereby motivated to adopt a life of cruciform wisdom, knowing that it works to produce in them the glory of that which is eternal. In the resurrection at the eschaton humanity is completely restored in the image and likeness of God (2 Cor 4:7-18).
The overwhelming evidence of God’s love and power, displayed in the cross and resurrection of Christ, shames every other wisdom and convinces the believer to submit his will in trustful, humble obedience. The results of such trustful obedience, though it comes with great self-sacrifice, is a life lived righteously before God.[6] This is the fruit of the wisdom of the Christian faith: a life pleasing to God, lived according to his good design and will.
First embodied and displayed in the person of Christ, cruciform wisdom becomes something also embodied by His followers, who share in Christ’s mission and work of the gospel. In following the same pattern of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection, the saints, too, display the wisdom and power of God to the world (Matt 5:14-16; Col 1:26-30; Rom 8:11; 9:23).
For the saints, the cross and resurrection become their pattern of knowing and becoming like Christ (Phil 3:8-14). From the depths of the Fall, the cross and resurrection have paved a way for all who believe to be restored to their authentic identity in Christ (Gen 1:27; John 1:12). With the assistance of the Spirit, believers are enabled to embody the cruciform wisdom of Christ. Here, they may repent of falsehood and righty reflect back to God, the image of Himself.
Scott A. Swanson understands wisdom in Paul’s apostolic prayer to be the very instruction of the Spirit. He explains,
“Paul tells us that the Spirit is the Spirit of wisdom and revelation (Eph. 1.17), that it is by Spirit-wisdom (not “spiritual” wisdom!) that we gain understanding of God’s will in order to walk in the way and bear fruit (Col. 1:9-10) . . .”[1]
In this light, the entire Trinity is seen at work in the cross and resurrection of Christ. The gospel is the wisdom of the Spirit of God revealed. For, it is only by the divine act of God’s self-revelation and enabling by His Spirit that one may gain any revelation of the gospel.
Further, since God’s will is perfect, cruciform wisdom, ultimately, offers an individual the opportunity to live her best life with the promise of the resurrection and a life forever united to God. Though a blessed life in Christ is not defined by what is so highly praised by the world, of the fleeting, empty pleasures of the flesh (1 John 2:16), it is defined by absolute truth and love. Saints, in adopting the cruciform wisdom of Christ, trade all that is known to become like Christ and to enjoy fellowship with God (Phil 3:13-14).
For the saints, to embody the cruciform wisdom of Christ, they must, inevitably, reject foolishness and sin. To Paul, sin is the root issue of the human condition that prevents people from living a life of wisdom. Jesse Tanner describes this sin issue as, “the innate propensity toward dishonest and selfish thought, word, and action that sets humans in opposition to God’s righteousness and goodness.”[1] This problem of the human condition, according to Paul, is “inherited . . . from simply existing in the order of the fallen Adam.”[2] It follows, to be perfect in wisdom is to be utterly changed from this fallen state. In Paul, this salvation from sin is eschatological wherein the believer is saved by faith (justified), is being saved (sanctified into the image of Christ), and will be saved (resurrected at the Second Coming) (1 Cor 6:11; 2 Cor 2:15, Rom 5:9-10). This process of the resurrection, in a now but not yet reality, is necessary and it is what makes God’s work of wisdom complete. For, to be truly restored into God’s original design for humanity, saints must undergo an entire transformation of existence.[3] As far as the sin of the Fall has marred the image of humanity, so far must the work of God reach to restore it. A new creation must ensue. It concludes, to be perfect in wisdom is to be ultimately, as Tanner puts it, “righetoused by faith,”[4] now and in the resurrection.
Pauline wisdom has an eschatological fulfillment in which the saints, as one unified body, reach maturity in Christ at His Second Coming. In this maturity, the Church will grow to the very measure of Jesus Christ, in unity with the Spirit (Eph 3:13; Rev. 22:17). This is what distinguishes the wisdom of the Christian faith from other systems of belief. To Paul, to be perfect in wisdom, is to be made righteous through faith. Wisdom, here, is not mere speech. It is the power of God actively working to bring humanity and all of creation under Christ’s dominion (Col 1:19-20).
This transformation of the Church is ultimately fulfilled in the eschaton. Craig G. Bartholomew writes, “It is the “Spirit of wisdom” and “power” who anoints the church against the wisdom “of this age,” which, in its ignorance, crucified the Lord of Glory (1 Cor 2:4, 10-11, 15).”[1] By cooperating with the wisdom of God in Christ Jesus, the Church learns to reject the empty boasting and pride of the world and to take up her cross. She is on a never ceasing trajectory of being matured into the image of Christ through wisdom, hoping for His soon return. Yet, the Church grows within the world, where love becomes a difficult choice. Her obedience amid trials, temptations, and persecution work to prove and refine her faith (2 Cor 4:7-12). In Bartholomew’s words, “This is cruciform living—an embodiment of the radical self-denial, love and suffering of the cross as the means to redemption and life.”[2] The darkness of the world becomes the context in which the Church bears her cross and is purified in her hope and pursuit of the resurrection (1 John 3:3).
In Paul’s writings, the fulfillment of the law in Christ becomes an inward working of God’s Spirit. Scott Swanson writes:
“Paul appropriates, or reads, the law as wisdom instruction, and not ‘as commandments to be obeyed and not transgressed.’ This is because our new life in Christ by the Spirit creates renewal from within, and replaces a relationship to external demands and commandments.”[3]
In the new covenant established by the cross and resurrection of Christ, the law of God becomes kept within the heart of the believer (Jer 31:33). By the work of the Spirit, cruciform wisdom instructs the saints in the fulfillment of God’s laws. The perfection of this wisdom produces in the saints, the unconditional love of God. For, on the first and second commandments, says Jesus, hangs “all the Law and the Prophets” (Matt 22:37-40). Tanner writes, “a deep love for others is also a result of the spiritual transformation of being righteoused by faith, which has fundamental social implications.”[4] Ultimately, the authenticity of humanity, restored by the wisdom of God’s work, results in a change of heart that overflows in unconditional love towards God and others. This love is marked by patience in suffering, compassion, and costly self-denial (Rom 12:12; 13:9). Cruciform wisdom sets the saints on a trajectory to mature in love, so fulfilling the law of love (Rom. 13:10).
Paul continually contrasts the cruciform wisdom of Christ against the wisdom of the world. In the cross of Christ, the wisdom of humanity is turned upside down. The God of the universe became His creation in the incarnation of Christ, and died the most scandalous death of a sinner for the payment of the sins of the world. In the words of Christopher D. Marshall, “According to Paul . . . God had demonstrated saving power in the impotent torments of a crucifixion victim, a man rejected by the religious establishment as a blasphemer and by the political establishment as a revolutionary upstart.”[5] This is why Paul understood the gospel to be foolishness to the world, even describing it as the weakness of God (1 Cor 1:18, 25). For, in the crucifixion of Jesus, Christoher Marshall goes on, “God’s wisdom deconstructs human wisdom . . . not because it by-passes the intellect or fails to make rational sense but because it subverts human pride and upends conventional values.”[6] The power of the cross, then, is recognized by its ability to uproot the pride and wisdom of man from the very roots.
William Baker, Ralph Martin, and Carl N. Toney write, concerning God’s wisdom:
“. . . God’s plan to save humanity is in a totally superior category because it overcomes the evil of sin, which separates humanity from God. It’s not just an idea, a philosophy, or a discovery; it is a completed plan of action that has created an entirely new world order of “the saved” and “the destroyed” . . .”[7]
Not only does the wisdom of God create changed lives, but it has created a whole new order of creation in Christ. Christ, the wisdom of God, is the plumb line of the New Creation (Rev 21:5). In the eschaton, all things in Him will be redeemed, and all things outside of Him will be destroyed.
In 1 Corinthians and in Hebrews, Paul shows how the self-sacrificial wisdom of God is at complete odds with the assumed wisdom of the world (1 Cor 3:19). Baker, Martin, and Toney write that this so called “wisdom” was marked by “logic and persuasive argumentation, highly esteemed skills in Greek and Roman cultures that were thought to be endowed to individuals by the gods.”[8] Where the wisdom of the world is centered on the accumulation of knowledge and with impressive speech, leading to pride,[9] the wisdom of Christ is that which contains the power to transform lives into the image of God.
God’s will and wisdom is rightly displayed by the cross, as it runs completely counterintuitive to the wisdom of humanity. Where the wisdom of humanity seeks to exalt itself above God, the wisdom of God seeks to crucify fallen humanity right at its rebellion. The cross, thereby, works to bring all of created order into submission to what is good and holy: the will of God.
In conclusion, the wisdom of God, according to Paul, is embodied and revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ, especially in His cross, and resurrection. Cruciform wisdom operates in the lives of the saints by aligning them to the patterns of God’s will in Christ, which produces lasting blessing, even resurrected life. This wisdom is the instruction of the Spirit, actively working to protect the saints against the faulty wisdom of the world.[10] Alignment to God’s will empowers the saints to live their best lives in which they are sanctified and, finally, resurrected into the image of Christ. Though it comes with the great surrender of one’s own will, the tradeoff is immeasurable. The inheritance of the saints is to be unified with the Godhead in glory, forever. This is wisdom: to lay down one’s own life in order to be empowered to know and love God rightly, according to the knowledge of who He is.
[1]Bartholomew and O’Dowd, 249.
[2]Bartholomew and O’Dowd, 249.
[3]Swanson, 177.
[4]Tanner, 335.
[5]Christopher D. Marshall, “The Wisdom of Knowing Nothing: Pauline Perspectives on Leadership, Ministry, and Power,” Vision 5, no. 2 (Fall 2004): 67-68.
[6]Marshall, 67.
[7]William Baker, Ralph Martin, and Carl N. Toney, 1-2 Corinthians, Cornerstone Biblical Commentary (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2009), 39.
[8]Baker, Martin, and Toney, 30.
[9]Bartholomew and O’Dowd, 247.
[10]Moser, and McFall, 7.
[1]Jesse F. Tanner, “Buddhist and Christian Ultimate Transformation: The ‘Perfection of Wisdom’ and Paul’s Righteoused by Faith,” Studies in Spirituality 20 (2010): 337.
[2]Tanner, 337.
[3]Tanner, 338.
[4]Tanner, 322-333.
[1]Swanson, 111.
[1]Moser, and McFall,, 70.
[2]Scott A. Swanson, “The Instruction of the Spirit: The Wisdom Framework for Pauline Spirit Dependence,” Mid-America Journal of Theology 29, (2008):, 128.
[3]Moser, and McFall,, 24-31.
[4]Dunn, 47.
[5]Moser, and McFall, 9.
[6]Bartholomew and O’Dowd, 249-250.
[1]James D. G. Dunn, The Theology of Paul the Apostle (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2006), 277.
[2]Paul K. Moser and Michael T. McFall, The Wisdom of the Christian Faith (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 7.
[3]Moser, and McFall,, 31-32.
[1]Unless otherwise indicated all Bible references in this paper are to the New King James Bible (NKJV) (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2015).
[2]Craig G. Bartholomew and Ryan O’Dowd, Old Testament Wisdom Literature: A Theological Introduction (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2018), 250.
[3]David W. Pao, Colossians & Philemon, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012), 69.
[4]Pao, 64-65.
[5]Pao, 70-71.
[6]Margaret Y. MacDonald, Colossians and Ephesians (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2008), 49.
[1]David Penchansky, “wisdom,” In The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Theology. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), n.p., https://www-oxfordreference-com.oralroberts.idm.oclc.org/view/10.1093/acref:obso/9780199858699.001.0001/acref-9780199858699-e-236 (5 December, 2021).
...and in his temple all cry, “Glory!” 