Christ Is Our Wisdom

By Tammy Lacock

“But of him ye are in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” (1 Corinthians 1:30 KJV)

In this week’s podcast, Part 9 of Out of Law Into Grace, Warren Litzman further explains, through the Apostle Paul’s epistles, what it means to step into the fullness of God’s grace.

Warren emphasizes that Paul’s gospel is that of pure grace, that is grace without any law in it, not one single ounce of it! It’s a new gospel, one that supersedes any other, the only gospel for today. And it begun at the cross.

Paul’s gospel tells us we are no longer to live under any law, that by Christ’s death and resurrection, we are freed from it. Although we are living in pure grace now, most of us are still commingling law and grace, Old Testament and New Testament understanding.

In 1 Corinthians 1:30, Paul tells us that no longer are we made righteous by anything we do or don’t do (the law). In grace, by God’s new covenant to us by Christ’s death and resurrection, we are made righteous by Christ, who now lives in us. We are freed from the bondage of the law and our sin-natures by Christ. His death and resurrection justified God’s uprooting of our sin-nature and replacing it with Christ’s nature, His seed planted in us. By Christ’s death we have new life. We are brand-new creations, joined to Christ making us one spirit in Christ (1 Corinthians 6:17).

Paul’s message to us in 1 Corinthians 1:30 is that Christ is made unto us wisdom. Paul emphasizes here that our wisdom now no longer comes from our own understanding (Old Testament-law mind-set) but from the Christ who now lives in us (New Testament-grace mind-set). By the revelation of Christ, only Paul was raised up to deliver this message to the world. It’s Christ’s wisdom now coming through us, the wisdom of Christ as our new life, that we are saved by His grace and kept saved by His grace. There’s no law, no works of our own involved in our salvation.

Warren notes that it is important to recognize that the law isn’t bad; it brings us to Christ. However, we nullify the cross when we continue in it. Most Christians today are still living in law. Paul says we are saved simply by believing, yet he also reveals that if we are still living in the law (appealing to God by our own works) for salvation, taking the emphasis off of Christ, then we still need that constant mind-renewal to gain the wisdom of Christ as our new life. We haven’t yet given our minds over to Christ. (Philippians 2:5). In fact, according to Paul, we have His mind at our disposal. (1 Corinthians 2:16) The question is are we aware of that?

This is where we must divide soul and spirit (Hebrews 4:12). In our spirits we are made perfect in Christ, joined to Him in one Spirit. In our souls, the part of us where our minds, intellects, and wills reside, we are maturing in our new life in Christ. It’s in this part of us where we need to catch up to what we already are in Spirit. It’s in this part of us where the Holy Spirit works. His sole purpose is to comfort us in this transition and teach us of our new life in Christ.

We have the tendency to go back and forth in law and grace. But yet, until we step into the fullness of God’s grace, we will never live who God created us to be. The Holy Spirit, working in our minds to the awareness of Christ in us and His wisdom coming through us, is the only one who can help us step out of law and fully into God’s grace.

Lastly, Warren urges us to read and reread 1 Corinthians chapter 2 as the key to understanding grace. In grace, he tells us that Christ is our wisdom. Every one of us who believes has His wisdom at our disposal. Taking that step into the fullness of God’s grace in our new life in Christ means giving our minds over to Him so that His understanding and wisdom, not our own, will now come through us.