GOD’S ALL-WISE HEART (2)

“To GOD, alone WISE, be Glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen” – Romans 16:27

No other heart can compare with GOD’S ALL-WISE HEART: “Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began but now made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith – to GOD, ALONE WISE, be Glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen” (Rom.16:25-27). In this doxology, Paul emphasized Wisdom as a key attribute of God. It opens a window in our hearts to the vast expanses of His Wisdom, for us to see it more clearly, admire Him more intensely, trust Him more firmly, and obey Him more consistently with lives that display the glory of His Wisdom.

God Is Infinitely Wise! He is infintely wise in the way He saves sinners and in the way He keeps His covenant with Israel. Wisdom is knowing what the greatest goal is in any situation, and what the best way is to achieve it. Wisdom assumes and applies knowledge. Wisdom cannot be exercised wisdom without knowledge; because in order to figure out the best way to achieve a goal, one must  have knowledge of many factors. On the other hand, one can have a lot of knowledge but not have wisdom. There are many brilliant fools; and many less-educated sages. The difference with God’s Wisdom is that He always knows the best goal in every situation, and always has perfect knowledge of infinite array of relevant factors that enable Him to know the best way to achieve the goal.

Paul’s reference to “God, alone wise” or “the only wise God” doesn’t mean that there are many gods and that all, but one, are foolish. 1 Timothy 1:17 says, “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” He is not just the ONLY WISE GOD. He is the only GOD: “ONE GOD and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in your all” (Eph.4:6). The one, and only, God is: gloriously wise, infinitely wise, deeply wise (Rom.11:33-36).

God’s Wisdom is so deep that His judgments are unsearchable; His ways inscrutable. It is so deep that no one has been, or ever could be, His counselor. His Wisdom is so vast that He doesn’t and cannot increase in Wisdom. To increase in wisdom, something would have to be input into God’s mind that has not already come out of His mind: “For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things” (Rom.11:36a). If all things are from Him, there is no wisdom in the universe that is not already His. Summary: God is infinite in wisdom. His Wisdom cannot be increased, not because He has limits, but because every conceivable increase is already His.

In particular, God is infinitely wise in how He saves sinners – namely, through the incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ His Son. The way of salvation through Christ was the perfect way to achieve God’s greatest goal – the humility of man and the Glory of God. It could not have been done better: “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe” (1Cor.1:21). God wisely rejected the possibility of salvation by human intellect and chose what looked like foolishness in the eyes of the world, the way of a crucified Messiah: “Because the follishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1Cor.1:25).

The conclusion: “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us WISDOM from God – and righteousness and sanctification and redemption – that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord” (1Cor.1:30-31). As we pursue intimacy with God’s all-wise Heart, our hearts will be equipped to fulfil the greatest goal for which we were made – our divine destinies, all for His Glory!