1 Cor 2:6-7 - Systematic Theology is Born

6-7 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.

As previously stated, it is not that the wisdom of God in Christ is actually foolish; it is that our hearts and minds are so twisted so deceitful, so evil, so desperately wicked - that until and unless God does a work in us, we regard our fallen understanding as wiser than that of the Holy God.

But with a new heart (a heart born of God Himself) and a new mind (the mind of Christ) we see the beauty and wisdom of God in the Lord Jesus Christ and His work. We cannot thank ourselves for this, for we must glory in God alone, who thought it, wrought it and brought it to us, His people.

So, when the doctrine of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ (which is the whole Bible) is preached to the converted, they have the God-given ability to see the wisdom of God in it all in greater and greater measure. For all of us, the gospel begins at the incarnation and the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but for those who wish to be more than spiritual babies - those who wish to become mature - God has revealed Himself in a more comprehensive detail by revealing to us His mind with regard to the creation, His purposes and His means and ends. It is called "teaching" or "doctrine".

From Genesis through the patriarchs, the judges, prophets and kings - throughout Biblical history - God has spoken and revealed riches related to salvation in His Son that He expects His people to search and to know. The objective is that they may know Him as He has chosen to reveal Himself. Having been born of the Spirit of God and being spiritually alive they are able to see spiritual things in the Bible where they were able to see only words before. Now they are given illumination of the Spirit in order that they might see God by the inspiration Spirit in the Word, and be grown in Christ.

In short, we believe that the Bible is the Word of God and that it is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction - that the man of God may be perfect (fitted), throughly furnished unto all good works. {2Ti 3:16-17} Therefore, you will never find a true believer who questions the authority of scripture. All true Christians have been internally taught by God the Holy Spirit to know that God the Holy Spirit breathed all the words of the Bible - again using those secondary causes that normally characterize the way God works.

We may struggle to accept certain things. We may even struggle against certain aspects of doctrine. We may disagree with each other about some things - sometimes passionately - but, in the end, it depends upon God in us to bring us to a knowledge of the truth through our struggles. And this characterizes the Christian - even in the midst of his struggles with the Word (for they are usually actually struggles with the flesh’s reaction to the word) - that though he may limp and balk, he is always submitting to the truth. Through the obedience of faith God is at work empowering the Christian to believe and to put to death the unbelieving, rebellious flesh.

When Paul says that the wisdom from God is not the wisdom of "this" age, contextually he is certainly speaking of the first century, because that is when he lived. But, though men may change and though the spirit of the age may change with the passing of time, God never changes. You can take that to the bank. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. And Jesus is the gospel. He is God speaking to us the good news in His Son. He is both the gift and the message. And no matter which age He is presented in, the wisdom of that age - emanating from the spirit of that age and embraced by hearts equally fallen as in prior ages, is not the key to the gospel, nor to its presentation.

All life will wither as the grass and will pass away. The transitory nature of the lives of fallen men and of their collective wisdom apart from God, being both mutable and impermanent, is nothing compared to the infinite, changeless and eternal wisdom of God. Since Christ is the infinite Wisdom of God personified and He is changeless and eternal, then the gospel does not change. The gospel is perfect because God is perfect, His eternal purposes are changeless and all His works are known unto Him from the foundation of the world.

There can be no comparison between fallen worldly wisdom and the wisdom of God. And Paul goes on to say that the foolishness that the world thinks of when it hears the gospel is actually received through the faith of the saints as the unfolding revelation of the purposes of God from the foundation of the world. The fullness of the revelation of God’s plan was never obscured deliberately, but it was manifested gradually - in increasing clarity. However, it was not until Christ came, lived, died and rose again that the revelation was completed. Until then it was to some degree or another "secret," or what some translators have called "a mystery". What God knew fully regarding His purposes of redemption are demonstrated completely only at the incarnation of Christ. It is now "finished". The finished work may now be witnessed (attested) to and preached because, with the passing of the Apostles and the completion of the scriptures there is now nothing left that is necessary for the completion of the gospel. We’ve got all we’re gonna get and it is sufficient for all that we must do.

Finally it is amazing to see the reason given by Paul for the secret purposes of God which have been revealed in Christ. Seemingly contrary to all that went before Paul says that God purposed it for our glory. Yet we are exhorted by Paul to glorify in nothing but God. We are to boast in nothing save our God. And this apparent tension means two things;

1) That while God may glorify us in the sense of bringing us to glory, it is through our utter lack of self-glorification. God must be the author and mover and achiever.

2) That when we are glorified it brings glory to the God who does it all. When God glorifies us He glorifies Himself through us. Our glory and His are one and the same in quality, if not in quantity, because we are now united to Him in His Son.

It is not that we share His glory in any possessive sense. God is jealous of His glory and will not share it with any one. It would not be good and loving for the perfect and infinite Creator and Sustainer of all things to share His glory with the infinitely lesser beings that are His creatures. God’s glory may not be grasped. That is the lesson of Christ’s humility in laying aside His glory temporarily, before taking it up again. It is the lesson of the fall of Satan with a third of the angels of heaven. We may not ascend the sides of the hill of the North. We may not. But God as a man has descended, and has ascended carrying us with Him.

God may glorify us because it redounds to His glory. We are not possessors, but reflectors of His glory. And this is all in Christ, and Christ is the gospel.