2. Wisdom
2. Wisdom
Secondly, I come to show what these blessings are, which are here, through Christ, made over to the elect.
Christ is made to them wisdom; but wherein does true wisdom consist? Was I to ask some of you, perhaps you would say, “in indulging the lust of the flesh, and saying to our souls, ‘eat, drink, and be merry.’ ” But this is only the wisdom of brutes; they have as good a gust and relish for sensual pleasures as the greatest epicure on earth. Others would tell me true wisdom consisted in adding house to house and field to field, and calling lands after their own names. But this cannot be true wisdom, for riches often take to them wings and fly away like an eagle towards heaven. Even Wisdom itself assures us that “a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth” (Luk 12:15); vanity, vanity, all these things are vanity (Ecc 12:8). If riches leave not the owner, the owners must soon leave them, for rich men must also die and leave their riches for others. Their riches cannot procure them redemption from the grave, whither we are all hastening apace.
But perhaps you despise riches and pleasure, and therefore place wisdom in the knowledge of books. But it is possible for you to tell the numbers of the stars and call them all by their names, and yet be mere fools! Learned men are not always wise; nay, our common learning so much cried up4 makes men only so many accomplished fools.
To keep you therefore no longer in suspense, and withal to humble you, I will send you to a heathen school to learn what true wisdom is: “know thyself” was a saying of one of the wise men of Greece.5 This is certainly true wisdom, and this is that wisdom spoken of in the text and which Jesus Christ has made to all elect sinners. They are made to know themselves so as not to think more highly of themselves than they ought to think (Rom 12:3). Before they were darkness; now they are light in the Lord—and in that light they see their own darkness. They now bewail themselves as fallen creatures by nature, dead in trespasses and sins, sons and heirs of hell, and children of wrath. They now see that all their righteousnesses are but as filthy rags (Isa 64:6); that there is no health in their souls (Isa 1:6); that they are poor and miserable, blind, and naked—and that “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Act 4:12) but that of Jesus Christ. They see the necessity of closing with a Savior, and [of] beholding the wisdom of God in appointing Him to be a Savior. They are also made willing to accept of salvation upon our Lord’s own terms, and to receive Him as their all in all. Thus Christ is made to them wisdom.