From Collected Works of Watchman Nee, volume 36, “Christ becoming our wisdom”
CHRIST BECOMING OUR WISDOM
Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 1:30
The Bible speaks of Christ as our life in many ways. But the meaning of the words “Christ is our life” is not that simple. First Corinthians 1:30 explains what Christ as our life means. This passage can be divided into two sections. The first section says, “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus.” This speaks of our relationship with Christ. The second section says, “Who became wisdom to us from God.” This speaks of Christ’s relationship with us. Putting it another way, this verse speaks of how we are in Christ and also how Christ is in us. We must pay attention to these two things….
God has given us the Lord Jesus. His purpose is not for Him to be our teacher or a pattern that we follow, but for us to take Him as our life, so that His life can be manifested through us. If we do not have the life of Christ, we cannot be a Christian. If we have the life of Christ but do not know how this life has become our life, we cannot be a proper Christian and readily manifest His life. How then can we have Christ as our life?…First Corinthians 1:30 tells us that this work has been accomplished by God alone….The first part of this verse says, “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus.” The first part of the work was done by God. The second part says, “Who became wisdom to us from God.” The second part of the work was also done by God….
IT BEING OF GOD THAT WE ARE IN CHRIST JESUS
God wants Christ to be our life. But how did He begin to do this? God did not first put Christ’s life into us. Rather, He first put us into Christ. God first put us into Christ, and then put Christ into us. The first thing that God wants to do is build up our relationship with Christ. If we do not have a relationship with Christ, we cannot have Christ come into us to be our life. First we are in Christ, and then Christ can be in us. This is God’s order of work.
Why did God put us in Christ? He put us there because we are sinful; we have the Adamic life within us. We are sinful and have the Adamic life in us; therefore, we must first be dealt with, before God can give us a new life. God cannot carry out this dealing in us directly. If He carried it out in us directly, we would die; we would not be able to live. If God dealt with our sins directly, there could be no other way and no other result than eternal death.
On the one hand, God wants to deal with our sins and our Adamic life. On the other hand, He does not wish to see us die. What then did He do? He put us in Christ by the operation of the might of His power. As a result, whatever He has done to Christ becomes His dealing with us. We are all included in Christ. Whatever God has done in Christ becomes His work in us. When God dealt with Christ, the result was the same as if He had dealt with us. This is the basic biblical truth concerning the Lord Jesus being our Savior….
What does it mean for us to be in Christ? I will explain this with an illustration. Peking produces a certain kind of lacquer box with a number of boxes being in a set. Each box in the set fits into another one. Outwardly there is only one box. But when one opens up the box, there are more boxes inside that one box; within the big box are the smaller boxes. This is the way we are in Christ. Our being in Christ is in contrast to Christ being in us. We are all descendants of Adam, and we were all in Adam. Adam is like the big box, while we were like the small boxes. The many small boxes come out of that one big box. Out of the one Adam, we were produced. When one is opened, there are many. We are the many. When we put the many into the one, we see only the one. From our side, there are many individuals. We are the many individuals. From God’s side, we are only one man in Adam. This is like the many small boxes contained in the one big box. Outwardly there is only one box. Because we are all in Adam, “the disobedience of one man” constituted many sinners. Because we are all one in Adam, every one of us is condemned. God saved us according to the same principle. He has put us all into Christ, and “through the obedience of the One the many will be constituted righteous.” Because we are one in Christ, we have all received justification of life (Rom. 5:18-19). God considers all of us as one person in Adam. In the same way, He considers all of us as one person in Christ. Adam is like one big box, while Christ is like a second big box. God has taken us out of the first big box and put us into the second big box. We are one in the first big box—Adam, and we are one in the second big box—Christ. The Bible calls the Lord Jesus “the second man” and “the last Adam” (1 Cor. 15:47, 45). The Lord Jesus is the last Adam, and God has included all of us in Him.
When Jesus of Nazareth was living as a man on earth, He was the unique One. But when He went to the cross, God included us all in Him. Therefore, when Jesus of Nazareth was crucified, that cross was not only His cross, but our cross as well. Because God put us into Christ, the cross is no longer just His cross, but a cross in which all those who are in Him have a part….Thank and praise God that when Christ was crucified, we were included in Him. Since we are included in Him, His experience on the cross becomes our experience. This is what Romans 6:6 means when it says, “Our old man has been crucified with Him….”
We were men in Adam, and we could only be delivered from Adam through death. When we are joined to the death of Christ, we are terminated and delivered from Adam. This is the first aspect of God’s work. The second aspect of God’s work is to put Christ into us. First Corinthians 1:30 says, “Who became wisdom to us from God.”
“WHO BECAME…FROM GOD”
We have spoken of our being in Christ. Now we will speak on Christ being in us. How can Christ be in us? Christ is in us because of resurrection. Because the Lord Jesus has resurrected and because He is now in the Holy Spirit (He is not merely a man, but a man in the Spirit), He can be in us….If He were still a man like He was when He was on earth, He could not be eaten by us….If the Lord Jesus were not a resurrected Lord, if He were only a Lord who once lived on the earth, He could only be Himself forever, while I could only be myself forever….
[T]hank the Lord that He is not only a man today; He has died and resurrected. In the Holy Spirit, He has become the Lord whom we can receive. The Holy Spirit is the Lord’s coming in another form (14:16-20). Another name for the Holy Spirit is “the Spirit of Jesus” (Acts 16:7). He is also called “the Spirit of Christ” (Rom. 8:9). When the Lord Jesus put on the Holy Spirit, He became a “receivable” Lord. If He had not become such a Lord, we would not be able to enjoy Him. Christ has resurrected and put on the Holy Spirit. When we receive the Holy Spirit, we receive Christ; in the same way, when we receive the Son, we receive the Father…
Christ became wisdom to us from God. What does this mean?…God has not given us Christ so that He could just die for us on the cross; He has given Christ to us to be our life. Originally, we react to all the demands that are outside of us by exercising our own life; we act according to our own life. If our own life is strong enough, we make it. If our own life is not strong enough, we do not make it, or worse, we collapse. We react with our own life and deal with outward matters with our own life. But God has given Christ to us to be our life. Before we received the Lord Jesus, we lived by ourselves. After we receive the Lord Jesus, God wants Him to live inside of us and live for us. When the Lord Jesus becomes our life within, we do not have to live by our original life. It is not a matter of the Lord Jesus giving us commands, suggestions, or teachings and then us carrying them out. Rather, He becomes our life within and carries things out for us. From now on, we should live by His life. Formerly, we responded to outward demands with our own life. Now we should allow Christ’s life to respond to them.
After understanding the meaning of Christ being our life, we now come to the question of Christ becoming our wisdom from God. Brothers and sisters, you have been a Christian for many years. Do you have anything other than your own wisdom? Have you received the Lord Jesus as your wisdom? Has the Lord Jesus been your wisdom once? How much have you known the Lord Jesus? This is the basic question, and we must be clear about it. This verse does not say that the Lord Jesus gives us wisdom; it does not say that God has given us the Lord Jesus’ wisdom. It does not say that we understand and know how to speak or act, even though we were once foolish, because God has given us wisdom. No, the Bible does not say this. The Bible says that Christ became wisdom to us from God. The word “became” is very important, and there is no better word than this word. We can take the story of Moses and Aaron as an example. Moses was afraid of speaking to the Israelites; he was afraid because he was not eloquent. He said that he was slow of speech and of a slow tongue; therefore, he dared not go. What did God say? He said, “Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother?…He shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth” (Exo. 4:14, 16). Does this mean that when Aaron became Moses’ mouth, Moses became eloquent? No, Aaron only became Moses’ mouth, but Moses was still Moses. (Of course, Moses spoke later. But that is a different story.) When Moses’ eloquence failed, he could ask Aaron to speak for him. This is the meaning of Aaron becoming Moses’ mouth. Aaron became Moses’ mouth. The eloquence was still with Aaron; it was not with Moses. Moses needed Aaron to be the mouth, because his own mouth did not work as well. It does not mean that after Moses took Aaron as his mouth, his own mouth became eloquent.
After we see the meaning of Aaron becoming the mouth of Moses, we see the meaning of Christ becoming wisdom to us from God. It does not mean that Christ has made us wise. Rather, it means that we are foolish, but we allow the Lord to become our wisdom while we do not move. Originally, when there were demands from the outside, we reacted with our own life. Today when there are demands from the outside, we know that we cannot make it and should not react anymore. What then should we do? We should allow the Lord’s life to react. It is not a matter of becoming better in ourselves; it is a matter of the Lord living on our behalf. Moses’ mouth did not improve. Rather, Aaron became his mouth for him and spoke instead of him. Christ being our wisdom is like Aaron speaking on Moses’ behalf. Suppose you are going to speak to someone. What are you going to do when you cannot say what you want to say? You may ask another one who has come with you to speak for you. You cannot speak yourself, and you ask him to speak; he meets the demand. While he is speaking, your mouth remains dumb; it has not improved, and you are still the same as before. We must never think that when Christ becomes our wisdom, we become wise. We must remember that even when Christ has become our wisdom, we can still do nothing in ourselves.2
Galatians 2:20 says, “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” This is a fact. This shows us how a Christian should live. He should live by not doing anything by himself, but by allowing Christ to do everything. In other words, let Aaron speak and Moses be quiet. Some people are not eloquent, yet they need to speak. What do they do? They ask you to speak for them. But while you are speaking, they are not satisfied; they interrupt with a word or two. This makes it very difficult for you. If Moses’ mouth could not speak, he should take Aaron’s mouth as his mouth. Thank the Lord that this is God’s way of salvation. God did not change Moses’ mouth; rather, He gave him a new mouth. God does not change a person’s mouth; He gives him another mouth. God does not change a foolish man into a wise man; rather, He causes Christ to become wisdom to the foolish man. Brothers and sisters, this is salvation. God has not changed foolish men into wise; rather, He has made Christ our wisdom; Christ has become wisdom to us from God.
Suppose a matter needs great wisdom to handle and settle it. You may try this way and that way in vain; your little mind may be exhausted, yet you still cannot come up with a solution. Then you say, “Lord, I am foolish. If it is left up to me to do, I will surely not be able to make it. I can only look to You. You do it for me.” After you have trusted in the Lord this way, the Lord may direct you to do something, say something, or take some action, and you may not even be aware of the great wisdom involved in doing these things. But after you have done them, one day you will say, “What I did that day was not something that I could have done by myself. What I said that day was not something that I could have said by myself.” This means that you have not changed at all; it was the Lord who became your wisdom. This is Christ becoming wisdom to you. Originally, we had to handle things by ourselves, yet we could not handle them. So we allowed Christ to be our wisdom.
We have to remember that Christ’s wisdom does not become our wisdom. In addition, Christ is not giving us wisdom so that we can become wise. Instead, Christ in us is becoming wisdom to us. Wisdom belongs to the Lord and not to us. He is our wisdom; He is becoming our wisdom. Brothers and sisters, if we know what it means for Christ to “become,” we can live a proper life before the Lord….
Christ as our life is the foundation of the Christian life. The first step in our salvation is regeneration. The last step in our salvation is the redemption of our body. But from beginning to end, the basis is Christ as our life. The relationship between Christ and us is a life relationship. In other words, it is an indissoluble relationship. Christ does not become something outside of us. He has come into us to be our life. A relationship in life is an indissoluble relationship. If we have not received Christ as our life, we have nothing to do with Christ. But since we have received Christ as our life, we have an indissoluble relationship with Him….
May the Lord open our eyes to see that God has put us into Christ and made Christ our wisdom: righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. May the Lord show us that of all the gifts He has given us, none is greater than His Son. May the Lord show us that Christ is the gift and also all the gifts. He is the singular gift and also the plural gifts. We have to learn to know Christ as our wisdom. We have to learn to know Christ as our righteousness, we have to learn to know Christ as our sanctification, and we have to learn to know Christ as our redemption. May the Lord deliver us from foolishness and darkness so that we realize that there is no matter or thing in the spiritual realm. All we have is just Christ.
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