Christ Becoming Our Wisdom, by Watchman Nee

"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. The Lord said that His flesh is meat indeed and His blood is drink indeed. He can be eaten by us (John 6:53-56). If He were still a man like He was when He was on earth, He could not be eaten by us. We eat the fruit of the tree of life; we do not eat the tree of life itself. We cannot eat the tree; there is no way we can take the tree into us. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He was like the tree of life; there was no way for us to take Him into us. In the same way, there is no way for us to take a person into us today. 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. There would be no way for us to receive Him. It would not matter how holy and lovely Jesus of Nazareth was; there would be no way for us to receive Him, because He would only be a man. But thank 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. When men in the past saw the Father, they saw the Son; in the same way, when men know the Spirit today, they know the Son. The Lord Jesus has resurrected, and He is in the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we can receive Him into us to be our life. All those who have received the Lord Jesus, whether they are clear or not, have received this experience from God.

God has put us into Christ. This is the first thing. The second thing is that He has made Christ our wisdom. Neither of these two things have been done by us. We cannot get into Christ by ourselves, and we cannot put Christ into us. Both things could only be accomplished by God.

Christ became wisdom to us from God. What does this mean? First I would point out the proper punctuation for the second part of 1 Corinthians 1:30. According to the original language, there should be a colon after the words "wisdom to us from God." This means that wisdom includes the following three things: righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. First Corinthians 1—3 speaks of God’s wisdom and man’s wisdom. Wisdom is the subject, and righteousness, sanctification, and redemption are the explanation of how Christ becomes our wisdom.

What does this verse mean? In order to understand this verse, we must first consider what life is. Suppose a temptation comes and stirs you up. You know that you have to be patient. But where does this patience come from? Your life supplies you with patience. You need to have life before you can exercise your patience. When you do not have life, you are dead, and there is no way for you to practice patience. You must supply and sustain your patience with life. Suppose you realize that laziness is wrong, and you want to be diligent. If you are diligent, your life is making you diligent. Suppose a man has encountered hardships, and you think that you should love him and help him. Where does this love come from? It is your life that compels you to love. Therefore, the inward reaction that is produced every time we encounter something is the result of the flow of life. These reactions originate from your life. The source of power for these reactions is life. Without life there can be no reaction. We only react when there is life. Every moment of our life we are dealing with things, and every moment we have reactions. We deal with the demands of the outward world moment by moment with our life. Moment by moment we are exercising our life.

(Christ Becoming Our Wisdom, Chapter 1, by Watchman Nee)