Wisdom

I taught Sunday school a Sunday or two ago.  I focused the lesson on the beginning of Peter Enns' book, How the Bible Works.  His thesis is that the Bible is designed by God to invite us on a quest for wisdom.  

Let's talk about wisdom for a little bit:

1. Wisdom was present before creation à Proverbs 3:19-20 says, “The Lord by wisdom  founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens; by his knowledge the  deeps broke open, and the clouds drop down the dew.  Paul speaks of how Jesus and  wisdom are intertwined in 1 Corinthians 1:30 “He (God) is the source of your life in  Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and  sanctification and redemption…”
2. “At least some ancient Jews ascribed to wisdom something approaching divine status to  act as a mediator between God and humanity, to make God accessible to us here and  now.”  (Enns) We can understand that wisdom is a characteristic of God.
3. I think wisdom is one of the ways God employs sanctifying grace to help us to grown  more into God’s own image.  

Wisdom makes God more accessible to us.  Wisdom is what the Holy Spirit whispers to us.  Wisdom  was present with God when Jesus was, at the beginning.  

And the Bible invites us to pursue it.  

How do we do that?  I think there are lots of ways, but I think back to Wesley, and the means of grace.  If Wisdom is a characteristic of God that leads us closer the image of God, then I think it is a kind of sanctifying grace.  If it's grace, then what about Wesley's means of grace?  Could these be tools to help us to seek wisdom?

Tomorrow, let's talk about the Means of Grace.