On this search to access Divinity’s treasures of wisdom and knowledge, I found that, much more than that knowledge I was asking for as the journey began, Jesus himself was the Treasure I sought.
Without Him, though I have prophetic abilities and understand all mysteries, I am nothing.1 What is the point of traveling without Him? The journey is the context in which our friendship unfolds. Along the way He gives knowledge as gift, but what if He doesn’t? Will I be satisfied with Him? What good is it if I have all the world, but lose my soul’s Life?2 I found only death in beauty when I lacked awareness of Him; but when His love awakened my heart, He made the whole world bright and lovely,3 for I saw Christ as all and in all!4
He hides nothing from those who seek His friendship,5 simply to know and love Christ, the Great Mystery.6 He wants openness and vulnerability with us – such that He will sometimes, often, leave His decisions open to our influence, to see if our hearts are responding with His.7 He entrusts us with more intimate knowing of Himself as we do. He who is faithful with a little will be given much!8
He desires to disclose to us His secret heart, to be such friends that He can say, “I have hidden nothing from you.”9 This is precious beyond imagining. The Great God over all the worlds – every creation, universe, and galaxy – desires intimacy with you.
Paul says:
“It is because of God that you have been divinely united with Christ (in him), Who became to us the manifested wisdom of God: Righteousness and sanctification and redemption, So that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord!’10”
What is the wisdom of God?11 That, in His wisdom, the world did not know him through wisdom, but through the foolishness of preaching a crucified and resurrected Messiah who healed and deified humanity in His body of flesh, making us an altogether before unseen creation,12 in like nature with himself, seating humanity on the very throne of heaven with Christ13 in the bonds of His love.14
As I learn about His triune gift, its value becomes more and more apparent, and its effect more real. I see Christ crucified, who loves me and gave himself for me.15 Seeing Him on the cross with such intent in His heart removes burdensome judgments and preconceptions about who He is, allowing me to see Him as He is16– the Pearl of Great Price.17
Let’s briefly look at these three gifts – Righteousness, Sanctification, and Redemption – given to us swaddled babes by our great Triune King.18
Christ, our Righteousness.
Righteousness is the perfection of God’s nature – love – within our being.19
The Messiah, who knew no sin, became sin for humanity, absorbing it into His body and killing it as He died, so that we might become the righteousness of God in His resurrection.20
By binding us up within Christ and making Him our righteousness, God left no room for argument or boasting about our nature or His love for us. As He is, so are we21.
Christ, our Sanctification.
Sanctification is a state of dedication to God.
This state of dedication is “in Him.”22 “In Him” can be defined as one with God, in Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit.23 Sanctification is a person, not a process.24 Christ is our Father’s choice for all of humanity.25 We were set apart in the Truth; God’s word is truth. Christ is the Word and the Truth.26 In Jesus, in His body on the cross, humanity was made one being,27 representatively and mystically dedicated in and by Him to our Father in our entirety.
Again, this leaves no room for boasting in “holiness” or “consecration to God,” because He Himself has set us apart wholly to Himself, making His nature our own. He is our boast, because He has done this!
Christ, our Redemption.
To redeem is to recover something previously owned through payment or some other satisfaction.
He has bought us back from the darkness.28 We are now a new creation.29 This word, redemption, encompasses both our sanctification and righteousness. As Peter says, “We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that we may (in their experience) proclaim the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. Now…we are God’s people.”30
Again, like the other two gifts, God put us in the light in Jesus. We cannot do a thing about it, except enjoy it and glory in his goodness.
In these three truths, I found that, because we no longer live, but it is Christ who lives in us,31 we are by nature wholly good and entirely God’s.32 There is a great rest in knowing this.33 This insight opened up my heart, preparing me for an overriding and monumental truth the Lord would soon present to me…
A Prayer:
Christ, you have died for all and therefore all have died, so that we who live might no longer live for ourselves but for you who for our sake died and were raised, making us an altogether new creation. Constrain me in thus knowing your love; possess me with your love, and sweep me into ecstasies for your Goodness… for you are all, and in all.
Footnotes:
(1) 1 Cor. 13:2 (2) Mk. 8:36 (3) Ps. 36:9 (4) Col 3:11 (5) Ps 25:14 (6) Col 1:26-27, 2:2-3 (7) Gen. 18:17; Ex 32:10 (8) Lk. 16:10 (9) Jn. 15:15 (10) 1 Cor. 1:30-31 (11) 1 Cor. 1:21-31 (12) 2 Cor. 5:17, see “new,” the Greek “KAINOS” compared to “NEOS” (13) Eph 2:6 (14) Col. 3:14 (15) Gal. 2:20 (16) Jn. 14:9-11; Acts 2:37 (17) Mt. 13:45-46 (18) Mt. 2:11 (19) 1 Jn. 4:8; Gal. 5:22-23; 1 Cor. 13:1-14 (20) 2 Cor. 5:21 (21) 1 Jn. 4:17 (22) Eph. 1:5 (23) Jn. 14:20, John chapters 14-17 (24) 1 Cor. 1:30 (25) Eph. 1:5 (26) Jn. 14:6, 17:17 (27) Eph. 2:14 (28) Col. 1:13 (29) 2 Cor. 5:17 (30) 1 Pt. 2:9-10 (31) Gal. 2:20 (32) 1 Jn. 4:17; 1 Cor. 6:17; 1 Tim. 4:4 (33) Heb. 4:10
