201. Wisdom and Insight
Ephesians 1:8Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence.
The promise is that Jesus abounds in wisdom and insight toward us. He doesn’t exactly give us wisdom, for it is His wisdom that Jesus shares with us. Jesus is the Wisdom of God. By wisdom, that is, by the Son, God created the universe. That kind of wisdom and insight He shares with us. He does indeed make us wise through the Word of God. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” “The fear of the Lord” is a solid faith in the Lord God, the Father. The Holy Spirit does grant wisdom and insight through the Word.
We always want and need wisdom; at times we actually crave it. God does not promise that we will ourselves be wiser, but He gives us Jesus, the Wisdom of God. He grants the person Himself, not just the quality. However, it is true that we will become wiser through the study of God’s Word, for therein is contained the person of Wisdom, the Son of God Himself. 2 Timothy 3:15: “The sacred writings…are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” The Holy Spirit uses the Scriptures to lead us to faith in Jesus, and so He makes us wise for salvation. The Holy Spirit graces us with salvation through the Gospel, He creates faith, and that is wise. We know how to be saved! That’s wisdom. It is wise to believe the Gospel.
When God Himself lives in us and teaches us His Word He makes wisdom and insight abound. The Spirit is the Teacher who shares insight and wisdom from the Bible almost every time we read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest it. He uncovers and discovers a lot of things that we would not know from any other source. Thus the Bible is a “revelation.” The “us” in this promise, of course, is the believers in Christ who hear the Gospel and study the Word. Searching the Scriptures will always bear fruit; wisdom will abound; and insights will be revealed. The wise life is a good life, and that’s what God promises the believer.