205. Wisdom and Revelation
Ephesians 1:17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.
We have been given a spirit of wisdom and revelation; that’s a promise we may employ and enjoy. When we read and hear the Holy Scriptures the Spirit grants wisdom for life and revelation of Life. Generally, we receive revelations of Law and Gospel from the Word of God. Specifically, we receive revelations in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, so that we may know Him, and know Him better. We may constantly progress in the knowledge of Christ; we continually receive revelations about Christ, who He is, how good He is, and what He has done for us. We will never exhaust this knowledge, but we always make progress.
The inspired Scriptures make us wise unto salvation and reveal knowledge of Christ. The Spirit reveals new insights into Jesus, for which we say, “Wow, I didn’t know that before. Jesus did more for me than I ever thought. I know He is good, but not that good. Wow!” We learn to know Him more clearly as the Spirit reveals fresh insights into the Word of the Gospel. The Law tells us who we are and what we are; the Gospel tells us who Christ is and what Christ is for us. All these insights reveal wonderful things about Jesus (and bad things about us without Christ), and we grow to appreciate Him even more. The Spirit reveals Life in Christ, real, eternal, and wonderful Life.
The spirit of wisdom teaches us how to live wisely and well; and more, wisdom gives us the power and motivation to actually live rightly and wisely. For instance, we are driven to go to church, to hear the Gospel, to study the Bible and to pray. The desire to do such things is not natural to the natural man without faith in Christ. We need to believe the promise that He gives us. The spirit of wisdom is the third use of the law: a guide. After we believe the Gospel we want to know how to guide our life and make good decisions. The spirit of wisdom is the guide to a good life.