The Church: The Manifold Wisdom of God

The created order was in disarray. This disorder was deeper and more serious than the unformed and unfilled state of the original creation. While the darkness and the deeps required a great amount of wisdom and power to overcome, they were not hostile. Sin changed all that. Sin introduced a death-sting that fought to keep things separated that God intended to be unified. The sleep of Adam from which he awoke to the glory of Eve became a sleep from which he would not awake. He would lie there ripped in half without resurrection glory. He would return to the dust from which he was made.

Sin’s death was not limited to our individual bodies. This death was the enemy of life as God intended. Anything that separated what God purposed to be joined together was death that needed to be overcome. From the beginning, God purposed that all humanity be caught up in his eternal fellowship as Father, Son, and Spirit as one worldwide family. Proverbs 8.30-31 poetically allude to this as Yahweh and Wisdom mutually delight in one another and in the sons of men. This delightful union and communion are what Paul speaks of to the Ephesians when he says that God’s eternal plan revealed in Christ Jesus was to unite all things in Christ (Eph 1.9-10). Without the presence of sin, this would have been a friendly process of maturity (a truth I explained in the article Incarnation Anyway). Sin latched on to this process, fighting it tooth-and-nail, refusing to allow death to move into the resurrection of unity between God and man and man with man.

The all-wise God … the God who understands how all relationships should be and has the skills to make them so … the all-wise God had a plan and the power to execute that plan. His purpose would not be overcome, even if he had to use death as a weapon against death to accomplish his purpose.

This is, in fact, what he did. When God called Abraham out from Ur of the Chaldees and promised him that through his seed all of the nations of the earth would be blessed, he ripped humanity in half, putting it to death. Abraham’s seed, who eventually received circumcision, the mark of death, received a mission of death so that the world might come to life. This life would be nothing less than God’s original purpose of one worldwide family united to him. Israel’s mission was eventually concentrated in her king. Once Israel’s king completed the mission given to Abraham’s seed, then the blessing, the life, promised to the nations would be accomplished.

This mission has been accomplished in the Person of Jesus Christ and his body, the church. Jesus completed the mission of Israel in his death and resurrection, and his body, the church, is the place where all nations are formed into one worldwide family united to God. Paul tells us in Ephesians 3.10 that it is through the church that the manifold wisdom of God is made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. God displays how he always intended creation to relate to him in the body of Christ, the church. We are the revelation of the Wisdom of God to the world.

With this high privilege comes great responsibility. In the second half of the letter to the Ephesians Paul outlines what it looks like to live as God’s Wisdom in this world. Because God has united us in Christ, we are to strive to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Every gift that God gives the church is given to maintain and grow in this unity (Eph 4.1-16). Our unity is not merely in agreement with doctrinal propositions but also in ethos. We share the same character, the same ethics for our lifestyles. We are the renewed image of God, and our relationships must promote peace in word, attitude, and action (Eph 4.17-32). We have the same sexual ethic (Eph 5.1-14). We are a people controlled by the Spirit and not ruled by our cravings (Eph 5.15-20). Our homes are ordered according to Wisdom’s plan (Eph 5.21–6.9). None of this will come easy in a world where sin still fights against us, so we are those who take up the very armor of Yahweh (Isa 59.17) to fight against all powers that would keep separated what God has joined together.

The church is the continuing message of Christmas: God has joined himself with his creation. We are called to be faithful proclaimers of that message.