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Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 1:22-24, 30; 2:9-10; 3:11; 5:7-8; 10:3-4; 11:3; 12:12; 15:20, 45, 47; 6:17
In this chapter we will consider our experience of Christ as the reality as revealed in 1 Corinthians. This Epistle addresses many problems in the church life. The unique solution to these problems is Christ as the reality. Problems in the church life may be likened to physical illnesses that may occur when a person does not eat the proper food for a period of time. The way to solve such problems is to eat nourishing food. Christ is our rich food. Problems arise when the church lacks Christ. To save the church from problems, we need the rich experience and enjoyment of Christ. In 1 Corinthians Christ is presented as at least eighteen items.
In 1 Corinthians 1:22-24 Paul says, “Jews require signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” Religious people, such as the Jews, desire to see signs. Philosophical people, such as the Greeks, prefer to exercise their mind to obtain wisdom. Miraculous signs require power, and philosophy requires wisdom. Christ is both power and wisdom to us.
In order to run a corporation, both power and wisdom are needed. If a businessman has the capital, he has the financial power to start a corporation, but without the necessary wisdom he will lose everything. Our life may be likened to a corporation. Christ is our spiritual capital; He is the power we need. Christ is also our wisdom; He is our way. The power and wisdom we need to live our life are Christ.
Without wisdom, our way to do anything is not excellent. The excellent way is produced from wisdom. Cleverness is not the same as wisdom. Whereas cleverness is superficial and comes mainly from the human mind, wisdom comes from God and is higher than human cleverness. We need Christ as our power and our wisdom.
Verse 30 says, “Of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom to us from God: both righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” We are in Christ because we have been baptized into Him. Christ is a sphere, a realm, and a kind of situation or condition into which we have been baptized. Romans 6:3 and Galatians 3:27 both show that when we are baptized into the water, we are baptized into Christ. The water of baptism signifies not only the death of Christ but also Christ Himself. Christ, into whom we have been baptized, became wisdom to us from God as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
To be righteous is to do things in the way that God has ordained. Whatever God does is not only righteous but also righteousness. Righteousness means to be right with God and with man. The only one who can be righteous is Christ. Therefore, He is the power for us to be righteous. Christ is also the wisdom, the way, to be righteous. With Christ we have both the power and the wisdom to be right with God and with man. Before we were saved, we were unrighteous, but when we received the Lord, we received the power and the wisdom to live righteously. There is no need for someone to teach us, for Christ speaks to us from within.
When I became a believer as a young person, my living spontaneously changed. Before my younger brother and I were saved as teenagers, our mother could not control us. We were like two wild horses. After we were saved, however, we loved to read the Bible and pray. The horses became lambs. Our mother was shocked and wondered what had happened to us. Christ as the power and the wisdom of God entered into our being. We did not need anyone to teach us, because we had Christ in us as the power and the wisdom to behave properly. Many saints have a similar testimony. Others, especially our parents, may wonder what causes this great change in our living since we are not outwardly taught or regulated. The change in our living is a result not of religion but of our receiving Christ, a living person, who is the power of God and the wisdom of God. This person is righteousness. Therefore, after receiving Him, we spontaneously become righteous. Once we receive the Lord, we have Him within us as the power and the wisdom to behave in a proper way and are thus spontaneously righteous in everything. We are right with God, our parents, our siblings, and everyone. When Christ is the reality of our life, our life is a righteous life.
Sanctification is closely related to holiness. Holiness is objective and refers to God’s nature. God’s doings are righteousness, and His nature is holiness. When objective holiness becomes our subjective experience, it is sanctification. Holiness is an objective nature, and sanctification is a subjective experience. To be sanctified is to have God’s nature and to be separated unto God from anything other than God. Our living may be righteous but not yet sanctified, for we may be right with God and with man but still not separated unto God. As we grow in Christ, our life will first become righteous, and it will eventually become sanctified.
A young sister may have been dishonest before she was saved. Perhaps she took something from a department store without paying for it. This may have even become a habit of hers. After she is saved, however, she stops stealing and becomes completely honest. This is righteousness; it is Christ within her as the power and the wisdom of God. After a period of time, when she goes to the department store, the Lord may inwardly bother her when she considers buying a certain item. Something within tells her that it is not holy. Although she would be acting righteously by purchasing the item rather than stealing it, Christ within her as sanctification convicts her that it is a worldly item. This illustrates the difference between righteousness and sanctification. We enjoy Christ as power and wisdom not only for righteousness but also for sanctification. In this way we become righteous and sanctified.
We need to be not only righteous and sanctified but also redeemed. Redemption is necessary because we were created as God’s possession, but we were lost in the fall. Therefore, God had to redeem us. On the one hand, our redemption was once for all in a general way when we first believed in the Lord Jesus. On the other hand, because we were all born in a completely fallen condition, we still need to be redeemed in all the areas of our being, including our mind, emotion, and will. Our every thought needs to be redeemed. Although I have been saved for over half a century, even today I still need to be redeemed in some areas.
Christ is the power and the wisdom for us to be righteous, sanctified, and redeemed. Our life may be righteous but not fully sanctified. Our life also may be sanctified but not fully redeemed. Suppose I buy a necktie from a department store. If I pay in full, I am righteous, but if the tie is worldly, I am not sanctified. Furthermore, I may be sanctified if I buy a tie that is not worldly, but if my thoughts then become proud because my mind is natural, I still need to be redeemed in my thinking. We need to be righteous, sanctified, and redeemed. These are three aspects of our Christian living.
Every Christian should live a life that is righteous, sanctified, and redeemed. Even if we are righteous and sanctified, we still need to be redeemed. For instance, we may love others in a natural way. We may be kind to our neighbors but in a natural way. Because we have not been fully redeemed from our fallen condition, we should pray, “Lord, I need You as my power and wisdom to be righteous, sanctified, and redeemed. I do not want to remain in a fallen state, living naturally. I do not want to remain in Adam. God has transferred me into You, and I want to abide in You to be redeemed from my natural way of thinking, my natural way of loving others, and my natural way of making decisions. I do not want to express myself, Lord; I want to express only You. I need to be redeemed from my natural attitude.”
Several good Bible teachers have pointed out that righteousness, sanctification, and redemption refer to three stages of the Christian life. First, Christ became our righteousness for our past. Now Christ is sanctification for our present living. In the future, when Christ comes, our body will be redeemed. I agree with this, but I believe that righteousness, sanctification, and redemption are also three aspects of our daily Christian life. Every day we need Christ as our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Day by day Christ is the power and the wisdom for us to have such a proper Christian living that is righteous, sanctified, and redeemed.
In 1 Corinthians 2:9-10 Paul says, “As it is written, ‘Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard and which have not come up in man’s heart; things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’ But to us God has revealed them through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.” Christ is the depths, or the deep things, of God. Everything in human society is superficial. However, we enjoy something deep—Christ as the deep things of God. Christ is deeper than scientific knowledge; He is the deepest thing. Unbelievers may have education and wealth, but these things are shallow. As those who love the Lord, we enjoy something deeper. Our joy and our inner strength are deep. We are often a mystery to our unsaved friends and relatives because we have something within that is deep. It is easy to see what unbelievers have, because it is superficial, but what we have is mysterious because it is deep. They may wonder why we are joyful when we are outwardly suffering loss. We are joyful because we have Christ, the depths of God.
First Corinthians 3:11 says, “Another foundation no one is able to lay besides that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” Christ is the foundation of the church, and He should also be the foundation of our life. If we do not have Christ, our life has no foundation. When we receive Christ, take Him as our person, and begin to live Him, we have a foundation. Our life is founded on Christ. This should be our daily experience. Whatever we do and the way we live should be altogether founded on Christ. When Christ is our foundation, He is the reality of our life.
First Corinthians 5:7 says, “Purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, even as you are unleavened; for our Passover, Christ, also has been sacrificed.” We were formerly under God’s condemnation, but Christ became our Passover so that God would forgive us and so that His condemnation would pass over us. Christ being our Passover indicates that through Him we have received salvation and forgiveness.
Verse 8 says, “Let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” In the Old Testament the first of the seven feasts of the children of Israel was the Passover feast. Immediately following the Passover there was the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which lasted seven days. In this feast there was nothing leavened, signifying that there was nothing sinful, dirty, or condemned by God. We enjoy Christ as our unleavened bread. The Feast of Unleavened Bread lasting seven days indicates that every day of our Christian life is a feast and that we are in this feast our whole life. If we do not sense that we are enjoying a feast, it is because we have not purged out the leaven, the sin of our old nature. If we hate this leaven and purge it out, our Christian life will spontaneously become a feast, a sweet enjoyment.
The Lord’s table signifies both the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Lord’s table declares that sin is over and Christ has come. It indicates that we do not have any condemnation and that instead we have enjoyment. Now we are in a feast enjoying Christ, but we must hate sin and deal with it to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
In 10:3 and 4 we see Christ as our spiritual food, our spiritual drink, and our spiritual rock. Christ is the manna, and He is the living water that flows out of the cleft rock. Today our daily food and drink are Christ. The living water flowing out of the rock indicates that the rock is the source of supply. This source always follows us and supplies us with our daily need. Our supply is Christ, and our source of supply is also Christ. This source being a rock signifies that Christ is altogether dependable; we can rely on Him. Christ is our spiritual food, our spiritual drink, and our reliable source of supply, which always follows us.
First Corinthians 11:3 reveals that Christ is the Head, and 12:12 reveals that He is also the Body. Christ is both the Head and the Body, the church. Therefore, in the church there is no natural person, but Christ is all and in all (Col. 3:10-11).
First Corinthians 15 reveals four more aspects of Christ—the firstfruits (v. 20), the second man (v. 47), the last Adam (v. 45), and the life-giving Spirit (v. 45). Thus, Christ is first, second, and last. This indicates that Christ is every positive thing in the universe. Furthermore, He is the life-giving Spirit. This is the key to all the foregoing seventeen items. God’s power, God’s wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, the depths of God, our foundation, the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, our spiritual food, our spiritual drink, our rock, the Head, the Body, the firstfruits, the second man, and the last Adam are all in the life-giving Spirit. If Christ were not the life-giving Spirit, He would have nothing to do with us. If He were not the life-giving Spirit, He could not be the power of God or any of the other items to us. Our experience of Christ depends entirely upon His being the life-giving Spirit.
First Corinthians 6:17 gives us the way to experience and enjoy Christ as the life-giving Spirit. This verse says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” Christ is the life-giving Spirit, and we are joined to Him as one spirit. Christ is the reality of every positive thing, including the many items revealed in 1 Corinthians. Furthermore, because He is now the life-giving Spirit and we are one spirit with Him, everything He is can be real to us and is ours. We should not remain in our mind, emotion, or will. Rather, we need to turn to our spirit. Instead of caring for our thoughts, our love, our hatred, or our decisions, we need to constantly turn to our spirit, where Christ is. When we turn to our spirit, we meet Christ and give Him the way to spread from our spirit to our mind, emotion, and will. Then Christ will be able to settle Himself in our inner being to make His home in our heart, thereby becoming our all in all. We will have the reality and will no longer be empty. Christ is not only our life but also our reality. When Christ is our reality, He becomes our way, the way for us to live in the presence of God.
