Reading Reflection:

The Wisdom of God, Nancy Guthrie (Crossway, 2012) This is a great Bible study from Guthrie’s series on Seeing Jesus in the Old Testament. This particular volume is dedicated to Seeing Jesus in the Psalms & Wisdom Books. I am so motivated by her beginning words on wisdom in Looking Forward: Wisdom Redeemed:

When Christ returns and completes his work of redeeming all things, we will have not only redeemed and purified bodies but also redeemed and purified emotions and thoughts. Indeed, when all things are redeemed, our now faulty and often confused wisdom will be redeemed and even glorified… As we reign with Christ [we will] make important decisions, devise plans, and share ideas. Heaven will not be the removal of the need for wise decisions but the redemption of it. Our thoughts will no longer be plagued by sinful selfishness, prideful misconceptions, impure obsessions, or poisonous cynicism. Satan will not slip into heaven to tempt us as “nothing unclean will ever enter it, not anyone who does what is detestable or false” (Rev. 21:27). While some of us may have thoughts that others don’t, and while we may have differing perspectives, we’ll be able to interact in regard to our differences in perfect love, without the blur of defensiveness or ego. Life in the new heaven and the new earth will not be a static experience of knowing but an ongoing learning experience. It will unfold before us in ages, one new era of discovery after another, with new waves of the beauty and goodness and wisdom of God washing over us (28-29).

I can’t even imagine having clear, wise thought! Isn’t it so exciting to think about the wonders of God in his creating us with diverse minds and abilities that will be renewed in Christ--all pure, sinless, and true, and yet different? We will be united in truth, and yet finally clearly wonder at the beauty of the way truth reflects into diverse applications and creations. It really makes you think about how worked up we get trying make everyone think just like us on insignificant issues, and how tolerant we are to have differing “opinions” on primary matters of unity, doesn’t it? Our sinful minds want to major in the minors. In some ways we are all a bit insane, aren’t we? I long for the day to pursue truth with all my brothers and sisters in Christ, unclouded by our own sinful and prideful proclivities. I long for that day when we will respond properly to truth, with reverent worship and praise to the One who is Wise. I long to be with Wisdom.

The Wisdom that formed the earth and everything in it, and ordered history and brought it about, and chose to use the foolish things of the world—like you and me—to accomplish his wise purposes, will no longer be hidden from our view but will have made his home with us (29).

That is truly an amazing hope.