Wednesday Wisdom #1

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” - C.S. Lewis

Welcome to the first Wednesday Wisdom from Transformed Apologetics! What is Wednesday Wisdom? Wednesday Wisdom is a weekly post that involves information related to the subject of wisdom or offers wisdom from the Word of God and other Christian sources. So, what is this week’s Wednesday Wisdom?

For this week’s Wednesday Wisdom, we begin with a quote by C.S. Lewis that describes excellently what biblical wisdom is like. Lewis says, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” What Lewis is saying here is that his Christian faith has allowed him to see everything through the lens of God's wisdom. As the BibleProject put it in their video on the book of Proverbs, seeing the world through God's wisdom allows us to properly answer the questions that relate to "what kind of world we are living in and what does it look like to live well in this world" [1]. This wisdom, which in Hebrew is Chokhmah, "is an attribute of God's character that God used to create the world and it has been woven into the fabric of things and how they work" [1]. Therefore, since wisdom is found in the true reality of all things wisdom by its nature reveals the true reality of all things. It is a source of illumination for mind and heart that allows us to see the true reality of all things "seen and unseen" (2 Corinthians 4:18, CSB). You may be wondering, how does this wisdom work?

To answer this question, it best to start back during the earliest days of humanity at the Fall. When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, they were cast out God's presence there and both a physical and spiritual veil of separation was put up between man and God. This same veil was later represented in both physical and spiritual form in the tabernacle and the temple where it separated man in the Holy Place from the presence of God in the Inner Holy of Holies [2]. For thousands of years, man was physically and spiritually separated from the holy presence of God. It was not until God sent His Son Jesus to serve as the ultimate atoning sacrifice for sin that God removed the veil between Himself and humanity. When Jesus died on the cross, the veil in the Temple that separated the Holy Place from the presence of God in the Inner Holy of Holies was torn in half providing humanity access to the presence of God. The Gospel of Matthew records that at the moment of Jesus death on the cross, "Suddenly, the curtain of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom, the earth quaked, and the rock were split" (Matthew 27:51, CSB). Through Jesus sacrificial death on the cross, God had restored the humanity's spiritual access to God.

Later on after Jesus resurrection from the dead and His ascension back into Heaven, God provided further access to God through His outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Before one accepts Jesus as their Lord and Savior by faith, their mind and heart are covered from truth with a veil of sin. The apostle Paul says in his letter to the Corinthians that "the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ" and that Gospel "is veiled to those who are perishing" (2 Corinthians 4: 3-4, CSB). Therefore, when we are still in our sin and have not redeemed by the blood of Jesus our hearts and minds are still veiled off to the truth of the Gospel and the wisdom of God. But we are not without a solution! As I previously noted, God has provided humanity further access to Himself through His outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. The book of Acts records that the disciples "were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them" (Acts 2:4, CSB). When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior through faith in His redeeming work, we too are filled with the Holy Spirit just as the disciple were at Pentecost. When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, the veil of sin that was separating our heart and mind is removed and we are granted access the presence of God in our heart and mind. The Holy Spirit then enables us to see the world through the lens of God's wisdom and truth. This is why Lewis can say that his faith allows him to see everything in the world as it truly is.

You may be wondering now, where do we start with this newfound wisdom granted to us from the Holy Spirit? I believe the book of Proverbs offers us key insight that will guide us in answering this question. Proverbs says that "The fear of the Lord is beginning of knowledge" (Proverbs 1:7, CSB). By thinking of and living toward God with awe and respect is critical to living a life of wisdom. If we respect God and are in awe of His holiness, then we will trust in His Words that are true and wise by their very nature for God is the God of wisdom and truth. We must begin each day and live out each day by submitting to God's infinite wisdom found in Him and His Word in order that we may become wise and live wisely. "Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done" says C.S. Lewis in the Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis. This daily submission is only way we can begin to live wisely. It is certainly not easy; we don't do it on our strength. God has given us His Holy Spirit to dwell inside us so that we may guide on our journey of following Him. How great is His love for us!

References: [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gab04dPs_uA

[2] https://www.learnreligions.com/the-veil-of-the-tabernacle-700116