Musings On Biblical Wisdom

The goal of Old Testament “skill in living” and New Testament “sanctification” is the same. To be remade in the image of our Creator.

            Job is about faith; faith in a God like no other god. Our God is the God that laid the foundations of the earth and causes it to rain. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the Father of our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ. John said that this same Jesus was with God and was (is) God. Paul said in Romans 1:17 that the just shall live by faith. Sanctification, like salvation, is a matter of faith, faith in a glorious God who gives and takes away.

            Psalm 1:1 sets the tone for the whole of the Psalter. “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.” Jesus said, “enter ye in at the strait gate…. because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leaded unto life”, as recorded by Matthew 7:13-14. Old or New we are to shun evil and cleave to that which is good and holy. The essence of sanctification is a skilful life in Christ.

            In Proverbs we have not just wisdom, but wisdom’s results. “My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding”…. ‘Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God” (Proverbs 2:1-2 & 5). This lines up perfectly with the noble Bereans, in Acts 17:11, that searched the scriptures daily to determine if what they were being taught was so. Sanctification is more than learning, it is applying and experiencing the result. Paul said in Romans 5:1-5 that our experience begets hope or a confident expectation in Jesus, therefore we are not ashamed.

            “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity”. Thus begins Ecclesiastes, which is an indictment on our preoccupation on the pleasures and prosperity of the world. Jesus had a lot to say about this preoccupation in the Gospels. Sanctification is the process whereby Jesus turns us into a new creature. Old things are passed away. Our love for the world and the things of the world set us at enmity with God. Yet these things fall away as we become more like Jesus. We are warned by James that our life is a vapour and that we would be better served by knowing God’s will than pursing worldly pleasure and prosperity.

            The Song of Songs describes the physical intimacy of married life. This is an area of Christian life that is often overlooked to our children’s detriment. Ephesians 5:22-25 speaks of the spiritual intimacy of married life. When a man and a wife experience both physical and spiritual intimacy they truly become one flesh and fulfil God’s plan. If we are not sanctified our marriages will not be sanctified and thus the church will not be cleansed as God intended it to be.