We cannot be truly wise without understanding the Creation- Fall- Redemption narrative that God is writing. In part one we looked at the patterns of Creation. In part two we looked at how those patterns are hidden by the Fall. Today we will explore how the patterns are restored by the Person of Jesus Christ.
Without an understanding of Jesus Christ we will never be truly wise. If we focus on the patterns of Creation alone we
become Moralists. If we focus on the lack of patterns created by the Fall we become Relativists. Only Christ can allow us to understand that patterns are still relevant to our lives, while also allowing us to understand the hidden patterns that sin has created in this world. Hidden patterns like innocent suffering, and sacrificial love. Hidden patterns like the first being last and the last being first. Jesus alone allows us to find meaning in a life that often seems so meaningless.
If Proverbs is the wisdom literature that emphasizes the patterns of Creation, and Ecclesiastes is the wisdom literature that emphasizes the hidden patterns of the Fall, then Song of Songs is the wisdom literature that emphasizes the restored patterns found in the redemptive love of Christ. Two lovers making their way back to the garden, back to where everything is restored and all is right and beautiful again.
Song of Songs 6:2-3. My beloved has gone down to his garden to the beds of spices, to graze in the gardens and to gather lilies. I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine; he grazes among the lilies.
Jesus is the lover that invites us into this restored relationship with God. This restored relationship is wisdom. Wisdom is now a person that allows us to fear God and know God- to trust him with all our hearts. This person is Jesus Christ. The incarnated lover of my soul that ends the winter and brings the spring. He overwhelms the hidden patterns of the Fall with his New Creation.
Song of Songs 2: 10-13. My beloved spoke and said to me, “Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me. See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me.”
One day Jesus, the wisdom of God will restore all patterns through the New Heaven and New Earth.
Revelation 21:1-5. Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” 5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
Jesus will make everything new. No more hidden patterns. Through Jesus Christ humanity is restored to its place of imaging God and having dominion over the earth- the New Earth.
But Jesus as wisdom is not just a future promise. It is a present reality. In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3). But because we are also in Christ these treasures are not hidden to us. We have divine access to divine wisdom through our enjoined spirit with Christ.
We can now understand the deep wisdom of God. The wisdom of innocent suffering. The wisdom of sacrificial love. The wisdom of last being first and humility. All of which are foolishness to the world.
Mostly we can understand the wisdom of grace. The most foolish thing of all. That God would freely give himself for a world that rejected him and despised him. But the wisdom of God became the cross of God that revealed the grace and compassion of God. Now we can fear the Lord. We can know the Holy One. We can see what it looks like when love and holiness meet. When wrath and mercy collide. The cross. Our wisdom.
