Digression 2: Further Meditation on Christ's Excellencies

All solid wisdom laid up in Christ. True wisdom wherein it consists. Knowledge of God, in Christ only to be obtained. What of God may be known by his works. Some properties of God not discovered but in Christ only; love, mercy: others not fully but in him: as vindictive justice, patience, wisdom, all-sufficiency. No property of God savingly known but in Christ. What is required to a saving knowledge of the properties of God. No true knowledge of ourselves but in Christ. Knowledge of ourselves wherein it consists. Knowledge of sin how to be had in Christ. Also of righteousness, and of judgment. The wisdom of walking with God hid in Christ. What is required thereunto. Other pretenders to the title of wisdom, examined and rejected. Christ alone exalted.

A second consideration of the excellencies of Christ serving to endear the hearts of them who stand with him in the relation insisted on, arises from that which in the mistaken apprehension of it, is the great darling of men, and in its true notion the great aim of the saints, which is wisdom and knowledge. Let it be evinced that all true and solid knowledge is laid up in, and is only to be attained from and by the Lord Jesus Christ, and the hearts of men, if they are but true to themselves, and their most predominant principles, must needs be engaged to him. This is the great design of all men taken off from professed slavery to the world, and the pursuit of sensual, licentious courses, that they may be wise: and what ways the generality of men engage in for the compassing of that end, shall be afterwards considered. To the glory and honor of our dear Lord Jesus Christ, and the establishment of our hearts in communion with him, the design of this digression, is to evince, that all wisdom is laid up in him, and that from him alone it is to be obtained.

1 Corinthians 1:24, the Holy Ghost tells us that Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God: not the essential wisdom of God, as he is his eternal Son of the Father, upon which account he is called wisdom in the Proverbs (chapter 8:20-23), but as he is crucified (verse 23). As he is crucified, so he is the wisdom of God; that is, all that wisdom which God lays forth for the discovery, and manifestation of himself, and for the saving of sinners, which makes foolish all the wisdom of the world; that is all in Christ crucified, held out in him, by him, and to be obtained only from him; and thereby in him do we see the glory of God (2 Corinthians 3, last). For he is not only said to be the wisdom of God, but also to be made wisdom to us (1 Corinthians 1:30). He is made not by creation but ordination and appointment, wisdom unto us; not only by teaching us wisdom (by a metonymy of the effect for the cause) as he is the great prophet of his church, but also because by the knowing of him, we become acquainted with the wisdom of God, which is our wisdom; which is a metonymy of the adjunct. This however verily promised, is thus only to be had. The sum of what is contended for, is asserted in terms (Colossians 2:3): in him dwell all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

There are two things that might seem to have some color in claiming a title and interest in this business. First, civil wisdom and prudence, for the management of affairs. Second, ability of learning and literature, but God rejects both these as of no use at all to the end and intent of true wisdom indeed. There is in the world that which is called understanding, but it comes to nothing: there is that which is called wisdom, but it is turned into folly (1 Corinthians 1:19-20). God brings to nothing the understanding of the prudent, and makes foolish the wisdom of the world. And if there be neither wisdom nor knowledge (as doubtless there is not) without the knowledge of God (Jeremiah 8:9), it is all shut up in the Lord Christ. John 1:18, no man has seen God at any time, the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father he has revealed him. He is nor seen at any other time (John 5:37), nor known upon any other account, but only the revelation of the Son: he has manifested him from his own bosom: and therefore (verse 9) it is said that he is the true light that lights every man that comes into the world. The true light which has it in himself, and none has any but from him, and all have it who come unto him: he who does not so, is in darkness.

First, the sum of all true wisdom and knowledge, may be reduced to these three heads.

- 1. The knowledge of God, his nature, and his properties. - 2. The knowledge of ourselves in reference to the will of God concerning us. - 3. Skill to walk in communion with God.

The knowledge of the works of God, and the chief end of all, does necessarily attend these. In these three is summed up all true wisdom and knowledge; and not any of them is to any purpose to be obtained, or is manifested, but only in and by the Lord Christ.

God by the work of the creation, by the creation itself, did reveal himself in many of his properties, unto his creatures capable of his knowledge; his power, his goodness, his wisdom, his all-sufficiency, are thereby known: this the apostle asserts (Romans 1:19-21). Verse 19, he calls it that which may be known of God; verse 20, that is, his eternal power and Godhead; and verse 21, a knowing of God: and all this by the creation. But yet there are some properties of God, which all the works of creation cannot in any measure reveal, or make known; as his patience, long-suffering, and forbearance. For all things being made good, there could be no place for the exercise of any of these properties, or manifestation of them. The whole fabric of heaven and earth considered in itself, as at first created, will not discover any such thing as patience and forbearance in God; which yet are eminent properties of his nature, as himself proclaims and declares (Exodus 34:6-7).

Wherefore the Lord goes further; and by the works of his providence in preserving and ruling the world which he made, discovers and reveals these properties also. For whereas by cursing the earth, and filling all the elements oftentimes with signs of his anger and indignation, he has as the apostle tells us (Romans 1:18) revealed from heaven his wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, yet not proceeding immediately to destroy all things, he has manifested his patience and forbearance to all: this Paul (Acts 14:16-17) tells us he suffered all nations to walk in their own ways, yet he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness. A large account of his goodness and wisdom herein, the Psalmist gives us (Psalm 104) throughout. By these ways he bore witness to his own goodness and patience: and so it is said, he endures with much long suffering, etc. (Romans 9:22). But now here all the world is at a stand: by all this they have but an obscure glimpse of God, and see not so much as his back parts. Moses saw not that until he was put into the rock, and that rock was Christ. There are some of the most eminent and glorious properties of God, (I mean in the manifestation whereof he will be most glorious, otherwise his properties are not to be compared) that there is not the least glimpse to be attained of, out of the Lord Christ, but only by, and in him; and some that comparatively we have no light of, but in him, and of all the rest no true light, but by him.

Of the first sort, whereof not the least guess and imagination can enter into the heart of man but only by Christ, are love, and pardoning mercy.

1. Love: I mean love unto sinners. Without this man is of all creatures most miserable; and there is not the least glimpse of it that can possibly be discovered but in Christ: the Holy Ghost says (1 John 4:8, 16) God is Love: that is not only of a loving and tender nature; but one that will exercise himself in a dispensation of his love, eternal love towards us: one that has purposes of love for us from of old, and will fulfill them all towards us in due season. But how is this demonstrated, how may we attain an acquaintance with it? He tells us verse 9, in this was manifested the love of God, because God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. This is the only discovery that God has made, of any such property in his nature, or of any thought of exercising it towards sinners, in that he has sent Jesus Christ into the world that we might live by him; where now is the wise, where is the scribe, where is the disputer of this world, with all their wisdom? Their voice must be that of the hypocrites in Zion (Isaiah 33:14-15). That wisdom which cannot teach me that God is Love, shall ever pass for folly. Let men go to the sun, moon and stars, to showers of rain and fruitful seasons, and answer truly, what by them, they learn hereof? Let them not think themselves wiser or better than those that went before them, who, to a man, got nothing by them, but being left without excuse.

2. Pardoning mercy or grace; without this even his love would be fruitless. What discovery may be made of this by a sinful man, may be seen in the father of us all; who when he had sinned had no reserve for mercy, but hid himself (Genesis 3:8). He did it when the wind did but a little blow at the presence of God; and he did it foolishly thinking to hide himself among trees (Psalm 139:7-8). The law was given by Moses, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ (John 1:17). Grace in the truth and substance; pardoning mercy that comes by Christ alone: that pardoning mercy which is manifested in the gospel, and wherein God will be glorified to all eternity (Ephesians 1:6). I mean not that general mercy, that velleity of acceptance which some put their hopes in, that which to ascribe unto God is the greatest dishonor that can be done him) shines not with one ray out of Christ; it is wholly treasured up in him, and revealed by him. Pardoning mercy is God's free gracious acceptance of a sinner upon satisfaction made to his justice in the blood of Jesus. Nor is any discovery of it, but as relating to the satisfaction of justice, consistent with the glory of God. It is a mercy of inconceivable condescension in forgiveness, tempered with exact justice and severity. Romans 3:25, God is said, to set forth Christ to be a propitiation in his blood to declare his righteousness in the forgiveness of sins: his righteousness is also manifested in the business of forgiveness of sins; and therefore it is everywhere said to be wholly in Christ (Ephesians 1:7). So that this gospel grace, and pardoning mercy is alone purchased by him, and revealed in him. And this was the main end of all typical institutions, to manifest that remission, and forgiveness is wholly wrapped up in the Lord Christ, and that out of him there is not the least conjecture to be made of it, nor the least morsel to be tasted. Had not God set forth the Lord Christ, all the angels in heaven and men on earth could not have apprehended, that there had been any such thing in the nature of God, as this grace, of pardoning mercy. The apostle asserts the full manifestation, as well as the exercise of this mercy to be in Christ only (Titus 3:4-5). After that the kindness and love of God our Savior towards man appeared; namely in the sending of Christ, and the declaration of him in the gospel, then was this pardoning mercy, and salvation not by works discovered.

These are those properties of God of which there is not the least glimpse to be obtained except in Christ. Whoever does not know him by these, does not know him at all. He who does not have the Son does not have the Father, 1 John 2:23. He is known as a Father only as he is love and full of pardoning mercy in Christ. How this is to be had the Holy Spirit tells us in 1 John 5:20: the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we may know him that is true. By him alone we have our understanding to know him that is true. Christ reveals these properties in his doctrine as the great prophet of the church, John 17:6. But the life of this knowledge lies in an acquaintance with his person, in whom the express image and beams of this glory of his Father shine forth, Hebrews 1:3.

There are other properties of God which, though otherwise discovered, are only clearly, eminently, and savingly known in Jesus Christ — namely:

1. His punishing justice in punishing sin. 2. His patience, forbearance, and long-suffering toward sinners. 3. His wisdom in managing things for his own glory. 4. His all-sufficiency in himself and toward others.

All these, though they may receive some lower manifestations outside of Christ, yet shine clearly only in him, so that it may be our wisdom to be acquainted with them.

First, his punishing justice.

God has indeed many ways manifested his indignation and anger against sin, so that men cannot but know that it is the judgment of God that they who commit such things are worthy of death, Romans 1:32. He has in the law threatened to kindle a fire in his anger that shall burn to the very heart of hell. In many providential dispensations his wrath is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness, Romans 1:18. Consider how the angels for sin were cast from heaven, shut up under chains of everlasting darkness until the judgment of the great day. Consider how Sodom and Gomorrah were condemned and burned to ashes as examples to those who afterward would live ungodly, 2 Peter 2:6. But far more clearly does this shine in the Lord Christ.

In him God has manifested the naturalness of this righteousness, in that it was impossible it should be diverted from sinners without the interposing of a propitiation. Those who lay the necessity of satisfaction merely on a free act and determination of the will of God leave no just and indispensable foundation for the death of Christ. But plainly, in that God spared not his only Son but made his soul an offering for sin and would admit of no atonement but in his blood, he has abundantly manifested that it is of necessity to him — his holiness and righteousness requiring it — to render indignation and wrath to sin. The true and useful knowledge of punishing justice is this knowledge of its naturalness and the necessity of its execution. To look upon it as something God may exercise or forbear makes his justice not a property of his nature but a free act of his will. A will to punish where one may do otherwise without injustice is rather ill will than justice.

In the penalty inflicted on Christ for sin, this justice is far more gloriously manifested than otherwise. To see indeed a world made good and beautiful, wrapped up in wrath and curses, clothed with thorns and briars — to see the whole beautiful creation made subject to vanity, given up to the bondage of corruption, to hear it groan in pain under that burden — gives some insight into this thing. To consider legions of angels, most glorious and immortal creatures, cast down into hell, bound with chains of darkness, and reserved for a more dreadful judgment for one sin — to view the ocean of blood of souls spilled to eternity on this account — will give some light into it. But what is all this to that view of it which may be had by a spiritual eye in the Lord Christ? All these things are but worms and of no value in comparison of him. To see him who is the wisdom and power of God, always beloved of the Father — to see him fear, and tremble, and bow, and sweat, and pray, and die — to see him lifted up on the cross, the earth trembling under him as if unable to bear his weight, and the heavens darkened over him as if shut against his cry, and himself hanging between both as if refused by both, and all this because our sins met upon him — this of all things most abundantly manifests the severity of God's punishing justice. Here, or nowhere, is it to be learned.

His patience, forbearance, and long-suffering toward sinners: there are many glimpses of the patience of God in the works of his providence, but all exceedingly beneath that discovery of it which we have in Christ — especially in these three things.

1. The manner of its discovery; this indeed is evident to all that God does not ordinarily, immediately punish men upon their offenses. It may be learned from his constant way in governing the world; notwithstanding all provocations; yet he does good to men, causing his sun to shine upon them, sending them rain and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness. From this it was easy for them to conclude, that there was in him abundance of goodness and forbearance, but all this is yet in much darkness, being the result of men's reasonings from their observations; yea the management of it has been such, as that it has proved a snare almost universally unto them towards whom it has been exercised (Ecclesiastes 8:11), as well as a temptation to them who have looked on (Job 21:7; Psalm 73:2-4; Jeremiah 12:1; Habakkuk 1:13). The discovery of it in Christ, is utterly of another nature. In him the very nature of God is discovered to be love and kindness, and that he will exercise the same to sinners, he has promised, sworn, and solemnly engaged himself by covenant. And that we may not hesitate about the aim which he has herein, there is a stable bottom and foundation of acting suitably to those gracious properties of his nature, held forth: namely the reconciliation and atonement that is made in the blood of Christ. Whatever discovery were made of the patience and lenity of God unto us, yet if it were not withal revealed, that the other properties of God, as his justice and revenge for sin, had their actings also assigned to them to the full, there could be little consolation gathered from the former. And therefore though God may teach men his goodness and forbearance, by sending them rain and fruitful seasons, yet withal at the same time upon all occasions revealing his wrath from heaven against the ungodliness of men (Romans 1:18), it is impossible that they should do anything, but miserably fluctuate and tremble at the event of these dispensations. And yet this is the best that men can have out of Christ, the utmost they can attain unto. With the present possession of good things administered in this patience, men might and did for a season take up their thoughts, and satiate themselves; but yet they were not in the least delivered from the bondage they were in by reason of death, and the darkness attending it. The law reveals no patience or forbearance in God: it speaks, as to the issue of transgressions, nothing but sword and fire, had not God interposed by an act of sovereignty. But now, as was said, with that revelation of forbearance which we have in Christ, there is also a discovery of the satisfaction of his justice and wrath against sin, so that we need not fear any actings from them, to interfere with the works of his patience, which are so sweet unto us. Hence God is said to be in Christ reconciling the world to himself (2 Corinthians 5:19), manifesting himself in him, as one that has now no more to do, for the manifestation of all his attributes, that is, for the glorifying of himself, but only to forbear, reconcile, and pardon sin in him.

2. In the nature of it; what is there in that forbearance, which out of Christ is revealed? Merely a not immediate punishing upon the offense; and withal giving and continuing temporal mercies; such things as men are prone to abuse, and may perish with their bosoms full of them, to eternity. That which lies hid in Christ, and is revealed from him, is full of love, sweetness, tenderness, kindness, grace. It is the Lord's waiting to be gracious to sinners: waiting for an advantage to show love and kindness for the most eminent endearing of a soul unto himself (Isaiah 30:18). Therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you. Neither is there any revelation of God, that the soul finds more sweetness in, than this. When it is experimentally convinced, that God from time to time has passed by many innumerable iniquities; he is astonished to think that God should do so, and admires that he did not take the advantage of his provocations, to cast him out of his presence. He finds that with infinite wisdom in all long suffering he has managed all his dispensations towards him, to recover him from the power of the devil, to rebuke and chasten his spirit for sin, to endear him unto himself; there is, I say, nothing of greater sweetness to the soul than this. And therefore the apostle says (Romans 3:25) that all is through the forbearance of God: God makes way for complete forgiveness of sins, through this his forbearance; which the other does not.

3. They differ in their ends and aims. What is the aim and design of God in the dispensation of that forbearance, which is manifested, and may be discovered out of Christ? The apostle tells us (Romans 9:22), "What if God willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction?" It was but to leave them inexcusable, that his power, and wrath against sin, might be manifested in their destruction. And therefore he calls it, a suffering of them to walk in their own ways (Acts 14:16), which elsewhere he holds out as a most dreadful judgment, to wit, in respect of that issue whereto it will certainly come, as (Psalm 81:12), "I gave them up to their lusts, and they walked in their own counsels," which is as dreadful a condition as a creature is capable of falling into, in this world. And (Acts 17:30), he calls it a winking at the sins of their ignorance; as it were, taking no care nor thought of them in their dark condition, as it appears by the antithesis, "but now he commands all men everywhere to repent." He did not take so much notice of them then, as to command them to repent, by any clear revelation of his mind and will. And therefore the exhortation of the apostle (Romans 2:4), "and do you despise the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?" is spoken to the Jews, who had advantages to learn the natural tendency of that goodness and forbearance which God exercises in Christ, which indeed leads to repentance, or else he does in general intimate, that in very reason, men ought to make another use of those things, than usually they do, and which he charges them with (verse 5), "but after your hardness and impenitent heart," etc. At best then the patience of God unto men out of Christ, by reason of their own incorrigible stubbornness, proves but like the waters of the river Phasis, that are sweet at the top, and bitter in the bottom: they swim for a while in the sweet and good things of this life (Luke 16:25), wherewith being filled, they sink to the depth of all bitterness.

But now evidently and directly, the end of that patience and forbearance of God, which is exercised in Christ, and discovered in him to us, is, the saving and bringing unto God, those, towards whom he is pleased to exercise them. And therefore Peter tells you (2 Peter 3:9), that he is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance, that is, all us towards whom he exercises forbearance, for that is the end of it, that his will concerning our repentance and salvation, may be accomplished: and the nature of it with its end is well expressed (Isaiah 54:9), "This is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more cover the earth, so have I sworn, that I would not be wroth," etc. It is God's taking a course in his infinite wisdom and goodness, that we shall not be destroyed notwithstanding our sins: and therefore (Romans 15:5), these two things are laid together, in God, as coming together from him, the God of patience and consolation: his patience is a matter of the greatest consolation. And this is another property of God, which though it may break forth in some rays to some ends and purposes in other things, yet the treasures of it are hid in Christ, and none is acquainted with it unto any spiritual advantage, that learns it not in him.

Third, his wisdom — his infinite wisdom — in managing things for his own glory, and the good of those toward whom he has thoughts of love. The Lord has laid out and manifested infinite wisdom in his works of creation, providence, and governing of the world. In wisdom has he made all his creatures; how manifold are his works! the earth is full of his riches (Psalm 104:24). So in his providence, his sustaining and guidance of all things in order to one another and his own glory unto the ends appointed for them; for all these things come forth from the Lord of Hosts, who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working (Isaiah 28:29). His law also is forever to be admired for the excellency of the wisdom therein (Deuteronomy 4:7-8). But yet there is that which Paul is astonished at — which he calls the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God (Romans 11:33) — that is only hidden in and revealed by Christ. Hence as Christ is said to be the wisdom of God and to be made wisdom to us, so the design of God carried along in him and revealed in the gospel is called the wisdom of God and a mystery — even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world was, which none of the princes of this world knew (1 Corinthians 2:7-8). In Ephesians 3:10 it is called the manifold wisdom of God — and to discover the depth and riches of this wisdom, Paul tells us that principalities and powers, even angels themselves, could not in the least measure get any acquaintance with it until God by gathering a church of sinners actually discovered it. Peter informs us that these angels, who are so well acquainted with all the works of God, yet bow down and desire with earnestness to look into these things — the things of the wisdom of God in the gospel (1 Peter 1:13). It asks a man much wisdom to make a curious work, fabric, and building; but if one shall come and deface it, to raise up the same building to more beauty and glory than ever — this is excellency of wisdom indeed. God in the beginning made all things good, glorious, and beautiful; when all things had in innocency and beauty the clear impress of his wisdom and goodness upon them, they were very glorious. Especially man, who was made for his special glory. Now all this beauty was defaced by sin, and the whole creation rolled up in darkness, wrath, curses, and confusion; and the great praise of God buried in the heaps of it. Man especially was utterly lost and came short of the glory of God for which he was created (Romans 3:23). Here now does the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God open itself: a design in Christ shines out from his bosom, lodged there from eternity, to recover things to such an estate as shall be exceedingly to the advantage of his glory, infinitely above what at first appeared, and for the putting of sinners into an inconceivably better condition than they were in before the entrance of sin. He appears now glorious, he is known to be a God pardoning iniquity and sin, and advances the riches of his grace, which was his design (Ephesians 1:6). He has infinitely vindicated his justice also in the face of men, angels, and devils, in setting forth his Son as a propitiation. It is also to our advantage: we are more fully established in his favor, and are carried on toward a more exceeding weight of glory than formerly was revealed. Hence was that ejaculation of one of the ancients: O felix culpa, quae talem meruit Redemptorem — O happy fault, which merited such a Redeemer! Thus Paul tells us, great is the mystery of godliness (1 Timothy 3:16), and that without controversy. We receive grace for grace — for that grace lost in Adam, better grace in Christ. Of the love of Christ to his church and his union with it to carry on this business, the apostle says this is a great mystery (Ephesians 5:32) — great wisdom lies herein.

So then, this also is hidden in Christ: the great and unspeakable riches of the wisdom of God in pardoning sin, saving sinners, satisfying justice, fulfilling the law, repairing his own honor, and providing for us a more exceeding weight of glory. And all this out of such a condition as wherein it was impossible that it should enter into the hearts of angels or men how ever the glory of God should be repaired, and one sinning creature delivered from everlasting ruin. Hence it is said that at the last day God shall be glorified in his saints and admired in all them that believe (2 Thessalonians 1:10) — it shall be an admirable thing, and God shall be forever glorious in it, even in the bringing of believers to himself. To save sinners through believing shall be found to be a far more admirable work than to create the world from nothing.

Fourth, his all-sufficiency is the last of this sort that I shall name.

God's all-sufficiency in himself is his absolute and universal perfection, whereby nothing is wanting in him and nothing can be added to his fullness, nor can any decrease or wasting happen to it. There is also in him an all-sufficiency for others, which is his power to impart and communicate his goodness and himself so to them as to satisfy and fill them in their utmost capacity with whatever is good and desirable to them. For the first of these — his all-sufficiency in the outward effect of it — God abundantly manifested this in the creation, in that he made all things good, all things perfect in their own kind, and put a stamp of his own goodness upon them all. But for the latter — his giving himself as an all-sufficient God to be enjoyed by creatures, to hold out all that is in him for the satisfying and making them blessed — that is discovered alone in and by Christ. In him God is a Father, a God in covenant, wherein he has promised to lay out himself for them; in him has he promised to give himself into their everlasting enjoyment as their exceeding great reward.

And so I have insisted on the second sort of properties in God, of which, though we have some obscure glimpse in other things, the clear knowledge of them and acquaintance with them is only to be had in the Lord Christ.

What remains is to declare briefly that no property of God whatever can be known savingly and to consolation except in Christ. So consequently all the wisdom of the knowledge of God is hid in him alone, and from him alone it is to be obtained.

There is no saving knowledge of any property of God, nor such as brings consolation, except what alone is to be had in Christ Jesus. Some consider the justice of God and know that it is his righteousness that those who do such things as sin are worthy of death, Romans 1:32. But this only makes them cry, who among us shall dwell with that devouring fire? Isaiah 33:14. Others fix upon his patience, goodness, mercy, and forbearance, but it does not at all lead them to repentance. They despise the riches of his goodness and after their hardness and impenitent hearts treasure up wrath against the day of wrath, Romans 2:3-4. Others by the very works of creation and providence come to know his eternal power and Godhead, but they do not glorify him as God nor are thankful — their foolish hearts are darkened, Romans 1:20. Whatever discovery men have of truth outside of Christ, they hold it captive under unrighteousness.

That we may have a saving knowledge of the properties of God attended with consolation, three things are required.

1. That God has manifested the glory of them all in a way of doing good to us.

2. That he will yet exercise and lay them out to the utmost in our behalf.

3. That being so manifested and exercised, they are fit and powerful to bring us to the everlasting enjoyment of himself, which is our blessedness. Now all three of these lie hid in Christ, and the least glimpse of them outside of him is not to be obtained.

This is to be received: that God has actually manifested the glory of all his attributes in a way of doing us good. What will it benefit our souls to know that he is infinitely righteous, just, and holy, unchangeably true and faithful, if we do not know how he may preserve the glory of his justice and faithfulness in his threats but only in our ruin and destruction? If we can from thence only say it is a righteous thing with him to recompense tribulation to us for our iniquities — what fruit of this consideration had Adam in the garden, Genesis 3? What sweetness is there in knowing he is patient and full of forbearance, if the glory of these is to be exalted in enduring the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction? Nay, what will it benefit us to hear him proclaim himself the Lord God, merciful and gracious, abundant in goodness and truth, yet who will by no means clear the guilty — so shutting up the exercise of all his other properties toward us on account of our iniquity? Doubtless nothing at all. Under this naked consideration of the properties of God: justice will make men fly and hide, Genesis 3, Isaiah 2:21; patience renders them obdurate, Ecclesiastes 8:11; holiness utterly deters them from all thoughts of approaching him, Joshua 24:19. What relief have we from thoughts of his immensity and omnipresence if we have no pledge of his gracious presence with us, Psalm 139:11-12? This is that which brings salvation — when we see that God has glorified all his properties in a way of doing us good. This he has done in Jesus Christ. In him he has made his justice glorious in making all our iniquities meet upon him, not sparing him but giving him up to death for us all, so exalting his justice and indignation against sin in a way of freeing us from the condemnation of it, Romans 3:25 and Romans 8:33-34. In him he has made his truth glorious in the exact accomplishment of all his absolute threats and promises. The original threat of Genesis 2:17 — in the day you eat thereof you shall surely die — seconded with a curse, Deuteronomy 27:26, is in Christ accomplished and fulfilled, and his truth laid in a way to our good. He by the grace of God tasted death for us, Hebrews 2:9, and delivered us who were subject to death, verse 14; he fulfilled the curse by being made a curse for us, Galatians 3:13. For his promises, they are all yes and in him Amen, to the glory of God by us, 2 Corinthians 1:20. God has set him forth to declare his righteousness for the forgiveness of sin — he has made way forever to exalt the glory of his pardoning mercy toward sinners. There our souls must come to an acquaintance with them, or forever live in darkness.

This is a saving knowledge full of consolation — when we can see all the properties of God made glorious and exalted in a way of doing us good. This wisdom is hid only in Jesus Christ. When he desired his Father to glorify his name, John 12:28, to make glorious all his nature, his properties, his will in that work of redemption, he was instantly answered from heaven: I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.

Second, that God will yet exercise and lay out those properties of his to the utmost in our behalf. Though he has made them all glorious in a way that may tend to our good, it does not absolutely follow that he will use them for our good. Therefore further, God has committed all his properties into the hand of Christ to be managed in our behalf and for our good. He is the power of God and the wisdom of God; he is the Lord our righteousness and is made unto us of God wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption. Christ having glorified his Father in all his attributes, he now has the exercise of them committed to him, that he might be the captain of salvation to those who believe. So if in the righteousness, the goodness, the love, the mercy, the all-sufficiency of God there is anything that will do us good, the Lord Jesus is fully entrusted with the dispensing of it in our behalf. God is said to be in him reconciling the world to himself, 2 Corinthians 5:18. And he becomes the Lord our righteousness, Isaiah 45:24-25.

Third, there remains only to show that these attributes of God, so manifested and exercised, are powerful and able to bring us to the everlasting enjoyment of him. To demonstrate this, the Lord wraps up the whole covenant of grace in one promise: I will be your God. In the covenant God becomes our God, and we are his people, and thereby all his attributes are ours also. Lest we should doubt when we see the inconceivable difficulty on all hands against us, God wraps it up in this expression: Genesis 17:1, I am God Almighty, all-sufficient. I am wholly able to perform all my undertakings and to be your exceeding great reward. I can remove all difficulties, answer all objections, pardon all sins, conquer all opposition — I am God all-sufficient. You know in whom this covenant and all the promises are ratified, and in whose blood it is confirmed: in the Lord Christ alone. In him only is God an all-sufficient God to any, and an exceeding great reward. Hence Christ himself is said to save to the utmost those who come to God by him, Hebrews 7:25. These three things are required to be known that we may have a saving acquaintance with any of the properties of God, and all three being hid only in Christ, from him alone it is to be obtained.

This then is the first part of our first demonstration that all true and sound wisdom and knowledge is laid up in the Lord Christ and from him alone to be obtained: because our wisdom consisting in a main part of it in the knowledge of God, his nature, and his properties, this lies wholly hid in Christ and cannot possibly be obtained except by him.

For the knowledge of ourselves, which is the second part of our wisdom, this consists in three things which our Savior sends his Spirit to convince the world of: sin, righteousness, and judgment, John 16:8. To know ourselves in reference to these three is a main part of true and sound wisdom, for they all relate to the supernatural and immortal end to which we are appointed. None of these can we attain except only in Christ.

First, in respect of sin. There is a sense and knowledge of sin left in the consciences of all men by nature, to tell them what is good and evil, and to approve and disapprove of what they do in reference to a judgment to come. But this is obscure and relates mostly to greater sins. In sum, it is as the apostle gives in Romans 1:32: they know the judgment of God, that they who do such things are worthy of death. And if it is true that no nation is so barbarous but retains some sense of a deity, then also no nation lacks a sense of sin and the displeasure of God for it. Hence were all the sacrifices, purgings, and expiations which were so generally spread over the face of the earth. But this was and is but very dark compared with that knowledge of sin which is to be obtained.

A further knowledge of sin upon all accounts is given by the law, which was added because of transgressions. This revives doctrinally all that sense of good and evil which was at first implanted in man. It is a mirror in which whoever is able spiritually to look may see sin in all its ugliness and deformity. Look upon the law in its purity, holiness, compass, and perfection — its manner of delivery with dread, terror, thunder, and earthquakes — and it makes a wonderful discovery of sin upon every account. But yet all this does not suffice to give a man a true and thorough conviction of sin. Not that the mirror is unclear, but of ourselves we have not eyes to look into it. Therefore Christ sends his Spirit to convince the world of sin, John 16:8, whose work of conviction is the peculiar work of Christ in us. So the discovery of sin may be said to be by Christ, part of the wisdom hid in him. But there is a twofold further regard in which this wisdom appears to be hid in him.

First, because there are some near concerns of sin which are more clearly held out in the Lord Christ being made sin for us than any other way.

Second, in that there is no knowledge to be had of sin so as to give it a spiritual and saving improvement, except only in him.

For the first: there are four things in sin that clearly shine out in the cross of Christ. 1. The desert of it. 2. Man's inability by reason of it. 3. The death of it. 4. A new end put to it.

The desert of sin clearly shines in the cross of Christ on two accounts. First, of the person suffering for it; second, of the penalty he underwent.

Of the person suffering: God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son, John 3:16. It was his only Son that God sent into the world to suffer for sin. He spared not his only Son but gave him up to death for us all, Romans 8:32. To see a slave corrected argues a fault committed, but perhaps not great. The correction of a son argues a great provocation; that of an only son, the greatest imaginable. Never was sin seen to be more abominably sinful than when the burden of it was upon the shoulders of the Son of God. God having made his Son the Son of his love, his only begotten, sin for us, to manifest his indignation against it, he laid hand on him and spared him not. If sin be imputed to the dear Son of his bosom, as upon his own voluntary assumption of it, he will not spare him any of the due desert of it. Is it not most clear from the blood of the cross of Christ that such is the desert of sin that it is altogether impossible that God should pass by any, the least, unpunished? If he would have done it for any, he would have done it in reference to his only Son — but he spared him not.

Moreover, God is not at all delighted with the blood, the tears, the cries, the inexpressible torments and sufferings of the Son of his love. He required only that his law be fulfilled, his justice satisfied, his wrath atoned for sin, and nothing less than all this would bring it about. If the debt of sin might have been settled at a cheaper rate, it had never been held at the price of the blood of Christ. Here then, soul, take a view of the desert of sin, more evident than in all the threats and curses of the law. I thought indeed from the law that sin on a poor worm like me was worthy of death — but that it should have this effect if charged on the Son of God, that I never once imagined.

Consider also what he suffered. For though he was so excellent a one, yet perhaps it was but a light affliction and trial that he underwent — especially considering the strength he had to bear it. Whatever it was, it made this fellow of the Lord of Hosts, this Lion of the tribe of Judah, this mighty one — the wisdom and power of God — to tremble, sweat, cry, pray, and wrestle with strong supplications. Some Popish devotionists tell us that one drop, the least of the blood of Christ, was abundantly enough to redeem all the world; but they err, not knowing the desert of sin nor the severity of the justice of God. If one drop less than was shed, one pang less than was laid on, would have done it, those other drops would not have been shed, nor those other pangs laid on. God did not cruciate the dearly beloved of his soul for nothing. But there is more than all this.

It pleased God to bruise him, to put him to grief, to make his soul an offering for sin, and to pour out his life to death. He hid himself from him, was far from the voice of his cry, until he cried out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He made him sin and a curse for us, executed on him the sentence of the law, brought him into an agony in which he sweat thick drops of blood, and his soul was heavy to the point of death. He who was the power of God and the wisdom of God went stooping under the burden until the whole frame of nature seemed astonished at it. If you would see the true desert of sin, take the measure of it from the cross of Christ. It brought him who was the Son of God, equal to God, God blessed forever, into the form of a servant. It pursued him all his life with afflictions and persecutions, and lastly brought him under the rod of God — bruised him, broke him, slew the Lord of life. Hence is deep humiliation for sin on account of him whom we have pierced.

The wisdom of understanding our inability by reason of sin is wrapped up in him. By our inability I understand two things.

1. Our inability to make any atonement with God for sin.

2. Our inability to answer his mind and will in all or any of the obedience that he requires by reason of sin.

For the first — that our inability to make atonement is discovered alone in Christ. Many inquiries have the sons of men made after an atonement, many ways have they entered into to accomplish it. After this they inquire, as Micah 6:6-7: will any manner of sacrifices — though appointed of God, as burnt offerings and calves of a year old; though very costly, thousands of rams and ten thousands of rivers of oil; though dreadful and against nature, as giving one's children to the fire — will any of these things make an atonement? David determines the matter positively in Psalm 49:7-8: none of the best or richest of men can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him, for the redemption of their souls is precious, and it ceases forever. It cannot be done; no atonement can be made. Yet men would still be doing, still attempting; hence did they heap up sacrifices, some costly, some bloody and inhuman. The Jews to this day think that God is appeased for sin by the sacrifices of bulls and goats; and the Socinians acknowledge no atonement but what consists in men's repentance and new obedience. In the cross of Christ the mouths of all are stopped as to this thing.

First, God has there discovered that no sacrifices for sin, though of his own appointment, could ever make perfect those who offered them, Hebrews 10:11. Those sacrifices could never take away sin. Those services could never make them perfect as to the conscience, Hebrews 9:9. The Lord therefore rejects all sacrifices and offerings whatever as to any such end, Hebrews 10:6-8. Christ in their stead says, Lo, I come, and by him we are justified from all things from which we could not be justified by the law, Acts 13:34. God in Christ has condemned all sacrifices as wholly insufficient in the least to make an atonement for sin.

Second, he has also written vanity on all other endeavors whatever that have been undertaken for that purpose, by setting forth his only Son as a propitiation, Romans 3:24-26. He leaves no doubt that in themselves men could make no atonement. For if righteousness were by the law, then was Christ dead in vain. To what purpose should he be made a propitiation were we not ourselves weak and without strength for any such purpose? So the apostle argues in Romans 5:6 and 5:8-9.

This wisdom then is also hid in Christ. Men may see by other helps perhaps far enough to fill them with dread and astonishment, as those in Isaiah 33:14. But such a sight and view of sin as may lead a soul to any comfortable settlement — that is discovered only in this treasury of heaven, the Lord Jesus.

Our inability to answer the mind and will of God in all or any of the obedience he requires is only to be discovered in him. To teach a man that he cannot do what he ought to do, and for which he condemns himself if he does not do it, is no easy task. Man rises up with all his power to plead against a conviction of inability. Not to mention the proud conceits and expressions of the philosophers, how many who would be called Christians still creep by several degrees in the persuasion of a power of fulfilling the law. Nature will not teach this inability — it is proud and conceited, and it is one part of its pride not to know it at all. The law will not teach it, for though it shows us what we have done amiss, it will not discover that we could not do better. Yea by requiring exact obedience, it takes for granted that such power is in us. This lies hid in the Lord Jesus, Romans 8:2-4. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us. First, sin is condemned as to its guilt, and we are set free: the righteousness of the law by his obedience is fulfilled in us, who could never do it ourselves. Second, that obedience which is required of us, his Spirit works in us. What need have we of his perfect obedience being made ours, but that we have not and cannot attain any? What need have we of his Spirit of life to quicken us, but that we are dead in trespasses and sins?

Third, the death of sin — sin dying in us now in some measure while we are alive. This is a third concern of sin which it is our wisdom to be acquainted with, and it is hid only in Christ. There is a twofold dying of sin. First, as to the exercise of it in our mortal members. Second, as to the root, principle, and power of it in our souls. The first may be learned in part outside of Christ — sinless men may have sin dying as to the outward exercise of it. But there is a dying of sin as to the root and daily decaying of the strength, power, and life of it, and this is to be had alone in Christ. Sin is a thing that of itself is not apt to die or decay but to get ground, and strength, and life in the subject in which it is, to eternity. In believers it is still dying and decaying until it is utterly abolished. Romans 6:3-7: Know you not that as many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that from now on we should not serve sin. He was crucified for us and thereby sin was crucified in us. He died for us and the body of sin is destroyed that we should not serve sin. As he was raised from the dead that death should not have dominion over him, so also are we raised from sin that it should not have dominion over us. This wisdom is hid in Christ only. To be truly acquainted with the principle of the dying of sin, to feel virtue and power flowing from the cross of Christ to that purpose, to find sin crucified in us as Christ was crucified for us — this is wisdom indeed, and it is in him alone.

Fourth, there is a glorious end to which sin is appointed and ordained, discovered in Christ, that others are unacquainted with. Sin in its own nature tends merely to the dishonor of God and the ruin of the creature in whom it is. The comminations and threats of God in the law manifest one other end: the demonstration of the punishing justice of God in measuring out a meet recompense of reward. But here the law stays, and with it all other light, discovering no other use or end of sin at all. In the Lord Jesus there is the manifestation of another and more glorious end: the praise of God's glorious grace in the pardon and forgiveness of it. God having taken order in Christ that the thing which tended merely to his dishonor should be managed to his infinite glory. This is the great desire he exalts — that he may be known and believed to be a God pardoning iniquity, transgression, and sin.

In the knowledge of ourselves in reference to our eternal condition does much of our wisdom consist. There is nothing wherein in this depraved condition of nature we are more concerned than sin. Without a knowledge of that, we do not know ourselves. A true saving knowledge of sin is to be had only in the Lord Christ. In him we see the desert of our iniquities and their pollution which could not be borne or expiated but by his blood. In him and his cross is discovered our universal inability either of atoning God's justice or living up to his will. The death of sin is procured by and discovered in the death of Christ, as also the manifestation of the riches of God's grace in the pardoning of sin. A real and experiential acquaintance with all of this, as to ourselves, is our wisdom, and it is of more value than all the wisdom of the world.

Righteousness is a second thing of which the Spirit of Christ convinces the world, and the main thing it is our wisdom to be acquainted with. This all men are persuaded of: that God is a most righteous God. They know that it is the judgment of God that they who commit such things are worthy of death, Romans 1:32. They know it is a righteous thing with him to recompense tribulation to offenders, 2 Thessalonians 1:6. He is a God of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, Habakkuk 1:13. Hence the great inquiry of everyone convicted of immortality and the judgment to come is concerning the righteousness with which to appear before this righteous God. They are perplexed with fears about the issue of their righteousness, as the apostle speaks in Hebrews 2:15: through the fear of death they are subject to bondage all their life.

To those set upon this inquiry, what first and naturally presents itself is the law. The law has many fair pleas to prevail with a soul to seek in it for a righteousness before God. It was given out from God himself for that end and purpose. It contains the whole obedience that God requires of any of the sons of men. It has the promise of life annexed to it: do this and live; the doers of the law are justified; if you will enter into life, keep the commandments. This being some part of the plea of the law, there is no man who seeks after righteousness but does at one time or another attend to it. Many do it every day who yet will not own that so they do. They set themselves about laboring to correct their lives, amend their ways, perform the duties required, and so follow after a righteousness according to the law. In this course do many men continue long with much perplexity — sometimes hoping, more often fearing, their consciences no way satisfied, righteousness in no measure attained. After wearying themselves perhaps for a long season in the largeness of their ways, they come at length with fear, trembling, and disappointment to the conclusion of the apostle: by the works of the law no flesh is justified. That they have this issue the apostle witnesses in Romans 9:31-32: Israel who followed after the law of righteousness attained not to the law of righteousness, because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the law. It was not solely for want of effort that they were disappointed — they earnestly followed after the law of righteousness — but from the nature of the thing itself it would not bear it. Righteousness was not to be obtained that way. For if those of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of none effect, because the law works wrath, Romans 4:14-15. The law itself is now such that it cannot give life, Galatians 3:21. God himself found fault with this way of attaining righteousness, Hebrews 8:7-8.

Now there are two considerations that discover to men the vanity and hopelessness of seeking righteousness in this path.

First, that they have already sinned, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, Romans 3:23. They are sufficiently aware that, although they could from this point forward fulfill the whole law, yet there is a score and reckoning upon them already that they know not how to answer. Do they consult the law how they may be eased of the account that is past? It has not one word of direction or consolation — it bids them prepare to die.

Second, that if all former debts should be blotted out, yet they are no way able for the future to fulfill the law. They can as well move the earth with a finger as answer the perfection thereof. And therefore on this twofold account they conclude that this labor is lost: by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

Being thus disappointed by the severity and relentlessness of the law, men generally betake themselves to some other way that may satisfy them as to those considerations. This for the most part is fixing themselves upon some ways of atonement to satisfy God and helping out the rest with hopes of mercy. Not to speak of the ways of the Gentiles, nor the many inventions of the Papists — it is proper to all convinced persons to seek a righteousness partly by endeavoring to satisfy for what is past, and partly by hoping for general mercy. The apostle calls this seeking after righteousness as it were by the works of the law, Romans 9:32 — not directly, but as it were by the works of the law, making up one thing with another. And he tells us what issue they have: Being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they were not subject to the righteousness of God, Romans 10:3. The ground of this going about to establish their own righteousness was that they were ignorant of the righteousness of God. Had they known what exact conformity to his will he requires, they had never undertaken such a fruitless business. Something they do, something they hope for; some old faults they will buy off with new obedience. This pacifies their consciences for a season, but when the Spirit comes to convince them of righteousness, neither will this hold.

The matter comes at length to this issue: they look upon themselves under this twofold qualification.

First, as sinners, liable to the law of God and the curse thereof, so that unless that be satisfied and nothing from it shall ever be laid to their charge, it is altogether in vain to seek after an appearance in the presence of God.

Second, as creatures made to a supernatural and eternal end, and therefore bound to answer the whole mind and will of God in the obedience required at their hands. It being before discovered to them that both these are beyond the compass of their own endeavors, their wisdom is to find out a righteousness that may answer both these to the utmost.

Now both these are to be had only in the Lord Christ, who is our righteousness. This wisdom, and all the treasures of it, are hid in him.

First, he expiates former iniquities, he satisfies for sin, and procures the remission of it. Romans 3:24-25: Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past. In his blood we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, Ephesians 1:7. This, even this alone, is our righteousness as to that first part which consists in the removal of the whole guilt of sin whereby we have come short of the glory of God. On this account we are assured that none shall ever lay anything to our charge or condemn us, Romans 8:31-34. We are purged by the sacrifice of Christ so as to have no more conscience of sin, Hebrews 10:2 — that is, troubles in conscience about it. This wisdom is hid only in the Lord Jesus. In him alone is there an atonement discovered.

There is yet something more required: it is not enough that we are not guilty. We must also be actually righteous. Not only must all sin be answered for, but all righteousness must be fulfilled. By taking away the guilt of sin, we are as persons innocent, but something more is required to make us persons obedient. An innocent person going to heaven merely on account of innocency — that I know no ground for. Adam was innocent at his first creation, but he was to keep the commandments before he entered into life; he had no title to life by innocency. This moreover is required: that the whole law be fulfilled, and all the obedience performed that God requires at our hands. The soul finds resolution only in the Lord Christ, for if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life, Romans 5:10. His death reconciled us; then are we saved by his life. The actual obedience which he yielded to the whole law of God is that righteousness whereby we are saved. If so be we are found in him, not having our own righteousness which is of the law, but the righteousness which is of God by faith, Philippians 3:9.

To return then: the main of our wisdom lies in finding such a righteousness as will accompany us forever and abide the severe trial of God himself. Now all the wisdom of the world is but folly as to the discovery of this thing. The utmost that human wisdom can do is but to find out most wretched, burdensome, and vexatious ways of perishing eternally. All the treasures of this wisdom are hid in Christ; he of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness, 1 Corinthians 1:30.

Come we to the last thing I shall but briefly touch upon, which is judgment — in particular, the judgment that is to come. Of what concern this is to us I shall not speak at length. It is that whose influence upon the sons of men is the principle of their distinguishing themselves from the beasts that perish. Neither shall I insist on the obscure intimations of it given by the present proceedings of Providence in governing the world, nor on that greater light of it which shines in the threats and promises of the law. The wisdom of it is in two regards hid in the Lord Jesus: first, as to the truth of it; second, as to the manner of it.

For the truth of it, in and by him it is confirmed in two ways: first by his death; second by his resurrection.

By his death: God in the death of Christ punishing and condemning sin in the flesh of his own Son has given an abundant assurance of a righteous and universal judgment to come. On what account could he be induced to lay such load upon him but that he will certainly reckon one day with the sons of men for all their works? The death of Christ is a most solemn example of the last judgment.

By his resurrection: Acts 17:31 — he has given assurance of this to all by raising Christ from the dead, having appointed him to be the judge of all, in whom and by whom he will judge the world in righteousness.

Lastly, for the manner of it: that it shall be by him who has loved us and given himself for us, who is himself the righteousness that he requires at our hands. And on the other side, by him who has in his person, grace, ways, worship, and servants been reviled, despised, and contemned by the men of the world — which holds out unspeakable consolation on the one hand and terror on the other. So the wisdom of this also is hid in Christ.

This is the second part of our first demonstration. The knowledge of ourselves in reference to our supernatural end is no small portion of our wisdom. The things of the greatest concern are sin, righteousness, and judgment. The wisdom of all three is alone hid in the Lord Jesus.

The third part of our wisdom is to walk with God. For one to walk with another, five things are required. 1. Agreement. 2. Acquaintance. 3. Strength. 4. Boldness. 5. Aiming at the same end. All these, with the wisdom of them, are hid in the Lord Jesus.

First, agreement. The prophet tells us that two cannot walk together unless they are agreed, Amos 3:3. Until agreement is made there is no communion, no walking together. God and man, by nature — or while man is in the state of nature — are at the greatest enmity. He declares nothing to us but wrath, whence we are said to be children of it, born liable to it, Ephesians 2:3. While we remain in that condition, the wrath of God abides on us, John 3:36. All the discovery that God makes of himself to us is that he is unspeakably provoked, and therefore preparing wrath against the day of wrath and the revelation of his righteous judgments; the day of his and sinners' meeting is called the day of wrath, Romans 2:5-6. Neither do we come short in our enmity against him — yea, we first began it and continue longest in it. The apostle tells us that our very minds, the best part of us, are enmity against God, Romans 8:7-8, and that we neither are, nor will, nor can be subject to him. Whatever we do that seems otherwise is but hypocrisy or flattery — yea, it is a part of this enmity to lessen it. In this state the wisdom of walking with God must needs be most remote from the soul. He is light, and in him is no darkness at all; we are darkness, and in us there is no light at all. He is life, a living God; we are dead, dead sinners, dead in trespasses and sin. He is holiness and glorious in it; we wholly defiled, an abominable thing. He is love; we full of hatred, hating and being hated. Surely this is no foundation for agreement or walking together. The foundation of this agreement is laid in Christ, hid in Christ. He is our peace; he has made peace for us, Ephesians 2:14-15. He slew the enmity in his own body on the cross, verse 16.

First, he takes out of the way the cause of the enmity between God and us — sin and the curse of the law. Daniel 9:24: he makes an end of sin by making atonement for iniquity. He blots out the handwriting of ordinances, Colossians 2:14, redeeming us from the curse by being made a curse for us, Galatians 3:13.

Second, he destroys him who would continue the enmity and make the breach wider. Hebrews 2:14: through death he destroyed him who had the power of death, that is, the devil. And Colossians 2:14: he spoiled principalities and powers.

Third, he made reconciliation for the sins of the people, Hebrews 2:17. He made by his blood an atonement with God to turn away that wrath which was due to us, so making peace. Hereupon God is said to be in Christ reconciling the world to himself, 2 Corinthians 5:19. Being reconciled himself, he lays down the enmity on his part and proceeds to slay the enmity on our part also, that we may be reconciled.

Fourth, this he does, for by our Lord Jesus Christ we receive the atonement, Romans 5:11, accepting the peace made and tendered, laying down our enmity to God, and so confirming an agreement in his blood. Through him we have access to the Father, Ephesians 2:18. Out of Christ God on his part is a consuming fire; we are as fully dry stubble setting ourselves in battle array against that fire. All our approaches to him outside of Christ are but to our detriment. In his blood alone do we have this agreement. Let not any of us suppose that we have taken any step in the paths of God with him, or that any one duty is accepted, or that all is not lost as to eternity, if we have not done it upon the account of this.

Second, there is required acquaintance also to walking together. Two may meet in the same way with no enmity between them, but if they are mere strangers one to another they pass by without the least communion together. It does not suffice that the enmity between God and us be taken away — we must also have acquaintance given us with him. Our understandings are darkened and we are alienated from the life of God, Ephesians 4:18. This also is hid in the Lord Christ and comes forth from him. There are other means, as his Word and his works, that God has given to make a discovery of himself and to give some acquaintance with him, as Acts 17:27 says, that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might find him. But that knowledge of God which we have by his works is very weak and imperfect. And that which we have by the Word, by the letter of it, by reason of our blindness, is not saving if we have no other help. Though that be light as the sun, yet if we have no eyes in our heads, what can it benefit us? No saving acquaintance with him that may direct us to walk with him can be obtained. This also is hid in the Lord Jesus and comes forth from him. 1 John 5:20: he has given us this understanding that we should know him that is true. All other light whatever without his giving us an understanding will not do it. He is the true light which enlightens everyone who is enlightened. He opens our understandings that we may understand the scriptures, Luke 24:45. No one has known God at any time but that he has revealed him, John 1:18. There is no acquaintance with God as love and full of kindness, patience, grace, and pardoning mercy — on which knowledge of him alone we can walk with him — except only in Christ.

Third, there must be a way in which we walk with God. God at the beginning assigned us a path to walk in with him: the path of innocency and exact holiness in a covenant of works. This path by sin is so filled with thorns and briers, so stopped up by curses and wrath, that no flesh living can take one step in it. A new way must be found out, if ever we think to hold communion with God. This also lies upon the former account — hid in Christ. The Holy Spirit tells us that Christ has consecrated and set apart for that purpose a new and living way into the holiest of all, Hebrews 10:20. A new one, for the first old one was useless; a living one, for the other is dead. Therefore verse 22 says: let us draw near. Having a way to walk in, let us draw near. This way that he has prepared is no other than himself, John 14:6. In answer to those who would go to the Father and hold communion with him, he says: I am the way, and no man comes to the Father except by me. He is the medium of all communication between God and us. In him we meet; in him we walk. All influences of love, kindness, mercy from God to us are through him. All our returns of love, delight, faith, and obedience to God are all through him. All other paths but this go down to the chambers of death.

Fourth, suppose all this — that agreement is made, acquaintance given, and a way provided — yet if we have no strength to walk in that way, what will all this benefit us? Of ourselves we are of no strength, Romans 5:6. When we are set in the way, either we throw ourselves down or temptations cast us down, and we make no progress. The Lord Jesus tells us plainly that without him we can do nothing, John 15:5. Neither can all the creatures in heaven and earth yield us the least assistance. This part of this wisdom also is hid in Christ. All strength to walk with God is from him. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, says Paul in Philippians 4:12, who denies that of ourselves we have any sufficiency, 2 Corinthians 3:5. We who can do nothing in ourselves can do all things in Jesus Christ, as giants. Therefore in him we are against all oppositions in our way more than conquerors, Romans 8:37. From his fullness we receive grace upon grace, John 1:16. From him we have the Spirit of life and power whereby he bears us as on eagles' wings swiftly and safely in the paths of walking with God. Any step taken by strength not immediately from Christ is one step toward hell. He first takes us by the arm and teaches us to go until he leads us on to perfection.

Fifth, where should we take this confidence to walk with our God, who is a consuming fire? Was there not such a dread upon his people of old that it was taken for granted that if they saw God, they must die? When God made his dreadful appearance on Mount Sinai, even Moses, their mediator, said, I exceedingly fear and quake, Hebrews 12:21. All the people said, let not God speak with us, lest we die, Exodus 20:19. How then should we take to ourselves this boldness to walk with God? The apostle informs us in Hebrews 10:19: it is by the blood of Jesus. So Ephesians 3:12: in him we have boldness and access with confidence, not standing far off like the people at the giving of the law, but drawing near to God with boldness. The dread and terror of God entered by sin. Adam had not the least thought of hiding himself until he had sinned. The guilt of sin being on the conscience — and it being a common notion that God is a most righteous revenger of it — fills men with dread and horror at an apprehension of his presence. The Lord Jesus by the sacrifice and atonement he has made has taken away this conscience of sin — that is, the dread of revenge from God upon the account of its guilt. He has removed the killing sword of the law and on that account gives us great boldness with God, discovering him to us now no longer as a revenging judge but as a tender, merciful, and reconciled Father. Moreover, whereas there is on us by nature a spirit of bondage filling us with innumerable tormenting fears, he takes it away and gives us the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Father, and behave ourselves with confidence and gracious boldness as children. Where the Spirit of God is, there is liberty, 2 Corinthians 3:17 — a freedom from all that dread and terror which the administration of the law brought with it. There is no sin that God will more severely judge than any boldness taken with him outside of Christ; so there is no grace more acceptable to him than that boldness which he affords us in the blood of Jesus.

Sixth, one thing more to add: two cannot walk together unless they have the same design in hand and aim at the same end. This also in a word is given us in the Lord Jesus. The end of God is the advancement of his own glory. None can aim at this end except only in the Lord Jesus. The sum of all is that the whole wisdom of our walking with God is hid in Christ and from him only to be obtained, as has been manifested by an enumeration of particulars.

So I have brought my first demonstration to a close and shown that all true wisdom and knowledge is laid up in and laid out by the Lord Jesus. This by an induction of the chief particular heads of those things in which our wisdom consists. I have but one more to add, and therein I shall be brief.

This truth will be further manifested by the consideration of the insufficiency and vanity of anything else that may lay claim or pretend to a title to wisdom.

There are two things in the world that pass under this account. The one is learning or literature: skill and knowledge of arts, sciences, languages, with the knowledge of things past. The other is prudence and skill for the management of ourselves in reference to others in civil affairs for the public good — which is much the fairest flower within the border of nature's garden. Concerning both these I shall briefly show:

First, that they are utterly insufficient for the achieving of those particular ends to which they are designed.

Second, that both of them in conjunction with their utmost improvement cannot reach the true general end of wisdom. Both considerations will set the crown in the end upon the head of Jesus Christ.

Begin with the first, as to the first particular. Learning itself, if it were all in one man, is not able to achieve the particular end to which it is designed, which writes vanity and vexation upon the forehead of it.

The particular end of literature, (though not observed by many, men's eyes being fixed on false ends, which compels them in their progress to wander from the mark) is none other, but to remove some part of that curse which is come upon us by sin. Learning, is the product of the soul's struggling with the curse for sin. Adam at his first creation, was completely furnished with all that knowledge (excepting only things not then in being, neither in themselves, nor any natural causes, as that which we now call tongues, and those things that are the subject of story) as far as it lies in a needful tendency to the utmost end of man, which we now press after. There was no straitness, much less darkness upon his understanding, that should make him sweat for a way to improve, and make out those general conceptions of things which he had. For his knowledge of nature, it is manifest from his imposition of suitable names to all the creatures (the particular reasons of the most of which to us are lost) wherein from the approbation given of his nomination of things in the Scripture, and the significancy of what yet remains evident, it is most apparent, it was done upon a clear acquaintance with their natures. Hence Plato could observe that he was most wise that first imposed names on things, yea had more than human wisdom. Were the wisest man living, yea a general collection of all the wise men in the world, to make an experiment of their skill and learning, in giving names to all living creatures suitable to their natures, and expressive of their qualities, they would quickly perceive the loss they have incurred. Adam was made perfect, for the whole end of ruling the creatures, and living to God for which he was made; which, without the knowledge of the nature of the one, and the will of the other, he could not be. All this being lost by sin, a multiplication of tongues also being brought in as a curse for an after rebellion, the whole design of learning is but to disentangle the soul from this issue of sin. Ignorance, darkness and blindness is come upon the understanding; acquaintance with the works of God, spiritual and natural, is lost; strangeness of communication is given by multiplication of tongues. Tumultuous passions and affections, with innumerable darkening prejudices, are also come upon us. To remove and take this away, to disentangle the mind in its reasonings, to recover an acquaintance with the works of God, to subduct the soul from under the effects of the curse of division of tongues, is the aim and tendency of literature. This is the something toward which it tends. And he that has any other aim in it; everywhere follows the crow with potsherd and mud. Now not to insist upon that vanity and vexation of spirit, with the innumerable evils wherewith this enterprise is attended, this is that I only say, it is in itself, no way sufficient for the attainment of its end, which writes vanity upon its forehead with characters not to be obliterated. To this purpose, I desire to observe these two things.

1. That the knowledge aimed at to be recovered, was given to man in order to his walking with God, to that supernatural end whereunto he was appointed. For after he was furnished with all his endowments, the law of life and death was given to him, that he might know wherefore he received them. Therefore knowledge in him was spiritualized, and sanctified, even that knowledge which he had by nature, in respect of its principle, and end, was spiritual.

2. That the loss of it, is part of that curse which was inflicted on us for sin. Whatever we come short in of the state of the first man in innocency, whether in loss of good, or addition of evil, it is all of the curse for sin. Besides, that blindness, ignorance, darkness, deadness, which is everywhere ascribed to us in the state of nature, does fully comprise that also whereof we speak.

On these two considerations it is most apparent, that learning, can no way of itself attain the end it aims at.

1. That light which by it is discovered, (which the Lord knows is very little, weak, obscure, imperfect, uncertain, conjectural, for a great part only enabling men to quarrel with, and oppose one another, to the reproach of reason, yet I say, that which is attained by it,) is not in the least measure by it spiritualized, or brought into that order of living to God, and with God, wherein at first it lay. This is wholly beyond its reach. As to this end, the apostle assures us, that the utmost issue that men come to, is darkness and folly (Romans 1:21-22). Who knows not the profound enquiries, the subtle disputations, the acute reasonings, the admirable discoveries of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle and others? What, as to the purpose in hand did they attain by all their studies and endeavors? They became fools, says the apostle. He that by general consent bears the crown of reputation for wisdom from them all, with whom to have lived was counted an inestimable happiness, died like a fool, sacrificing a cock to Aesculapius. And another, that Jesus Christ alone is the true light that lights us (John 1:9). And there is not any that has any true light but what is immediately from him. After all the learning of men, if they have nothing else, they are still natural men and perceive not the things of God. Their light is still but darkness, and how great is that darkness! It is the Lord Jesus alone who is anointed to open the eyes of the blind. Men cannot spiritualize a notion, nor lay it in any order, to the glorifying of God. After all their endeavors they are still blind and dark, yea darkness itself, knowing nothing as they should. I know how the men of these attainments are apt to say, are we blind also? with great contempt of others; but God has blasted all their pride; where (says he) is the wise? where the scribe, etc. (1 Corinthians 1:20). I shall not add what Paul has further cautioned us to the seeming condemning of philosophy as being fitted to make spoil of souls; nor what Tertullian with some other of the ancients have spoken of it; being very confident, that it was the abuse and not the true use and advantage of it, that they opposed.

Second, the darkness and ignorance that learning strives to remove, being come upon us as a curse, it is not in the least able as a curse to remove or take it away. He who has attained to the greatest height of literature, if he has nothing else, if he has not Christ, is as much under the curse of blindness, ignorance, and stupidity as the poorest soul in the world. The curse is only removed in him who was made a curse for us. Everything that is penal is taken away only by him on whom all our sins met in a way of punishment. Indeed, the more abilities the mind is furnished with, the more it closes with the curse and strengthens itself to act its enmity against God. All that it receives but helps it to set up high thoughts and imaginations against the Lord Christ. So this knowledge comes short of what it is designed for and cannot be that solid wisdom we are inquiring after.

There are other things by which it were easy to point to the vanity of this wisdom — from its intricacy, difficulty, uncertainty, and unsatisfactoriness, and from its betraying its followers into that which they most profess to avoid: blindness and folly. My intention is only to cast it down at the feet of Jesus Christ and to set the crown upon his head.

Neither can the second part of the choicest wisdom outside of Christ attain the peculiar end to which it is appointed — that is, prudence in the management of civil affairs. The immediate end of this prudence is to keep the rational world in bounds and order, to draw circles about the sons of men and to keep them from passing their allotted limits, to the mutual destruction of each other. All manner of trouble arises from irregularity: one man breaking in upon the rights, interests, and relations of another sets this world at variance. The sum and aim of all wisdom below is to cause all things to move in their proper sphere — to keep all to their own allotments within the compass of the lines that are fallen to them.

Now it will be an easy task to demonstrate that all civil prudence whatever is no way able to achieve this end. The present condition of affairs throughout the world, as also that of former ages, will abundantly testify it. I shall further discover the vanity of it in some few observations.

First, through the righteous judgment of God, lopping off the top flowers of the pride of men, it frequently comes to pass that those who are furnished with the greatest abilities in this kind lay them out to a direct contrary end from that which is their proper natural tendency. From whom for the most part are all the commotions in the world, the breaking up of bounds, the setting the whole frame of nature on fire? Is it not from such men as these? Were men not so wise, the world perhaps would be more quiet. This seems to be a curse that God has spread upon the wisdom of the world in most in whom it is, that it shall be employed in direct opposition to its proper end.

Second, God has made it a constant path toward the advancement of his own glory to leaven the wisdom and counsels of the wisest of the sons of men with folly and madness, so that in the depth of their policy they advise things as unsuitable to their proposed ends as anything that could proceed from a child or a fool, and as directly tending to their own disappointment and ruin as anything that could be invented against them. He destroys the wisdom of the wise and brings to nothing the understanding of the prudent, 1 Corinthians 1:19. This he largely describes in Isaiah 19:11-14: drunkenness and staggering are the issue of all their wisdom, for the Lord gives them the spirit of dizziness. So also Job 5:12-14: they meet with darkness in the daytime; when all things seem clear about them and a man would wonder how men should miss their way, then will God make it darkness to such as these. Psalm 33:10: he brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. Isaiah 8:9-10: God as it were sets them to work and undertakes their disappointment — go about your counsels, says the Lord, and I will take order that it shall come to nothing. Psalm 2:3-4: when men are deep in their plots and contrivances, God is said to have them in derision, to laugh them to scorn, seeing the poor creatures industriously working out their own ruin. Never has this been made more clear than in the days in which we live. Scarcely have any wise men been brought to destruction but it has evidently been through their own folly; neither has the wisest counsel of most been one jot better than madness.

Third, this wisdom which should tend to universal quietness has almost constantly given universal disquietness to those in whom it has been most eminent. In much wisdom is much grief, Ecclesiastes 1:18. The great men of the world carry away the reputation of wisdom; really it is found in few of them. They are for the most part common events, to which they contribute not the least bit, which are ascribed to their care, vigilance, and foresight. Where this wisdom has been most eminent, it has dwelt so close upon the borders of atheism and been attended with such falsehood and injustice that it has made its possessors wicked and infamous.

No more instances are needed to manifest the insufficiency of this wisdom for the attainment of its own peculiar end. It is far then from being true and solid wisdom, seeing on the forehead of it you may read disappointment.

This is the first reason why true wisdom cannot consist in either of these: because they come short even of the particular and immediate ends they aim at.

Both these in conjunction, with their utmost improvement, are not able to reach the true general end of wisdom. It were a simple thing to discover their disability for the true end of wisdom, but it is so thoroughly done by him who had the largest portion of both of any of the sons of men — Solomon in his Preacher — that I shall not further insist upon it.

To draw then to a close: if true and solid wisdom is not in the least to be found among these, if the pearl is not hid in this field, if these two are but vanity and disappointment, it cannot but be pointless to seek for it in anything else below. These are among them incomparably the most excellent. Therefore with one accord let us set the crown of this wisdom on the head of the Lord Jesus.

Let the reader take a view of the tendency of this whole digression. To draw our hearts to the more cheerful entertainment of and delight in the Lord Jesus is the aim of it. If all wisdom is laid up in him and by an interest in him only to be attained, if all things beside him and without him that lay claim to it are folly and vanity, let those who would be wise learn where to repose their souls.

All solid wisdom laid up in Christ. True wisdom — what it consists of. Knowledge of God, obtainable only in Christ. What of God may be known through His works. Some properties of God not disclosed except in Christ alone: love, mercy. Others not fully disclosed except in Him: such as punishing justice, patience, wisdom, all-sufficiency. No property of God savingly known except in Christ. What is required for a saving knowledge of the properties of God. No true knowledge of ourselves except in Christ. Knowledge of ourselves — what it consists of. Knowledge of sin — how it is to be had in Christ. Also knowledge of righteousness, and of judgment. The wisdom of walking with God hidden in Christ. What is required for it. Other claimants to the title of wisdom examined and rejected. Christ alone exalted.

A second consideration of the excellencies of Christ — one that draws the hearts of those who stand with Him in the relationship described — arises from what, when wrongly understood, is the great idol of men, and when rightly grasped, is the great goal of the saints: wisdom and knowledge. If it can be shown that all true and solid knowledge is stored up in and can only be obtained from and through the Lord Jesus Christ, then the hearts of people — if they are honest with themselves and true to their deepest convictions — will inevitably be drawn to Him. The great aim of all people who have been turned away from open slavery to the world and from sensual or self-indulgent living is to be wise. What paths people generally take in pursuit of that goal will be considered later. The purpose of this digression — for the glory of our dear Lord Jesus Christ and the strengthening of our hearts in communion with Him — is to show that all wisdom is stored up in Him, and that it can only be obtained from Him.

1 Corinthians 1:24: the Holy Spirit tells us that Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God — not the essential wisdom of God as He is the eternal Son of the Father (in which sense He is called wisdom in Proverbs 8:20-23), but as He is crucified (verse 23). As crucified, He is the wisdom of God — that is, all the wisdom that God deploys for the revealing of Himself and for saving sinners, which makes foolish all the wisdom of the world. All of that is in Christ crucified, displayed in Him, by Him, and obtainable only from Him. And through Him we see the glory of God (2 Corinthians 3:18). He is not only called the wisdom of God but is also said to be made wisdom to us (1 Corinthians 1:30). He is made — not by creation, but by appointment and ordination — wisdom for us: not only by teaching us wisdom (by a figure where the effect stands for the cause) as the great prophet of His church, but also because by knowing Him we come to know the wisdom of God, which is our wisdom. This wisdom, though truly promised, is to be had in this way alone. The sum of the matter is stated plainly in Colossians 2:3: in Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

There are two things that might seem to have some claim on true wisdom. First, civil wisdom and practical prudence for the management of affairs. Second, the capacity of learning and literature. But God dismisses both of these as useless for the true goal of wisdom. There is in the world what is called understanding, but it comes to nothing; there is what is called wisdom, but it is turned into folly (1 Corinthians 1:19-20). God brings the understanding of the intelligent to nothing and makes the wisdom of the world foolish. And if there is no wisdom or knowledge without the knowledge of God (Jeremiah 8:9) — as there certainly is not — then it is all shut up in the Lord Christ. John 1:18: no one has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known. He is not seen at any other time (John 5:37), nor known by any other means, except through the revelation of the Son. He has made the Father known from His own bosom. And so it is said (verse 9) that He is the true light that gives light to every person coming into the world — the true light that has it in Himself; no one has any light except from Him; all who come to Him receive it; whoever does not come to Him is in darkness.

First, all true wisdom and knowledge can be grouped under three headings.

1. The knowledge of God, His nature, and His attributes. 2. The knowledge of ourselves in relation to the will of God concerning us. 3. The skill to walk with God in communion.

The knowledge of God's works and the highest purpose of all necessarily accompanies these. In these three all true wisdom and knowledge is summed up — and not one of them can be obtained to any purpose, or is revealed, except in and through the Lord Christ.

In the work of creation, God did reveal Himself to creatures capable of knowing Him, in many of His attributes — His power, His goodness, His wisdom, His all-sufficiency are made known through it. The apostle affirms this in Romans 1:19-21: in verse 19 he calls it 'what may be known of God'; in verse 20, 'His eternal power and divine nature'; and in verse 21, 'a knowing of God' — all through creation. But there are some attributes of God that all the works of creation cannot in any degree reveal or make known — such as His patience, long-suffering, and forbearance. For since everything was made good, there was no place for the exercise or manifestation of these attributes. The whole structure of heaven and earth, considered in itself as originally created, contains no hint of patience and forbearance in God — yet these are eminent attributes of His nature, as He Himself proclaims (Exodus 34:6-7).

God therefore goes further, and through the works of His providence in preserving and governing the world He made, also reveals these attributes. By cursing the earth and filling the created order at times with signs of His anger and indignation, He has — as the apostle tells us (Romans 1:18) — revealed His wrath from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Yet by not immediately destroying everything, He has also manifested His patience and forbearance to all. Paul tells us in Acts 14:16-17 that He allowed all nations to walk in their own ways, yet did not leave Himself without witness — doing good, sending rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness. The psalmist gives an extensive account of His goodness and wisdom in these works (Psalm 104). Through these means God bore witness to His goodness and patience: and so He is said to endure with much long-suffering (Romans 9:22). But even here, the whole world comes to a standstill. Through all of this, people get only a faint and shadowy glimpse of God — they see no more than His back. Moses did not even see that much until he was hidden in the rock — and that rock was Christ. There are some of God's most eminent and glorious attributes — I mean those in whose manifestation He will be most glorified — of which there is not the slightest trace to be found outside the Lord Christ. Some we know comparatively nothing of except in Him. And of all the rest, there is no true saving knowledge except through Him.

Among the first kind — those of which nothing at all can be conceived except in Christ — are love and pardoning mercy.

1. Love: I mean love toward sinners. Without this, man is of all creatures the most miserable. And there is not the slightest trace of it that can possibly be discovered except in Christ. The Holy Spirit says in 1 John 4:8, 16: God is love — meaning not only that He is of a loving and tender nature, but that He will exercise Himself in a dispensation of His love, eternal love, toward us; that He has had purposes of love for us from of old and will fulfill them all toward us in due season. But how is this demonstrated? How may we come to know it? He tells us in verse 9: in this the love of God was manifested — that God sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. This is the only disclosure God has ever made of any such attribute in His nature, or of any intention to exercise it toward sinners — in the sending of Jesus Christ into the world that we might live through Him. Where now is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the debater of this age with all his learning? (1 Corinthians 1:20). His voice must be that of the hypocrites in Zion (Isaiah 33:14-15). Any wisdom that cannot teach me that God is love will always count as foolishness. Let people look to the sun, moon, and stars, to rain and fruitful seasons — and answer honestly what they learn of this from those things. They should not flatter themselves that they are wiser or better than those who went before them, who gained nothing from those things except being left without excuse.

2. Pardoning mercy, or grace: without this, even His love would be without effect. What discovery a sinful person might make of this on their own is seen in our first father, who, when he sinned, had no thought of mercy at all and simply hid himself (Genesis 3:8). He did it when only the faintest breeze of God's presence was felt, and he did it foolishly — imagining he could hide among trees (Psalm 139:7-8). The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17). Grace in its truth and substance — pardoning mercy that comes through Christ alone. That pardoning mercy which is revealed in the Gospel, and in which God will be glorified to all eternity (Ephesians 1:6). I do not mean that vague general mercy, that undefined willingness to accept, in which many place their hope (to ascribe which to God is the greatest dishonor that can be done to Him). That does not shine with a single ray except in Christ. It is entirely stored up in Him and revealed by Him. Pardoning mercy is God's free and gracious acceptance of a sinner on the basis of the satisfaction made to His justice in the blood of Jesus. No disclosure of it — except as it relates to the satisfaction of justice — is consistent with the glory of God. It is a mercy of inconceivable condescension in forgiveness, blended with exact justice and severity. In Romans 3:25, God is said to set forth Christ as a propitiation in His blood, to declare His righteousness in the forgiveness of sins — His righteousness is also manifested in the matter of forgiveness. And so it is said everywhere that this forgiveness is wholly in Christ (Ephesians 1:7). This Gospel grace and pardoning mercy are purchased by Him alone and revealed in Him alone. This was the main purpose of all the institutions of the Old Testament — to show that forgiveness and pardon are entirely wrapped up in the Lord Christ, and that outside of Him there is not the slightest trace of it to be found, nor the smallest taste of it. Had God not set forth the Lord Christ, all the angels in heaven and all people on earth could not have conceived that there was any such thing in the nature of God as this grace of pardoning mercy. The apostle affirms that the full manifestation as well as the exercise of this mercy is in Christ alone (Titus 3:4-5): after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared — namely in the sending of Christ and the declaration of Him in the Gospel — then was this pardoning mercy and salvation not by works disclosed.

These then are those attributes of God of which not the slightest trace can be obtained except in Christ. Whoever does not know Him through these attributes does not know Him at all. He who does not have the Son does not have the Father (1 John 2:23). He is known as a Father only as He is love and full of pardoning mercy in Christ. How this knowledge is to be had, the Holy Spirit tells us in 1 John 5:20: the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true. By the Son alone we have the understanding to know Him who is true. Christ reveals these attributes in His teaching as the great prophet of the church (John 17:6). But the life of this knowledge lies in a personal acquaintance with Him in whom the express image and rays of this glory of His Father shine out (Hebrews 1:3).

There are other properties of God that, though partially revealed elsewhere, are only clearly, fully, and savingly known in Jesus Christ — namely:

1. His punishing justice in punishing sin. 2. His patience, forbearance, and long-suffering toward sinners. 3. His wisdom in managing all things for His own glory. 4. His all-sufficiency in Himself and toward others.

All of these may receive some lower degree of disclosure outside of Christ, yet they shine clearly only in Him — and it is our wisdom to know them in Him.

First, His punishing justice.

God has revealed His anger against sin in many ways, so that people cannot avoid knowing that in His judgment, those who do such things deserve death (Romans 1:32). He has in the law threatened to kindle a fire in His anger that burns to the very depths of hell. In many acts of His providence His wrath is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness (Romans 1:18). Consider how angels were cast from heaven for their sin, bound in chains of everlasting darkness until the judgment of the great day. Consider how Sodom and Gomorrah were condemned and burned to ashes as a warning to those who would afterward live ungodly lives (2 Peter 2:6). But this justice shines far more clearly in the Lord Christ.

In Christ, God has revealed the essential nature of this justice — that it could not be turned away from sinners without a propitiation. Those who ground the necessity of satisfaction merely in a free act of God's will leave no firm and necessary foundation for the death of Christ. But plainly, in that God did not spare His own Son but made His soul an offering for sin and would accept no atonement except through His blood, God has abundantly shown that His holiness and righteousness necessarily require wrath to be rendered against sin. True and useful knowledge of punishing justice means understanding this: that its execution is not optional but essential to God's nature. To treat it as something God may exercise or set aside at will is to make His justice not a property of His nature but merely a free choice of His will. A willingness to punish that could just as easily refrain without any injustice is not really justice at all — it is more like ill will.

In the penalty inflicted on Christ for sin, this justice is manifested far more gloriously than in anything else. To see a world made good and beautiful wrapped up in wrath and curses, covered with thorns and briars — to see the whole beautiful creation made subject to futility, delivered over to the bondage of decay, to hear it groaning in pain under that burden — gives some glimpse of this. To consider angels, those most glorious and immortal creatures, cast down into hell, bound in chains of darkness, and reserved for an even more dreadful judgment for one sin — to consider the ocean of the blood of souls poured out to eternity on this account — sheds some light on it. But what is all of this compared to the view a spiritual eye has in the Lord Christ? All these things are nothing alongside Him. To see the One who is the wisdom and power of God, always beloved of the Father — to see Him fear, tremble, bow, sweat, pray, and die — to see Him lifted up on the cross, the earth trembling beneath Him as if unable to bear His weight, the heavens darkened above Him as if shut against His cry, and He Himself hanging between both as if refused by both — and all this because our sins fell upon Him — this above everything else most fully reveals the severity of God's punishing justice. Here, and nowhere else, is it truly learned.

God's patience, forbearance, and long-suffering toward sinners: there are many glimpses of God's patience in His works of providence, but all of them fall far short of the revelation of it we have in Christ — especially in these three ways.

1. The manner of its discovery: it is evident to everyone that God does not ordinarily punish people immediately when they sin. From His constant way of governing the world — maintaining goodness toward people despite all their provocations, causing the sun to shine on them, sending rain and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness — it was easy to conclude that there was in Him an abundance of goodness and forbearance. But all of this remains in deep shadow, being only the result of human reasoning drawn from observation. In fact, the way this patience has operated has become a snare to nearly everyone toward whom it has been shown (Ecclesiastes 8:11), and a temptation to those who have observed it (Job 21:7; Psalm 73:2-4; Jeremiah 12:1; Habakkuk 1:13). The discovery of God's patience in Christ is entirely different in character. In Christ, God's very nature is revealed as love and kindness, and His commitment to extend that love to sinners is confirmed by promise, oath, and solemn covenant. To remove any uncertainty about His intention, a firm foundation for acting in keeping with these gracious properties of His nature is set forth: the reconciliation and atonement made in the blood of Christ. Even if God's patience and kindness were revealed to us, as long as it remained unclear that His other attributes — such as His justice and His wrath against sin — had been fully satisfied, there would be little comfort to be found in that patience alone. And so, though God may teach people something of His goodness and forbearance by sending rain and fruitful seasons, He also at the same time reveals His wrath from heaven against human ungodliness (Romans 1:18). Because of this, it is impossible for people outside of Christ to do anything but waver and tremble at the outcome of these dealings. Yet this is the very best that people can have outside of Christ — the most they can attain to. They might for a time occupy their minds and satisfy themselves with the present possession of good things administered in God's patience, but they were not delivered in the least from the bondage they were under through the fear of death and the darkness that surrounds it. The law reveals no patience or forbearance in God — it speaks, concerning the outcome of transgressions, only of sword and fire, except where God intervened by a sovereign act. But in Christ, as already described, the revelation of God's forbearance comes together with the revelation that His justice and wrath against sin have been fully satisfied — so we need not fear that justice will somehow interrupt or overturn the works of His patience, which are so sweet to us. For this reason God is said to be in Christ reconciling the world to Himself (2 Corinthians 5:19) — revealing Himself in Christ as One who now has nothing left to do, for the manifestation of all His attributes and for the glorifying of Himself, but only to forbear, reconcile, and pardon sin in Him.

2. In the nature of it: what is this forbearance that is revealed outside of Christ? It is merely a withholding of immediate punishment after an offense, along with the giving and continuing of earthly blessings — things that people are prone to abuse, and with which they may perish, with their arms full of them, to eternity. But the forbearance hidden in Christ and revealed from Him is full of love, sweetness, tenderness, kindness, and grace. It is the Lord waiting to be gracious to sinners — waiting for the opportunity to show love and kindness in the most endearing way possible, drawing a soul close to Himself (Isaiah 30:18). Therefore the Lord will wait to be gracious to you; He will be exalted so that He may have mercy on you. There is no revelation of God that the soul finds more sweetness in than this. When a person is deeply convinced by experience that God has again and again passed over countless sins, they are astonished — amazed that God did not seize on their provocations as occasion to cast them from His presence. They see that with infinite wisdom and endless patience God has directed all His dealings with them — to rescue them from the power of the devil, to rebuke and discipline their spirit for sin, and to draw them closer to Himself. Nothing, I say, brings greater sweetness to the soul than this. And so the apostle says (Romans 3:25) that complete forgiveness of sins is made possible through the forbearance of God — God clears the way for full forgiveness through this forbearance, which the other kind of patience cannot do.

3. They differ in their ends and aims. What is the purpose and design of God in the forbearance He shows to people outside of Christ? The apostle tells us (Romans 9:22): 'What if God, wanting to show His wrath and make His power known, endured with much patience the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?' The aim was simply to leave them without excuse, so that His power and wrath against sin might be displayed in their destruction. He therefore calls it allowing them to walk in their own ways (Acts 14:16) — which elsewhere He presents as a most dreadful judgment, given where it inevitably leads (Psalm 81:12): 'I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, and they walked in their own ways' — as dreadful a condition as any creature can fall into in this world. In Acts 17:30 He calls it overlooking the sins committed in their ignorance — as if taking no notice of them in their dark condition — as the contrast makes plain: 'but now He commands all people everywhere to repent.' God had not taken such notice of them as to command them to repent through any clear revelation of His mind and will. The apostle's appeal in Romans 2:4 — 'Do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?' — is addressed to the Jews, who had advantages for understanding the natural tendency of the goodness and forbearance God exercises in Christ, which genuinely leads to repentance. Or the apostle may be speaking in general terms, suggesting that reason itself ought to lead people to make better use of these things than they commonly do — which he then charges them with failing to do (verse 5): 'But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart...' At best, then, the patience of God toward people outside of Christ — because of their own stubborn refusal to change — proves like the waters of the river Phasis, which are sweet at the surface and bitter at the bottom: they swim for a time in the sweet and pleasant things of this life (Luke 16:25), and when filled with them, they sink to the depths of all bitterness.

But the end of God's patience and forbearance as it is exercised in Christ and revealed in Him to us is clear and direct: it is the saving and bringing to God of those toward whom He is pleased to show it. Peter tells us (2 Peter 3:9) that He is patient toward us, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance — that is, all of us toward whom He shows forbearance, for that is its purpose: that His will for our repentance and salvation may be accomplished. Its nature and purpose are well expressed in Isaiah 54:9: 'This is like the waters of Noah to Me; for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah would not flood the earth again, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you.' It is God acting in His infinite wisdom and goodness to ensure that we will not be destroyed despite our sins. For this reason Paul in Romans 15:5 joins these two things together in God as flowing from the same source: the God of patience and comfort — His patience is a matter of the greatest comfort. This, then, is another property of God: though it may break forth in some rays for some purposes in other things, its treasures are hidden in Christ, and no one becomes truly acquainted with it to any spiritual benefit who does not learn it in Him.

Third, His wisdom — His infinite wisdom — in managing all things for His own glory and the good of those toward whom He has purposes of love. The Lord has displayed infinite wisdom in the works of creation, providence, and His governance of the world. In wisdom He made all His creatures; how varied are His works — the earth is full of His riches (Psalm 104:24). The same is true in His providence — His sustaining and guiding of all things toward one another and toward His own glory, and to the ends He appointed for them; for all these things come from the Lord of Hosts, who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working (Isaiah 28:29). His law too is forever to be admired for the excellence of the wisdom it contains (Deuteronomy 4:7-8). Yet there is something more that Paul marvels at — what he calls the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God (Romans 11:33) — and that is hidden in Christ alone and revealed only by Him. For this reason, just as Christ is called the wisdom of God and said to be made wisdom for us, the plan of God carried out in Him and revealed in the Gospel is called the wisdom of God and a mystery — even the hidden wisdom that God ordained before the ages, which none of the rulers of this age knew (1 Corinthians 2:7-8). In Ephesians 3:10 it is called the manifold wisdom of God — and to show the depth and riches of this wisdom, Paul tells us that even principalities and powers, even angels themselves, could not gain the slightest acquaintance with it until God actually revealed it by gathering a church of sinners. Peter tells us that these angels, so well acquainted with all the works of God, still bow down and long with earnestness to look into these things — the things of God's wisdom in the Gospel (1 Peter 1:13). It takes great skill to build a fine structure; but if someone comes and demolishes it, and another then raises up the same building to greater beauty and glory than before — that is wisdom indeed. In the beginning God made all things good, glorious, and beautiful; when all creation bore in innocence and beauty the clear imprint of His wisdom and goodness, it was very glorious. Especially man, who was made for His special glory. But all this beauty was defaced by sin, and the whole creation was plunged into darkness, wrath, curses, and confusion — and the great praise of God was buried under it all. Man in particular was utterly lost and fell short of the glory of God for which he was created (Romans 3:23). Here the depth of the riches of God's wisdom and knowledge opens up: a plan in Christ shines out from His heart, hidden there from eternity, to restore all things to a state that will be far more advantageous to His glory than what first appeared, and to place sinners in an inconceivably better condition than they were in before sin entered. Now He appears glorious — known as a God who pardons iniquity and sin — and He advances the riches of His grace, which was His purpose all along (Ephesians 1:6). He has also infinitely vindicated His justice in the sight of men, angels, and devils by setting forth His Son as a propitiation. It is also to our benefit: we are more fully established in His favor and are carried toward a far more exceeding weight of glory than was previously revealed. Hence the exclamation of one of the ancient fathers: O felix culpa, quae talem meruit Redemptorem — O happy fault, which merited such a Redeemer! Paul says it plainly: great is the mystery of godliness (1 Timothy 3:16) — and beyond all question. We receive grace in place of grace — for the grace lost in Adam, better grace in Christ. Of Christ's love for His church and His union with it to accomplish all this, the apostle says: this is a great mystery (Ephesians 5:32) — great wisdom lies within it.

This also, then, is hidden in Christ: the great and inexpressible riches of God's wisdom in pardoning sin, saving sinners, satisfying justice, fulfilling the law, restoring His own honor, and securing for us an even more exceeding weight of glory. All of this out of a situation where it was impossible for the minds of angels or men to conceive how the glory of God could ever be restored and a sinning creature delivered from eternal ruin. For this reason it is said that at the last day God will be glorified in His saints and marveled at by all who believe (2 Thessalonians 1:10) — it will be a wondrous thing, and God will be eternally glorious in it, even in the bringing of believers to Himself. To save sinners through faith will be found to be a far more marvelous work than creating the world from nothing.

Fourth, His all-sufficiency — the last of this kind that I will name.

God's all-sufficiency in Himself is His absolute and universal perfection — nothing is lacking in Him, nothing can be added to His fullness, and no decrease or loss can ever come to it. There is also in Him an all-sufficiency for others: His power to impart and communicate His goodness and Himself to them in such a way as to satisfy and fill them, to their fullest capacity, with everything that is good and desirable. For the first — His all-sufficiency shown in its outward effects — God manifested this abundantly in creation by making all things good, all things perfect in their own kind, and stamping the imprint of His goodness on them all. But for the second — His giving Himself as an all-sufficient God to be enjoyed by creatures, holding out all that is in Him for their satisfaction and blessedness — that is revealed only in and through Christ. In Christ, God is a Father, a God in covenant, who has promised to pour Himself out for them; in Christ He has promised to give Himself into their everlasting enjoyment as their exceeding great reward.

And so I have finished with the second category of God's attributes — those of which, though we have some faint glimpse in other things, a clear knowledge and acquaintance with them is only to be had in the Lord Christ.

What remains is to declare briefly that no attribute of God at all can be known savingly and to our comfort except in Christ. Therefore all the wisdom of the knowledge of God is hidden in Him alone and from Him alone it is to be obtained.

There is no saving knowledge of any attribute of God — none that brings true comfort — except what is found in Christ Jesus alone. Some people contemplate God's justice and acknowledge that those who sin deserve death (Romans 1:32). But this only drives them to cry out, 'Who among us can live with the devouring fire?' (Isaiah 33:14). Others fix their attention on His patience, goodness, mercy, and forbearance — but it does not lead them to repentance at all. They treat the riches of His goodness with contempt, and by their stubbornness and unrepentant hearts they are storing up wrath for the day of wrath (Romans 2:3-4). Still others, through the very works of creation and providence, come to know His eternal power and divine nature, but they do not honor Him as God or give thanks — their foolish hearts are darkened (Romans 1:20). Whatever truth people discover about God outside of Christ, they suppress it under unrighteousness.

For us to have a saving knowledge of God's attributes — a knowledge accompanied by comfort — three things are required.

1. That God has manifested the glory of all His attributes in a way that does us good.

2. That He will continue to exercise and pour out those attributes fully on our behalf.

3. That when so manifested and exercised, they are capable and powerful to bring us into the everlasting enjoyment of Himself — which is our blessedness. All three of these lie hidden in Christ, and not the slightest glimpse of any of them can be obtained outside of Him.

The first is this: that God has actually manifested the glory of all His attributes in a way that does us good. What good does it do our souls to know that He is infinitely righteous, just, and holy, unchangeably true and faithful — if the only way we can see His justice and faithfulness upheld in our case is in our ruin and destruction? If from that knowledge we can only say that it is a righteous thing for Him to bring tribulation on us for our sins — what fruit did Adam draw from that thought in the garden? (Genesis 3). What sweetness is there in knowing He is patient and full of forbearance, if the glory of those attributes is being displayed in His enduring the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? Indeed, what benefit is it to hear Him proclaim Himself the Lord God, merciful and gracious, abounding in goodness and truth — and yet adding that He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished — thereby closing off the exercise of all His other attributes toward us because of our sin? Clearly, none at all. Under this bare view of God's attributes: His justice makes people flee and hide (Genesis 3; Isaiah 2:21); His patience makes them hard-hearted (Ecclesiastes 8:11); His holiness utterly discourages any thought of coming near Him (Joshua 24:19). What comfort is there in thinking about His immensity and omnipresence if we have no assurance of His gracious presence with us? (Psalm 139:11-12). This is what brings salvation — when we see that God has glorified all His attributes in a way that does us good. This He has done in Jesus Christ. In Christ He made His justice glorious by laying all our sins on Him — not sparing Him but giving Him up to death for us all — thereby exalting His justice and indignation against sin precisely by freeing us from condemnation (Romans 3:25; Romans 8:33-34). In Christ He made His truthfulness glorious in the exact fulfillment of all His absolute threats and promises. The original threat of Genesis 2:17 — 'in the day you eat of it you shall surely die' — reinforced by the curse of Deuteronomy 27:26, is accomplished and fulfilled in Christ, and His faithfulness is turned to our benefit. By the grace of God He tasted death for us (Hebrews 2:9) and delivered those who were subject to death (verse 14); He fulfilled the curse by becoming a curse for us (Galatians 3:13). As for His promises, they are all Yes in Christ and through Him Amen, to the glory of God (2 Corinthians 1:20). God set Christ forth to declare His righteousness in the forgiveness of sin — He made a permanent way to exalt the glory of His pardoning mercy toward sinners. In Christ our souls must come to know Him, or live in darkness forever.

This is saving knowledge full of comfort — when we can see all the attributes of God made glorious and exalted in a way that does us good. This wisdom is hidden only in Jesus Christ. When He asked His Father to glorify His name (John 12:28) — to make glorious all His nature, His attributes, His will in the work of redemption — He was immediately answered from heaven: 'I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.'

Second: that God will continue to exercise and pour out those attributes fully on our behalf. Though He has made them all glorious in a way that can work toward our good, it does not automatically follow that He will apply them for our good. Therefore God has entrusted all His attributes to Christ, to be exercised on our behalf and for our benefit. Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God; He is the Lord our righteousness and is made for us by God wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption. Having glorified His Father in all His attributes, Christ now has the administration of them committed to Him, that He might be the author of salvation for those who believe. So if in God's righteousness, goodness, love, mercy, and all-sufficiency there is anything that can benefit us, the Lord Jesus is fully entrusted with dispensing it on our behalf. God is said to be in Christ reconciling the world to Himself (2 Corinthians 5:18). And He becomes the Lord our righteousness (Isaiah 45:24-25).

Third, it only remains to show that these attributes of God, so manifested and exercised, are powerful and able to bring us into the everlasting enjoyment of Him. To demonstrate this, the Lord sums up the entire covenant of grace in one promise: 'I will be your God.' In the covenant God becomes our God and we become His people, and thereby all His attributes become ours as well. Lest we should doubt when we see the seemingly impossible obstacles on every side against us, God wraps it all up in this declaration: 'I am God Almighty, all-sufficient' (Genesis 17:1). I am fully able to carry out all My undertakings and to be your exceeding great reward. I can remove all difficulties, answer all objections, pardon all sins, conquer all opposition — I am God all-sufficient. You know in whom this covenant and all its promises are ratified and in whose blood it is confirmed: in the Lord Christ alone. In Him alone is God an all-sufficient God to anyone, and an exceeding great reward. For this reason Christ Himself is said to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him (Hebrews 7:25). These three things are required for a saving acquaintance with any of God's attributes — and since all three are hidden only in Christ, from Him alone they are to be obtained.

This, then, is the first part of our demonstration that all true and sound wisdom and knowledge is stored up in the Lord Christ and from Him alone to be obtained: because our wisdom consists largely in the knowledge of God, His nature, and His attributes — and this lies entirely hidden in Christ and cannot possibly be obtained except through Him.

The knowledge of ourselves is the second part of our wisdom, and it consists in three things that our Savior sends His Spirit to convict the world of: sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8). To know ourselves in relation to these three is a central part of true and sound wisdom, for they all relate to the supernatural and eternal end for which we were made. None of these can we grasp except in Christ.

First, regarding sin. Every person by nature has some awareness and knowledge of sin — a conscience that tells them what is right and wrong, and that approves or disapproves of their actions in light of a coming judgment. But this is dim and relates mainly to more obvious sins. In short, it is what the apostle describes in Romans 1:32: they know that God's judgment is that those who do such things deserve death. If it is true that no nation is so uncivilized as to have no sense of a deity, then equally no nation lacks some sense of sin and of God's displeasure because of it. This explains why sacrifices, purification rites, and ceremonies of atonement were so widely practiced across the face of the earth. But this natural knowledge, as it stands, is very dim compared with the knowledge of sin that is available to us.

A fuller knowledge of sin is given by the law, which was added because of transgressions. It restores in a doctrinal way all the awareness of good and evil that was originally planted in humanity. The law is a mirror in which anyone who can look spiritually will see sin in all its ugliness and distortion. Look at the law in its purity, holiness, scope, and perfection — in its manner of delivery with dread, terror, thunder, and earthquakes — and it makes a remarkable revelation of sin from every angle. But even all of this is not enough to bring a person to a true and thorough conviction of sin. Not because the mirror is unclear, but because we do not have eyes by nature to look into it. Therefore Christ sends His Spirit to convict the world of sin (John 16:8) — this work of conviction is the distinctive work of Christ within us. So the discovery of sin may be said to come through Christ, and is part of the wisdom hidden in Him. But there are two further ways in which this wisdom appears as hidden in Him.

First, because there are some aspects of sin that shine out most clearly when Christ was made sin for us — more clearly than through any other means.

Second, because there is no knowledge of sin that leads to a spiritual and saving response except in Christ alone.

Regarding the first: there are four things about sin that shine clearly from the cross of Christ. 1. What sin deserves. 2. What it has done to human ability. 3. Its death. 4. The new end put to it.

What sin deserves shines clearly from the cross of Christ on two grounds: first, the person who suffered for it; and second, the penalty He underwent.

Regarding the person who suffered: 'God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son' (John 3:16). It was His only Son that God sent into the world to suffer for sin. He did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all (Romans 8:32). When a slave is punished, it shows that a fault was committed — but perhaps not a great one. The punishment of a son suggests a serious offense; the punishment of an only son suggests the most serious offense imaginable. Sin was never seen to be more abominably sinful than when the weight of it lay on the shoulders of the Son of God. Having made His Son — the Son of His love, His only begotten — to be sin for us, God, to show His fury against it, laid His hand on Him and did not spare Him. If sin is charged to the beloved Son of His heart — even by His own voluntary taking of it — God will not spare Him any part of what that sin deserves. Is it not absolutely clear from the blood of the cross of Christ that sin deserves such punishment that it is entirely impossible for God to let any sin — even the smallest — go unpunished? If He would have done it for anyone, He would have done it for His only Son — but He did not spare Him.

Moreover, God took no delight at all in the blood, the tears, the cries, the unutterable torments and sufferings of the Son of His love. He required only that His law be fulfilled, His justice satisfied, and His wrath against sin appeased — and nothing less than all of this would accomplish it. If the debt of sin could have been paid at a lower cost, it would never have been set at the price of the blood of Christ. Here, then, soul — see the true weight of what sin deserves, more clearly than in all the threats and curses of the law. I thought from the law that my sin — poor creature that I am — deserved death; but that it would have this effect when charged to the Son of God — that I never once imagined.

Consider also what He suffered. For though He was so excellent a person, perhaps it was only a light affliction and trial He endured — especially given the strength He had to bear it. Yet whatever it was, it made this companion of the Lord of Hosts, this Lion of the tribe of Judah, this mighty One — the wisdom and power of God — tremble, sweat, cry out, pray, and wrestle with agonized supplications. Some Roman Catholic devotional writers tell us that one drop — the smallest drop of Christ's blood — was abundantly enough to redeem the entire world; but they are wrong, not understanding the true weight of sin's desert or the severity of God's justice. If one less drop than was shed, or one less pang than was laid on, would have accomplished it — those other drops would not have been shed and those other pangs would not have been laid on. God did not put the beloved of His soul through agony for nothing. But there is more than all this.

It pleased God to bruise Him, to put Him to grief, to make His soul an offering for sin, and to pour out His life unto death. God hid His face from Him, was far from the voice of His cry, until He cried out, 'My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?' He made Him sin and a curse for us, executed on Him the sentence of the law, brought Him into such agony that He sweated thick drops of blood, and His soul was heavy to the point of death. He who was the power of God and the wisdom of God staggered under the burden until the whole frame of nature seemed to reel at it. If you want to see the true weight of what sin deserves, measure it by the cross of Christ. Sin brought the Son of God — equal with God, God blessed forever — into the form of a servant. It pursued Him throughout His life with affliction and persecution, and finally brought Him under the hand of God — bruised Him, broke Him, killed the Lord of life. Here, then, is deep humility over sin — as we look on Him whom we have pierced.

The wisdom of understanding our inability due to sin is wrapped up in Christ. By our inability I mean two things.

1. Our inability to make any atonement with God for sin.

2. Our inability — because of sin — to meet God's mind and will in any of the obedience He requires.

Regarding the first — that our inability to make atonement is revealed only in Christ. People have made many inquiries after atonement and have tried many approaches to achieve it. People ask about it as in Micah 6:6-7: will any kind of sacrifice accomplish it — even those appointed by God, like burnt offerings and yearling calves; even the most costly, like thousands of rams and ten thousand rivers of oil; even the most extreme and unnatural, like giving one's own children to the fire? David settles the matter decisively in Psalm 49:7-8: none of the best or wealthiest of men can by any means redeem his brother or give to God a ransom for him, because the redemption of their souls is too costly and can never be enough. It cannot be done; no atonement can be made. Yet people kept on trying, kept attempting — heaping up sacrifices, some costly, some bloody and inhuman. The Jews to this day believe that God is appeased for sin by the sacrifices of bulls and goats; and the Socinians acknowledge no atonement other than human repentance and changed behavior. In the cross of Christ, all such claims are silenced.

First, God has made clear there that no sacrifices for sin — even those He Himself appointed — could ever make perfect those who offered them (Hebrews 10:11). Those sacrifices could never take away sin. Those services could never make worshipers perfect as to conscience (Hebrews 9:9). The Lord therefore rejects all sacrifices and offerings for that purpose (Hebrews 10:6-8). Christ takes their place, saying, 'Look, I have come,' and through Him we are justified from all things from which we could not be justified by the law (Acts 13:34). God in Christ has declared all sacrifices completely insufficient to make any atonement for sin.

Second, He has also stamped futility on every other effort ever undertaken for that purpose, by setting forth His only Son as a propitiation (Romans 3:24-26). This leaves no doubt that people have no ability in themselves to make any atonement. For if righteousness came through the law, then Christ died for nothing. What purpose would it serve for Him to be set forth as a propitiation if we ourselves were capable of that purpose? The apostle makes exactly this argument in Romans 5:6 and 5:8-9.

This wisdom, then, is also hidden in Christ. People may by other means see far enough to fill them with dread and terror, like those described in Isaiah 33:14. But such a view of sin as can lead a soul to any settled comfort — that is discovered only in this treasury of heaven, the Lord Jesus.

Our inability to meet God's mind and will in any of the obedience He requires — because of sin — is only to be discovered in Christ. Teaching someone that they cannot do what they know they ought to do, and for which they condemn themselves when they fail, is no easy task. People rise up with all their natural energy to resist a conviction of inability. Setting aside the proud claims of the philosophers, how many who call themselves Christians still cling in varying degrees to the belief that they have the power to fulfill the law. Human nature will not teach this inability — it is proud and self-confident, and one part of that pride is refusing to acknowledge incapacity at all. The law will not teach it either, for though it shows us what we have done wrong, it does not reveal that we could not have done better. In fact, by requiring exact obedience, it takes for granted that such power exists in us. This truth lies hidden in the Lord Jesus (Romans 8:2-4): 'The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death.' 'For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did: by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us.' First, sin is condemned as to its guilt and we are set free: the righteousness of the law, through His obedience, is fulfilled in us — we who could never fulfill it ourselves. Second, the obedience required of us is worked in us by His Spirit. Why would we need His perfect obedience credited to us, if we were capable of attaining any obedience of our own? Why would we need His Spirit of life to quicken us, if we were not dead in trespasses and sins?

Third, the death of sin — sin dying within us in some measure even while we are still alive. This is a third aspect of sin that it is our wisdom to understand, and it is hidden only in Christ. Sin dies in two ways. First, as to its outward expression in our bodies. Second, as to its root, principle, and power in our souls. The first can be learned to some degree outside of Christ — unbelieving people may have sin diminished in its outward expression. But there is a dying of sin as to its root — a daily weakening of its strength, power, and vitality — and this is to be found only in Christ. Sin in its own nature does not naturally die or weaken; it naturally takes greater hold and grows stronger in the person it inhabits, on into eternity. In believers, it is steadily dying and decaying until it is completely abolished. Romans 6:3-7: 'Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection. Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.' He was crucified for us, and thereby sin is crucified in us. He died for us, and the body of sin is destroyed so that we should not serve sin. As He was raised from the dead so that death would no longer reign over Him, so also are we raised from sin so that it should no longer reign over us. This wisdom is hidden in Christ alone. To be truly acquainted with the principle of sin's dying, to feel power flowing from the cross of Christ for that purpose, to find sin being crucified in us as Christ was crucified for us — this is wisdom indeed, and it is found in Him alone.

Fourth, there is a glorious end to which sin is appointed and ordained — revealed in Christ — that others know nothing of. In its own nature sin tends only toward the dishonor of God and the ruin of the person in whom it dwells. The warnings and threats of God in the law reveal one other end: the display of God's punishing justice in giving sin its full and fitting recompense. But there the law stops, and with it all other light — revealing no other use or purpose for sin at all. In the Lord Jesus there is the revelation of another and more glorious end: the praise of God's glorious grace in the pardoning and forgiving of sin. God, having arranged in Christ that the very thing which tended only to His dishonor would instead be turned to His infinite glory. This is the great desire He lifts up — to be known and trusted as a God who pardons iniquity, transgression, and sin.

Much of our wisdom consists in knowing ourselves in relation to our eternal condition. In our current state of fallen nature, there is nothing that concerns us more than sin. Without knowledge of it, we do not know ourselves. A true saving knowledge of sin is to be had only in the Lord Christ. In Him we see the weight of our iniquities and their corruption — a weight that could not be borne or atoned for except by His blood. In Him and His cross is revealed our complete inability either to make atonement for God's justice or to live up to His will. The death of sin is purchased by and discovered in the death of Christ, as is also the manifestation of the riches of God's grace in the pardoning of sin. A real and lived acquaintance with all of this — as it applies to ourselves — is our wisdom, and it is worth more than all the wisdom of the world.

Righteousness is the second thing the Spirit of Christ convicts the world of, and understanding it is central to our wisdom. All people are convinced of this: that God is a most righteous God. They know that it is God's judgment that those who commit such things deserve death (Romans 1:32). They know it is a righteous thing for Him to repay trouble to those who offend (2 Thessalonians 1:6). He is of purer eyes than to look on iniquity (Habakkuk 1:13). Therefore the great question of everyone who is convicted of their mortality and the judgment to come is: with what righteousness can they stand before this righteous God? They are gripped by fear about the outcome, as the apostle puts it in Hebrews 2:15 — through fear of death they are subject to bondage their whole lives.

For those pressing this inquiry, the law is what first and most naturally presents itself. The law has many strong arguments for why a soul should look there for righteousness before God. It was given by God Himself for that very end and purpose. It contains all the obedience God requires of any human being. It carries the promise of life: 'Do this and live'; 'the doers of the law are justified'; 'if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.' Given these arguments, no one who sincerely seeks righteousness fails at some point to turn to the law. Many do so every day who would not openly admit it. They set about correcting their lives, reforming their conduct, performing required duties, and thereby pursuing a righteousness based on the law. Many people continue on this path for a long time with much anxiety — sometimes hoping, more often fearing, their consciences never satisfied, righteousness never truly attained. After wearing themselves out perhaps for a long season, they finally arrive with dread, trembling, and disappointment at the apostle's conclusion: by the works of the law no flesh is justified. The apostle describes this outcome in Romans 9:31-32: Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, did not arrive at the law of righteousness, because they pursued it not by faith but as though it were by works. Their failure was not for lack of effort — they earnestly pursued the law of righteousness — but it simply could not succeed by its very nature. Righteousness cannot be obtained that way. For if those who rely on the law are heirs, then faith is useless and the promise is void — because the law only produces wrath (Romans 4:14-15). The law itself, as it now stands, cannot give life (Galatians 3:21). God Himself found fault with this way of attaining righteousness (Hebrews 8:7-8).

There are two realities that reveal to people the futility and hopelessness of seeking righteousness in this way.

First, they have already sinned — for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). They are well aware that even if they could from this point forward fulfill the whole law perfectly, there is already a debt and reckoning against them that they have no idea how to settle. If they look to the law for guidance on how to deal with that past account, it has nothing to say — no direction, no comfort — only a summons to prepare to die.

Second, even if all past debts were wiped away, they are completely unable to fulfill the law going forward. They might as easily move the earth with a finger as meet its demands for perfection. On both counts, they reach the conclusion that their effort is hopeless: by the works of the law no flesh will be justified.

Disappointed by the severity and unrelenting demands of the law, people generally turn to some other approach that seems to address both problems. This most often takes the form of some means of making atonement to satisfy God, combined with hopes for general mercy to cover the rest. Setting aside the approaches of the Gentiles and the many inventions of the Roman Catholics — it is common to all people who are convicted in conscience to seek righteousness partly by trying to make up for past sins and partly by hoping in a vague general mercy. The apostle calls this pursuing righteousness as if by the works of the law (Romans 9:32) — not directly, but by a mix of effort and expectation. He tells us how it turns out: being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they did not submit to the righteousness of God (Romans 10:3). The root of this attempt to establish their own righteousness was ignorance of what God's righteousness actually is. If they had understood what exact conformity to His will He requires, they would never have undertaken such a futile project. They do something, they hope for something; they plan to offset old faults with new obedience. This quiets their consciences for a time — but when the Spirit comes to convict them of righteousness, this approach collapses as well.

The matter eventually comes down to this: they see themselves under a twofold need.

First, as sinners who are liable to the law of God and its curse — so that unless that curse is fully satisfied and nothing from it can ever be charged against them, it is completely futile to seek to appear in God's presence.

Second, as creatures made for a supernatural and eternal end, and therefore obligated to fulfill the complete mind and will of God in the obedience He requires. Since it has already been shown that both of these are beyond their own ability, their wisdom is to find a righteousness that can fully meet both requirements.

Both are to be found only in the Lord Christ, who is our righteousness. This wisdom, and all its treasures, is hidden in Him.

First, He makes atonement for past sins, satisfying the debt of sin and securing its forgiveness. Romans 3:24-25: 'Being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness in the forgiveness of sins which were committed.' In His blood we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Ephesians 1:7). This — this alone — is our righteousness as regards the first requirement: the removal of all the guilt of sin by which we have fallen short of God's glory. On this basis we are assured that no one can ever bring a charge against us or condemn us (Romans 8:31-34). We are cleansed by the sacrifice of Christ so as to have no more troubled conscience about sin (Hebrews 10:2). This wisdom is hidden only in the Lord Jesus. In Him alone is there an atonement to be found.

Yet something more is required: it is not enough that we are not guilty. We must also be actually righteous. Not only must all sin be answered for, but all righteousness must be fulfilled. By having the guilt of sin removed, we are like persons who are innocent — but something more is needed to make us persons who have obeyed. That an innocent person goes to heaven merely on account of innocency — I find no basis for that. Adam was innocent when first created, but he still had to keep the commandments before he could enter into life; innocency gave him no claim to life. There is a further requirement: the whole law must be fulfilled and all the obedience God requires at our hands must be performed. The soul finds the answer only in the Lord Christ — for if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life? (Romans 5:10). His death reconciled us; His life saves us. The actual obedience He rendered to the entire law of God is the righteousness by which we are saved. 'That I may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith' (Philippians 3:9).

To summarize: the main part of our wisdom lies in finding a righteousness that will stand with us forever and endure the severe scrutiny of God Himself. All the wisdom of the world is nothing but foolishness when it comes to discovering this. The best human wisdom can do is find the most miserable, burdensome, and frustrating ways of perishing eternally. All the treasures of this wisdom are hidden in Christ; He is made to us by God wisdom and righteousness (1 Corinthians 1:30).

We come now to the last topic I will touch on briefly: judgment — specifically the judgment that is to come. I will not dwell on how much this matters to us. It is what distinguishes human beings from the animals that perish. I will not explore the faint hints of it given in God's governance of the world through providence, nor the greater light of it in the threats and promises of the law. This wisdom is hidden in the Lord Jesus in two ways: first, as to the certainty of the judgment; second, as to the manner of it.

Its certainty is confirmed in and through Christ in two ways: first, by His death; and second, by His resurrection.

By His death: God, in punishing and condemning sin in the flesh of His own Son, has given powerful assurance that a righteous and universal judgment is coming. Why else would He lay such a burden on Him, unless He is certainly going to reckon one day with all people for all their works? The death of Christ is the most solemn preview of the final judgment.

By His resurrection: Acts 17:31 — God 'has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead, having appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed.'

Finally, the manner of the judgment: it will be carried out by the One who loved us and gave Himself for us — the One who is Himself the righteousness He requires at our hands. And on the other side, it will be carried out by the One whose person, grace, ways, worship, and servants have been scorned, despised, and rejected by the people of this world — which brings unspeakable comfort on one hand and terror on the other. So this wisdom also is hidden in Christ.

This completes the second part of our first demonstration. Knowledge of ourselves in relation to our eternal end is no small part of our wisdom. The things of greatest concern are sin, righteousness, and judgment. The wisdom of all three is hidden in the Lord Jesus alone.

The third part of our wisdom is walking with God. For two people to walk together, five things are required: 1. Agreement. 2. Acquaintance. 3. Strength. 4. Boldness. 5. Aiming at the same end. All of these, along with the wisdom of them, are hidden in the Lord Jesus.

First, agreement. The prophet tells us that two cannot walk together unless they are agreed (Amos 3:3). Until agreement is reached, there is no fellowship, no walking together. By nature — or while a person remains in their natural state — God and man are the greatest of enemies. God declares nothing to us but wrath, which is why we are called children of wrath — born liable to it (Ephesians 2:3). While we remain in that condition, the wrath of God rests on us (John 3:36). Everything God reveals of Himself to us in our natural state shows that He is profoundly offended, and therefore storing up wrath for the day of wrath and the revelation of His righteous judgment — that day when God and sinners meet is called the day of wrath (Romans 2:5-6). We are no less fully engaged in this enmity toward Him — in fact, we began it first and persist in it the longest. The apostle tells us that our very minds — the best part of us — are hostility against God (Romans 8:7-8), and that we neither are, nor will, nor can be subject to Him. Whatever we do that appears otherwise is either hypocrisy or flattery — and in fact, minimizing this enmity is itself part of it. In this condition, the wisdom of walking with God is as far from the soul as anything can be. He is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all; we are darkness, and in us there is no light at all. He is life, a living God; we are dead — dead in trespasses and sins. He is holiness and glorious in it; we are completely defiled, an abominable thing. He is love; we are full of hatred, hating and being hated. Surely this is no foundation for agreement or for walking together. The foundation of this agreement is laid in Christ, hidden in Christ. He is our peace; He has made peace for us (Ephesians 2:14-15). He killed the enmity in His own body on the cross (verse 16).

First, He removes the cause of the enmity between God and us — sin and the curse of the law. He makes an end of sin by making atonement for iniquity (Daniel 9:24). He cancels the written record of debts against us (Colossians 2:14), redeeming us from the curse by becoming a curse for us (Galatians 3:13).

Second, He destroys the one who would keep the enmity alive and widen the breach. Through His death He destroyed the one who has the power of death — that is, the devil (Hebrews 2:14). He disarmed the rulers and authorities (Colossians 2:14).

Third, He made reconciliation for the sins of the people (Hebrews 2:17). Through His blood He made an atonement with God to turn away the wrath that was due to us, thus making peace. This is why God is said to be in Christ reconciling the world to Himself (2 Corinthians 5:19). Having reconciled Himself, He sets aside the enmity on His part and then works to put the enmity to death on our part as well, so that we may be reconciled.

Fourth, through our Lord Jesus Christ we receive this atonement (Romans 5:11) — accepting the peace He made and offered, laying down our enmity toward God, and so establishing agreement in His blood. Through Him we have access to the Father (Ephesians 2:18). Outside of Christ, God on His part is a consuming fire; and we are like completely dry tinder drawing ourselves up against that fire. Every approach we make to God outside of Christ works only to our ruin. In His blood alone do we have this agreement. Let none of us suppose that we have taken even one step in the ways of God, or that any duty has been accepted, or that anything is not lost to eternity — unless it has been done on the basis of this.

Second, acquaintance is also required for walking together. Two people may travel the same road with no hostility between them, but if they are complete strangers they will pass by each other without the slightest fellowship. It is not enough that the enmity between God and us has been removed — we must also be given a true acquaintance with Him. Our understandings are darkened and we are alienated from the life of God (Ephesians 4:18). This too is hidden in the Lord Christ and comes forth from Him. There are other means God has given to make Himself known and to create some acquaintance with Him — His Word and His works — as Acts 17:27 indicates, that people should seek the Lord and perhaps find Him. But the knowledge of God obtained through His works is very weak and imperfect. And the knowledge obtained through the written Word alone, without any further help, is not saving — given our blindness. The Word may be as bright as the sun, but if we have no eyes in our heads, what good does it do? No saving acquaintance with God that can guide us to walk with Him can be obtained by these means alone. This too is hidden in the Lord Jesus and comes from Him. As 1 John 5:20 says: He has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true. All other light, without His giving us understanding, will not accomplish it. He is the true light that enlightens everyone who is enlightened. He opens our minds to understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:45). No one has ever known God except through what He has revealed (John 1:18). There is no acquaintance with God as love and full of kindness, patience, grace, and pardoning mercy — and that is the only knowledge of Him on which we can walk with Him — except in Christ alone.

Third, there must be a path in which we walk with God. In the beginning God gave us a path to walk with Him: the path of innocence and exact holiness under a covenant of works. But this path has been so choked with thorns and briers, so blocked by curses and wrath because of sin, that no living person can take one step in it. A new way must be found if we are ever to have communion with God. This too, for the reasons already given, is hidden in Christ. The Holy Spirit tells us that Christ has opened and consecrated for us a new and living way into the Most Holy Place (Hebrews 10:20). New, because the first old way was useless; living, because the other is dead. Therefore verse 22 says: 'Let us draw near.' Having a path to walk in, let us draw near. This way He has prepared is none other than Himself (John 14:6). To those who want to come to the Father and hold communion with Him, He says: 'I am the way, and no one comes to the Father except through Me.' He is the channel through which all communication passes between God and us. In Him we meet; in Him we walk. All the outflow of love, kindness, and mercy from God to us passes through Him. All our response of love, delight, faith, and obedience back to God passes through Him. Every other path leads down to the chambers of death.

Fourth, suppose all of this is in place — agreement made, acquaintance given, a way provided — yet if we have no strength to walk in that way, what good does any of it do? In ourselves we have no strength (Romans 5:6). Even when set on the path, we either throw ourselves down or temptations knock us down, and we make no progress. The Lord Jesus tells us plainly: without Him we can do nothing (John 15:5). Nor can all the creatures in heaven and earth give us the slightest help. This aspect of wisdom is also hidden in Christ. All strength to walk with God comes from Him. 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,' says Paul in Philippians 4:13 — the same man who denies that we have any sufficiency in ourselves (2 Corinthians 3:5). We who can do nothing on our own can do all things in Jesus Christ — like giants. Therefore in Him we are more than conquerors over every obstacle in our way (Romans 8:37). From His fullness we receive grace upon grace (John 1:16). From Him we receive the Spirit of life and power, by which He carries us like eagles on swift and safe wings along the paths of walking with God. Any step taken in strength not immediately from Christ is a step toward hell. He first takes us by the arm and teaches us to walk until He leads us on to perfection.

Fifth, where should we find the boldness to walk with our God, who is a consuming fire? Was it not always assumed by His people of old that if they saw God they would die? When God appeared in awesome power on Mount Sinai, even Moses — their mediator — said, 'I am full of fear and trembling' (Hebrews 12:21). All the people cried out, 'Do not let God speak with us, or we will die' (Exodus 20:19). How, then, are we to take on this boldness to walk with God? The apostle answers in Hebrews 10:19: it is by the blood of Jesus. So Ephesians 3:12: in Him we have boldness and confident access — not standing far off like the people at the giving of the law, but drawing near to God with confidence. The fear and terror of God entered through sin. Adam had no thought of hiding himself until he had sinned. The guilt of sin resting on the conscience — combined with the common understanding that God is a righteous judge of it — fills people with dread and horror at the very thought of His presence. The Lord Jesus, through the sacrifice and atonement He made, has removed this guilty conscience — that is, the dread of God's revenge because of sin. He has taken away the killing sword of the law, and on that basis gives us great boldness with God — revealing Him to us now not as a punishing judge but as a tender, merciful, and reconciled Father. Moreover, whereas we carry by nature a spirit of bondage that fills us with countless tormenting fears, He removes it and gives us the Spirit of adoption, by which we cry 'Abba, Father,' and conduct ourselves with the confidence and gracious boldness of children. Where the Spirit of God is, there is freedom (2 Corinthians 3:17) — freedom from all the dread and terror that the administration of the law brought with it. There is no sin God will judge more severely than boldness taken with Him outside of Christ; and there is no grace more acceptable to Him than the boldness He grants us in the blood of Jesus.

Sixth, one more thing to add: two cannot walk together unless they share the same purpose and aim at the same end. This too, in brief, is given to us in the Lord Jesus. The end God aims at is the advancement of His own glory. No one can aim at this end except in the Lord Jesus. In summary: all the wisdom of walking with God is hidden in Christ and from Him alone to be obtained — as has been shown by working through each particular element.

And so I have concluded my first demonstration and shown that all true wisdom and knowledge is stored up in and dispensed by the Lord Jesus. This was shown by tracing through the chief elements of what our wisdom consists in. I have only one more argument to add, and I will be brief.

This truth will be further confirmed by examining the insufficiency and emptiness of anything else that might claim the title of wisdom.

There are two things in the world that carry this reputation. The first is learning and scholarship: skill and knowledge in the arts, sciences, languages, and the knowledge of history. The second is prudence and practical skill for conducting ourselves in relation to others in public life for the common good — which is by far the most admirable quality within the reach of human nature. Regarding both of these I will briefly show:

First, that they are completely insufficient even for achieving the particular goals they are designed for.

Second, that both of them together, even at their highest development, cannot reach the true and ultimate end of wisdom. Both lines of argument will ultimately place the crown on the head of Jesus Christ.

Start with the first, regarding scholarship specifically. Learning, even if all of it were concentrated in a single person, cannot achieve the particular goal for which it exists — which is enough to stamp futility and frustration across its forehead.

The particular goal of learning — though many people miss it because their eyes are fixed on false ends that lead them off course — is nothing other than to remove some part of the curse that came upon us through sin. Learning is the product of the soul's struggle against the curse of sin. When Adam was first created, he was fully equipped with all the knowledge that has any meaningful bearing on the highest end of humanity — the end we now press toward — with the exception of things that did not yet exist and had no natural causes, such as what we now call languages and the subject matter of history. There was no narrowness, much less darkness, in his understanding that would require him to labor and strain to develop those general concepts of things that he simply had. His knowledge of nature is evident from the fact that he gave fitting names to all the creatures — most of the reasons for which are now lost to us — yet from Scripture's approval of his naming and the significance of what still remains clear, it is plain that he did it from a direct knowledge of their natures. Plato himself observed that the one who first gave names to things must have been the wisest of men — indeed, someone with more than human wisdom. If the most learned man alive — or the combined wisdom of all the world's scholars — were put to the test of giving names to all living creatures that accurately expressed their natures and qualities, they would quickly feel how much has been lost. Adam was made complete for his entire purpose: to rule the creation and live for God — both of which required knowledge of the one and the will of the other. When all of this was lost through sin — and the multiplication of languages was added as a further curse for a later rebellion — the whole project of learning became an attempt to untangle the soul from the consequences of sin. Ignorance, darkness, and blindness fell on the mind; acquaintance with the works of God, both spiritual and natural, was lost; the barrier of foreign languages was introduced by the multiplication of tongues. Disordered passions and emotions, along with countless distorting biases, also came upon us. To remove all of this, to untangle the mind in its reasoning, to recover acquaintance with the works of God, to free the soul from the effects of the curse of divided languages — this is the goal and tendency of learning. This is the something it is aimed at. Anyone who pursues it for any other reason is chasing the crow with broken pottery and mud. Without dwelling on the futility, frustration, and countless miseries that attend this enterprise, I simply say this: learning is in itself completely inadequate to achieve its own goal — and that stamps futility across its forehead in letters that cannot be erased. I wish to note two things to make this plain.

1. The knowledge that learning aims to recover was originally given to humanity as a means of walking with God — for the supernatural end to which we were appointed. For after Adam was furnished with all his endowments, the law of life and death was given to him, so that he would understand the purpose for which he had received them. Therefore the knowledge he possessed was spiritual and holy, even his natural knowledge — in both its source and its end, it was spiritual.

2. The loss of it is part of the curse that came upon us for sin. Whatever we fall short of compared to Adam's original state of innocence — whether through loss of good or the addition of evil — is entirely the result of the curse for sin. Beyond this, the blindness, ignorance, darkness, and deadness that Scripture everywhere ascribes to us in our natural state fully includes the very thing we are talking about.

Given these two points, it is perfectly clear that learning cannot on its own achieve the goal it aims at.

1. The light that learning does produce — which, God knows, is very little, weak, dim, imperfect, uncertain, and largely only enables people to argue with and contradict one another, to the embarrassment of reason itself — that light, such as it is, is not in the least made spiritual by learning, nor brought back into that order of living for God and with God in which it originally stood. This is entirely beyond learning's reach. Regarding this end, the apostle assures us that the utmost outcome men arrive at is darkness and folly (Romans 1:21-22). Who does not know the profound inquiries, subtle arguments, sharp reasoning, and remarkable discoveries of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and others? What did they actually achieve in the matter before us, for all their study and effort? They became fools, says the apostle. The one who by universal consent holds the crown of wisdom among them all — the man whose company was considered an inestimable privilege — died like a fool, sacrificing a rooster to Aesculapius. And this is plain: Jesus Christ alone is the true light who enlightens people (John 1:9), and there is no one who has any true light except what comes directly from Him. After all the learning in the world, if people have nothing more, they are still natural men who do not perceive the things of God. Their light is still only darkness — and how great is that darkness! It is the Lord Jesus alone who is anointed to open the eyes of the blind. People cannot make a concept spiritual, nor order their knowledge toward the glory of God. After all their efforts they are still blind and in darkness — indeed, they are darkness itself, knowing nothing as they ought to know it. I know how people of such attainments are inclined to ask with contempt, 'Are we blind too?' — but God has shattered all their pride: 'Where is the wise man?' He asks; 'Where is the scholar?' (1 Corinthians 1:20). I will not add what Paul further warned us about regarding philosophy as liable to plunder souls, nor what Tertullian and some other ancient writers said about it — being quite confident that what they opposed was its abuse, not its proper use and value.

Second, the darkness and ignorance that learning strives to remove came upon us as a curse — and learning has no power whatsoever to lift a curse. The person who has reached the highest peak of scholarship, if he has nothing else — if he does not have Christ — is just as much under the curse of blindness, ignorance, and spiritual dullness as the most uneducated person in the world. The curse is only removed in the One who was made a curse for us. Everything that is a consequence of divine judgment is only removed through the One on whom all our sins were laid as punishment. In fact, the more abilities the mind acquires, the more it entrenches itself in the curse and strengthens its opposition to God. Everything it gains only helps it raise up more ambitious thoughts and arguments against the Lord Christ. So this kind of knowledge falls short of what it is designed for and cannot be the solid wisdom we are looking for.

There are other ways to point out the emptiness of this wisdom — from its complexity, difficulty, uncertainty, and failure to satisfy, and from its tendency to lead its followers into the very thing they most claim to avoid: blindness and folly. My purpose here is only to lay it down at the feet of Jesus Christ and place the crown on His head.

The second form of the finest wisdom outside of Christ is also unable to achieve the goal for which it exists — namely, prudence in managing civil affairs. The immediate goal of this prudence is to keep the rational world within order and boundaries — to draw lines around human beings and keep them from overstepping their limits and destroying one another. All kinds of trouble arise from people overstepping: one person breaking in on the rights, interests, and relationships of another throws this world into conflict. The sum and aim of all earthly wisdom is to keep all things moving in their proper sphere — to hold everyone within the boundaries that are theirs.

It will not be hard to show that all civil prudence is completely unable to achieve this goal. The current state of affairs throughout the world — and that of previous ages — testifies to this abundantly. I will point out the futility of it in a few observations.

First, by the righteous judgment of God, who trims back the proud achievements of men, it regularly happens that those most gifted with this kind of ability use it for the exact opposite of its natural purpose. From whom do most of the world's upheavals come — the breaking of boundaries, the setting of all of civilization on fire? Is it not from such men as these? If men were not so clever, the world might perhaps be more peaceful. This appears to be a curse God has placed on worldly wisdom in most of those who possess it: that it gets turned directly against its own purpose.

Second, God has made it a consistent pattern — in the advancement of His own glory — to mix folly and madness into the wisdom and plans of the wisest people alive, so that in the depths of their scheming they advise things as ill-suited to their goals as anything a child or a fool might suggest, and as directly aimed at their own failure and ruin as anything that could be devised against them. He destroys the wisdom of the wise and brings to nothing the understanding of the intelligent (1 Corinthians 1:19). He describes this at length in Isaiah 19:11-14: drunkenness and staggering are the outcome of all their wisdom, because the Lord gives them a spirit of confusion. Likewise in Job 5:12-14: they meet with darkness in the daytime — when everything seems clear around them and one would wonder how anyone could go wrong, God darkens the way for such people. Psalm 33:10: He brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. In Isaiah 8:9-10 God seems to set them working and personally undertakes their disappointment — 'Go ahead with your plans,' says the Lord, 'and I will see to it that they come to nothing.' Psalm 2:3-4: when men are deep in their plots and schemes, God is said to hold them in derision — to laugh at them, watching the poor creatures diligently working out their own ruin. This has never been made more apparent than in the days in which we live. Scarcely has any supposedly wise person been brought to ruin except through their own folly; and the cleverest counsel of most has been no better than madness.

Third, this wisdom — which is meant to produce universal peace — has almost consistently brought the greatest personal unrest to those who most possess it. 'In much wisdom is much grief' (Ecclesiastes 1:18). The great men of the world carry the reputation for wisdom; truly it is found in very few of them. Most of what is credited to their care, foresight, and management consists of ordinary events to which they contributed nothing at all. Where this wisdom has been most outstanding, it has lived so close to the border of atheism and been so accompanied by deceit and injustice that it has made its owners wicked and notorious.

No further examples are needed to show the inadequacy of this wisdom for achieving its own particular purpose. It is far from being true and solid wisdom, since failure is written plainly across its face.

This is the first reason why true wisdom cannot consist in either of these: because both fall short even of the immediate and particular goals they aim at.

Both of these together, even at their highest development, are unable to reach the true and ultimate goal of wisdom. It would be simple to demonstrate their inadequacy for wisdom's true end, but this has been so thoroughly done by the one who possessed the greatest portion of both of any man who ever lived — Solomon in Ecclesiastes — that I will not press the point further.

To draw to a close: if true and solid wisdom is nowhere to be found in either of these, if the pearl is not hidden in this field, if both are nothing but emptiness and disappointment, it is pointless to search for it in anything else below. These two are incomparably the finest things the natural world has to offer. Therefore, with one accord, let us place the crown of wisdom on the head of the Lord Jesus.

Let the reader see the purpose of this entire digression. Its aim is to draw our hearts to a more joyful welcome of and delight in the Lord Jesus. If all wisdom is stored up in Him and can only be obtained by belonging to Him — and if everything beside Him and outside of Him that claims the title of wisdom is folly and emptiness — then let those who want to be truly wise learn where to rest their souls.