The "Backward" Wisdom of God (2003)

God's wisdom revealed through His Word often comes across as counter-intuitive and foolish. Often, this is because human thinking is distorted against God's desires. God's wisdom was fully realized through the cross, which provides us with an ability to see real character change, acceptance, and reconciliation with God free of charge through Jesus. The message of the cross is profound and wonderful for those who have place their faith in Christ, but is offensive to those who don't want God's insight into their problems.

A key contrast throughout scripture is freedom and slavery. The Bible stands against human slavery, while focusing on the real freedom God offers to other forms of slavery, including to the law, sin, and other people's judgments of us. God offers us the chance to become slaves to Christ, serving him from gratitude for what he did on the cross. As we live more and more for Christ, we experience increasing freedom from being enslaved to selfish desires and ways of life.

God's design for personal fulfillment and happiness comes from self-giving love that emulates Christ. As we move away from self-saving and selfish love and move towards giving out to meet the needs of others, we are able to experience: increasing contentment, relational success, and substantial emotional health. This type of love is only possible through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The best context for self-giving love is in a healthy Christian community.

God's wisdom suggests that we should be generous in light of God's generosity towards us. Rather than accepting the "American Dream" mentality and using God's resources towards self, God desires us to grow in our willingness to share and be generous with the resources we've received from Him. Christians who become increasingly generous store up for themselves rewards for eternity and reflect the generosity they have received through Jesus Christ paying for their moral debt.

Biblical rest is an active to choice to trust God. It includes trusting His unconditional affection towards us, His power to work through us, and His ability to change us. It also means we stop trusting that our good works earn His acceptance. As we rest in God's unfailing love for us, we are able to work out of His grace to love and serve Him and those around us.

God's key to authentic greatness is through honoring Him to advance His purposes among people. Instead of trying to exalt self, God's design for being great in His Kingdom requires voluntary suffering for Christ and serving others in love. Those who are committed to honoring God through suffering and serving for His sake develop real fulfillment and joy in their lives. The idea of being great for God's sake is a noble cause, but one that requires self being put aside to glorify God.

The relationship between power and weakness is a key theme throughout the Bible. God's wisdom says that power is available to those who trust in God and realize their weakness apart from Him. As a result, powerful people can boast in God and their weakness while enjoying a level of contentment as they learn to depend on Christ's power to work through them more. Christ's power empowers us to serve others, be nourished by God's Word, and endure difficulties in spite of our human weaknesses.

God's wisdom reveals that Christians will be more happy and content as they choose to give out to others. This principle goes against society and culture throughout history, but has profound impact for those who hold to it. We are able to give out to others based on God's love for us and as such become a blessing for others. Growing Christians realize more how God wants to use them to be givers of His love, resulting in real joy and happiness for them as they live it out.