The Wisdom and Power of God (conclusion)
Jesus is the Logos or Word of God. His person reveals to us both God’s power and God’s wisdom.
The Jews sought God through demonstrations and displays of power. Think about all those passages in the gospels where the Jewish leaders ask Jesus to show them a sign authenticating his ministry. Remember the passage from John, chapter two: “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” was the response of the Jews to Jesus’s driving the money changers and dove sellers from the court of the Gentiles.
Greeks sought God through wisdom based on logic and precision. God was behind the perfect mathematical precision of this universe.
But God cannot be understood or found by those who understand power or wisdom based on our limited, shallow, and worldly understanding of these things. Today I want to look at two passages of Scripture that confirm this truth.
The first passage is found in John 1:4. Here it is in several translations -
And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not grasp it. (NASB)
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (NIV)
And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. (NKJV)
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (ESV)
These are four highly acclaimed Bible translations, and yet, I want you to notice the HUGE difference in how they describe the relationship of the darkness of worldly thinking to the Light of the Logos, Jesus Christ -
The darkness did not comprehend or grasp it.
The darkness has not overcome it.
Which translation is most accurate? The answer is both! In fact, many translations include a note providing the alternate translation of the Greek word John uses in this verse.
The word is katalambano. It is a word, not unlike some of our English words, with dual meanings.
Think about some English words with dual meanings. We have a ton of them -
I saw the tree. Am I cutting the tree down, or am I saying I noticed a particular tree?
The mouse is lost. Am I talking about a rodent with a bad sense of direction or the contraption that navigates my computer?
Context is everything. Depending on the context, we understand how the word is being used. Right?
This is where we see the brilliance of John’s assertion that “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not katalambano it.”
The Jews focused on a God of power. They expected a Messiah who would demonstrate this power in an earthly way.
The Greeks focused on a God of wisdom. They expected a god who would make sense, be reasonable, someone they themselves could comprehend through worldly wisdom.
And both the Jews and the Greeks who sought God through these limited and worldly understandings of power and wisdom missed Him completely through the demonstration of His divine power and wisdom as seen in Jesus.
Consider Paul’s words in I Corinthians 1:18-25 -
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God, For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand a sign and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
This is the Christmas Story, according to John. The Word who was in the beginning with God, and whom through our world was created, came to live among us. In Him, we find the same life that brought our world into existence. That life is our light. That light reveals God’s wisdom and power. But to come into that light, we must reject both worldly wisdom and worldly power. It is only through faith/belief/trust that we can receive and walk in the light of God’s wisdom and power, seen most clearly in a bloody cross and an empty tomb, seen in Jesus, His Son.
May His Light shine on you and yours this Christmas, filling you with the joy of His Life.
In Christ,
Dan
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