Destined for Glory

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

DESTINED FOR GLORY

1 Cor 2:6-9

6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 However, as it is written:

"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him"—

NIV

As it is often with Paul, he has very long sentences and that includes all one thought that he continues on using many words. In order to get the whole of this thought we are in now, we would need the whole of chapter two. Yet within this singular thought we do have something we can consider along the way. Paul had just said that at first, his message was simply Jesus Christ Crucified, and that was for the reason of exposing the truth of Jesus to non-believers in order they might believe. Now,  he says that to those who have believed and have been growing in their faith, he speaks with wisdom, but not the wisdom of this age, or the wisdom of the world, however, he speaks from the wisdom of God. He calls God’s wisdom a secret. It is interesting that Paul says this wisdom has been hidden and that God destined this wisdom for our glory before time began. Paul is talking about Jesus is the wisdom of God, and that His plan for Jesus to be crucified was before he created time. That would be before the foundation of the earth. In other words, before he created man, God already knew all that His creation would do, the choices they would make, and the consequences of their choices. He knew before time that we sin, and in essence, turn our backs on Him. He had determined before time that as a consequence of our turning away from Him we would pay the price with our lives and that death would be our end, and we would spend all of eternity out of His presence. However, that was unacceptable, as he did and is and will forever love his creation. So, before time He knew He would make a way for creation to turn back toward Him and return to the place He wanted us. Our salvation was determined before time began. The rulers of this age, people who live according to this age cannot understand that truth, that wisdom from God. What is also interesting is that Paul says that if those rulers of this age, which would have to be the council of elders that made sure Pilate crucified Jesus, knew and understood who Jesus really was, they would not have had Jesus crucified. Is that saying that God never intended for Jesus to take all our sin, and paid our penalty for sin? We think not. It was always God’s plan but had those Jews seen the plan of God, had they understood God’s plan, they would not have assisted Him in executing His plan, for they were all about their own plans. But in being all about themselves, they did exactly what God had planned before time began. The wisdom of God is so far beyond any wisdom man could possibly have. How glorious it is to be within the plan of God, to be right where he wants us to be, in Christ. This is our destiny, we are destined for glory.