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Pastor's Blog September 12, 2019
"CHRIST JESUS, OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS, HOLINESS, and REDEMPTION"
{Scroll over scripture reference to read the scripture or reference.
First Corinthians 1:30, a well-known and much loved passage, states, "It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God - that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption" (NIV). There is a lot going on in this passage!
The "him" in the beginning phrase "it is because of him" is God; this is made clear in vv. 26-29, where Paul points out that God uses the foolish, weak, lowly, and despised things of this world to shame the so-called wise. Similarly, Christ Jesus is the wisdom of God for salvation. Not only does God choose to save and redeem the world through Christ, but Jesus naturally appears like a foolish option to an unbelieving world because it doesn't make sense that a crucified man who died on a tree could save anyone (cf. Matthew 27:42). And yet, Christ is surely the wisdom of God - the very way and means by which God saves you and me. It is an exciting passage! But did you notice what it says about holiness?
Christ Jesus, the wisdom of God, is our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. Paul is probably partially drawing on the prophet Jeremiah when he calls Jesus these three realities, because in v. 31 he quotes Jeremiah 9:24 to emphasize the fact that God gets all the glory for our salvation. And Jeremiah does talk about these things: Jeremiah 23:6 and 33:16 both call God "our righteousness"; Jeremiah 2:3 and 31:23 describe God as identifying his people as "holiness"; and Jeremiah 32 records the story of the prophet "redeeming" (i.e., purchasing as an inheritance) a field from his cousin Hanamel as a living promise that God will redeem his people from Babylonian captivity and restore them to the land of Judah. However, this passage highlights a difference between Paul and Jeremiah about holiness. Jeremiah stresses that God considers his people to be HIS holiness, but Paul points out that Jesus Christ has become OUR holiness.
The difference between Paul and Jeremiah means this: God wants to make us, his people, holy - and he does this by giving us his holiness, which is Jesus: God's holiness incarnate. As we worship God today, let us respond to God with thanksgiving by receiving the holiness that Jesus wants to give us as we live in relationship with him.
God Bless.
Pastor Nathaniel Gamble
