Theological Term of the Week: Wisdom (of God)

wisdom (of God)
“That perfection of God whereby He applies his knowledge to the attainment of His ends in a way which glorifies Him most”;1also called omnisapience.

From scripture:

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?
Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:33–36 ESV)

O LORD, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom have you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures. (Psalm 104:24 ESV)

To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord … . (Ephesians 3:8–11 ESV)

From Knowing God by J. I. Packer:

What does the Bible mean when it calls God wise? In Scripture, wisdom is a moral as well as an intellectual quality, more than mere intelligence or knowledge, just as it is more than mere cleverness or cunning. For us to be truly wise, in the Bible sense, our intelligence and cleverness must be harnessed to a right end. Wisdom is the power to see, and the inclination to choose, the best and highest goal, together with the surest means of attaining it.

Wisdom is, in fact, the practical side of moral goodness. As such, it is found in its fullness only in God. He alone is naturally and entirely and invariably wise. “His wisdom ever waketh,” says the hymn, and it is true. God is never other than wise in anything that he does. Wisdom, as the old theologians used to say, is his essence, just as power and truth and goodness are his essence—integral elements, that is, in his character.

Learn more:

1. Theopedia: Wisdom of God
2. Bod Deffinbaugh: The Wisdom of God
3. Rev. D. H. Kuiper: The Manifold Wisdom of God
4. John Gill: The Wisdom of God
5. Stephen Charnock: Discourse on the Wisdom of God

Related terms:

• communicable attributes
• omnipotence
• omniscience
• providence

1 From Systematic Theology by Louis Berkhof.

Filed under God’s Nature and His Works

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Sunday's Hymn: Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken

Jesus, I my cross have taken,
All to leave, and follow thee;
Destitute, despised, forsaken,
Thou from hence my all shalt be:
Perish ev’ry fond ambition,
All I’ve sought, or hoped, or known;
Yet how rich is my condition,
God and heav’n are still my own.

Man may trouble and distress me,
‘Twill but drive me to thy breast;
Life with trials hard may press me,
Heav’n will bring me sweeter rest:
O ‘tis not in grief to harm me
While thy love is left to me;
O ‘twere not in joy to charm me,
Were that joy unmixed with thee.

Take, my soul, thy full salvation,
Rise o’er sin and fear and care;
Joy to find in ev’ry station
Something still to do or bear;
Think what spirit dwells within thee,
What a Father’s smile is thine,
What a Saviour died to win thee:
Child of heav’n, shouldst thou repine?

Haste then on from grace to glory,
Armed by faith, and winged by prayer;
Heav’n’s eternal day’s before thee,
God’s own hand shall guide thee there.
Soon shall close thy earthly mission;
Swift shall pass thy pilgrim days;
Hope soon change to glad fruition,
Faith to sight, and prayer to praise.

—Henry Francis Lyte

 Other hymns, worship songs, or quotes for this Sunday:

• What Is the World to Me at The Happy Wonderer
• The appointed guide of all true believers at Tried With Fire
• Lord’s Day 39, 2019 at The Thirsty Theologian

Selected Reading

I read these recently and recommend them to you.

Theological Questions

Is Middle Knowledge Biblical? An Explanation
This explains what middle knowledge is—or what middle knowledge would be if it actually existed. 

(It’s the next piece in this series that will actually tackle the question of whether middle knowledge is biblical or not.)

What Does ‘Ex Nihilo’ Mean?
This is an excerpt from R. C. Sproul’s Truths We Confess, which has been revised and reissued in a single volume instead of the three-volume set I own. You can read this excerpt to get a taste this commentary on The Westminster Confession of Faith. I use it frequently and recommend it to you. You can order it here.

Biblical Understanding

5 Things to Remember When Helping Someone Read the Bible
This short excerpt from the ESV New Christian’s Bible identifies five ways we should read the Bible to deepen our understanding of it. 

Why Study Ezra
Because it teaches us that a new start is not enough, setting things up for Jesus’s teaching in John 3. “Nicodemus asked how he could start his life over, and Jesus told him, ‘You don’t need a new start! You need a new heart!’”