i've been reading john owen's "communion with God" for quite a while now, please so excuse the repeated quotes from this book in the past couple months. i'm not really plowing through it like other books, more reading 3-5 pages every week or so when i get a chance and meditating on it.

lately i've been meditating on the excellencies of Christ, and with the assistance of owen, Jesus as the revelation of the mystery of the wisdom of God... Col. 2: 3, "In Him are hid all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge."

i quote at length from Owen, "Digression 2. All solid wisdom laid up in Christ"

"...yet there is that which Paul is astonished at, and wherein God will for ever be exalted, which he calls, "The depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God," Rom. 11: 33; - that is only hid in and revealed by Christ. Hence, as he is said to be "the wisdom of God," and to be "made unto us wisdom;" so the design of God, which is carried along in him, and revealed in the gospel, is called "the wisdom of God," and a "mystery; even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world was; which none of the princes of this world knew," 1 Cor. 2: 7, 8. Eph. 3: 10, it is called, "The manifold wisdom of God;" and to discover the depth and riches of this wisdom, he tells us in that verse that it is such, that principalities and powers, that very angels themselves, could not in the least measure get any acquaintance with it, until God, by gathering of a church of sinners, did actually discover it. Hence Peter informs us, that they who are so well acquainted with all the works of God, do yet bow down and desire with earnestness to look into these things (the things of the wisdom of God in the gospel), 1 Pet. 1: 12."

i love what it says, in 1 Peter 1:12, how fascinating this wisdom is that God revealed through Jesus in this present age... so fascinating that those that prophesied of him, and even the angels themselves longed and sought to understand the mystery. they saw a glimpse what God had planned in the distant future, and were completely intrigued by it. and now, we see the revelation of this mystery in Christ...

how can i not be totally enamoured and absorbed with this Jesus

posted by Chaddo 2/10/2002 11:48:00 PM