Proverbs 8:35-36. 35For whoever finds me [Wisdom] finds life and obtains favor from the Lord, 36but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death.”
Yesterday we were waiting for wisdom, like a child looking out the window waiting for their grandparents to arrive. Today we are finding Wisdom. We aren’t waiting for Wisdom to show up, we are going out and looking for it. Find wisdom, find life and favor. Fail to find wisdom, find injury and even death in its place.
Yikes.
This contrast is glaring. Everything you do in life, every choice you make, every reaction, every plan and process is being done either from God’s wisdom or apart from God’s wisdom – the fear of the Lord. And, of course, this goes even deeper than our actions and behaviors. It goes to the heart level. Why? Why do we do what we do? What is the motivation behind our choices, reactions, plans?
Is this finding of wisdom about willpower or is it about faith?
Well for the Christian, to find wisdom is to find faith in Christ and in his favor, his grace. Solomon says finding wisdom is a life or death search. John the Apostle says having Christ is that same life or death relationship.
1 John 5:12. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
To find life we must find Christ. And when we do, we find favor, grace, from the Lord.
Of course, we find Christ because he first found us. We love him because he first loved us. The favor of God has come to us in the invitation of Christ – Come unto me. Truly we find the favor of God through faith in the freely offered salvation of God. Not through willpower or behavior modification, but through the reception of Wisdom as a free gift of God’s grace.
The warning is also quite clear – fail to find Wisdom, reject Christ, and you will die. In fact, you are a lover of death. Here sin is defined as this failure to find wisdom. This person has fallen short of the mark. They have settled for a lesser wisdom than the wisdom of Christ himself. The wisdom of the cross. They have settled for morality over grace. Good deeds over faith. Maybe they have settled for a Jesus that didn’t need to die for sins. A Jesus that serves only as an example for us.
Don’t make that mistake today. Find the wisdom of Jesus instead. The wisdom of the foolish one who went to the cross as the only way to rescue us from our sin and shame.
You: Has your search for wisdom (for Christ) been primarily a willpower journey or a faith journey? Have you obtained Christ by faith or by behavior modification? Spirit or works?
You in Christ: What role does faith play in your spiritual growth? What is the object of your faith?
Christ in you: How does a Christian pursue Christ while also having already been possessed by Christ? Read Philippians 3:12 to see this dynamic in action.
Pray: Jesus, thank you for finding me first so that I can always find you. Amen.
To Live is Christ 