LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2023, Page 100

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which He makes us righteous. 3 We are wise to know that the
Law condemns us, and therefore we can place no hope in
miraculous signs like the Jews do or in worldly wisdom like the
Gentiles do. We are also wise to know that our hope, the only
true, eternal hope, is in the fulsome grace of God, Christ
crucified, the wisdom of God. That wisdom is a stumbling block
to Jews because they expected a powerful messiah, not one
“crucified in weakness” (2 Cor. 13:4) and obviously cursed by
God because He hangs on a tree (Deut. 21:22–23). Likewise,
God’s wisdom is foolishness to Gentiles, who mocked
Christians as worshipers of a dead man. 4
Moreover, in his letter to the Christians at Colossae, Paul refers
to Christ as God’s mystery, “in whom are hidden all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3). Whatever one
might seek in terms of wisdom and knowledge can be found in
the person and work of Jesus. 5 That includes the life of good
works flowing from the “fear of the Lord,” that is to say, from
faith, as that life is described in various places throughout the
Book of Proverbs (see, e.g., Proverbs 3). It’s also described in the
first chapter of Paul’s letter to the Colossians, where he prays
that they will be filled with spiritual wisdom “so as to walk in a
manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him” (Col. 1:9–10).
Fear in faith, as Deterding describes in his Concordia
Commentary on Colossians, “moves and empowers one to live
a life of wisdom.” 6 Moreover, in his letter to the Christians at
Ephesus, Paul admonishes them to be careful to walk in
wisdom (Eph. 5:15–16; Col. 4:5–6).
All of the foregoing, from knowledge of the Law’s
condemnation, through knowledge of Christ’s atoning
sacrifice, to knowledge of our walking by God’s grace in a
manner worthy of the Lord, is wisdom unto salvation. It is the
right-hand importance of Christ the wisdom of God.
III
Unsurprisingly, there is also left-hand importance of Christ the
wisdom of God. That is to say, there is also earthly importance,
importance in temporal matters. If all the treasures of wisdom
and knowledge are hidden in Christ, then knowing and being
in Christ the wisdom of God entails practical, day-to-day
wisdom, such as that found in Proverbs 11. As Deterding
describes, the wise one “will also live his life with ‘common
sense,’ for wisdom includes a practical aptitude for life in the
real world. It is life lived in harmony with the order, moral and
otherwise, which God has placed over and through this
world.” 7
The converse can also be true; rejection of Christ the wisdom of
God often leads to chaos and disarray, a life that lacks concord
with God’s order. As the Epistle of St. James informs us, “where
jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and
every vile practice” (James 3:16). And similarly, Paul describes
the Gentiles as “darkened in their understanding” and
therefore “callous” and “greedy to practice every kind of
impurity” (Eph. 4:18–19).
Luther, Luther’s Works, 25:249.
Gregory J. Lockwood, 1 Corinthians (St. Louis: Concordia
Publishing House, 2000), 70–71.
3

4

100 | PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2023 (68TH) LCMS CONVENTION

This is not just an individual reality, but it can and does occur
on a societal level. In his second letter to Timothy, Paul
describes the last days: “For people will be lovers of self, lovers
of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their
parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable,
slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good,
treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure
rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness,
but denying its power” (2 Tim. 3:2–5).
Even a casual observer of modern American culture can attest
that this description of the last days fits our society entirely too
well. Under the appearance of godly concern for others’ feelings
and for peace, it is now socially unacceptable to affirm that God
created us male and female and that the sexes are distinct from
one another; that sexual interaction is God’s good gift to a man
and a woman in holy matrimony, and that any other use of the
gift is abuse; and that there is transcendent truth, especially
transcendent moral truth. Our society celebrates those who
celebrate themselves and their base impulses, extolling pride
and selfish ambition while deriding the humble and the
selfless. We excuse envy and treachery, protecting the so-called
rights of those who take or destroy the property of others. In
our lust for power and vengeance, we whitewash the evils of
those who represent what we perceive to be our side. We have
turned slander into a national pastime, destroying the
reputations of our social and political foes as if Christ did not
die for them. We brutally kill the weakest and voiceless among
us, using forceps or acid or drugs that target our babies like
infections.
If our current time is not the last days, it is a good imitation.
Still, we should not be surprised, as if this cultural moment fell
upon us out of the clear blue sky. The societal ills of America and
the West may seem to have burst upon us in a few years or
perhaps half a century, depending on one’s perspective, but the
groundwork has been laid gradually over the centuries by
influential thinkers whose ideas have eroded, and may have
destroyed, the foundations of Christian civilization in the West.
Their ideas—ideas that reject Christ the wisdom of God—have
been spread through our educational institutions, institutions
that we and our forebears foolishly thought we could trust. The
beginning was not 2015 or even 1967. We have been building
toward our current decadence since before the founding of our
country.
Recall what was stated earlier about Christ crucified. It was
stated that in Him we see the God who takes on our
punishment, our suffering and death, so that we are reconciled
to God the Father in spite of our sin and brought into new life
in the Holy Spirit, through whom we love God and serve our
neighbors, as we look forward in confident hope to everlasting
life with Christ. This sentence contains three fundamental
aspects of human life that have been undermined explicitly and
intentionally by influential thinkers and their followers over

5
Paul E. Deterding, Colossians (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing
House, 2003), 85.
6
Deterding, Colossians, 39.
7
Deterding, Colossians, 39.

Convention Essays