‘But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who has become to us wisdom from God, even righteousness, sanctification and redemption. That according as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord”.'
Having stressed their lowliness Paul now points out their glorious state ‘in Christ'. In Him they have all the riches of God. In Him they belong to God and are born of God. They are ‘of Him', that is, of God. (Note that in the phrase ‘Of Him are you' - ‘are you' is stressed). And because they are ‘of Him', His own reborn children, His treasured possession, they are ‘in Christ Jesus' Who has become to them the wisdom of God and wisdom from God. That is, He through His action and power has brought about what God's wisdom knew to be best, and what God in His wisdom purposed, and indeed knew was the only way. That is, that through His death and resurrection, and the power of His Spirit, Christ Jesus Himself would become their righteousness, their sanctification and their redemption.
‘Who has become to us -- righteousness, sanctification and redemption.' This primarily refers to the first work wrought on the believer to make him acceptable in God's sight, the work that takes place when he believes. He becomes as one who is accounted righteous with the righteousness of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21), as one who is set apart for God in Christ (John 17:19; Acts 26:18; Ephesians 5:26) and as one freed from sin by the payment of a price, the price of His death (Mark 10:45; 1 Peter 1:18-19). But with God it can never stop there. The final result must be that they will become truly righteous, that they will become holy as God is holy, and that they will reveal that redemption by demonstrating that they are God's true and fully delivered sons, delivered from the power of sin, for that will be the result of the effectual working of His power. So what Christ imputes to them He will certainly also impart to them.
‘Righteousness.' Through what He has done for them on the cross they are counted as righteous and acceptable in the sight of a just God (Romans 3:26), being freely declared righteous through His grace (Romans 3:24), as a result of the response of faith (Romans 3:28). God's gracious favour is the means, faith the channel. ‘For He has made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him' (2 Corinthians 5:21). And what greater righteousness can there be than the righteousness of God in Christ?
‘Sanctification.' This is why they are sanctified, and sanctified ones (see on 1 Corinthians 1:2), because Christ is made unto them sanctification. In His holiness they are accepted as holy. In His being set apart as God's alone, they are set apart as God's alone. In His being sacred to God, they are sacred to God. In His being God's treasured possession, they are God's treasured possession (compare 1 Peter 2:9). For they are ‘in Him', united with Him in His body so that what is His is theirs. Yet being so united can only finally result in their being made truly holy (1 Thessalonians 4:3-8; Hebrews 2:10-11; Hebrews 10:14) and zealous of good works (Titus 2:14).
‘Redemption.' Redemption means being released by the payment of a price, here with the emphasis of freedom from the slavery of sin. In the Old Testament redemption signified the delivering of His people by God through the exercise of His power, and it would finally result in another Eden. In the New Testament ‘redemption through His blood' brings the forgiveness of sins (Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14). That is the price paid, for He is the One Who gave His life a ransom for many (Mark 10:45; 1 Peter 1:18-19). So being redeemed from transgressions through His death provides the promise of an eternal inheritance (Hebrews 9:15). This redemption is a present redemption achieved through the cross. They have been bought out from under sin. In Him they are a delivered people, for He is their redemption, both in the price paid and the power exercised. But this also looks forward to the final redemption when they will finally be delivered from all sin, and from every ill (Ephesians 1:14; Ephesians 4:30; Romans 8:23).
No better picture of this can be found than the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, the journey through the wilderness, extended because of weakness, and the final (if idealistic) triumphant entry into Canaan.
Some see ‘wisdom from God' as meaning that He is the personification of Old Testament wisdom (e.g. Proverbs 8), but if this be so it is surely secondary, for the Greek construction separates wisdom from righteousness, sanctification and redemption, suggesting that the latter arise from the former, and the context thus suggests that saving wisdom is in mind, the wisdom revealed through the effectiveness of the preaching of the cross which results in righteousness, sanctification and redemption in Christ. ‘Wisdom' may guide men's lives, but it does not save them. Only God's wisdom does that through God's means.
Others see righteousness, sanctification and redemption as indicating a process. First believers are accounted righteous, then they experience sanctification, and finally they are redeemed at the final redemption. But the usage in 1 Corinthians favours the seeing in the nouns a description of the once-for-all work of Christ on those who believe. All Christians have been declared righteous (1 Corinthians 6:11; Romans 3:24-28), all are now ‘sanctified ones' (1 Corinthians 1:2; 1 Corinthians 6:11), all have been ‘bought with a price' from under the slavery of sin (1 Corinthians 6:20). But the idea is right in that this initial work then begins a continuing work which results in a process of being made righteous, of experiencing salvation, of experiencing the power of redemption, and then comes to completion in being finally made righteous, in being finally made holy, and in final redemption being fulfilled (Ephesians 5:27; Colossians 1:22; Jude 1:24).
‘As it is written.' Again indicating a quotation from Scripture as the abiding word of God.
‘That according as it is written, “He who glories (or ‘boasts'), let him glory (or ‘boast') in the Lord.” ' This is a summarised rendering of Jeremiah 9:23-24. Christians are sometimes called conceited because they claim to have eternal life, to be going to ‘Heaven', to be righteous in God's eyes. But they do this, if they are behaving as true Christians, (and, alas, sometimes we do not), because they are humbly glorying in the Lord and what He has done for them. They know they have no merit of their own, that all that is theirs is through Christ. And they glory in Him, yes, boast in Him, and want others to glory in Him too.
But while one purpose of Paul in citing this here is to demonstrate that Christians glory in the Lord because of what Christ has been made to them, he also intends his readers to recognise that therefore neither they, nor those who minister to them, have anything to glory in except this. They do not glory in ministers of the Gospel, they do not glory in any privileged position they may have, they glory in Christ alone. For He alone can save, and all attention must therefore be on Him, that men may see Jesus only. This will be the theme of what follows.