Michel de Nostredame—known popularly as Nostradamus—was an astrologer and physician in the 16th century. He’s best known for his prolific publications of prophecies, leading some to use his name as a shorthand for clairvoyance. Some believe that over the centuries following his death his prophecies came true; they connect his predictions to the French Revolution, the rise of Hitler’s Germany, and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
A recent work, however, points out that Nostradamus’s prophecies are mostly vague claims that are easily manipulated by interpreters, as well as regurgitations of well-known prophecies and sayings that aren’t original to him. Nostradamus’s so-called wisdom was built on human wisdom—wisdom from others that he repackaged into his own subjective claims.
God’s infinite wisdom is better than fallible and repackaged human wisdom. He’s the only One who sees all, knows all, and can do all. And this divine wisdom isn’t hidden from us. It’s not a secret God brags about but never shows; rather, we can obtain God’s wisdom—perhaps not perfectly but nonetheless genuinely—by seeking the power and wisdom in the beauty and unity of our triune God.
Where Should We Seek Wisdom?
Isaiah promised that one day God would send “the root of Jesse” (Isa. 11:10), someone who perfectly embodies God’s wisdom:
And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.
And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. (vv. 2–3)
Paul says this “root of Jesse” is none other than Jesus Christ, and he explains the promised revelation of the triune God’s wisdom in 1 Corinthians 2.
Better than fallible and repackaged human wisdom is God’s infinite wisdom. He’s the only One who sees all, knows all, and can do all.
First Corinthians is primarily a pastoral letter written to a divided church. The Corinthians argued over many things, but Paul reminded them of their unity in the gospel. Paul builds a foundation for unity by discussing the unified work of the triune God. Take 1 Corinthians 2 as an example.
Paul begins by asserting he’s not powerful in and of himself; rather, the power in his ministry comes from God’s power:
For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. (1 Cor. 2:2–5)
Paul delineates between divine wisdom and human wisdom. He tells us Christians find divine wisdom—true wisdom—by God’s power, not their own. This is striking because one might look at Paul’s ministry as a great human effort.
Trinitarian Wisdom
Paul reminds the Corinthians his ministry has power and wisdom only because of what God has done through him. He notes that human wisdom denies God’s power and work:
None of the rulers of this age understood this [wisdom], for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.. . . . These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. (1 Cor. 2:8, 10–11)
In verses 2–5, we saw that when Paul talks about his ministry, he talks about Christ’s work and God’s power, which he equates with the Holy Spirit’s power. As Paul’s argument unfolds, we again see Trinitarian language. First, Jesus is called “the Lord of Glory,” bringing to mind Old Testament declarations like Isaiah 6:3: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD. . . . The whole earth is full of his glory.” Second, Paul tells us the Holy Spirit reveals God’s wisdom—something no human or angel could do. In his descriptions of the Son and Spirit, we see God at work.
Paul says, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14). Wisdom to understand ourselves and the world around us comes from God, who has the perfect vantage point of reality.
Nostradamuses come and go, but “the word of our God will stand forever” (Isa. 40:8).
Beauty of Wisdom in the Unity of God
Not only are God’s power and wisdom revealed to us by Son and Spirit, but Paul says we have intimate access to them, because “we have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16). This turn to Jesus almost feels out of place, given the bulk of the chapter has focused on how the Holy Spirit mediates God’s wisdom to us. But God is one and therefore the Father, Son, and Spirit never act apart from one another. Ultimately, the triune God is the One who gives us divine wisdom, so that we “may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:2).
Paul has made these Trinitarian connections throughout the chapter in such a way that we can recognize both the unity of the divine persons and their personal distinctions from one another. The Son was crucified, not the Father or Holy Spirit, and yet it’s all three who, with one power and action, reveal divine wisdom to us.
We must recognize the unity and the personal distinctions of the divine persons. The Son was crucified, not the Father or Holy Spirit, and yet it’s all three who, with one power and action, reveal divine wisdom to us.
Human knowledge has never matched the unity and beauty of divine wisdom. Third-century theologian Origen of Alexandria explained that not only is God’s wisdom an eternal attribute but the Son is its eternal expression: “And how can one, who has learnt to know and think piously about God, think or believe that God the Father ever existed, even for a single moment, without begetting his Wisdom?”
Beyond what Origen tells us, Paul says the Son is the power and wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:24). The revelation of God’s wisdom—grounded in the incarnation of the Son and the sending of the Holy Spirit—has been given to us in the Scriptures (2 Tim. 3:16–17). Only by the power of the triune God can we claim to know the mind of God, to understand the reality by the Spirit, and to have the mind of Christ.
The Gospel Coalition