Tim’s Blog

Wisdom and Maturity

September 2, 2022

As I am preparing to teach my Theopolis Zoom class (“Infancy and Maturity in the Messiah’s Kingdom”), I have been reflecting on the integral relationship between maturity and wisdom.

Wisdom is not simply knowledge. It is true that biblical wisdom has as its core the intimate knowledge of God’s Word. But in Scripture, experience with conflict seems to be a key element in applying that knowledge in mature wisdom. Wisdom arises within the context of conflict and suffering. This is the pathway to maturity.

We can see this in the juxtaposition of Adam and Jesus (the new Adam). Adam in some ways is created as an adult but has no life experience, and therefore he is not just “given the car keys.” The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (a function of mature wisdom) is withheld from him. When conflict arises in the form of the tempter, instead of growing through applying the word he has received, he waits to see what will happen to Eve, and then grasps for something for which he is unprepared.

In the case of Jesus, immediately upon his baptism he is driven into the wilderness to be tempted by the serpent. As with Eve, he cites the word of the Father, but in his case that word trumps what the tempter has to say. This is part of the process of conflict and suffering by which he is “perfected” (i.e. matured and completely prepared for his task; the Hebrew and Greek words carry similar ranges in this regard). This often does not sound right to us (“Jesus didn’t need to undergo such a process! He’s God!”) — but it’s what we are explicitly told in Hebrews 2:10 and 5:8–9.

Do you want to grow up in Christ? Learn the Word, and face conflict and suffering in faith and faithfulness.

Hebrews 1, Angels and Elements

February 27, 2022

Yesterday, it occurred to me that in Hebrews 1, the author quotes, “He makes his angels winds/spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire,” and it suddenly occurred to me that those are two of the four classical elements. A neat connection to the stoicheia kosmou (“elements of the world”) passages in Galatians and Colossians, I thought, particularly since both Galatians 3 and Stephen in Acts 7 (as well as quite probably Colossians 2:18 in context) connect angels to Torah. And of course, like Galatians, Hebrews has a very strong focus upon the ending of the old covenant administration (although Galatians focuses more primarily upon circumcision and calendrical observance, whereas Hebrews is more focused upon the temple service).

Well, today I looked up the passage that Hebrews 1 is quoting, and whoah! — all the classical elements are there: “He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters; he makes the clouds his chariot; he rides on wings of the wind; he makes his messengers winds, his ministers a flaming fire. He set the earth on its foundations….” (Psalm 104:3–5).

Water, wind, fire, earth.

So without outright saying so, it appears that Hebrews is using the same concept of stoicheia kosmou as Paul is in Galatians 4 and Colossians 2. Moreover, this provides further support that the phrase does not mean “elemental spirits” or “elemental/rudimentary teachings,” but rather refers to the consitutive elements of the old creation.

Adamic Themes in Psalm 82 (and Hebrews)

March 8, 2014

It appears to me that Psalm 82 is working with Adamic themes. There is of course the creational (or un-creational) motif in verse 5: the foundations of the earth are out of course due to the misjudgment of “the gods” (i.e. the judges). But beyond that, judgment itself is a function of maturity, of “knowing good and evil” (cf e.g. Isa 7:16; Heb 5:14).

In this light, verses 6–7 are of interest when viewed against the backdrop of Adam: “I have said, ‘You are gods, and all of you are children of the most High.’ But you shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.”

Adam and Eve of course ate from the forbidden tree, in part because of the deceiver’s promise, “You shall be as God,” but the result (as God had warned) was death. They “died like men.” Their clasping after divine glory underscored their mortality.

But the story of the first Adam is not the final word. For not only Adam, and not only the unjust judges die like men. The one who is the Son of the most High and truly God of God has “died like men.” He laid hold of the tree precisely in order to die as a man, and paradoxically, in so doing profoundly disclosed what it truly means to be God. His willing death is punishment for sin, yes, but only the sins of others. For Himself, it is (as Hebrews describes it) the death of maturity, of completed pistis (faith and faithfulness). It is in the embrace of this tree of judgment that He becomes complete through the things He suffers (Heb 5:8–9). This is His pathway of glory.

(This thought should be seen in the shadows and presuppositions of Galatians 3 and 4, as well: Torah could not bring Israel to maturity. It takes the last Adam to embrace the cross in order for maturity to arrive upon earth. This is the release for those “born of a woman” generally, and born under Torah, specifically.)

Incidentally, it is fascinating that the writer to the Hebrews introduces the immaturity of his readers/hearers precisely at this point. He is calling them into the maturity of Jesus, a maturity that is fashioned in the fellowship of Christ’s suffering. It is when we embrace the “long run of agony” that we experience Jesus as the originator and completer of pistis (Heb 12:1–2): we share in His own faith and faithfulness, and just as He learned to “die like men,” we learn to die like God.