Page 60 Paul’s solution? He said, ,Choose out among you those believers who can decipher inward impressions and interpret outward signs. No! He didn’t say that. He said, ,Is there not a wise man among you who can settle these disputes? And when Paul gives instruction about elders in his letters to Timothy and Titus, he says that the elders are those who ,are sensible and discreet. In other words, they possess wisdom and sound judgment (1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:8; 2:2). In Acts 15, we have a beautiful record about what the church in Jerusalem did in making a major decision. After a long discussion, the apostles and the church say this: ,It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to do thus and so. ,It seemed good to us. This is wisdom. What is more astounding is that Luke uses these very words in his opening to his Gospel. ,It seemed good to me, having had perfect understanding of all things from the beginning, to write to you. It ,seemed good to Luke to write the Gospel called ,Luke, and the Holy Spirit inspired every word! Wisdom is not your own natural reasoning independent of God. It comes out of dependence on the Lord. What is more, true wisdom not only comes from God. True wisdom is Jesus Christ personified! So any piece of authentic wisdom that you receive comes from your Lord, for He is Wisdom. Note the following exhortations to exercise judgment, which is wisdom’s cousin:
Redemption comes from the marketplace where, in those days, slaves were purchased for a price. It speaks of the purchase of our salvation through the payment of a price for our sins… The New Testament also uses the related figure of ransom which refers to the price Jesus paid to purchase our salvation (Mark 10:45; 1 Tim. 2:6). The focus here is on the freedom we receive from the captivity of sin, through the price paid by Christ.
Ajith Fernando