Wisdom of Babes

Wisdom of Babes

"I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.  Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in Thy sight" (Matthew 11:25-26).

This is another great statement of principle - the man who trusts in human wisdom and human righteousness is going to reject divine wisdom and divine righteousness.  Unless a man is willing to come to that place in his spiritual experience where he will acknowledge that he is incapable of understanding God, of finding God, or of obeying God apart from supernatural help, he will never arrive at that supreme step in spiritual experience which is the miraculous work of God in regeneration within a man’s life.  Just as people do not send a hurry call for the doctor until they are very conscious of the fact that they are sick, so also do people refuse to acknowledge the necessity of accepting the verdict of God concerning the necessity of the blood of Jesus Christ for the atonement of sin, until they have recognized their own lost conditions.  And just as some people, seemingly well, are stricken down by hidden disease which has long been eating at their very vitals, so also there are many who might be called by the world "wise and prudent," refuse the simple wisdom of Christ and the prudence of salvation through the righteousness of the Savior.

But the man who is willing to be as a child, as a babe, in the presence of the all–wise Creator and Savior, will find that the choicest secrets of Heaven and eternity are revealed unto him.  Not only is he the object of this confidence on the part of God, but he is also the object of a miraculous work of creation within his own being.  Thus, he is born again, with a life and a righteousness which are not his own by right, but which become his through faith in Jesus Christ.

Dr. Barnhouse reminds us that as long as people cling to a “mature” wisdom they will perish.  Any teaching that rejects the biblical teaching of grace alone, by faith alone, in Christ alone will doom its adherents to eternal damnation. Any solid biblical church will not weaken the message to appeal to worldly wisdom.

Further Reading: 1 Corinthans 1:18-31