Hidden in Christ

 David Alan Black 

“In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3).

In three weeks I shall have the privilege of delivering the commencement address at the Evangelical Theological College in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. If there is one truth I wish to impress upon these young graduates it is this: Do you want to possess divine wisdom and knowledge? Then look to Jesus, for they are to be found only in Him.

When dangerous errors threaten to confuse and disrupt; when false teachers dressed up in ministers’ garbs cast their enticing nets; when we seek the solutions to the many problems of life – where are the answers to be found? They are, says Paul, “hidden,” kept, guarded, preserved, in Christ.

I recall a visit a few years ago to the British Museum in London. There the book lover, the collector of ancient manuscripts, will find treasures beyond description. It seems as though all the literary wealth of the world is to be found in that one building. But the riches of wisdom and knowledge are not to be found there – or in any earthly building. They are not to be found on the vast information highway we call the Internet. They are not available to us by reading the books or commentaries of a Bible teacher. They are hid in Christ, and they are ours, Christian friend, to appropriate and hold.

One of the most difficult tasks is to wean Christians off of the milk of this-or-that preacher, or this-or-that author. Scarcely do we realize the wealth of knowledge that is ours and by which, through God’s Word, we can know the truth, the answer to every problem. What does it matter what men say and teach? God has spoken (Heb. 1:1-4). Nor need we depend on our own understanding, for He has given us His Spirit so that we have no need that any man should teach us (1 John 2:27). He alone is our Guide into all truth.

When my wife and I arrived at the Bibelschule Bergstrasse as short-term missionaries to Germany in the summer of 1978, I was immediately struck by one sight. Written over the entrance to this great institution of Christian higher education were these words, etched in large German words: “In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” I could hardly imagine a more fitting motto.

Would that all of us – and how the author needs to take heed himself – lay hold of that which God has revealed to us in Christ!