You must read these words this way: To God only wise through Jesus Christ be glory forever. God is only wise. God’s wisdom is manifested through Jesus Christ; and by that wisdom of God manifested in Jesus Christ, God is glorified. Yes, so that God is glorified whether men glorify him or not. But that is not the apostle’s point. His point is that God’s church gives all glory to God.

Wisdom is the perfection whereby all that is done in that wisdom has purpose. Such is wisdom also among men. A man who lives without purpose is a fool. There is also a wisdom of men. It is earthly, sensual, devilish, and without Christ. It is a wisdom in which man has a purpose in all that he does, but his purpose is his own will, lusts, and satisfaction. Such wisdom is antichristian, for it is contrary to the wisdom of God in Christ.

God is the only wise God. God alone is wise. In all that he is in the incalculable immensity of his infinite being and in all his works and words, he is wise, all wise, and only wise. That he is wise means that in all that he is and all that he does he has a purpose. That he is only wise means that he alone is wise and that in all he does there is only wisdom and no folly. The purpose of God is the glory of his own name in the best possible way. Everything that God plans is made subservient to that purpose.

The purpose of God to glorify himself is through Jesus Christ. It was true of God’s works in the beginning that in wisdom he made them all. We can see that wisdom only dimly in the creation because of the fall. Sin and the judgment of God marred that original beauty of creation. In the creation as fallen there is nothing but a vicious cycle of vanity and vexation of spirit and no purpose or progress. But that creation, as it was created and subjected to vanity, was made in wisdom. This means that the creation was made as it was subjected to God’s purpose in Christ. The fall of the creation into the curse was not a mistake, but the fall served the purpose of God for the glorification of himself in the highest way through Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is personally the wisdom of God. All things have their purpose in Jesus Christ. In his incarnation, lifelong suffering, cross and resurrection, ascension and glorification, and his coming again to make all things new, he is the purpose of God. All things have their purpose in Christ. This is true too of sin, death, war, corruption, and destruction. They serve the revelation of the glory of God through Christ.

This is what the apostle calls the mystery of God. That mystery is God’s purpose in Christ for the revelation of God’s wisdom to the praise of his glory. That wisdom man can never know. That wisdom is hidden unless it is revealed to a man. That mystery always was in the counsel of God and was the reason that God planned and carried out all that he did. Yet that mystery was hidden, as the sun is hidden for a time behind the clouds, and then that mystery burst through the gloom and cast its brilliant light in the dark world at the moment of Jesus’ birth and shone in the world until his ascension, and it was gone for a time. Now the night is far spent, and the day is at hand.

This, even the wisdom of God in Christ, is preached by the gospel in this world. Yes, so that you know about it. Yes, so that you give glory to God for it. To the only wise God through Jesus Christ be glory forever. Amen.