⁸ He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

¹² And they sang in a mighty chorus:

³ In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

¹⁰ God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

¹⁵ But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ.

²⁵ All glory to him who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are his before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time! Amen.

¹¹ Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God,^[a] for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.

⁷ No, the wisdom we speak of is the mystery of God^[a]—his plan that was previously hidden, even though he made it for our ultimate glory before the world began.

¹⁹ As the Scriptures say,

²⁰ So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. ²¹ Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe. ²² It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom. ²³ So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense.

²⁴ But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles,^[b] Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

³³ Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways!