The reference to boasting in the previous verse anticipates the quotation in verse 31, and the present verse may be understood as an example of what Paul means by “boasting in the Lord” in the next verse.
In Revised Standard Version the first He refers to God, but whom refers to Christ. This should be made clear in translation, if necessary, by using nouns in place of pronouns, or by some other equivalent change. Good News Bible uses “God” in the first instance, and the name “Christ” in the second.
Your is emphasized like “we” in verse 23.
The first part of the verse may be understood in two ways: (1) “It is only in Christ Jesus that you are related to God”; or (2) “the fact that you are Christians (in Christ) has its origins in God.” The difference is one of focus rather than meaning. The second alternative is slightly more probable. For a comment on the phrase in Christ Jesus, see 1 Cor. 1.2.
Whom God made our wisdom may be understood in such a way as to emphasize our. The meaning in this case may be restated: “Christ is (or, has) the only kind of wisdom we care anything about, and God has given us this kind of wisdom.” However, it is more likely that emphasis falls on wisdom, and that the meaning is “Christ has become for us the very personification of wisdom, God’s wisdom.” This meaning may be translated “Through (or, in) Christ, God gives us his own wisdom.” There is evidence that passages in the Hebrew Old Testament and the Deuterocanon, which personify wisdom, influenced Paul and other New Testament writers. Good News Bible uses “God” in the first sentence of this verse and again in the second sentence. Many languages will find this too repetitive, as it is clear who the agent of the action “has made” is. One can simply say “… and has made Christ….”
The relation between the four nouns wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption is not clear. The structure of the Greek sentence appears to separate wisdom from the others and to join righteousness and sanctification closely together. Commentators are generally agreed that these four nouns, which represent four actions by God, are not to be understood as a series of separate stages in the Christian life. In “glorifying” or “boasting” about Christ, Paul heaps up nouns to describe what God has done in Christ. It is possible to think of our wisdom as a general description of Christ, and the other nouns as indicating various aspects of his work. If so, Good News Bible is right to divide the sentence after wisdom.
The second half of this verse, which Good News Bible translates as a separate sentence, includes more abstract nouns like wisdom. Good News Bible translates these by verbs, since they indicate events.
Righteousness in this verse, like sanctification and redemption, is a noun that refers to something that is done by God through Christ. Good News Bible makes the meaning clear. In some languages it may be necessary to translate “God puts us right with himself.”
Sanctification, as Good News Bible shows, is related to a community: “we become God’s holy people.” The word does not mean individual saintliness. It refers to God’s claiming Christians and setting them apart, like Israel in Old Testament times, to be his special people. One could render this as “people who are dedicated to God” or “God’s special people.” See also the comments on the translation of sanctified in 1 Cor. 1.2.
Redemption sometimes suggests the payment of a ransom. But often, in both the Old and the New Testament, it simply refers to “freedom” or “liberation” from the power of evil. The great example of this was the liberation of Israel from slavery in Egypt at the time of the exodus. No payment was involved in that liberation. In certain languages redemption or “are set free” (Good News Bible) can be translated as “have received our freedom.” Bible en français courant translates “set free from sin.” In languages that do not use the passive, one may say, for example, “God has set us free from sin.”
In the second half of this verse many translators will need to identify God as the agent of all the events. This sentence may be restructured as follows: “God has also put us right with himself through Christ, and has made us like his people and set us free.”
An alternative translation model for this verse is:
• But God has caused our lives to be completely linked with Christ Jesus, and through Christ he gives us his own wisdom. God also puts us right with himself. Through Christ we become his special people, and he frees us from sin.
Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, 2nd edition. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1985/1994. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .