How Christians Know the Things Freely Given to Us by God
There is a wisdom from God that does not belong to this world. The wise, noble, wealthy rulers of this age do not possess this wisdom. Their wisdom is fleeting, ever shifting (1 Cor 2:6). Their wisdom is ever-questing after competitive advantage. In their wisdom, men strive with their neighbors to be gods (Gen 3:5; Eccl 4:4).
The wisdom of God required revelation from God. In earlier days, God spoke through the prophets of Israel. He revealed His holiness through the Law. God exposed humanity for being totally depraved, by that same Law. The prophets told of God’s covenant of grace, and through them came the Messianic expectation. There was someone coming who would save God’s people.
When Jesus Messiah appeared in Israel, the religious performers did not recognize Him. They did not understand the light He brought, nor the truth He spoke. They knew He was out-doing them, by the signs and wonders He performed. He was a threat to their wisdom, works, authority, and prosperity. They crucified Jesus Christ in utter ignorance (1 Cor 2:8).
God had predestined the incarnation of the Lord of glory, before the ages (1 Cor 2:7–8). Jesus, during his earthly ministry, was the wisdom and power of God, in the flesh (Jn 1:14; 1 Cor 1:24). He was the revelation of God, being the incarnate Word of God. When Jesus spoke to the people, He was God speaking to the people.
The natural man cannot see, hear, or understand the things of God (1 Cor 2:9, 14). This is why he judges the wisdom of God to be foolish. This is why man does not seek after God (Rom 3:11). It is also why he creates idols to worship, which he superstitiously thinks give him power and insights, to perform.
Jesus revealed the Father to those who loved Him, and they loved Him because He had first loved them (1 Jn 4:19). He loved them to the end (Jn 13:1), and He kept them from the evil one (Jn 17:12). When our Lord Jesus ascended into heaven, He and the Father then sent the Holy Spirit (Jn 14:26; 15:26).
It is the Spirit of God who knows all things of God (1 Cor 2:10–11). Without the Holy Spirit, no one can know Jesus Christ, nor have faith in the One they do not know. It is the Spirit who gives faith, as a gift of God’s grace (Eph 2:8–9). Faith begins when the Spirit plants the Word of God into one’s heart and mind.
To know Jesus Christ is to know God the Father because they are One (Jn 10:30). Every knowledge is dung by comparison (Phil 3:8). One would think that religious men would quest after the knowledge Jesus Christ, with their whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, but they do not.
Only by the will of God, being worked by the Spirit of God, does one receive the knowledge of all the things freely given to him by God (1 Cor 2:12). All the spiritual blessings are ours in Christ Jesus (Eph 1:3), who is the indescribable gift (2 Cor 9:16).
Christians speak in tongues, that is, the heavenly language of the Bible. When a Spirit-filled believer reads his Bible, he is not just reading words on a page. He is reading the very Word of God in the Spirit. The Spirit and the Word give life (Jn 6:63), and they sanctify Christians (Jn 17:17), into conformity to Christ (Rom 8:29).
He that is spiritual, because he has the Spirit of God indwelling him (Rom 8:9, 11), can know the deep things of God because he has been given the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16). The spiritual man has the capacity to look at the world and the wisdom of the world, and his conclusion is that it is all vanity (Eccl 1:2).
Unlike the natural man, who is void of the Spirit and void of the Word, the spiritual man has spiritual thoughts and spiritual words on his mind because he is being taught the things of God, by the Spirt of God (1 Cor 2:13). He is learning the wisdom of God, by growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Pet 3:18).
It is God’s work to call in the sheep of His pasture, to feed them the good Word of God, and to nurture each one to spiritual maturity (Eph 4:13). He who began this good work in each saint, will bring it to its proper and perfect end (Phil 1:6).
The natural man has the wisdom of men, with the spirit of the age. He speaks of the world, boasting in his own accomplishments. He continually assesses the Gospel of Jesus Christ to be foolishness. In this, he is not righteous, nor is he good (Rom 3:10–12). Ultimately, the natural man is without hope and without God (Eph 2:12), as he waits for the Day of Judgment and his sentence of eternal punishment, in fiery hell (Mt 25:46; Jude 7).
The spiritual man, having received the Spirit of Christ, by the will and work of God, is working out his salvation with fear and trembling (Phil 2:12). His ambition is to please God (2 Cor 5:9), which is only possible by faith (Heb 11:6), allotted to him in measure (Rom 12:3), by the grace of God (Eph 2:8–9; Phil 1:29). Grace keeps this man’s eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of his faith (Heb 12:2).
With his mind set on the things above (Col 3:2), where Christ is seated (Eph 2:6), he bears witness of what he sees (Acts 1:8). The Spirit of Christ opened his blind eyes to see the spiritual things, and they are marvelous in his sight. He is not ashamed of the Gospel, nor is he trusting in the wisdom of the world because the wisdom of God is wiser…and he knows it because it was given to him by God.
David Norczyk
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
November 24, 2020
