The Deep Things of God Freely Given
Sermon on Sunday, July 1, 2018
But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
1 Corinthians 2:9-13
On the frontier revivals of the Second Great Awakening in the 1820s and 30s, there was a widespread rebellion against traditional forms of church and even historic Christian doctrine. “Back to the Bible!” and “Bible only!” and “Christians only!” and “No creed but Christ!” and “Deeds, not creeds!” were all the rallying cries. But another slogan that emerged, which interests us today, is this one. They started to say, “Better a live heresy than a dead orthodoxy!” And I think church history since then has proven that Ben Franklin’s maxim that “Those who would give up liberty for safety deserve neither,” could be altered to say, “Those who would trade truth for life wind up with neither.” Really, to any fellow Christians who tend to pit these things against each other, we would say, with the Apostle Paul, “How about a living orthodoxy!”
The Treasure of Knowing the Things of God
The Depths of Knowing the Things of God
The Nature of Knowing the Things of God
Doctrine. Since the Spirit gives us the depths of God, we should receive with a spiritual expectation.
This “spiritual expectation” is a mature expectation. Paul had just said, “We do have a wisdom for the mature” (v. 6). He is going to use the word spiritual for “mature” in the very first verse of the next chapter as well. So he is building us up with this contrast; a kind of spiritual dare. You want mature? You want deep? Then there are a couple of things from this world you’re going to have to let go of in order to swim out there in the Spirit, and if you have been raised in the distinctly American form of religion, they may not be the sort of things you would expect.
The Treasure of Knowing the Things of God
Paul speaks of what God has in store for us as a picture of heaven itself, and yet all that he mentions is what he cannot specify or explain in any detail: ‘But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him’” (v. 9). It is appropriate to think of this thing that God has prepared as something that one experiences with the whole soul — like a feast or a treasure (just to use two images that the Bible itself uses) — because Paul is whetting our appetite by what he does not say. I said last time that he was using “holy hyperbole” back in verse 2. Well, here he is using “sanctified suspense” by this quotation.1 What do I mean by that? I mean something much more than his use of the senses of the “eye” and “ear,” or of the “imagination,” as if he is pointing all of them to heaven. I also mean how he qualifies this with ‘love.’ One commentator focuses on the fact that “For the Corinthians, knowledge mattered more than love.”2 It is true that we cannot love God unless we know Him; but it is also true that you cannot get more knowing unless you love Him.
Notice that this treasure excels all human senses and minds and emotions. We have no need to worry that there will ever be “too much” thinking or “too much” feeling; because here Paul says such a thing has never happened about the deep things of God: No eye! No ear! No heart! No one short of Jesus has ever scratched the surface, with all of the thinking or feeling that they could muster. But, for that same reason, we have no need to worry that there will ever be “too little” of what we most desire.
Consider that the cause to any effect must be greater than the effect, at least in terms of possessing sufficient power. This has an even more amazing implication of intelligent causes. Which is greater? The greatest effects of beauty and goodness and love and power in this world, or else the First Cause of changeable beauty, changeable goodness, changeable love, and changeable power? These all change; He remains the same (cf. Ps. 102:26). More than that. These were all His idea. Now what follows from this in terms of our longing?
Fix your mind and your heart on any one of these things, and you will be drawn to the conclusion that the spirit of the Artist who spread it on the moving canvas of time and fading hearts must be infinitely greater than the colors on that canvas, however brilliant in the moment. Will you miss your beloved? Do you despair what can no longer be yours at your death or theirs? But the heart of the One whose character and plot that was, in the scene that you have known—this goodness far excels all that you have taken in. To whom or to what, then, will you entrust the fulfillment of such longings? He brought these to you in the midst of a fallen world. As grace perfects nature, He whose idea all that was will bring about an inconceivable greater consolation.
The whole function of verse 9 is to set before this church such an infinite treasure that all of those things in the world tempting us to add to the message, or to smooth out the message, or to supposedly “sharpen” or “deepen” the message, that those treasures are withering right before our eyes by comparison! God has prepared such a feast, that if we will focus our time and speech on that feast, it will develop in us a taste for real glory.
The Depths of Knowing the Things of God
When Paul does get around to clarifying these “things” of knowledge, or the substance of this treasure, it turns out to be God himself: ‘these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God’ (v. 10). When God wants to bless us with the best things, He gives us Himself. This goes back to the beginning of the covenant of grace: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward” (Gen. 15:1). To have God is to have everything else. What Paul does next is to connect for us the needs of the heart with the needs of the mind. If anyone would have interrupt Paul with a heart religion to the exclusion of a head religion, he would have none of it.
‘For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God’ (v. 11). Here we have one of the classic texts for the deity of the Holy Spirit. I want to suggest that this verse teaches us both (i.) that the Holy Spirit is a distinct person and (ii.) that the Holy Spirit shares in the same divine essence as the Father and the Son. This is a passage which makes the Spirit identical to God. The same occurs in the Acts 5 where Peter says,
Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit … You have not lied to man but to God” (vv. 3, 5).
Now at first glance it may look like the analogy Paul draws here only proves that both God and us are persons. There is a “who” inside of God, or, more properly, who is God, and a “who” inside of us. This who is the person who does the knowing inside of a person. However, notice that when we receive the Spirit who is from God in the next verse, God is not simply “the person” who knows Himself, but God also sends the Spirit to us. So God is both Spirit and the Sender of the Spirit. Thus the Sender of the Spirit is God and the Spirit who is sent is God. So there is distinction in what is proper to the persons. We see the same thing at the baptism of Jesus and in the promises of Jesus to send the Spirit:
And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased (Mat. 3:16-17).
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come (Jn. 16:13).
Thus, the Holy Spirit is God. The Apostle’s purpose in making this move in his line of thought, remember, is to unite our hearts—feeling and thinking—to that which God is for us.
The Nature of Knowing the Things of God
There is a lot in this whole chapter about these deep things of God, but here in verses 12 and 13, let me just mention four things: (1) they are supernatural; (2) they are by grace; (3) they are to be taught; (4) they are exclusive. First of all, they are SUPERNATURAL. Paul says, ‘Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God’ (v. 12a). “Supernatural” means above and beyond nature. There is that classic text that Edwards used to make his case in ‘A Divine and Supernatural Light’ which was Matthew 16:17. What does Jesus say to Peter?
Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
The second thing about these deep things of God is that we receive them BY GRACE: that we might understand the things freely given us by God (12b). This marks another idol that must be given up to go deep in the Spirit. We cannot congratulate ourselves for our knowledge, especially our knowledge of the greatest things. It is a gift. Not only the ability to reason, but the objects of reason are all given to us. But the world’s definition of knowledge is fundamentally something we create: “the creature’s attempt to secure a position over against the Creator … man-centered.”3
The third thing about these deep things of God is that they are TO BE TAUGHT. ‘And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit’ (v. 13a). Yes they are taught by God—the Spirit inside of us—but notice that they are also to be taught by us. “We impart” (ESV) is better translated “We speak.”4 So it is not a choice between the Spirit imparting these deep things or else we impart these deep things. No! The Spirit imparts them from the inside, and we (by the Spirit’s gifts) impart them from the outside, by the use of words.
Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything (2 Tim. 2:7).
Paul’s words to Timothy are a model of what he wants Timothy to think and do. The Holy Spirit inspired Paul’s words, and yet there was Paul speaking them. Likewise, though with the difference that Timothy’s words will not be inspired Scripture: Timothy is to think thoughts. Why? Because the Lord will give him understanding. This is Spirit-illuminated reason. By God’s grace, sanctified reason becomes more of what reason was meant to be, not less.
What is said about knowledge can be said about all of worship: of which knowledge is a part. What did Jesus say? “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (Jn. 4:24). Spirit and truth go together. No wonder he is called “the Spirit of truth” (Jn. 16:13)! And yet we can expect of every Christian that we have the Divine Tutor inside of us: “they will all be taught by God” (Jn. 6:45).5 The Teacher teaches and the pupil learns. The more the Teacher teaches, the more the pupil learns and speaks—not less! Another clue that spiritual insight on the inside is shared and communicated by other humans on the outside (in other words, that there’s church-teaching happening) is the word of ‘interpreting’ (didaktois) which is in the same word family as “teaching” (didasko). As Martyn Lloyd-Jones said about preaching, so we can say about all communication of spiritual truth: It is “logic on fire.”6
Finally these deep things of God are EXCLUSIVE. We had already seen in 2:7 that God’s wisdom, or the “word of the cross” (1:18), was predestined to benefit the elect. So now when we share this knowledge with each other, Paul says, we are ‘interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual’ (v. 13b). I will not elaborate on this point because it forms the beginning of the next passage, verses 14 and on. So hold that thought.
Practical Use of the Doctrine
I said that the doctrine was that since the Spirit gives us the depths of God, we should receive with a spiritual expectation. We may then draw out what that “spiritual expectation” means in everyday life for us, in the following ways:
Use 1. Correction. Let us avoid the two extremes of dead orthodoxy and living heresy. This passage helps us form a balanced view of having a “spiritual expectation” for the deep things of God. It may be thought that since this is a gift of the sovereign Spirit it does not matter what we do or what doctrine we have about it. But this is not the way Paul prayed: “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know …” (Eph. 1:17-18), and then follows a cluster of specific truths about the gospel. The gift of the Spirit’s living light is to make clearer the right ideas through words. Not “mystical words” but rather simply “words that are appropriate to the nature of the message.”7
Several times before, I have used the illustrations of the scene in National Treasure where the main character illuminates the treasure room with the torch that lit the vats of oil that surrounded the room. The treasure is all there whether his eyes are aided by the light or not. Now pretend that this was an inheritance meant for him. How silly would it be if he had either stared at the fire forever, consumed with its light and heat, jumping into the flames and bathing in it, pouring the fuel from the troughs onto his clothes and body? That is absurd. The oil is for lighting. The Spirit is for seeing. Perhaps this is what the Charismatic cannot see.
On the other hand, would it have been any more reasonable to have shrugged his shoulders, left, and, periodically throughout the rest of his life, dispassionately assured other people that there was indeed a treasure in there and that it was his in some vague sense? No the fire was to light his way into diving into the treasure, and the map was for identifying and differentiating each jewel and for seizing it, claiming it, and investing it for more! Perhaps this is what we Reformed people often do by way of reaction. We can be all sight and no feeling; and one of the tragedies of this is that this really makes us all seeing and no seizing.
Use 2. Consolation. Let us be thankful for the good news in this depth. Remember the language of grace in this passage? Well here God is also telling us something great about his heart toward us. God made us to know him. We despised that and trashed it. And yet how does God respond? D. A. Carson says about this passage,
What a great God we have! Not only does he redeem us through the ignominious crucifixion of his much-beloved Son, but he sends us his Spirit to enable us to understand what he has done. So obtuse and blind are we that we would not have begun to grasp ‘what God has freely given us’ unless God had taken this additional step.8
In other words, not only is the gospel a deep thing, but there is good news in the deep the things of God. That God would go deep with us (by sending his Spirit) to enable us to go deep with him. Without the Spirit, we could only stare at the cross like a cow stares at a fencepost. Just uncomprehending, chewing the cud. But God turns the lights on in our hearts and minds to see its power. The cross without the new heart is a sacrifice we could not have applied to our own hearts: a treasure we could never have opened. God took another infinite step, and showered upon us and opened up inside us the deepest things. Why? We’re so ungrateful! But so it is. If you believe right now, God has given you God the Holy Spirit. Full access to the source of all that is good and beautiful and lasting.
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1. Morris points out that this is unlike Paul’s other uses of kathos gegraptai because “there is no passage in the Old Testament that runs exactly like this. Perhaps the nearest is Is. lxiv. 4, though Is. lxv. 17 (note that ‘mind’ here is ‘heart’ in the LXX) and Is. lii. 15 have been suggested” - The First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, 56.
2. Prior, The Message of First Corinthians, 52.
3. C. K. Barrett, A Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians, 70.
4. λαλοῦμεν is purely and simply “we speak.” Given our culture’s suspicion toward words in general, and objective speech in particular, it would seem that the ESV translators would have better erred on the side of being redundant, if that is what they were worried about.
5. There is another set of verses in 1 John 2 that shows this clearly, but unfortunately they has been badly misrepresented by experiential movements that want to pit the internal teaching, or “anointing” from the Spirit, against external instruction from church authorities and theological literature. I do not want to get this sermon bogged down in that distraction; but it is sufficient to say that if there are verses in the New Testament that teach an internal Teacher and other verses that teach, and even command, external teaching, well, then unless one wants to argue that these Scriptures contradict each other, my suggestion would be to study out how they can be reconciled. Augustine answers this decisively in his book On Christian Doctrine.
6. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preachers and Preaching.
7. Carson, The Cross and Christian Ministry, 55-56.
8. Carson, The Cross and Christian Ministry, 55.
