Introduction
Do you have the Holy Spirit? Have you been baptized with the Spirit? How would you know? Our text this morning introduces us to the Holy Spirit and his work.
Text
The topic Paul has been discussing is wisdom. The message of the cross seems foolish to the world’s wisdom. The people who believe that message are not considered wise. Paul, as a messenger of the cross, is considered foolish. Nevertheless, he claims to impart real wisdom to the mature, i.e. to those who hear the message and believe. The wisdom of the gospel is the real wisdom, and believers are the ones who are truly wise.
So then, how did the Corinth believers, and how do any of us Christians, catch on to the wisdom of the gospel. How is it that we are so wise? We can’t go by education since there are believers and unbelievers of all educated levels. We can’t go by culture, considering that many raised in nonwestern and nonChristian cultures have accepted the gospel, and contrariwise, many raised in Christian homes have rejected it.
Is there a gospel gene, something in our make-up that makes us more amenable to the gospel? Is it environment? Could a good psychologist predict who is more likely to accept the gospel and who reject it? Paul does not seem baffled by the issue. Let’s look at the answer he gives.
10 [T]hese things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. It’s the Holy Spirit who makes the difference. We know the “secret and hidden wisdom of God” (v. 7) because the Spirit has revealed these things.
He goes on to explain his reasoning. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 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.
First, he notes the activity of the Spirit in relation to God. The Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. We have this image of active exploration, or better yet, of complete intimate communion within the trinity. Can we know God? Of course not. But can God know God? Of course. The Spirit of God knows God thoroughly.
Paul then reasons that only the inner self knows what is going on inside a person. Only I know what is really going on inside of me right now. Only my spirit knows me. Likewise, only God’s Spirit really knows him.
Does Paul then mean that God’s Spirit is not another person of the Trinity, but rather another term for his inner being as this analogy suggests? When I speak of my spirit, I don’t mean another being separate from me. If this text is all we had to go, this would have to be a possible interpretation. Other scripture forces us to regard the Holy Spirit as another person altogether.
Listen to what Jesus has to say. The context is his final conversation with his disciples before his death. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you (John 14:16-17)…These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you (14:25-26)… But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning (15:26-27)… I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 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. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you (16:13-15).
It is obvious that Jesus is treating the Holy Spirit as a person and not merely a spiritual force or a representation of himself. The Spirit has a title, Paraclete, translated here as Helper, and in other translations as Counselor, Advocate, and Comforter. God the Father gives him; Christ the Son sends him. And the Spirit is spoken of as “he,” not “it.” The Spirit will teach, and note that he will not speak on his own authority but on Jesus’. If the Spirit is not a distinct person, why would Jesus bother making such a comment? I don’t speak of giving my spirit permission to act on my authority.
We could go on with other scripture, but the point is made that the Holy Spirit is not a mere extension of God or another way of representing God. He is the third person of the trinity. Even so, he is intimately bound up in the Father and the Son in such a way that he knows fully the mind of God.
To get back to the text and Paul’s reasoning. God’s thoughts and ways are beyond our ability to know. But they are not beyond the Spirit of God. So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
What then does that have to do with us? God is still “up there” and we “down here.” Well, remember what Jesus said? He would send us the Holy Spirit. Paul now attests to this. 12 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. What Jesus promised he would do, he has done. He has sent his Holy Spirit to those whom the Father has given him, and the Spirit has given to them understanding of the gospel. The things freely given us by God make up the gospel.
Follow the logic. God’s thoughts and ways are beyond our understanding. They are not, however, beyond the understanding of the Holy Spirit. That same Spirit who knows the mind of God has been sent to us to give us understanding. The next verse explains the practical means through which the Spirit works. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
“We” refers to Paul and his fellow apostles and ministers. They impart the gospel with words – i.e. with a message – that is not derived from human wisdom, but comes from the inspiration and illumination of the Spirit. They then pass on the message in its same spiritual form. That last phrase – interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual – is difficult to translate. The same Greek phrase could mean “comparing spiritual things with spiritual” as in the KJ, or possibly, “interpreting spiritual truths in spiritual words” as in the NIV. However we translate the phrase, the gist is the same – we pass on faithfully what the Holy Spirit has taught us. We do not reinterpret the gospel into a message that makes it more compatible with human wisdom. We do not turn the gospel into the social gospel or the self-fulfillment gospel or whatever suits the fancy of people in any given time.
I noted that this verse explains the practical means through which the Spirit works. How, in this case, does the Holy Spirit pass on spiritual wisdom? It is through the preaching of the gospel and through Scripture. The normal means through which the Spirit passes on wisdom is not through revelation, but through the spoken and written Word of God.
Remember, Paul is defending his preaching. He is explaining why some people catch on to his preaching and some do not. The difference lies in the work of the Holy Spirit to give understanding to the preaching. Paul’s preaching, by the way, is buttressed by Scripture, which for him and the early church is the Old Testament. Paul himself has received revelation, to be sure, but he has also been given spiritual insight to understand how Jesus fulfills the Old Testament.
Thus Paul says, “The Holy Spirit has given to me the message. I pass it on to you faithfully, not changing it. You are able to receive it and believe because the same Spirit gives you understanding.”
In contrast, the person who has not received the Spirit is simply incapable of accepting the message. 14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The natural person cannot understand the gospel (so as to believe it) because it requires spiritual discernment, which he does not possess. It’s that simple. The Holy Spirit is essential equipment to understanding what truly is spiritual.
The next verse makes a startling claim. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. Now that seems an arrogant statement! But that on a bumper sticker: “You can’t judge me, but I sure can judge you!” That will invite some fender benders.
This kind of statement demonstrates the necessity of interpreting verses within context. What is the context? It is a discussion of who is able to understand the gospel message and who not. Thus, the spiritual person – i.e. the Christian believer – is able to discern spiritual truth in all things related to salvation. The natural person who rejects the gospel is not in a position to judge the believer as being foolish. He cannot pass judgment on what he does not understand. On the other hand, the believer, because he has received the Spirit, can judge the nonbeliever for not believing. The simple principle is this: a person with understanding is in position to judge, while a person without understanding is not.
Verse 16 then takes us back to the main argument: 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. Natural man cannot understand the mind of God. Believers, because we have the Spirit, can, however, understand him and his ways, as much as his Spirit conveys to us.
Lessons
What lessons about the Holy Spirit can we gather from this text? (We will, after the Christmas season, consider more fully who the Holy Spirit is and his work.) First, we can learn who has the Spirit? All believers possess the Spirit. Paul’s contrast between those who have the Spirit and those who don’t is not between “Spirit-filled” Christians and plain-old Christians. He is explaining why believers understand and accept the gospel, while nonbelievers don’t.
By definition a Christian is Spirit-filled. To become a Christian, i.e. to become born-again, one must be baptized in the Holy Spirit. The Bible does not recognize such a thing as a person becoming a Christian and then getting baptized with the Holy Spirit. It does not recognize the baptism of the Spirit as being an extra blessing that one gets after salvation takes place. It is not in the pages of the Bible.
Those who advocate a second blessing, base their case on the experiences recorded in the book of Acts that appear to present such an idea. Where they cannot build a case is in the teachings of Jesus nor in the New Testament epistles. In other words, there is no teaching they can appeal to, only observations of what happened at the beginning of the church.
What is taught? Jesus said that one must be born of the Spirit to come into the kingdom of God: unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit (John 3:5,6). In John 7:38-39 we read: Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive.
When Scripture speaks of baptism saving us (1 Peter 3:21) and of being baptized into the death of Christ and buried with him in baptism (Romans 6:3,4), this is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It is the same baptism that John the Baptist spoke of when he said that the Christ would baptize us with the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:11; Luke 3:16; John 1:33). Who then is baptized with the Holy Spirit? All who believe in Jesus Christ. All who hear the Word spoken, understand it, and receive it by faith.
We learn further from this text how the Spirit operates. What is his work? Clearly, in the beginning of the church the Spirit gave revelation primarily to the apostles about the gospel. Paul says about himself in Galatians 1:11-12: For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. Peter received a vision revealing to him that the law pertaining to eating customs is abolished and making clear that he was to present the gospel to the gentiles.
There were prophets in the early church who gave specific words for individuals and churches. One prophet spoke of a famine to hit Palestine and affect the Jerusalem church. Another warned Paul of his being arrested in Jerusalem. We will see later on that the Corinthians prophesied in their worship services.
But Paul makes clear in this text that the normal operation of the Holy Spirit in all believers is through the spoken and written word. Again, the issue raised is why some people understand and believe the message of the gospel and why others do not. The answer is found in the work of the Spirit giving discernment. Those who discern and then believe are further able to discern other spiritual teaching.
Why then do we ascribe only revelation as signifying the presence of the Holy Spirit? People will say, “We want a word from the Lord,” meaning they want someone to stand up and reveal a special word, or that they want the Spirit to give them an inner message.” I’ve been in prayer meetings where we were encouraged to listen to the Spirit giving us a message that we could then pass on. You know what I should have done? I should have pulled out my Bible and said, “It just so happens I have the Word of the Spirit right here!”
The Holy Spirit is the author of God’s Word. It is he who inspired all that is in the Bible, and it is he who then gives, not revelation, but illumination. The Spirit illumines the Bible, i.e. he makes it clear, makes it understandable to the Christian. He makes clear what the Word of God says, and, furthermore, enables the Christian to understand how to examine himself by the Word and apply it to his life.
Another question. Why do we believe that the Holy Spirit only acts at the moment a person speaks or is about to speak? “Spirit-filled” preachers preach as they are led by the Holy Spirit at the moment of speaking. Then there are the rest of us dependent on notes. Does the Holy Spirit back off when I am studiously examining the Scriptures? Is that not when I should expect his help the most, when I am devoting my attention to God’s Word?
Jesus rebuked the disciples walking on the road to Emmaus for not understanding what the prophets of the Old Testament Scriptures had taught about him. I think he would make the same rebuke today. We all want a word from the Lord. We want the Spirit to display his power among us through a prophecy or a tongue or some other show of power. All the while the Spirit is saying, “Here is my word of power. You are holding it in your hands! Open it, read it, hear it taught and preached.”
We want special knowledge. We want to know the secret to living a fulfilled life. Here is the special knowledge. It is God’s Word revealed in writing. You want to know the secret to living a fulfilled life? Here it is: believe the gospel. Believe in Jesus Christ, his work on the cross, and study, study, study in the Bible what all his work of redemption means for you. Study what the Bible has to say about grace.
Pray for illumination. You don’t need revelation. You’ve got more than a thousand pages of it. You need to know God’s Word and start examining yourself through it. If you take Scripture seriously, you can be sure the Holy Spirit has more than enough to keep you busy with that revelation. As verse 12 reminds us, we have received not the spirit of the world that makes us restless always looking for signs and wisdom that appear impressive; rather we have received the Spirit who is from God that we might understand the things freely given us by God. There is no other free gift better than the gospel given to us in the Word of God.
