Our spiritual growth depends entirely on the Spirit of God revealing the deep things of God to us, that we might understand what God has freely given us. Let’s see this truth in our passage today:
“...these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person's thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. 14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments.”
1 Corinthians 2:10-15 NIV
Question 1. According to 1 Corinthians 2:10-15 NIV, for someone to know God’s thoughts and grow in faith, what needs to occur in their life?
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Here we learn that just as only each individual can know their own thoughts, even so, only the Spirit of God knows the thoughts of God. And it is the Spirit who searches out the deep things of God and makes them known to us.
Paul is specifically applying this truth to the message of the cross. Because, of all spiritual truths, the message of the cross is most counterintuitive and requires the Spirit to illuminate the heart and mind to comprehend it.
According to 1 Corinthians 2:12 NIV, the Spirit helps us “understand what God has freely given us.” And what is “freely given us” is grace (Romans 3:23-24 NIV), which flows from the cross.
Notice from Romans 8:15-17 NIV all that you receive by grace, and as you look to the cross just now, see Jesus purchasing these for you through His death:
You were freed from bondage and slavery.
You were freed from the spirit of fear.
You received the Spirit of adoption, and God gave you the evidence of being in the family.
You were given boldness and access to God with confidence.
God enabled you to live in the light and walk in love, like his children and heirs, who are to abide in his house forever.
The Spirit of God reveals these truths to us in God’s Word, along with these other gifts of God’s grace, by the purchase of love, at the cross:
Full pardon and complete forgiveness (Ephesians 1:7).
Reconciliation to God (2 Corinthians 5:17-18).
Rescue from darkness (Colossians 1:13).
Removal of all guilt (Romans 3:24-25).
Pronouncement of no condemnation for you (Romans 8:1).
Freedom from God’s wrath against sin (1 Thessalonians 1:10).
Freedom from the curse of the Law (Galatians 3:13).
The gift of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13).
Discernment of spiritual truth and freedom from judgment (1 Corinthians 2:15).
To live and grow in the gospel is to experience the work of God’s Spirit. Those without the Spirit are unable to see any good news in Jesus’ death; they consider it foolish:
“The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.”
1 Corinthians 2:14 NIV
Question 2. From 1 Corinthians 2:14 NIV, why can't people naturally understand and rejoice in the message of the cross?
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Friend, if you are struggling to believe and apply the message of the cross in your life, ask the Spirit to help you. He loves to display the glories of the cross. He will not turn you away.
Tomorrow, we will see an illustration of what "the mind of Christ" is and how to have that same mind in us that was in Christ Jesus.
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