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1 Corinthians 2:6–15
“These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. . . . 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” (vv. 10–12).
Bibliology, otherwise known as the doctrine of Scripture, has been our focus this month in our study of the major loci or headings of systematic theology. Having considered the inspiration of Scripture and its various attributes, we now turn to issues related to the interpretation of Scripture. As we have seen, Scripture is the only infallible authority of faith and practice, and the church has a derivative authority as the creaturely teacher to help us understand the Bible (Eph. 2:19–21; 4:9–14; 2 Tim. 3:16–17). But as we read Scripture and sit under the church’s teaching of Scripture, how do we attain comprehension of Scripture? In particular, today we want to consider how we come to a saving knowledge of Scripture. We are not talking so much of knowing what the Bible means; rather, we are looking at how we come to believe what the Bible teaches.
This brings us back to the idea of the internal witness of the Holy Spirit, for persuasion that the Bible is the Word of God and coming to believe what it teaches are closely related. Because Scripture is of divine origin and has divine authority, we finally believe that the Bible is the Word of God because the divine Author, the Holy Trinity, says so and He convinces us of it. Similarly, we believe what Scripture teaches because the divine Author grants us trust in what He has revealed. As the Westminster Confession of Faith puts it, “We acknowledge the inward illumination of the Spirit of God to be necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the Word” (1.6).
First Corinthians 2:6–16 explains our need of God to understand His Word. Paul notes that “no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God” (v. 11). Because of that reality, we can understand the thoughts of God, which are given to us in Scripture, only if the Spirit grants us comprehension. In fact, one of the reasons for God’s gift of His Holy Spirit to His people is so “that we might understand the things freely given us by God” (v. 12).
Even if sin had never entered the world, we would need God to illumine His speech. The Creator-creature distinction means that the Lord must reveal Himself if we are to know Him. But because He is infinite and we are finite, He must also grant understanding of His speech for us to know Him. The fall has made His illumination even more necessary. Apart from grace, we would remain darkened in our understanding of the words of the Lord (Eph. 4:18).
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
The Spirit’s work of illumination does not circumvent the ordinary work of reading the Bible and hearing the Scriptures preached. Instead, the Holy Spirit illumines the Word of God for His elect in and through our study of the Bible on our own and under the tutelage of the church. Thus, we cannot ever claim credit when we rightly understand Scripture even though we must make an effort to do so.
For further study
- Job 38:36
- Psalm 119:33–34
- Acts 16:14
- Ephesians 1:15–21
The bible in a year
- Exodus 14–15
- Matthew 19:1–15