In 1 Corinthians 2, Paul describes the powerful work of the Holy Spirit in bringing us from spiritual darkness to a right understanding of God’s grace in Christ.
Wes
Welcome to the Two Journeys Bible Study podcast. This podcast is just one of the many resources available to you for free from Two Journeys Ministry. If you’re interested in learning more, just head over to twojourneys.org. Now on to today’s episode.
This is episode three in our 1 Corinthians Bible Study podcast. This episode is entitled The Gospel: A Demonstration of the Spirit’s Wisdom and Power, where we’ll discuss 1 Corinthians 2:1-16. I’m Wes Treadway, and I’m here with Pastor Andy Davis. Andy, what are we going to see in these verses that we’re looking at today?
Andy
What an exciting chapter we’re going to walk through today, Wes. I think what we’re going to see is a direct contrast between the human wisdom that the Greeks so celebrated, and they were proud of, they were known for around the world, centered in Athens, the schools of philosophers and all that, a direct contrast between that, human philosophy, human wisdom, and the wisdom of God in the gospel. The wisdom of God in the gospel is infinitely wise, and Paul says, “We actually do speak a message of wisdom.” It is a wisdom that God crafted before the world began. It’s a wisdom of eternal consequence. It is deeply, powerfully wise.
Not only that, he’s contrasting the approach of smooth rhetoric and human philosophers with Paul’s being with them in weakness and fear and much trembling. And he said, “Look, I wasn’t much to look at, and I frankly wasn’t much to listen to either, but I was the instrument of your salvation. I was the instrument of your conversion,” he’s saying to the Corinthians, “And so, yes, that’s what I was like when I preached to you and look at you. Your lives have been transformed. They’ve been changed.” What we’re talking about is a contrast, God’s wisdom in the gospel and in choosing messengers like Paul to preach it versus human philosophy and polished schools of rhetoric. That’s what’s being contrasted.
Wes
Well, let me go ahead and read 1 Corinthians 2:1-16:
And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 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.
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 spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. ‘For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.
Andy, how does this section relate to the previous one, and why does Paul seem so eager to reject human eloquence and wisdom when it comes to preaching Christ?
Andy
Well, first of all, he’s in a context, Corinth, a city, very close, physically close, to Athens, Athens, the center of human wisdom, the center of the schools of human philosophers, whose names we still know, many of them anyway. Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, these are the great philosophers of this age, and they reasoned and they thought and they did amazing things, not just them, but Pythagoras and others that did great things in mathematics and science, Archimedes. They were just great thinkers. They represent human wisdom.
And Paul was there in the Areopagus, Mars Hill, and he debated with some of them and discussed and preached the gospel, but he was openly ridiculed, he was mocked, because the centerpiece of the Gospel is a dead Jew, a Jewish man who was nailed to a Roman cross. And it just seemed ridiculous the concept that that would be, in any way, wise or powerful, but it is. And so Paul is telling the Corinthian Christians that the gospel itself is foolishness to the Greeks and it’s a stumbling block to the Jews, but it is the power and the wisdom of God. Christ crucified is a powerful and wise thing, and much more powerful and much wiser than anything man has ever crafted. Here in chapter two, he turns the corner to present the gospel positively as the power of God and the wisdom of God in direct contrast to the philosophies of this world. That’s the continuation from chapter one.
Wes
How should we understand Paul’s statement in verse two when he says, “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified?”
Andy
Well, it’s an exaggerated statement or extreme statement. It’s clearly not true because Paul wrote all these amazing epistles, and we go through all the details of doctrine, which include minor details, frankly, such as the man of sin in 2 Thessalonians 2. It’s not minor, but it’s not the centerpiece of Christian theology. It’s the idea of the antichrist. He gives precepts about marriage, about parenting, about money, about prayer, about government, submitting to governments, master-slave relationships. All kinds of things are covered in his epistles. It’s not absolutely true that he resolved to know nothing while he was with them, except Jesus Christ and him crucified. He could be speaking about just his initial or inaugural proclamation that the first thing he preached, like in 1 Corinthians 15, “For what I received, I passed on to you as the first importance that Christ died for our sins. Then he was buried,” et cetera.
But I think, more broadly, the way I understand the statement is the centerpiece of everything I preach is Christ and him crucified. Everything in the end comes back to that. I think that’s what it means when he says, “I resolved to know nothing while I was with you.” Also, he is rejecting, specifically rejecting, the human schools of philosophy. He wasn’t trying to pander to them. He didn’t feel the need to go spend five years sitting at the foot of some Greek philosopher so he could have the chops, the credentials, to go sit on Mars Hill as an equal with the rest of them. He said, “I didn’t need all that. I resolved that I wasn’t going to go that direction. I wasn’t going to do human rhetoric, human philosophy. I came with a message, and I knew that they would think it was foolish, but it’s still the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
Wes
What insights can we gain from Paul’s assertion that he preached in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and how can this challenge and encourage us as well?
Andy
Well, who of us who have tried to be faithful in evangelism hasn’t felt that way? You feel led by God to share the gospel with an unsaved boss or an unsaved coworker or a classmate or a roommate, somebody in the military, somebody that is one of your fellow recruits. You’re in bootcamp and you see that they are getting drunk on the weekends, and you want to go share the Gospel with them, and fear grips you, fear of man, we’re afraid of what people will think. And so, I remember distinctly God leading me to share the gospel with a very gruff chief technician on the assembly line. This is a guy who’d been there for decades. Everyone respected this guy. His name was Ron, and he was very, very gruff and intimidating in all respects. You’d be afraid to go ask him an assembly question or something about wiring or something.
He was an expert in everything that came with practical, physical hands-on assembly. And the Lord led me to share the gospel with him. And I remember being very afraid all morning long about this encounter. I was going to wait for lunch break, and he would sit there and read his newspaper and eat his sandwich. And I remember coming into the assembly room where he would eat his lunch, and I said, “I will share the gospel if he’s sitting there reading the newspaper,” it was like a fleece, “but if he’s not there, I won’t.” And there he was sitting there reading the newspaper, and fear gripped me.
This verse encouraged me. Paul himself felt it, “I was with you in weakness and fear.” What’s the fear? I don’t think it’s the fear of the Lord and all that. There was a sense of fear of man. What are the people going to say? Are they going to accept the message or not? I’m encouraged. It’s similar to Peter’s kind of bumbling moments. It’s like we’re encouraged when we see him mess up. We’re not glad he messed up, but we’re glad the Bible’s honest about it. And so, I think what I get out of this is Paul knew that, in and of himself, he couldn’t do anything in Corinth. When he came from Athens to Corinth, it’s like, “Is anything good going to happen here?” I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling, meaning, “I felt afraid of what you Corinthians were going to say, and therefore I needed to lean on the Spirit for power.” Also, it teaches me that courage isn’t not feeling those feelings, it’s feeling them and preaching anyway. It’s feeling them and sharing the Gospel anyway.
Wes
And these are certainly not things that we do in our own strength, which Paul would acknowledge, and actually goes on to argue. How was Paul’s weakness actually a display of the Spirit’s power? How might we be tempted to rely on personality or persuasiveness or techniques or polish rather than the message and the Spirit?
Andy
Yeah. I think, in the end, what is he doing? He’s writing two epistles to the church he planted. He says, “You are the evidence.” He’s going to say this in 2 Corinthians, “You are the proof of my ministry.” The fact is it worked. “I was there not giving a smooth, polished presentation. I didn’t look like much,” as he’s going to say also in 2 Corinthians. His letters are powerful, but his presence and his public speaking are unimpressive. He’s like, “Look, I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling. I’m not a polished or powerful speaker, I’m none of those things, and yet you repented and believed. And look at you. Your life has changed. Your marriages have changed. Your holiness is a clear display of the Spirit’s power at work. Basically, when you have an unimpressive, not much to look at speaker like me, and I come and give such a message about a dead Jew on a cross, et cetera, and look, it changes everything, that’s a demonstration of the Spirit’s power.”
Wes
And, conversely, I think we get the sense that, if we are relying on our own polish or personality, those things actually diminish our sense of need perhaps or even our recognition that the real power comes from God alone.
Andy
Yeah, and I tell you, I was involved in a ministry, Campus Crusade for Christ, now called Cru, and one of their approaches on the college campus was to get the movers and shakers, the starting quarterback, the head cheerleader, the class president, and win them, and then they could influence others. I felt, when I really studied 1 Corinthians 1 & 2, I was like, “I don’t know that that’s the right approach. God tends to go the other way. He tends to go with the people that no one wants.”
And I’m not saying that … he says “There’s not many among you who are wise, influential, of noble birth.” Well, it’s not true that there’s not any. There are the Tim Tebows that win the Heisman Trophy, and openly and clearly and beautifully, I think, live for Christ and are influential. It’s not necessarily a bad strategy, but to say, look, that’s who we’ve got to have or we’re not going to be able to get a foothold on campus, that’s just not true. Paul’s here saying, “Look, the fact that I was who I was, and I preached the way I did, and yet despite all of that, a church got planted,” that’s a demonstration of the Spirit’s power.
Wes
What is Paul’s greatest concern in all of this, according to verse five, and why?
Andy
Well, he says very plainly, “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words,” not polished rhetoric, “but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.” (1 Corinthians 2:4-5) He wants them to know that there is this, and he’s going to talk about it in a moment, a secret wisdom from God, a power, a hidden power, like Jesus talked about the yeast hidden in a large amount of flour that worked through the dough. And so, the idea here is, “I want you to know there’s a secret hidden power of God at work within your soul, within your community, within your church, that eyes can’t see. The Romans with all of their power, they can’t see it. They wouldn’t even know what’s going on. It’s secretly permeating and changing people’s hearts and minds and lives.” He said, “I want your faith to rest on God’s power, not on man’s wisdom.”
Wes
Andy, in verse six, we make this turn to exactly what you mentioned a moment ago, seeing how these words given by the Spirit really reveal the Spirit’s wisdom. What does Paul mean by saying he speaks a message of wisdom among the mature, and why do worldly rulers reject the Gospel’s wisdom?
Andy
Well, among the mature means among people who are genuinely converted and who have grown up in their faith, they understand, no, no, the cross of Christ infinitely wise. The dimensions of wisdom and knowledge in the cross are limitless. We will be spending eternity studying the dimensions of God’s wisdom in Christ crucified and resurrected. The mature people understand this really is a wise message. It isn’t just to humble us, it’s that it really is quite remarkable, the different levels of interconnection. I remember studying, memorizing and studying, the book of Hebrews, and we learn all of the types and the prophecies and the fulfillments that were done in the cross. And then I preached a sermon once, the cross as a prism of God’s wisdom, how it takes white light and breaks it into that rainbow, and you can see all the different attributes.
Well, I began to meditate on the different attributes of God displayed at the cross, such as not just wisdom and power, but also his mercy, his patience, his love, his justice, his wrath, all of these things in one place. Yesterday, as I was preaching in Mark 8, I remember thinking about the economy. What would it profit a man that gained the whole world and loses his soul, so we talked about the worth of a single human soul. But then we know from Revelation 7, a multitude of infinitely valuable souls, a multitude greater than anyone could count, were redeemed in a single day by the blood of Jesus, the infinite worth of the blood of Jesus. We could keep going. That’s how wise this message is. We actually do speak a message of wisdom, it isn’t foolishness, and the mature people understand that.
Wes
In verse seven, there’s a number of phrases that we want to unpack and seek to understand. How did God conceal the wisdom of the gospel, how is it for our glory that this gospel was decreed, and how does this encourage us?
Andy
All right. He calls it God’s secret wisdom. He knew what he was going to do before he said, “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3). Ephesians 1 makes it plain that we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. He knew what he was going to do. Jesus himself, pre-incarnate Jesus, knew he was going to die on the cross. He knew fully. And so, it’s a secret wisdom, and actually, Isaiah speaks of this, that God hid Jesus in the secret of his hand, “I was like an arrow concealed in his quiver.” (Paraphrase Isaiah 49:2) There’s this concealing language. What do I get out of that? Well, there is a progressive revelation throughout the Old Testament, it’s like a dimmer switch, little by little by little, truth gets paid out. It starts in the garden of Eden when, the oracle of judgment on the serpent, “He will crush your head and you will bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15)
It’s like what does that mean? Well, we know exactly what that means, how Jesus was the serpent slayer, the one who crushed the serpent, Satan, and He did it by being temporarily wounded by him and he died, but then rose again, more powerful than ever before. That’s the “he will crush your head and you will bruise his heel” means, so you look at that, but it’s like what does all that mean? Well, I’ll tell you more later, and so little by little by little by little, the thing unfolds. All right. Then you got the call of Abraham, “Through your offspring, all peoples on earth will be blessed.” Well, blessed how? I’ll let you know. And so, it’s secret, but it gets progressively revealed, and so that’s what I mean by we speak God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that was hidden. Paul talks about that also in Ephesians, how it was hidden for ages past, but now revealed and made known through God’s holy apostles and prophets, and so the idea is a clear proclamation of Christ.
When I preached through Job, I made it very plain that Job didn’t know the things we know. It’s pretty clear that Job doesn’t have a developed personal eschatology. He doesn’t have a developed sense of personal heaven. Clearly, there is none in the Old Testament, a developed sense of hell for individuals of eternal conscious torment. These things were progressively revealed. And so little by little, and I said this based on the book of Hebrews, we have a better hope, that phrase a better hope is introduced by which we draw near to God. The phrase a better hope, I brought back then to the book of Job saying, “Job was a better man than any of us will ever be, but we have a better hope than he ever had,” much clearer.
That’s what I think it means, a secret wisdom which God concealed, but then, little by little, revealed. He revealed a lot through Isaiah, but we know more than Isaiah knew. And so that’s what I think it means by a secret wisdom, that none of the rulers of the world understood, because if they had, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory.
Wes
Now, at the end of that verse, he says, “It was actually for our glory,” which even as I was reading that, it sounded wrong as it came out of my mouth. I think we’re used to hearing for God’s glory, for His glory. But this phrase says for our glory. How is it for our glory that this gospel was decreed, and how does that encourage us?
Andy
Right. Well, those whom God foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the image of His son. That’s our glory, that we end up glorious, conformed to Christ, as Philippians 3 says, that Jesus, by the power that enables him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies and make them like his glorious body. That’s our glory. But, to continue Romans, those whom God foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers, and those whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified.”
“Those whom God foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the image of His son. That’s our glory, that we end up glorious, conformed to Christ,”
There’s our glory, conformed to the image of Christ, glorious, the righteous shining like the Son in the kingdom of our Father, all of that in the mind of God before the world began. God destined all of this for our glory before the world began.
Wes
How do the rulers of our age show the same ignorance of God’s wisdom and power that the rulers of Paul’s age showed in reference to Jesus’ death by how they respond to the Gospel?
Andy
Okay, so who are the rulers of this age? Are they human or are they supernatural? I think it’s both. I think neither the demonic rulers, the powers and principalities mentioned in Ephesians six, where Paul says, “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark age.” It could be demonic rulers that were behind Pontius Pilate. They were behind Annas and Caiaphas. They were behind all of the evil movers and shakers of that age. Neither the human puppets nor the demonic or Satan himself, puppet masters, understood what was going on.
Remember, recently, I preached about Satanic confusion, how Satan tempted Jesus through Peter to not go to the cross, “Get behind me, Satan,” Jesus said, when Peter was saying, “Never, you’ll never go to the cross.” Satan was using Peter to attempt Him not to go to the cross. But then Satan inhabited Judas to manipulate and to make certain and betray Him that He would go to the cross. What’s Satan doing? He didn’t understand or he would never have crucified the Lord of glory. Do you think Satan wishes he had that moment back? “Shouldn’t have done that. I’ve been losing and losing for 2000 years now because of that. I’ve been hearing about the death of Jesus ever since. Wow, I did not do that one well.” None of the rulers of this age, either human or demonic, would’ve done this.
Now think about Pontius Pilate. Pilate wanted to set him free. Pilate got a message from his wife saying, “I’ve suffered a great deal in a dream because of that righteous man. Have nothing to do with Him.” It was everything he could do to try to set Him free. He knew He was innocent. He knew it was out of envy that they had handed Jesus over, and yet he crucified Him. You remember, in John’s Gospel, he goes out, in John 19, the Jews said, “We have a law, and according to this law, He must die because He said, ‘I am the son of God.'” When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, and went back and said to Jesus, “Where do you come from?” He was afraid of Jesus. The Romans believed in incarnations. They believed Gods and goddesses took on human form. If he had really understood who Jesus was, that the gods and goddesses don’t exist and that Jesus is the Lord of glory, He is actually the creator of the ends of the earth, would he have crucified him? No way. None of the rulers of the age understood it.
Wes
Andy, we were talking about verse nine a little earlier. It’s one of the more well-known verses in this section of 1 Corinthians, and people usually quote it to say that we can’t really predict what heaven will be like. How does verse 10 refute that idea and help us understand verse nine?
Andy
Well, the reason I think it’s talking about heaven, it says what God has prepared for those who love Him. No eye has seen, no ear has heard, neither has it entered the heart of man what is yet in store, Wes, for you and me. We put ourselves right in the verse, and that’s what we tend to do. And it’s, in a way, not a bad thing to read ourselves into the verse because we want to make it applicable. But, in context, that’s not immediately what Paul’s talking about. To some degree, nothing that is yet future could have entered our hearts. All right. Wherever we’re at in redemptive history would never have popped in our mind. It’s something God had to come up with. None of those things, we could have come up with.
But where Paul’s at in redemptive history, he’s talking about the Gospel and he’s saying, “Look, before it was fulfilled in Christ crucified and resurrected, they would never have thought of it. No eye has seen, no ear has heard, never entered the heart of man, namely, that God would become human and die on a cross and rise again. That’s not something we would’ve come up with.” I think you got to keep it centered on the Gospel. However, it is true that we couldn’t come up with heaven as it really will happen, all right, on our own, but people forget, they keep reading. But God has revealed it to us by His spirit. In both cases, the Gospel, the new covenant, we would never have come up with it, but God revealed it to us by His Spirit. And the same thing is true actually of heaven. We wouldn’t have come up with what we are going to experience, but God has revealed what we do know by the Spirit.
Wes
What do verses 10 and 11 teach us about the relationship between the Holy Spirit and the mind of God the Father, and how would meditating on these verses greatly expand our esteem for the Spirit?
Andy
This is mind-blowing. This is intra-Trinitarian conception, Father, Son, and Spirit, perfectly one. The Father is the one God, the Son is the one God, the Spirit is the one God, but there are these three persons, and they have a relationship. And so, we’re basically told something about the Spirit. The Spirit probes the infinite dimensions of the mind of God the Father. He moves through His mind in every respect, searching every angle and every corner, so to speak, as though it’s a place, but you could think of it that way, the mind of God, all the dimensions of the thoughts of God, Spirit understands it all, because no one knows the mind of a man except the spirit of the man within him. And so the Holy Spirit searches out every aspect of the mind of God and then reveals the aspects to us that God wants us to know. That’s what this verse is saying, the Spirit knows everything the Father knows.
Wes
What’s the difference between the spirit of the world and the Holy Spirit, and what does verse 12 teach us about the ministry of the Spirit within our minds and hearts?
Andy
Well, I’m not sure exactly what the spirit of the world is here in verse 12. I think we tend to think of the Satanic spirit of the world, the spirit of the age, and so that would be in Ephesians two, which says, “As for you, you’re dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world under the spirit of the age, the thoughts of this present age.” It is a prideful knowledge, independent of God, a scientific knowledge, a philosophical knowledge. And then the lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, boastful pride of life, all of that could be the spirit of the age, or it could be just that human spirit which is independent, secular, apart from God, human philosophy, the spirit of mind, of the mind, the spirit of the age, the spirit of man. We didn’t receive that. That’s what he’s saying.
It could be just simply human philosophy, but could be Satan behind it. We haven’t received that, but we have received the Spirit who is from God, the Holy Spirit, the third person in Trinity. Having believed the Gospel, we received the gift of the Holy Spirit and He is the one who we just were told a moment ago, has searched out even the deep things of God to deliver to us some of them. He hasn’t told us everything, all right, he can’t, because it’s infinite mind of God, but the indwelling Spirit lives within us to teach us truth and wisdom from God.
Wes
What does verse 13 teach us about the supernatural origin and character of the Gospel message? And how does this relate to the use of the scriptures which are inspired by the Spirit?
Andy
Okay, 12 and 13 are complex. Basically, we have received the Holy Spirit, the Spirit lives in us, so that we may understand the gifts of the Gospel, that we may understand every blessing given to us in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, Ephesians one. The Spirit is here to tell us how rich we are. Again, that’s Ephesians one, that he prays that the eyes of their heart would be enlightened so that they would know the hope to which he has called them, the riches of their glorious inheritance and the saints and the incomparably great power at work in us, hope, riches and power. Holy Spirit is given to us to teach us. He is the deposit guaranteeing our full inheritance. He’s here to tell us how rich we really are as adopted sons and daughters of God.
The Spirit comes in to tell us all of the things we need to know, how rich we are, how wonderful heaven’s going to be, how completely forgiven we are, how totally the atonement of Christ has handled everything we needed done for us. These are the things, verse 12, that God has freely given us. This is now what we speak. We are talking about these spiritual blessings and the Spirit has given us words to say them. Those are the words that Paul used to write his epistles, the Galatians and Philippians and Colossians and this 1 Corinthians, this is what we speak in words that the Spirit has taught us. He’s taught us how to talk about these things. That’s what I get out of those.
Wes
Verse 14 gives a powerful assessment of unconverted people. What are they incapable of doing, and why would God craft the message of the cross in such a way that Christ would seem outwardly foolish?
Andy
Yeah. My version says that the man without the Spirit, the unconverted person, he doesn’t have the Spirit, cannot accept the things that come from God. Is that what your translation says-
Wes
It is.
Andy
… accept, receive them, think of them as true. I think of it in terms of John 1,”He came to His own and His own did not receive him.” They didn’t accept Him, meaning Jesus, but as many as did receive Him to those who believe in His name. It’s a double way of speaking, that Hebraic way of saying the same thing twice with a little more clarity. To receive is to accept the truth, to believe it and bring it in to ourselves. The man without Spirit can’t do it. He will not accept this Gospel message. He will think it’s foolish. He will push it back and say, “That is foolish.” He rejects it. To not accept, in this context, means to reject it. When the Gospel comes, if he doesn’t have the Spirit working on him, he will reject.
Now here’s what I’ve said many, many times before, and now it really fits here, we owe our personal salvation as much to the Holy Spirit of God as we do to Jesus, because if it weren’t for the Spirit, we would’ve rejected Jesus and the message about Jesus as utter foolishness. That’s what Paul’s saying here. Jesus could have died for us, or not for us, He could have died, the blood shed on the cross for sins, but we ourselves would receive no benefit because it was not delivered to us. We could not accept it.
“We owe our personal salvation as much to the Holy Spirit of God as we do to Jesus, because if it weren’t for the Spirit, we would’ve rejected Jesus and the message about Jesus as utter foolishness”
And so, this is what the Holy Spirit does. He effectively paints the blood of Jesus on the doorposts and lintels of our souls. That’s the application of the Passover sacrifice. If it’s not painted, we don’t get saved. The angel of death will come down and kill the firstborn in that house. The blood has to be applied. The Holy Spirit takes the blood of Jesus, shed once for all, and then applies it to the elect at the time of the hearing of the Gospel. Without the Spirit’s work in us, we will never accept or believe these things. We owe our salvation as much to the Holy Spirit as we do to Jesus.
Wes
Now, in verse 15, Paul seems to be saying, “If the world cannot understand me, they will not understand you either.”
Andy
What he’s saying is, first of all, and I think John says the same thing in his epistle 1 John 3, he says, “The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.” The world doesn’t know who we are. The world doesn’t understand. We are regenerate, we’ve had the spirit work on us, and the heart of stone has been taken out. The heart of flesh is put in. We are made, 2 Corinthians five 17, new creations. That’s who we are. The world doesn’t. John says, 1 John three, the world doesn’t know us. It didn’t know Him. It didn’t recognize Him and doesn’t recognize us. Also we are born again and people without the Spirit won’t know who we are. They won’t be able to understand us. Therefore, they can’t properly evaluate us. If I’m, as happened before Gallio, the proconsul, if I’m standing before Gallio in your city of Corinth and he tries to evaluate me, he won’t know who I am. He won’t understand me.
If I stand before Nero, the mighty Caesar, he will not be able to rightly appraise me. I think that’s what I get in verse 15. The spiritual man makes judgements about everything he sees. I’ll be able to judge Caesar, I’ll be able to stand over him, not as though I’m the judge of all the earth, but I know where it’s at with him. However powerful and rich he is and covered in purple, he’s going to hell if he doesn’t repent and believe this Gospel I’m preaching. I’m able to make that judgment about him, and I’m able to judge the decisions he makes and the decrees, some of them are wise, about distribution of bread to the people and all that. Fine, good, that’s good government. Some of it’s garbage. It’s utter paganism or corrupt, wicked. I’ll judge the things he does because I’ve been instructed by the Spirit, and I think that’s what he’s saying in verse 15. We are able to judge all things based on the scripture and the indwelling Spirit, but we ourselves cannot be properly judged by non-Christians.
Wes
How does verse 16 relate to this and what does it mean to have the mind of Christ?
Andy
I think it’s the same as having the indwelling Holy Spirit, for it is the Spirit of Christ that we have. And so the Spirit delivers Jesus to us the same way that Jesus delivered the Father saying, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” Basically, anyone who has received the Spirit has received Jesus. That’s, I think, what it means. And so, when we have the indwelling Spirit, we have the mind of Christ within us. That’s what it is. The Holy Spirit is the mind of Christ within us. We have received the mind of Christ.
And that’s what he says in verse 16, “Who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” He’s talking about pagans, non-Christians, philosophers. None of you can add anything to the mind of the Lord because you’re outside of that. You can’t teach the Lord anything. Those wise philosophers of this age cannot tell the Lord, or us frankly, anything, for who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? We can’t learn anything from them about things that really matter, but we ourselves, we have the mind of Christ.
Wes
Andy, what final thoughts do you have for us today on this second chapter of 1 Corinthians?
Andy
Well, we’ve been over a lot of things. I just want to pick up on the very last thing, we have the mind of Christ. It’s interesting, in my book on heaven, I say, we’re going to be developing our thinking forever, forever in heaven. What we’re going to learn is the glory of God in heaven. We have, right now, the mind of Christ, but even in heaven, we’re going to continue to learn more and more things that Jesus already knows, for in Christ are hidden all the treasure, wisdom, and knowledge.
It’s interesting, in Philippians, he also says, “Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” It’s interesting. He’s urging us to have the mind of Christ there. But in 1 Corinthians 2:16, we’re told we have the mind of Christ. I think what he’s saying in Philippians is, “You have the mind of Christ, use it. Think like Jesus, who being, in very nature, God did not consider equality with God something in grasp. Be humble.” putting that together, we’re saying, “You already have the mind of Christ. Use it.” In terms of the heavenly things, we’re going to forever be learning the way that Christ thinks. Big picture, 1 Corinthians 2, marvelous chapter, the centerpiece is the glories of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Wes
Well, this has been episode three in our 1 Corinthians Bible study podcast. We want to invite you to join us next time for episode four, entitled Building the Church in Light of Judgment Day Testing, where we’ll discuss 1 Corinthians :1-23. Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys podcast and may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
Wes
Welcome to the Two Journeys Bible Study podcast. This podcast is just one of the many resources available to you for free from Two Journeys Ministry. If you’re interested in learning more, just head over to twojourneys.org. Now on to today’s episode.
This is episode three in our 1 Corinthians Bible Study podcast. This episode is entitled The Gospel: A Demonstration of the Spirit’s Wisdom and Power, where we’ll discuss 1 Corinthians 2:1-16. I’m Wes Treadway, and I’m here with Pastor Andy Davis. Andy, what are we going to see in these verses that we’re looking at today?
Andy
What an exciting chapter we’re going to walk through today, Wes. I think what we’re going to see is a direct contrast between the human wisdom that the Greeks so celebrated, and they were proud of, they were known for around the world, centered in Athens, the schools of philosophers and all that, a direct contrast between that, human philosophy, human wisdom, and the wisdom of God in the gospel. The wisdom of God in the gospel is infinitely wise, and Paul says, “We actually do speak a message of wisdom.” It is a wisdom that God crafted before the world began. It’s a wisdom of eternal consequence. It is deeply, powerfully wise.
Not only that, he’s contrasting the approach of smooth rhetoric and human philosophers with Paul’s being with them in weakness and fear and much trembling. And he said, “Look, I wasn’t much to look at, and I frankly wasn’t much to listen to either, but I was the instrument of your salvation. I was the instrument of your conversion,” he’s saying to the Corinthians, “And so, yes, that’s what I was like when I preached to you and look at you. Your lives have been transformed. They’ve been changed.” What we’re talking about is a contrast, God’s wisdom in the gospel and in choosing messengers like Paul to preach it versus human philosophy and polished schools of rhetoric. That’s what’s being contrasted.
Wes
Well, let me go ahead and read 1 Corinthians 2:1-16:
And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 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.
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 spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. ‘For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.
Andy, how does this section relate to the previous one, and why does Paul seem so eager to reject human eloquence and wisdom when it comes to preaching Christ?
Andy
Well, first of all, he’s in a context, Corinth, a city, very close, physically close, to Athens, Athens, the center of human wisdom, the center of the schools of human philosophers, whose names we still know, many of them anyway. Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, these are the great philosophers of this age, and they reasoned and they thought and they did amazing things, not just them, but Pythagoras and others that did great things in mathematics and science, Archimedes. They were just great thinkers. They represent human wisdom.
And Paul was there in the Areopagus, Mars Hill, and he debated with some of them and discussed and preached the gospel, but he was openly ridiculed, he was mocked, because the centerpiece of the Gospel is a dead Jew, a Jewish man who was nailed to a Roman cross. And it just seemed ridiculous the concept that that would be, in any way, wise or powerful, but it is. And so Paul is telling the Corinthian Christians that the gospel itself is foolishness to the Greeks and it’s a stumbling block to the Jews, but it is the power and the wisdom of God. Christ crucified is a powerful and wise thing, and much more powerful and much wiser than anything man has ever crafted. Here in chapter two, he turns the corner to present the gospel positively as the power of God and the wisdom of God in direct contrast to the philosophies of this world. That’s the continuation from chapter one.
Wes
How should we understand Paul’s statement in verse two when he says, “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified?”
Andy
Well, it’s an exaggerated statement or extreme statement. It’s clearly not true because Paul wrote all these amazing epistles, and we go through all the details of doctrine, which include minor details, frankly, such as the man of sin in 2 Thessalonians 2. It’s not minor, but it’s not the centerpiece of Christian theology. It’s the idea of the antichrist. He gives precepts about marriage, about parenting, about money, about prayer, about government, submitting to governments, master-slave relationships. All kinds of things are covered in his epistles. It’s not absolutely true that he resolved to know nothing while he was with them, except Jesus Christ and him crucified. He could be speaking about just his initial or inaugural proclamation that the first thing he preached, like in 1 Corinthians 15, “For what I received, I passed on to you as the first importance that Christ died for our sins. Then he was buried,” et cetera.
But I think, more broadly, the way I understand the statement is the centerpiece of everything I preach is Christ and him crucified. Everything in the end comes back to that. I think that’s what it means when he says, “I resolved to know nothing while I was with you.” Also, he is rejecting, specifically rejecting, the human schools of philosophy. He wasn’t trying to pander to them. He didn’t feel the need to go spend five years sitting at the foot of some Greek philosopher so he could have the chops, the credentials, to go sit on Mars Hill as an equal with the rest of them. He said, “I didn’t need all that. I resolved that I wasn’t going to go that direction. I wasn’t going to do human rhetoric, human philosophy. I came with a message, and I knew that they would think it was foolish, but it’s still the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
Wes
What insights can we gain from Paul’s assertion that he preached in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and how can this challenge and encourage us as well?
Andy
Well, who of us who have tried to be faithful in evangelism hasn’t felt that way? You feel led by God to share the gospel with an unsaved boss or an unsaved coworker or a classmate or a roommate, somebody in the military, somebody that is one of your fellow recruits. You’re in bootcamp and you see that they are getting drunk on the weekends, and you want to go share the Gospel with them, and fear grips you, fear of man, we’re afraid of what people will think. And so, I remember distinctly God leading me to share the gospel with a very gruff chief technician on the assembly line. This is a guy who’d been there for decades. Everyone respected this guy. His name was Ron, and he was very, very gruff and intimidating in all respects. You’d be afraid to go ask him an assembly question or something about wiring or something.
He was an expert in everything that came with practical, physical hands-on assembly. And the Lord led me to share the gospel with him. And I remember being very afraid all morning long about this encounter. I was going to wait for lunch break, and he would sit there and read his newspaper and eat his sandwich. And I remember coming into the assembly room where he would eat his lunch, and I said, “I will share the gospel if he’s sitting there reading the newspaper,” it was like a fleece, “but if he’s not there, I won’t.” And there he was sitting there reading the newspaper, and fear gripped me.
This verse encouraged me. Paul himself felt it, “I was with you in weakness and fear.” What’s the fear? I don’t think it’s the fear of the Lord and all that. There was a sense of fear of man. What are the people going to say? Are they going to accept the message or not? I’m encouraged. It’s similar to Peter’s kind of bumbling moments. It’s like we’re encouraged when we see him mess up. We’re not glad he messed up, but we’re glad the Bible’s honest about it. And so, I think what I get out of this is Paul knew that, in and of himself, he couldn’t do anything in Corinth. When he came from Athens to Corinth, it’s like, “Is anything good going to happen here?” I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling, meaning, “I felt afraid of what you Corinthians were going to say, and therefore I needed to lean on the Spirit for power.” Also, it teaches me that courage isn’t not feeling those feelings, it’s feeling them and preaching anyway. It’s feeling them and sharing the Gospel anyway.
Wes
And these are certainly not things that we do in our own strength, which Paul would acknowledge, and actually goes on to argue. How was Paul’s weakness actually a display of the Spirit’s power? How might we be tempted to rely on personality or persuasiveness or techniques or polish rather than the message and the Spirit?
Andy
Yeah. I think, in the end, what is he doing? He’s writing two epistles to the church he planted. He says, “You are the evidence.” He’s going to say this in 2 Corinthians, “You are the proof of my ministry.” The fact is it worked. “I was there not giving a smooth, polished presentation. I didn’t look like much,” as he’s going to say also in 2 Corinthians. His letters are powerful, but his presence and his public speaking are unimpressive. He’s like, “Look, I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling. I’m not a polished or powerful speaker, I’m none of those things, and yet you repented and believed. And look at you. Your life has changed. Your marriages have changed. Your holiness is a clear display of the Spirit’s power at work. Basically, when you have an unimpressive, not much to look at speaker like me, and I come and give such a message about a dead Jew on a cross, et cetera, and look, it changes everything, that’s a demonstration of the Spirit’s power.”
Wes
And, conversely, I think we get the sense that, if we are relying on our own polish or personality, those things actually diminish our sense of need perhaps or even our recognition that the real power comes from God alone.
Andy
Yeah, and I tell you, I was involved in a ministry, Campus Crusade for Christ, now called Cru, and one of their approaches on the college campus was to get the movers and shakers, the starting quarterback, the head cheerleader, the class president, and win them, and then they could influence others. I felt, when I really studied 1 Corinthians 1 & 2, I was like, “I don’t know that that’s the right approach. God tends to go the other way. He tends to go with the people that no one wants.”
And I’m not saying that … he says “There’s not many among you who are wise, influential, of noble birth.” Well, it’s not true that there’s not any. There are the Tim Tebows that win the Heisman Trophy, and openly and clearly and beautifully, I think, live for Christ and are influential. It’s not necessarily a bad strategy, but to say, look, that’s who we’ve got to have or we’re not going to be able to get a foothold on campus, that’s just not true. Paul’s here saying, “Look, the fact that I was who I was, and I preached the way I did, and yet despite all of that, a church got planted,” that’s a demonstration of the Spirit’s power.
Wes
What is Paul’s greatest concern in all of this, according to verse five, and why?
Andy
Well, he says very plainly, “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words,” not polished rhetoric, “but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.” (1 Corinthians 2:4-5) He wants them to know that there is this, and he’s going to talk about it in a moment, a secret wisdom from God, a power, a hidden power, like Jesus talked about the yeast hidden in a large amount of flour that worked through the dough. And so, the idea here is, “I want you to know there’s a secret hidden power of God at work within your soul, within your community, within your church, that eyes can’t see. The Romans with all of their power, they can’t see it. They wouldn’t even know what’s going on. It’s secretly permeating and changing people’s hearts and minds and lives.” He said, “I want your faith to rest on God’s power, not on man’s wisdom.”
Wes
Andy, in verse six, we make this turn to exactly what you mentioned a moment ago, seeing how these words given by the Spirit really reveal the Spirit’s wisdom. What does Paul mean by saying he speaks a message of wisdom among the mature, and why do worldly rulers reject the Gospel’s wisdom?
Andy
Well, among the mature means among people who are genuinely converted and who have grown up in their faith, they understand, no, no, the cross of Christ infinitely wise. The dimensions of wisdom and knowledge in the cross are limitless. We will be spending eternity studying the dimensions of God’s wisdom in Christ crucified and resurrected. The mature people understand this really is a wise message. It isn’t just to humble us, it’s that it really is quite remarkable, the different levels of interconnection. I remember studying, memorizing and studying, the book of Hebrews, and we learn all of the types and the prophecies and the fulfillments that were done in the cross. And then I preached a sermon once, the cross as a prism of God’s wisdom, how it takes white light and breaks it into that rainbow, and you can see all the different attributes.
Well, I began to meditate on the different attributes of God displayed at the cross, such as not just wisdom and power, but also his mercy, his patience, his love, his justice, his wrath, all of these things in one place. Yesterday, as I was preaching in Mark 8, I remember thinking about the economy. What would it profit a man that gained the whole world and loses his soul, so we talked about the worth of a single human soul. But then we know from Revelation 7, a multitude of infinitely valuable souls, a multitude greater than anyone could count, were redeemed in a single day by the blood of Jesus, the infinite worth of the blood of Jesus. We could keep going. That’s how wise this message is. We actually do speak a message of wisdom, it isn’t foolishness, and the mature people understand that.
Wes
In verse seven, there’s a number of phrases that we want to unpack and seek to understand. How did God conceal the wisdom of the gospel, how is it for our glory that this gospel was decreed, and how does this encourage us?
Andy
All right. He calls it God’s secret wisdom. He knew what he was going to do before he said, “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3). Ephesians 1 makes it plain that we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. He knew what he was going to do. Jesus himself, pre-incarnate Jesus, knew he was going to die on the cross. He knew fully. And so, it’s a secret wisdom, and actually, Isaiah speaks of this, that God hid Jesus in the secret of his hand, “I was like an arrow concealed in his quiver.” (Paraphrase Isaiah 49:2) There’s this concealing language. What do I get out of that? Well, there is a progressive revelation throughout the Old Testament, it’s like a dimmer switch, little by little by little, truth gets paid out. It starts in the garden of Eden when, the oracle of judgment on the serpent, “He will crush your head and you will bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15)
It’s like what does that mean? Well, we know exactly what that means, how Jesus was the serpent slayer, the one who crushed the serpent, Satan, and He did it by being temporarily wounded by him and he died, but then rose again, more powerful than ever before. That’s the “he will crush your head and you will bruise his heel” means, so you look at that, but it’s like what does all that mean? Well, I’ll tell you more later, and so little by little by little by little, the thing unfolds. All right. Then you got the call of Abraham, “Through your offspring, all peoples on earth will be blessed.” Well, blessed how? I’ll let you know. And so, it’s secret, but it gets progressively revealed, and so that’s what I mean by we speak God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that was hidden. Paul talks about that also in Ephesians, how it was hidden for ages past, but now revealed and made known through God’s holy apostles and prophets, and so the idea is a clear proclamation of Christ.
When I preached through Job, I made it very plain that Job didn’t know the things we know. It’s pretty clear that Job doesn’t have a developed personal eschatology. He doesn’t have a developed sense of personal heaven. Clearly, there is none in the Old Testament, a developed sense of hell for individuals of eternal conscious torment. These things were progressively revealed. And so little by little, and I said this based on the book of Hebrews, we have a better hope, that phrase a better hope is introduced by which we draw near to God. The phrase a better hope, I brought back then to the book of Job saying, “Job was a better man than any of us will ever be, but we have a better hope than he ever had,” much clearer.
That’s what I think it means, a secret wisdom which God concealed, but then, little by little, revealed. He revealed a lot through Isaiah, but we know more than Isaiah knew. And so that’s what I think it means by a secret wisdom, that none of the rulers of the world understood, because if they had, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory.
Wes
Now, at the end of that verse, he says, “It was actually for our glory,” which even as I was reading that, it sounded wrong as it came out of my mouth. I think we’re used to hearing for God’s glory, for His glory. But this phrase says for our glory. How is it for our glory that this gospel was decreed, and how does that encourage us?
Andy
Right. Well, those whom God foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the image of His son. That’s our glory, that we end up glorious, conformed to Christ, as Philippians 3 says, that Jesus, by the power that enables him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies and make them like his glorious body. That’s our glory. But, to continue Romans, those whom God foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers, and those whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified.”
“Those whom God foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the image of His son. That’s our glory, that we end up glorious, conformed to Christ,”
There’s our glory, conformed to the image of Christ, glorious, the righteous shining like the Son in the kingdom of our Father, all of that in the mind of God before the world began. God destined all of this for our glory before the world began.
Wes
How do the rulers of our age show the same ignorance of God’s wisdom and power that the rulers of Paul’s age showed in reference to Jesus’ death by how they respond to the Gospel?
Andy
Okay, so who are the rulers of this age? Are they human or are they supernatural? I think it’s both. I think neither the demonic rulers, the powers and principalities mentioned in Ephesians six, where Paul says, “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark age.” It could be demonic rulers that were behind Pontius Pilate. They were behind Annas and Caiaphas. They were behind all of the evil movers and shakers of that age. Neither the human puppets nor the demonic or Satan himself, puppet masters, understood what was going on.
Remember, recently, I preached about Satanic confusion, how Satan tempted Jesus through Peter to not go to the cross, “Get behind me, Satan,” Jesus said, when Peter was saying, “Never, you’ll never go to the cross.” Satan was using Peter to attempt Him not to go to the cross. But then Satan inhabited Judas to manipulate and to make certain and betray Him that He would go to the cross. What’s Satan doing? He didn’t understand or he would never have crucified the Lord of glory. Do you think Satan wishes he had that moment back? “Shouldn’t have done that. I’ve been losing and losing for 2000 years now because of that. I’ve been hearing about the death of Jesus ever since. Wow, I did not do that one well.” None of the rulers of this age, either human or demonic, would’ve done this.
Now think about Pontius Pilate. Pilate wanted to set him free. Pilate got a message from his wife saying, “I’ve suffered a great deal in a dream because of that righteous man. Have nothing to do with Him.” It was everything he could do to try to set Him free. He knew He was innocent. He knew it was out of envy that they had handed Jesus over, and yet he crucified Him. You remember, in John’s Gospel, he goes out, in John 19, the Jews said, “We have a law, and according to this law, He must die because He said, ‘I am the son of God.'” When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, and went back and said to Jesus, “Where do you come from?” He was afraid of Jesus. The Romans believed in incarnations. They believed Gods and goddesses took on human form. If he had really understood who Jesus was, that the gods and goddesses don’t exist and that Jesus is the Lord of glory, He is actually the creator of the ends of the earth, would he have crucified him? No way. None of the rulers of the age understood it.
Wes
Andy, we were talking about verse nine a little earlier. It’s one of the more well-known verses in this section of 1 Corinthians, and people usually quote it to say that we can’t really predict what heaven will be like. How does verse 10 refute that idea and help us understand verse nine?
Andy
Well, the reason I think it’s talking about heaven, it says what God has prepared for those who love Him. No eye has seen, no ear has heard, neither has it entered the heart of man what is yet in store, Wes, for you and me. We put ourselves right in the verse, and that’s what we tend to do. And it’s, in a way, not a bad thing to read ourselves into the verse because we want to make it applicable. But, in context, that’s not immediately what Paul’s talking about. To some degree, nothing that is yet future could have entered our hearts. All right. Wherever we’re at in redemptive history would never have popped in our mind. It’s something God had to come up with. None of those things, we could have come up with.
But where Paul’s at in redemptive history, he’s talking about the Gospel and he’s saying, “Look, before it was fulfilled in Christ crucified and resurrected, they would never have thought of it. No eye has seen, no ear has heard, never entered the heart of man, namely, that God would become human and die on a cross and rise again. That’s not something we would’ve come up with.” I think you got to keep it centered on the Gospel. However, it is true that we couldn’t come up with heaven as it really will happen, all right, on our own, but people forget, they keep reading. But God has revealed it to us by His spirit. In both cases, the Gospel, the new covenant, we would never have come up with it, but God revealed it to us by His Spirit. And the same thing is true actually of heaven. We wouldn’t have come up with what we are going to experience, but God has revealed what we do know by the Spirit.
Wes
What do verses 10 and 11 teach us about the relationship between the Holy Spirit and the mind of God the Father, and how would meditating on these verses greatly expand our esteem for the Spirit?
Andy
This is mind-blowing. This is intra-Trinitarian conception, Father, Son, and Spirit, perfectly one. The Father is the one God, the Son is the one God, the Spirit is the one God, but there are these three persons, and they have a relationship. And so, we’re basically told something about the Spirit. The Spirit probes the infinite dimensions of the mind of God the Father. He moves through His mind in every respect, searching every angle and every corner, so to speak, as though it’s a place, but you could think of it that way, the mind of God, all the dimensions of the thoughts of God, Spirit understands it all, because no one knows the mind of a man except the spirit of the man within him. And so the Holy Spirit searches out every aspect of the mind of God and then reveals the aspects to us that God wants us to know. That’s what this verse is saying, the Spirit knows everything the Father knows.
Wes
What’s the difference between the spirit of the world and the Holy Spirit, and what does verse 12 teach us about the ministry of the Spirit within our minds and hearts?
Andy
Well, I’m not sure exactly what the spirit of the world is here in verse 12. I think we tend to think of the Satanic spirit of the world, the spirit of the age, and so that would be in Ephesians two, which says, “As for you, you’re dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world under the spirit of the age, the thoughts of this present age.” It is a prideful knowledge, independent of God, a scientific knowledge, a philosophical knowledge. And then the lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, boastful pride of life, all of that could be the spirit of the age, or it could be just that human spirit which is independent, secular, apart from God, human philosophy, the spirit of mind, of the mind, the spirit of the age, the spirit of man. We didn’t receive that. That’s what he’s saying.
It could be just simply human philosophy, but could be Satan behind it. We haven’t received that, but we have received the Spirit who is from God, the Holy Spirit, the third person in Trinity. Having believed the Gospel, we received the gift of the Holy Spirit and He is the one who we just were told a moment ago, has searched out even the deep things of God to deliver to us some of them. He hasn’t told us everything, all right, he can’t, because it’s infinite mind of God, but the indwelling Spirit lives within us to teach us truth and wisdom from God.
Wes
What does verse 13 teach us about the supernatural origin and character of the Gospel message? And how does this relate to the use of the scriptures which are inspired by the Spirit?
Andy
Okay, 12 and 13 are complex. Basically, we have received the Holy Spirit, the Spirit lives in us, so that we may understand the gifts of the Gospel, that we may understand every blessing given to us in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, Ephesians one. The Spirit is here to tell us how rich we are. Again, that’s Ephesians one, that he prays that the eyes of their heart would be enlightened so that they would know the hope to which he has called them, the riches of their glorious inheritance and the saints and the incomparably great power at work in us, hope, riches and power. Holy Spirit is given to us to teach us. He is the deposit guaranteeing our full inheritance. He’s here to tell us how rich we really are as adopted sons and daughters of God.
The Spirit comes in to tell us all of the things we need to know, how rich we are, how wonderful heaven’s going to be, how completely forgiven we are, how totally the atonement of Christ has handled everything we needed done for us. These are the things, verse 12, that God has freely given us. This is now what we speak. We are talking about these spiritual blessings and the Spirit has given us words to say them. Those are the words that Paul used to write his epistles, the Galatians and Philippians and Colossians and this 1 Corinthians, this is what we speak in words that the Spirit has taught us. He’s taught us how to talk about these things. That’s what I get out of those.
Wes
Verse 14 gives a powerful assessment of unconverted people. What are they incapable of doing, and why would God craft the message of the cross in such a way that Christ would seem outwardly foolish?
Andy
Yeah. My version says that the man without the Spirit, the unconverted person, he doesn’t have the Spirit, cannot accept the things that come from God. Is that what your translation says-
Wes
It is.
Andy
… accept, receive them, think of them as true. I think of it in terms of John 1,”He came to His own and His own did not receive him.” They didn’t accept Him, meaning Jesus, but as many as did receive Him to those who believe in His name. It’s a double way of speaking, that Hebraic way of saying the same thing twice with a little more clarity. To receive is to accept the truth, to believe it and bring it in to ourselves. The man without Spirit can’t do it. He will not accept this Gospel message. He will think it’s foolish. He will push it back and say, “That is foolish.” He rejects it. To not accept, in this context, means to reject it. When the Gospel comes, if he doesn’t have the Spirit working on him, he will reject.
Now here’s what I’ve said many, many times before, and now it really fits here, we owe our personal salvation as much to the Holy Spirit of God as we do to Jesus, because if it weren’t for the Spirit, we would’ve rejected Jesus and the message about Jesus as utter foolishness. That’s what Paul’s saying here. Jesus could have died for us, or not for us, He could have died, the blood shed on the cross for sins, but we ourselves would receive no benefit because it was not delivered to us. We could not accept it.
“We owe our personal salvation as much to the Holy Spirit of God as we do to Jesus, because if it weren’t for the Spirit, we would’ve rejected Jesus and the message about Jesus as utter foolishness”
And so, this is what the Holy Spirit does. He effectively paints the blood of Jesus on the doorposts and lintels of our souls. That’s the application of the Passover sacrifice. If it’s not painted, we don’t get saved. The angel of death will come down and kill the firstborn in that house. The blood has to be applied. The Holy Spirit takes the blood of Jesus, shed once for all, and then applies it to the elect at the time of the hearing of the Gospel. Without the Spirit’s work in us, we will never accept or believe these things. We owe our salvation as much to the Holy Spirit as we do to Jesus.
Wes
Now, in verse 15, Paul seems to be saying, “If the world cannot understand me, they will not understand you either.”
Andy
What he’s saying is, first of all, and I think John says the same thing in his epistle 1 John 3, he says, “The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.” The world doesn’t know who we are. The world doesn’t understand. We are regenerate, we’ve had the spirit work on us, and the heart of stone has been taken out. The heart of flesh is put in. We are made, 2 Corinthians five 17, new creations. That’s who we are. The world doesn’t. John says, 1 John three, the world doesn’t know us. It didn’t know Him. It didn’t recognize Him and doesn’t recognize us. Also we are born again and people without the Spirit won’t know who we are. They won’t be able to understand us. Therefore, they can’t properly evaluate us. If I’m, as happened before Gallio, the proconsul, if I’m standing before Gallio in your city of Corinth and he tries to evaluate me, he won’t know who I am. He won’t understand me.
If I stand before Nero, the mighty Caesar, he will not be able to rightly appraise me. I think that’s what I get in verse 15. The spiritual man makes judgements about everything he sees. I’ll be able to judge Caesar, I’ll be able to stand over him, not as though I’m the judge of all the earth, but I know where it’s at with him. However powerful and rich he is and covered in purple, he’s going to hell if he doesn’t repent and believe this Gospel I’m preaching. I’m able to make that judgment about him, and I’m able to judge the decisions he makes and the decrees, some of them are wise, about distribution of bread to the people and all that. Fine, good, that’s good government. Some of it’s garbage. It’s utter paganism or corrupt, wicked. I’ll judge the things he does because I’ve been instructed by the Spirit, and I think that’s what he’s saying in verse 15. We are able to judge all things based on the scripture and the indwelling Spirit, but we ourselves cannot be properly judged by non-Christians.
Wes
How does verse 16 relate to this and what does it mean to have the mind of Christ?
Andy
I think it’s the same as having the indwelling Holy Spirit, for it is the Spirit of Christ that we have. And so the Spirit delivers Jesus to us the same way that Jesus delivered the Father saying, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” Basically, anyone who has received the Spirit has received Jesus. That’s, I think, what it means. And so, when we have the indwelling Spirit, we have the mind of Christ within us. That’s what it is. The Holy Spirit is the mind of Christ within us. We have received the mind of Christ.
And that’s what he says in verse 16, “Who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” He’s talking about pagans, non-Christians, philosophers. None of you can add anything to the mind of the Lord because you’re outside of that. You can’t teach the Lord anything. Those wise philosophers of this age cannot tell the Lord, or us frankly, anything, for who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? We can’t learn anything from them about things that really matter, but we ourselves, we have the mind of Christ.
Wes
Andy, what final thoughts do you have for us today on this second chapter of 1 Corinthians?
Andy
Well, we’ve been over a lot of things. I just want to pick up on the very last thing, we have the mind of Christ. It’s interesting, in my book on heaven, I say, we’re going to be developing our thinking forever, forever in heaven. What we’re going to learn is the glory of God in heaven. We have, right now, the mind of Christ, but even in heaven, we’re going to continue to learn more and more things that Jesus already knows, for in Christ are hidden all the treasure, wisdom, and knowledge.
It’s interesting, in Philippians, he also says, “Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” It’s interesting. He’s urging us to have the mind of Christ there. But in 1 Corinthians 2:16, we’re told we have the mind of Christ. I think what he’s saying in Philippians is, “You have the mind of Christ, use it. Think like Jesus, who being, in very nature, God did not consider equality with God something in grasp. Be humble.” putting that together, we’re saying, “You already have the mind of Christ. Use it.” In terms of the heavenly things, we’re going to forever be learning the way that Christ thinks. Big picture, 1 Corinthians 2, marvelous chapter, the centerpiece is the glories of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Wes
Well, this has been episode three in our 1 Corinthians Bible study podcast. We want to invite you to join us next time for episode four, entitled Building the Church in Light of Judgment Day Testing, where we’ll discuss 1 Corinthians :1-23. Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys podcast and may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
