Open Eyes
The Enlightenment by God
Paul has been discussing the incompleteness of man’s viewpoint (1 Cor. 1:18–2:8) as manifested in his inability to comprehend either the way of the Cross or the wisdom of the Cross
Sin has so blinded man to spiritual and eternal truth that only God, acting in sovereign, saving grace, can open his blind eyes and quicken his dead spirit.
The illumination of the mind, especially by the word of God, leading to delight and increased pleasure in God
I The Revealing
First, there has to be realization (2:9). We must recognize that we are naturally ignorant of divine things (2:9). Both the head and the heart of the unregenerate person are involved. Man’s spiritual blindness is total. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” Paul introduces this statement by referring his readers back to the Old Testament.
First, there has to be realization (2:9). We must recognize that we are naturally ignorant of divine things (2:9). Both the head and the heart of the unregenerate person are involved. Man’s spiritual blindness is total. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” Paul introduces this statement by referring his readers back to the Old Testament.
Paul illustrated this by pointing out that nobody can fully fathom the thoughts of anyone else. How much more necessary, then, is the work of the Spirit if the thoughts of God are to be known
II The Receiving
The purpose of the Holy Spirit’s special work of revelation (v. 10), Paul says, is that “we may understand what [i.e., the truths] God has freely given us” (v. 12).
Since only spiritual people are able to receive spiritual truths, it follows that the man without the Spirit, an unregenerate person, would not and could not receive the message of wisdom regardless of his intellectual abilities or accomplishments (1:20). Like a deaf critic of Bach or a blind critic of Raphael is the unregenerate critic of God’s Word
The colorful Vance Havner advises:
The wise Christian wastes no time trying to explain God’s program to unregenerate men; it would be casting pearls before swine. He might as well try to describe a sunset to a blind man or discuss nuclear physics with a monument in the city park. The natural man cannot receive such things. One might as well try to catch sunbeams with a fishhook as to lay hold of God’s revelation unassisted by the Holy Spirit. Unless one is born of the Spirit and taught by Him, all this is utterly foreign to him. Being a Ph. D. does not help, for in this realm it could mean ‘Phenomenal Dud!’
I remember on one occasion taking a neighbor of mine to hear a gifted preacher. The man spoke with great clarity and power on the text, “Ye must be born again.” I reveled in the message. I thought to myself, “This must be making an impression on my neighbor.” The preacher showed so clearly the spiritual blindness of the devout and religious Nicodemus and how the Lord astounded him with a demand for a brand-new birth. He explained just how a person becomes a child of God. He took us back to Moses and the serpent on the pole, and then took us on to Calvary. To me it was so crystal clear. My neighbor sat stolidly through it all. He maintained a dignified silence on the way home. The next morning we shared a ride downtown. I ventured to ask him what he thought of the message. He hadn’t understood a word of it, although he was an educated, clever, and successful man. He said, “My wife is a descendant of John Wesley.” And that was that. Somewhere in the family background there was a remote link to somebody religious. He was content with that. The concept of the new birth had gone right over his head!
IIIThe Spiritual Man has Discernment
The sound judgment which makes possible the distinguishing of good from evil, and the recognition of God’s right ways for his people.