God's Wisdom Revealed: Behold the Unseen (part 2)

10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. 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. 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.

I believe v 10 is as much a good starting place for the verses that follow as a good ending to the preceeding verses. But v 10, because it begins with God, is a great place for us to start. Let’s look at our statement of faith, article 2:

2. God: There is but one God, the Maker, Preserver and Ruler of all things, having in and of Himself, all perfections, and being infinite in them all; and to Him all creatures owe the highest love, reverence and obedience.

First of all, we are monotheist in that we worship one divine being who is God. God has revealed himself as one being, not three beings and therefore we worship one God and believe that only one true God exists above all false gods. This is important to the Christian faith but Jews and Muslims are also monotheists as well. So there requires more specifics. God reveals himself to us as one God, one being in three persons. Our belief about our Triune God as Evangelical Christians sets us apart from all religions of the world. On aspect about the Trinity is that God has revealed himself as a spirit. He is immaterial. If you have ever read or studied catechisms for yourself or with your kids, you know the question is asked:

Q. What is God? A. God is a Spirit (John 4:24), infinite (Job 11:7, 8, 9), eternal (Ps. 110:2), and unchangeable (Jas. 1:17) in his being (Ex. 3:14), wisdom (Ps. 147:5), power (Rev. 4:8), holiness (Rev. 15:4), justice, goodness, and truth (Ex. 34:6).

Q. Who is God? A. God is a Spirit, and does not have a body like men (Jn 4:24; 2 Cor 3:17; 1 Tim 1:17).

To be a spirit, is to NOT contain within your being material qualities. God consists of immaterial qualities alone and therefore God does not have a body like us. As a spirit, God can be eternal, infinite, and unchangeable. God as a spirit (lower case) is the concept of the immaterial nature of God while man is material for we are made of matter. Some of us are more material than others. This does not at all mean that God cannot reveal himself to human beings in a material state, because there are numerous passages in the OT that state that He did. . The overall idea that we need to understand is that God as a being is spirit and therefore not like us.

Jesus taught

John 4:24 ESV

24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Are there spiritual bodies? In other words, does God exists in a spiritual body since the bible refers to his hands, feet, ear, arm, etc.

Jesus answers this question after his resurrection when the disciples asked him if he was a spirit? Jesus answers them that “a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” Jesus is not distinguishing between fleshly and spiritual bodies. Instead, he is making the distinction that a spirit being does not have a body like flesh and bones. To read about certain material qualities of God like his arm, or his breast are what are called anthropomorphisms. Its a big word that simply means man qualities that are ascribed to God to illustrate a characteristic of God metaphorically. In other words, the arm of the Lord speaks of his power, not his spiritual body.

Paul further makes the point in 1 Timothy 1:17 that God is “immortal and invisible” which lends to the argument that as a spirit, he cannot be seen with the visible human eye unless he reveals himself and gifts that ability to for those to see or hear him. John Feinberg comments,

“although God’s essential nature is spirit, that does not preclude him from making his presence known through some physical phenomenon that manifests his presence to those who see or hear it. This shouldn’t be entirely surprising, for God, as creator of matter and spirit, certainly ought to be able to supply whatever matter he needs on any occasion to manifest his presence”

John S. Feinberg, No One Like Him: The Doctrine of God, The Foundations of Evangelical Theology (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2001), 220.

God’s Spirit is God

Paul first mentions the Spirit, in chapter 2:4 regarding his preaching and how it came forth in power of the Holy Spirit. Now Paul is making his case about preaching the wisdom of God and its reception. In 2:10, we writes,

1 Corinthians 2:10 ESV

10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

Paul is referring to the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit is often referred to as the neglected and forgotten person of the Trinity. He praise the Father, worship the Son and yet sometimes forget about the Holy Spirit. The charismatic movement led many Christians to misunderstand the work and power and person of the Holy Spirit. Paul wants the Corinthians to see that the person of the Holy Spirit is the key to understanding the work of God’s mystery in Christ. Understanding the work of the Holy Spirit, the 3rd person of the Trinity, is foundational to Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth.

In understanding what we have previously discussed, the Father and the Holy Spirit are Spirit, while the Son, who was Spirit, incarnated upon the earth and put on flesh. As the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit is God 100%. He is not a lesser person of the Trinity but instead plays a major role in the work of redemption. He makes small appearances in the OT, at creation “hovering over the waters, empowering key figure of the OT like David (1 Sam 16:13), but it is not until during the ministry of Jesus and after his ascension does the great work of the Holy Spirit get the most attention in God’s revealed word.

What is important for us to understand in Paul’s writing here is the work of the Spirit in relationship to redemption. Paul is making the point that the mystery that is hidden from unbelievers and revealed to the church is the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is the revealing agent of that truth and also agent of application of the work of Jesus Christ. In other words, the Holy Spirit applies the redemptive work that the Son accomplished, that the Father instructed and then the Spirit teaches those to whom it is applied all about its glorious truth. This makes us understand that our salvation was delivered to us via the railway of the Trinitarian Express.

Who Is the Holy Spirit? Attributes and Works of God

The Father sent the Son into the world (1 John 4:14). The Son performed all the work that was necessary for our salvation—living a life of perfect obedience and dying to make a perfect satisfaction (Phil. 3:9; 1 Cor. 15:3). But none of these things avail for our benefit until they are applied to us personally. Therefore, the Father and the Son send the Holy Spirit into the world to apply salvation to us (John 15:26; Gal. 4:6). The role of the Holy Spirit chiefly p 13 and principally in the New Testament is to apply the work of Christ to believers

What is key in Paul’s argument in verse 10 is that the Spirit is the key for the church and the therefore as wisdom is heralded about knowing God, Paul states that only God knows God. The second half of verse 10 is a riveting statement that Paul will use to make his most profound argument of this section. He begins with stating that the message, is revealed by the Spirit BECAUSE only God knows what God is like. Since the Spirit is God and he searches the depths of himself, and therefore reveals portions of the depth of God to man. Paul exclaimed in Romans 11:33

Romans 11:33 ESV

33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

Paul is praising God and yet announcing man’s limitation to truly searching the wisdom and knowledge of God. Man in of himself can never climb that latter of knowing God without God, by His Holy Spirit reveals to wisdom to man. What is God thinking, what is God doing- the Spirit knows because He is God and he helps man see glimpses of the glorious and inconceivable nature of God by his gift of grace.

Therefore we would state that the Spirit revealing truths about God to man is called revelation. He is revealing these truths through human authors that contributed to the collection of 66 books of the Bible, the grand story of God bringing glory to his name by establishing a kingdom through the death and resurrection of his Son Jesus. This revelation by the Spirit, through the word is the pathway to which humanity can know God and be saved by Him.

Paul is also transitioning in v 10 to the focal idea of the revelation of God that has only come to certain persons and not all. His point in verse 10 about the Spirit discerning the depths of God also is a picture of the God and man. He is reflecting on the reality that man has an internal mechanism, his spirit, that is conscious of his mind and thoughts. Only you know what you are thinking and believing. That is your inner being and Paul identifies that as your spirit. His point then is that God’s spirit, the Holy Spirit, likewise only knows the thoughts and intentions of God and therefore the Holy Spirit is the key to knowing God.

This leads me to my last point...

Man is flesh and spirit

Paul states in verse 11-12

1 Corinthians 2:11–12 ESV

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. 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.

We jump now easily from the concept of God and God’s spirit, to understand that just as there is the immaterial, invisible God, so there is the reality that God created man with both a material and immaterial substance in his being. One substance we look at in the mirror everyday and yet the Bible also teaches that man has a second substance within him: an immaterial one. Some call this soul, some call it spirit. Some say we have soul and spirit. If you have never heard the terms before, theologians discuss two major beliefs about what man consists of as

Dichotomy and Trichotomy

Dichotomy states that man is both flesh and spirit. Trichotomy is the belief that man exists in flesh, spirit and soul. I have been a dichotomist for some time and believe it is most clear in Scripture. The main reason that Dichotomy makes the most sense is that the term spirit and soul are used interchangeably and synonymously in Scripture. For example, Adam was created as the first man, with a body made from dust and that body consisted of a material makeup of cells that operated on a biological framework. But internally, Adam was given life and that life also included a hidden and invisible component that included the function of his mind and his soul. None of these can be removed from the human being for they exist in unity and cohesion.

Let’s look at a few passages that speak of this:

Existence of man’s spirit (dichotomy)

Zechariah 12:1 ESV

1 The oracle of the word of the Lord concerning Israel: Thus declares the Lord, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the spirit of man within him:

Proverbs 20:27 ESV

27 The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all his innermost parts.

What you will notice in all these verses is the reality that man has an invisible and yet spiritual substance within him, given by God to all humanity in their creation. Spirit is not just their emotions or passions. You have most likely say “he has spirit” but that is not the idea communicated in Scripture. Instead, my best understanding is that soul or spirit are interchangeable words used for the inner man.

Mary uses the terms interchangeably in her song of praise:

Luke 1:46–47 ESV

46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

The writer of Hebrews uses the term spirit to describe the inner state that is immaterial person

Hebrews 12:23 ESV

23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,

Yet John uses the same idea but calls them souls,

Revelation 20:4 ESV

4 Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

Therefore, I believe soul and spirit are synonyms of the inner substance of man and that soul is what was created in man to function with the gifted body (flesh) in a unity of man’s existence. Man cannot live on this earth as just a soul (no ghosts) and man cannot live on this earth without a soul (these are just animals). How exactly these two components function together becomes a mystery

Louis Berkhof writes,

Systematic Theology 3. The Relation of Body and Soul to Each Other

body and soul are distinct substances, which do interact, though their mode of interaction escapes human scrutiny and remains a mystery for us. The union between the two may be called a union of life: the two are organically related, the soul acting on the body and the body on the soul.

Problem: Man’s soul is corrupted and needing renewal

Ezekiel 18:4 ESV

4 Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die.

All mankind, both body and soul, was created to be in relation with God and worship God, to have the mind set on God and the actions of the body purposed to serve God but when man rebelled against God in sin, the body and soul were separated from God- physically and spiritually in Eden. The body was removed and cast out of the garden while the Spirit(soul) was separated from relationship with God.

God told Adam, “on the day you eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you will surely die.”

Adam did not die bodily that day but he did die spiritually. Sin entered the world and death through sin Because of that rebellion, the heart, mind, and body was corrupted by sin.

This is Paul’s point as the key difference in the reception of those who hear the gospel and receive it versus those who hear the gospel message and reject its wisdom. They reject because their spirit is lost, its dead, its disconnected from God.

In my work as an electrician, you learn that a string of receptacles are dead because the first one in that line has power that is disconnected. They are wired one continuously after the other like Christmas lights. When the closest one on that line has a broken connection in the hot wire, the rest downline is dead. For those who have no connection to God spiritually, then their thinking, their passions, their hopes and dreams will all reflect deadness and lostness.

1 Corinthians 2:12 ESV

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.

Paul then states, that a person who understands the message of Christ, who doesn't see it as foolish, but as wisdom from God, it is because they have received the gift of the Holy Spirit’s illuminating, regenerative work in them. He is not a spirit of the world, but one that comes from God. He give us understanding and he gives us our appreciation for what God has done. We worship in spirit and truth because our spirit has been informed by God’s spirit all that He has accomplished in Christ and therefore we worship with thanksgiving and adoration.

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