“But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit
of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because
they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things,
yet he himself is appraised by no one. For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD,
THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians
2:14–16, NASB95)
Through my early training with Campus Crusade for Christ I
learned from these verses about two fundamental types of people. One of them is
the person who is an unbeliever and who does not understand the things of God
and whose life is structured around what he considers most important in life.
This man, as we read here, is referred to by Paul as the “natural man.” He does
not have the Spirit of God and considers the things of God as foolishness. Paul
said that the things of God are “spiritually appraised.” In the New
International Version (NIV) and the English Standard Version (ESV) we read that
these things are “spiritually discerned.” Appraised and discerned have the
meaning being investigated, weighed or judged. It means that the things of God
have been spiritually looked into and understood. In other words, since the
natural man does not have the Spirit of God, the natural man is unable to
properly weigh and value the things of God. To them it is foolishness because
they don’t get it. (images from www.cru.org)
The other man spoken of here that I learned about in Crusade is the “spiritual man.” This is the person who has trusted Christ for their salvation and received the Spirit of God into their lives. This is the person who looks into the things of God and orders his life around the ways of God. This is the person who “appraises” or judges all things according to God’s revealed will. This is the person who is justified by faith, declared righteous in Christ, and who lives free of condemnation before God and right before man. Sure, those who know us can see the chinks in our armor and they know our faults, but they are in no position to sit as our spiritual judge. This belongs to God alone, and He has judged us accepted in His Son.
Paul then quoted Isaiah 40:13, “For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND
OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? We have been given a great privilege as
believers in Christ. We have been allowed to know the mind of God. We read,
“But we have the mind of Christ.” We have been granted to know the thoughts of
our Lord through the Word and through the Spirit. Speaking of the Jews who did
not see the glory of God because of the hardness of their hearts we read in 2
Corinthians, “But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the
reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is
removed in Christ. But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over
their heart; but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of
the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just
as from the Lord, the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:14–18, NASB95)
“But whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken
away.” These are incredible words of truth and hope. We have been enabled to
see the glory of the Lord and we have the privilege of being transformed into
His image. These are the two camps, and it is Christ who makes the difference.
You either belong to Christ or you don’t. There is no in-between.
Our objective as believers in Christ is maturity in Him, and
maturity in Him comes as we look to Him as the center of our lives. According
to the little booklet (Have You Made the Wonderful Discovery of the
Spirit-Filled Life? Or, what we called the “Bird Book” because of the dove on
the cover.) we used with people who were new in their faith, some of the things
that mark the spiritual person are “Christ-centered; empowered by the Holy
Spirit; introduces others to Christ; effective prayer life; understands God’s
Word; trusts and obeys God; experiences love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
faithfulness, goodness, and self-control.” The booklet went on to add, “The
degree to which these traits are manifested in the life depends upon the extent
to which the Christian trusts the Lord with every detail of his life, and upon
his maturity in Christ. One who is only beginning to understand the ministry of
the Holy Spirit should not be discouraged if he is not as fruitful as more mature
Christians who have known and experienced this truth for a longer period.” (https://www.cru.org/us/en/train-and-grow/spiritual-growth/the-spirit-filled-life.html)
It then went on to ask this question, “Why is it that most Christians
are not experiencing the abundant life?” It is this very issue that the booklet
next sought to address and the one which we will look at in our next post as we
move to chapter 3.
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