I
Corinthians 2
Paul’s Method of Preaching (vs. 1-5)
1 And
I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of
wisdom” - I spoke to
you neither oratorically nor philosophically. Hence
the Apollos party,
fond of the brilliant rhetoric of the young
Alexandrian, spoke of
Paul’s speech as
“contemptible” (II
Corinthians 10:10) – “declaring
unto you the testimony of God”
- the testimony of God; that is,
the witness borne to Christ by the Father (I John 5:10-11).
2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus
Christ, and Him
crucified.” - Christ, in the lowest depth
of His abasement and self sacrifice. (Philippians
2:5-11) He would “know” nothing else; that is, he would make this the central
point and
essence of all his knowledge, because he
knew the “excellency” of this knowledge (ibid.
3:8) — knew
it as the only knowledge which rose to the height of wisdom. Christ is the only
Foundation (ch.
3:11). In the person and the work of Christ is
involved the whole gospel.
3 And I
was with you in weakness” - Paul was physically weak and liable also to
nervous
weakness and depression (ch. 4:7-12;
II Corinthians 10:1,10; 12:7,10; Galatians 4:13).
He shows an
occasional self distrust rising from the consciousness of personal infirmities.
This
enhances our sense of his heroic courage and endurance. Doubtless this physical
weakness and nervous depression were connected with his “thorn
in the flesh,” (II
Corinthians
12:7) which seems to have been an acute and distressing form of ophthalmia,
accompanied with cerebral disturbance (see my ‘Life of St.
Paul,’ 1:215-221). [This
should encourage us for God was his strength, just as
He is for us! – “My
grace is
sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness” – II
Corinthians
12:9 – CY – 2010] – “and
in fear, and in much trembling. 4 And my speech and
my preaching” – Paul would
not attempt to use the keen sword of philosophical
dialectics or human eloquence, but would only use the
weapon of the cross
- “was not
with enticing words of man’s wisdom” – This simplicity was the
more remarkable
because “Corinthian words” was a proverb for
choice, elaborate, and glittering phrases.
It is
not improbable that the almost total and deeply discouraging want of success
of Paul in preaching at
uselessness of attempting to fight Greek philosophers
with their own blunt and imperfect
weapons – “but
in demonstration of the Spirit and of power” - So he says to the
Thessalonians,
“Our gospel
came not to you in word only, but also in power, and
in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance.” (I
Thessalonians 1) - The plain facts,
so repellent to the natural intellect, were
driven home with
matchless force by spiritual
conviction. 5 That your faith should not stand in the
wisdom of men, but in the
power of God.” – in II
Corinthians 4:7 he says that the treasure they carried was “in
earthen vessels, that the excellency of the
power may be of God and not of us.”
The
Gospel is the Only Wisdom (vs. 6-16)
6 “Howbeit”
- In this passage Paul shows that in reality a crushing irony
lay in his description
of the gospel as being, in the world’s
judgment, “weak” and “foolish.” It was
the highest
wisdom, but it could only be understood by those who
listened to God’s biddings through
the Holy Spirit – Jesus
said “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
thou hast hid these things from the wise and
prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.”
(Matthew
11:25) Its apparent folly to the Corinthians
was a proof of their blindness and
incapacity – “we
speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of
this world” - literally, of
this seen. The word ko>smov, — kos’-mos; kosmos means the
world in its material aspect; aijw>n, — ahee-ohn’; aeon is read for
the world in its moral
and intellectual aspect. “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with
God” (ch. 3:19).
“nor of the
princes of this world, that come to nought” - literally,
who are being
done away with. Amid
all the feebleness of the infant Church, Paul saw empires vanishing
before it. 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden
wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto
our glory” – The author of the
Epistle to
the Hebrews, (2:5-8) clearly states that “the future age” is in God’s counsels
subjected, not to
the angels, but to man. But “our glory” is that we are “called to His
eternal glory by Christ
Jesus” (I Peter 5:10). 8 Which
none of the princes of this
world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord
of glory.”
The
apostles often dwell on this ignorance as being in part a palliation
for the sin of rejecting
Christ (see
especially Acts 3:17; 13:27; comp. Isaiah 2:1). Jews
and Romans, emperors,
procurators: high
priests, Pharisees, had in their ignorance
conspired in vain to prevent
what God had
foreordained. The Lord of glory. This is not
a mere equivalent of
“the
glorious Lord,” in Psalm 24:10. It is “the Lord of the glory,” i.e. “the Lord of the
Shechinah” (comp. Ephesians 1:17, “the Father
of the glory” ). The Shechinah was
the name given by the Jews to the cloud
of light which symbolized God’s presence. The
cherubim are called, in Hebrews
9:5, “cherubim
of glory,” because the Shechinah
was borne on their outspread wings (see, however, Acts 7:2). There
would have been
to ancient ears a startling and awful paradox in
the words “crucified
the Lord of glory.”
The words brought
into juxtaposition the lowest ignominy and THE MOST
SPLENDID EXALTATION! 9
But as it is written, Eye
hath not seen, nor ear
heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things
which God hath
prepared for them that love Him.” - The whole
sentence in the Greek is unfinished.
The thought
seems to be, “But
God has revealed to us things which eye hath not seen,
etc.,
though the princes of this world were ignorant of them.” Scriptural quotations are often
thus introduced, apart from the general grammar of the sentence, as in
the Greek of ch.1:31.
Eye
hath not seen, etc. The Revised Version is here more
literal and accurate. The quotation
as it stands is not found in the Old Testament.
It most resembles Isaiah 64:4, but also vaguely
resembles Isaiah 52:15; 65:17. It may be another instance of a loose
general reminiscence
(comp. ch. 14:21; Romans 9:33) 10 But God hath revealed them unto us by His
Spirit:
they are secret no longer - The Spirit
guides into all truth (John 16:13). In ch. 12:8-11 Paul
attributes every gift of wisdom directly to Him – “for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea,
the deep things of God. 11 For what man knoweth
the things of a man, save the
spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but
the Spirit of God.” - All
that is meant is that our knowledge of God must always be relative,
not absolute. It is not possible to measure
the arm of God with the finger of man. 12 Now
we have received, not the spirit of the
world, but the spirit which
is of God; that
we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.” - The word “freely”
is here
involved in the verb (carisqe>nta) “graciously
bestowed.” 13 Which things
also we speak, not in the words which man’s
wisdom teacheth, but
which the
Holy Ghost teacheth;
comparing spiritual things
with spiritual. 14 But the
natural man” - The Greek word is yuciko<v
-
psoo-khee-kos’; literally,
soulish,
i.e.
the man who lives the mere life of
his lower understanding, the unspiritual, sensuous,
and egoistic man. and the fusiko>v, — foo-see-kos’; “physical
manl”, (by implication)
instinctive: — natural man. He may be superior to
the fleshly, sensual, or carnal man, who
lives only the life of the body - swmatiko<v - so-mat-ee-kos’; and (fusiko>v), which is
the lower or bestial nature): —
natural, sensual.but is far below the spiritual man,
(pneumatiko>v - pnyoo-mat-ik-os’; supernatural, regenerate,
religious: — spiritual,
the higher or renovated
nature). Paul in I Thessalonians 5:23 recognizes the
tripartite
nature of man — spirit, soul and body.
immaterial nature, the breath of life, inbreathed by Almighty God. It is the part
receptive of Divine communications, which, in the regenerate, holds
converse
with God; which is the sphere of the operations of God the Holy
Ghost. That man
is spiritual in whom the
spirit rules. He is natural (yuciko>v
- psoo-khee-kos’) in
whom the soul (yuch> - psoo-khay’) has usurped the place of the spirit. The
evil spirit
seeks to enslave the spirit of man; he
strives to enter in and dwell in the
spirit
which should be God’s. The peace of God is the true garrison; it guards
the heart
and thoughts of the faithful, leaving no ingress for the wicked
one.
for our whole invisible
nature; but, when distinguished from the spirit, the soul is the
lower part of our immaterial
being, which belongs in common to the whole animal
creation; the seat of the
appetites, desires, affections. Those men in whom the
animal soul predominates are called by Jude “sensual, not having the spirit”
(yucikoi< pneu~ma mh<, e]contev) – (Jude
1:19) - The soul is sanctified when it
submits itself to the divinely
enlightened spirit, when all its appetites, feelings, longings,
are controlled and regulated by
the sanctified spirit.
should be the temple of the Holy Ghost; it should be presented unto God
a living
sacrifice. (Romans 12:1-2) It is sanctified when it is ruled by the spirit, when
it is
kept pure from the defilements of sensual sin, when its members are
made instruments
of righteousness
unto God. The apostle prays that the whole man, spirit, soul,
and body, may be preserved in
the whole sphere of its existence, so as to
be without blame in the great
day.
To put this in
perspective: Take an athletic man, the
most perfect specimen of bodily training,
bone, flesh,
sinew, if that is all, he is but 1/3 of a man and useless to society; send him to
the schools
and cram his mind full, he is but 2/3 of a man and dangerous as well as
useless.
Put Christ in his heart to
control and urge his purpose and you have an ideal man – 3/3 –
a total man. 14 (con’t) – “receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God:” - “does not
choose to accept.” He judges
them by the foregone conclusions of his own prejudice!
“for they are
foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are
spiritually discerned.” - The
organ for the recognition of such truths - namely, the spirit –
has become paralyzed or fallen into
atrophy, (from disuse) from neglect; therefore the
egoist and the sensualist
have lost the
faculty whereby alone spiritual truth is
discernible. It
becomes to them what painting is to the blind, or music to the
deaf. This
verse is sometimes used to depreciate knowledge,
reason or the intellect. It is perhaps
sufficient to say that if God has no need of human
knowledge, He has
still less need of
human ignorance. 15 But he that is
spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is
judged of no man.” - He may be
judged, condemned, depreciated, slandered every day
of his life, but the arrow flights of human judgment fall far
short of him. These Corinthians
were judging and comparing Paul and Apollos and Cephas; but their
judgments were false
and worthless, and Paul told them that it was less than nothing
to him to be judged by them
or by man’s feeble transitory day (ch.
4:3). “Evil men,” as Solomon said, “understand
not judgment, but they that seek the Lord understandeth all things” (Proverbs 28:5).
16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that
he may instruct Him? This is
why no one can judge the spiritual man in his
spiritual life. Spiritual or carnal, we
are
taught by Christ in the Sermon on the Mount not
to judge. (Matthew 7:1-2) “But
we
have the mind of Christ.”
ADDITIONAL
NOTES
How Paul Preached the Gospel (vs. 1-5)
Evidently,
now,
and solicited further consideration. Accordingly, we find him
in the second chapter detailing
his personal history as a preacher while at
autobiographical element discloses its presence in his logic.
Whenever there was an important
issue in his ministry, we see the man in the fulness of his proportions and look into his very
heart, so that we are at no loss to understand the
reason of his impassioned energy. In
this instance he declares that he did not come to
the Corinthians “with excellency of speech
or of wisdom,” as the world regarded speech
and wisdom. But he was with them “in
weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.” It was not
the “weakness” of cowardice,
nor the “fear” that brings
a snare, nor the “trembling” that comes
from an apprehension of
criticism and hostility. Agitation and solicitude were the product of his fine sensibility, not rising
from below, but descending from the highest realm of
his being, the ideal of duty and
responsibility so vast within him as to oppress the capacity
of performance. A most blessed
“weakness” this, the best
possible assurance of truthful power, the most reliable token our
latent nature offers as a promise of success. The
throb of the engine in a huge
steamship sends its own quiver into every plank and bolt
of the vessel. There is a “trembling”
in all its compartments, but it is the trembling of
power. Paul had no gift more remarkable than
the gift of feeling to the utmost the doctrines of the gospel. Christ in him, Christ as
the self of
self, was the Christ he preached; and hence no
discourse he ever delivered, no letter he ever
wrote, affected others as much as they affected him. Effective speakers and writers are never
on a level with their hearers and readers.
They see more, feel more, than those whom they
impress, and their personality is no small constituent in the
effect produced. Rightly enough,
Paul
specializes “my speech and my preaching.”
The “my” means a man
“determined
not to know anything… save Jesus Christ, and Him
crucified.” Self exaltation he had
none; for self-exaltation is always a parody on the truthfulness of one’s nature, and Christ
was so real to Paul that he
could not be other than real to himself in his ministerial work.
And, in
accordance with this fact, his manner of preaching the gospel is itself evidential
of the divineness of
the gospl. It was a “demonstration of the Spirit and. of power.”
Of what
avail that the “Jews
require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom”?
Give them
the “sign” and the “wisdom:” what then? The belief, or “faith,” if you so call
it, is the man’s own product,
standing in his own strength, the pride of his own intellect, the
joy of his own vanity. Not so the
doctrine of “Christ
crucified.” The way it comes to
the
soul proves its infinite truth. It does not approach
a man on the sense side of his nature, but
on the spiritual side. Unlike education and culture, which begin with the intellect of the
senses and develop upward, Christianity arises from the
instant of its initial contact
with the human
soul at the highest moral capacity, and recognizes this soul as it
stands related to
God its Father, to Christ its Redeemer, to the Holy Ghost its
Convincer and Sanctifier. Man as the image of the natural universe is
regarded
subsequently. Therefore the emphasis of Paul on the “demonstration of the Spirit and
of power,” and therefore the strength and
glory of faith, which
stands, not
“in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.”
Contents of the Revelation (vs. 6-13)
(Remember the calling of Paul and his testimony
before Agrippa in Acts 26:12-20 –
“Whereupon
as I went to
priests, At midday, O king, I saw in the way a
light from heaven, above the
brightness of the sun, shining round about me and
them which journeyed with me.
And
when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me,
and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest
thou me? it is hard
for thee to kick against the pricks. And I said, Who
art thou, Lord? And he said,
I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have
appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a
minister and a witness both
of these things which thou hast seen, and of
those things in the which I will
appear unto thee; Delivering thee from the people,
and from the Gentiles, unto
whom now I send thee, To open their eyes, and to turn them from
darkness to light,
and from the power of Satan unto God, that they
may receive forgiveness of sins,
and inheritance among them which are sanctified by
faith that is in me. Whereupon,
O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto
the heavenly vision: But shewed
first unto them of
of
do works meet for repentance” Also, Paul writes to the Galatians in ch. 1:15-18
“But when it pleased God, who separated me
from my mother’s womb, and called
me by His grace, To reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the
heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood: Neither went I up to
Jerusalem to them which were apostles
before me; but I went into Arabia, and
returned again unto
So we
see where Paul got what he preached, when and how and I Corinthians is
one of the many examples of him doing what the
Lord enabled him to do best, and that
is preach Jesus Christ crucified for a sinful world! - The above explains why Paul
preached Christ crucified and the work of God and
the Holy Spirit explain why this
message was such a huge success. Can you imagine going into a town of 400,000
people like
Christ
and the Holy Spirit went with him. No
doubt, the reason few are being saved
today is because Christ is not being preached –
Bro. Larry Wilson, the interim pastor
of the church which I am a member has really
been emphasizing this of late! – CY –
2010)
The apostle
claims “wisdom” for the gospel. The
counterfeit has been exposed, and the
genuine coin is now presented. And how does he proceed to
verify his right to use a term
that, in the estimation of all thinkers, commanded
respect and admiration? He will honor
the Word; he will restore its meaning and clear it of
obscurity, nay, expand its significance
and invest it with a charm not known before. Solomon had used
his splendid intellect to
give the word “wisdom” a wide currency among his people, and Socrates
had labored for
the Greeks in a similar way, each of them an agent of
legitimate uses and rescue it from bondage to the senses. And there
was that old world in
which these men, under very different circumstances
and sharing very unlike illumination,
had taught their countrymen what they knew of wisdom, and this
remnant of its former state -
the mere effigy of earlier grandeur — stood confronting Paul at
prejudices, and animosities, arrayed most of all against
him, because he resisted, so bravely
its earthly arts and methods. From a far loftier standpoint
than Greeks and Jews
acknowledged, an infinite distance, indeed, between the
disputants of either side, he preached
wisdom that came from God — a wisdom long hidden and hence called “a mystery,”
but now revealed in the fullness of the times. Yet, during the
ages when this wisdom had been
concealed, when eye and ear and the subtlest imagination had
been unable to probe the secret,
when human thought had
exhausted itself in vain research, and had
sunk at last into
unnatural content with its own imbecility, — through
all this probation of intellect in the
school of the senses, God
had reserved “the hidden wisdom” for
“our glory.” The
demonstration of man’s utter weakness had to be made, and
Judaea and
chosen to make it.
form; nor could there have been such a
with the “wisdom of this world,” and of the “princes of this world,” had proved a failure
disastrous in the extreme. (Now
just as
States of
America, not learned from others errors but seem intent to bring the judgment
of
God upon us also – CY – 2010). That time had passed. And now this “hidden wisdom”
had been made known as a spiritual certainty, which was nothing less than a “demonstration
of the Spirit and of power.” “There is a spirit in man,” and it “knoweth the
things of a
man.” (v. 11) Who can gainsay its consciousness? Who can appeal from its
testimony to
anything higher in
himself? So too the Spirit of God “searcheth all things, yea, the deep
things of God,” (v. 10) and, furthermore, the Holy
Spirit is given to our spirit so that we
“might know the things
that are freely given to us of God.” (v. 12) Just before Paul
had stated that the mystery, the hidden wisdom, had been held
back for “our glory.” (v. 7) –
And is not
the truth of that statement now attested?
Understand wherein “our glory” lies.
It is in
this — man has a spirit, and God communicates His own secret intelligence
unto it in
the shape of a “demonstration
of the Spirit and of power.” (v. 4) - Not wisdom alone,
not only perception and reflection, but realization and
assimilation in the attending form of
power, the act of the recipient of grace not being
the functional act of a faculty, but of the
whole mind; “comparing
spiritual things with spiritual” – (v. 13) - The spirit of the
renewed man most fully conscious of itself, because of the presence of God’s Spirit and
the expansion thereby of its own consciousness, What a comparing power suddenly wakens!
What an outreaching process begins! This capacity of
comparing, beginning our
development in childhood (Proverbs 22:6; Matthew
19:14, II Timothy 3:15) and continuing
till old age, is one of the mind’s foremost
activities. It is susceptible of more
culture than any
mental property. The inventive genius of poets and
artists, the skill of the great novelist, the
discriminating power of the sagacious statesman, (often spent
on libertinism) are alike
dependent on the diversified energy of comparison.
Accuracy of judgment, depth of insight,
breadth of sympathy so essential to largeness of view,
are mainly due to this quality. Give it
fair treatment, and three score and ten years witness
its beautiful efflorescence. But its spiritual
uses are its noblest uses. “Comparing spiritual things with spiritual” is its
grandest office.
When the human spirit receives the Divine Spirit, WHAT A GLORIOUS
ENLARGEMENT, by reason of the super-addition
of “the things of God,” to the
domain of thought, emotion, impulse! Calmly the mind
works on; its laws never disturbed,
its strength invigorated, its ideal of greatness opened in fuller
radiance, its range and compass
widened by a new horizon, (this
would put any left-leaning open and broad minded person
to SHAME – there is
no comparison – CY – 2010) - a motive power brought to bear it
never knew, and the repose
of strength deepening evermore in the peace of Christ!
Natural Man
and Spiritual Man (vs. 14-16)
The natural
man, who had not been forgotten by Paul in the first chapter, now comes under
closer inspection. We can see him from the point of
view occupied in the second chapter
What is
said of him? He “receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are
foolishness unto him:
neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned.” Nature
is represented here as very different from grace, and the difference
has the breadth of contrast. Low and vulgar forms of nature are
not enumerated, nor
would it have been like the apostle to select his illustrations
from exceptional cases of human
depravity. (If you are curious check out Romans 1:18-32
for Paul’s view; II Peter 2:10-22
for Peter’s view, and Jude 1:4-19 for Jude’s view – CY – 2010)
-
easily supplied such instances. But the noticeable
fact is that he avoids this sort of
specification, and chooses his typical examples from “the wise,” “the scribe,” “the
disputer of this world,” yea, the
very “princes of this world;” and these are
they who
lack all spiritual discernment, and in their blindness look upon the
glorious gospel of Christ
as “foolishness.” And the portraiture
is not finished till these “princes of this world” are
sketched against
the darkest of possible backgrounds, even the crucifixion of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
It is not the brutal mob that he pictures on his canvas, but
the best specimens,
according to current opinion, of the mind and culture
of the age. (Who are they today among
the Spin-meisters of the Devil??? – CY – 2010) Against these —
the guides of public
sentiment and the accepted leaders of society, men of character and position — he
directs
his condemnation.
And the grief of his heart is that these are the very men whose evil spirit has
infected the
believers as utterly inconsistent with morality and religion. The natural man
of that day was not
the creature
of the day, not an accident of those volcanic times when the foundations of civil
order were shaking, and. even the majestic hills
of
time and opportunity and ample means for development had been allowed; the
fairest portions
of the world had been given him for home and commerce; a thousand
miles around the
government had afforded whatever the intellect of the senses
craved; (I wonder if the Senate
in
and perverted culture like the National Endowment
of the Arts? – CY – 2010) and
Judaism
had diffused itself far and wide, till even Stoicism had felt its influence.
After all,
however, the natural man has wound up the history of
ancient culture by crucifying
the
Lord of glory; and now, the stain of holy blood upon him, he
has learned nothing from his
own experience, but persists in treating the
gospel as “foolishness”, (Once
again, it
seems that we
have not learned in the
is that God will come in Judgment and “destroy them which destroy the earth” – rest
assured that fornication, adultery, idolatry,
sodomy, the drug culture, alcohol, the
break up of the home, the
vices will bring the house down LONG BEFORE THE EFFECTS OF GLOBAL
WARMING
will!!!!!!!!!!!!! I appeal to God and His righteous and fair
treatment
of all in the Judgment Day to decide who were
those “which
destroy the earth” -
Remember
reader, that God, according to Acts 17:31 “hath
appointed a day, in
the which He will judge the world in
righteousness by that man whom He
hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that
He
hath raised Him from the dead” and
that “the DAY OF THE LORD WILL
COME” (II Peter 3:10). Therefore, “Prepare to meet thy God” (Amos
4:12)
and “THE TIME IS SHORT” – [ch.
7:29] - CY – 2010) - can it be otherwise so
long as the man remains under the thraldom of nature. Anomalous it may seem,
but it is none the less true, that nature is morally
known to us as the opposite of
spirituality; and, though a human spirit is in the man,
it is wholly incapable of itself to
see, to feel, to will, to act, as a spirit in
anything that concerns the truly Divine functions
of spirit.
(Does not the Jesus say “No man
can come to me, except the Father
which hath sent me draw him” and
did not God say at the time prior to the Flood,
“My Spirit shall not always strive with man”? (Genesis 6) Hence the need of the
Holy Spirit
to create spiritual discernment, and hence the supreme distinction of the
Christian
is that he has a spiritual judgment. “The
things of God” are not discovered
by him, but are revealed unto his spirit by the Holy Ghost. The
discovering intellect of
man is a splendid endowment, and yet it is
altogether limited to the senses and their
connections, nor can it pass under any urgency beyond
the sphere of the visible universe,
and penetrate the secrets of the Almighty. (When
God told man in Genesis 1:28 to
“subdue” the
earth, [find out its secrets] – salvation and eternal life was not one of them –
THAT
IS GOD’S PEROGATIVE and He has fulfilled it because Titus 3:11 says
“the
grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to
all men” - CY – 2010) If,
indeed, he could discover them, he would not be a
Christian believer; for the traits of
the natural man would adhere to him and be
merely enhanced by power thus exerted,
and there would be less room than before in
his capacious soul for intellectual docility,
for childlike trustfulness, for the obedience
of self abnegation. And, therefore, the work
of the Holy Ghost
consists in teaching us to understand, to appreciate, to assimilate, the
Divine truths disclosed by Him; and, accordingly, what He
reveals is not content to
remain as ideas and dogmas, but seeks the inmost
heart, allies itself with the instincts, and
communicates to man a sense of himself and of the possibilities of character hitherto
UNIMAGINED. Finally, Paul argues, “We have the mind of Christ” within us; and
what better compendium of all embraced in spiritual discernment than this
expression,
“mind of Christ”? Far more than the truths He taught, and the
practical lessons He
enforced, is meant here; for it includes the entire
method, the Spirit, the aim, of His
teachings, as imparting His own life to those
believing in Him. No moral principle, no
doctrinal fact, no phenomenon of spiritual experience,
now occupies ground and sustains
relations to thought and volition and action that are
independently its own. Not one of
them is competent to self-existence. There
is not, there cannot be, a single abstraction in
Christianity. “The mind of Christ” is in every ethical truth, in every
miracle, in
everything that involves taste, sensibility, reason,
conscience, affection; and the life in one
is the life in all. To dislocate is to
destroy. And this “mind of Christ,” the
apostle urges,
is in us, and, by virtue of its abiding presence and infinite “wisdom” and “power,” the
breadth of contrast between the natural man and
the spiritual man is fully brought out. After
eighteen (now twenty – CY – 2010) centuries, the
distinction is as luminous as ever.
The
very words remain to us — “wisdom,”
“power,” “foolishness” — and
“the princes
of this world” attest
their ancient lineage. The “natural
man” of our day has grown to
large dimensions. Never
had the sense man, the intellectual man, the man of physical
civilization,
so much to boast of; for he has well nigh made good the claim of his sceptre to
universal dominion. (I should think that one of the
signs of the Second Coming of Jesus
Christ is man
has “subdued” the earth” as God has
intended and “filled it with people”
[Genesis
1:28, Isaiah 45:18] – CY – 2010) “Wisdom”
was never so conspicuous. “Power”
has been developed in a greater degree than
its uses. And yet in this very hour, when
destructive strength is the daily terror of mankind,
and when
liberty is ever threatening to
riot in
licentiousness, we see just what Paul saw in old
God’s
Word which the nineteenth century, (now twenty-first – CY – 2010) like all centuries
since Christ’s advent, has written for our eyes,
only enforces the truth that “the
natural
man” knows not God, and “receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.” In
science
and art, in government, in all sorts of
internal sovereignty, “the natural man” has
made a
vast advance upon HIMSELF. But
all this has brought
him and his institutions and his
well being NO NEARER to “the mind of
Christ.”
(In
reference to Paul’s preaching of Christ crucified, the following two paragraphs
are
excerpts from How to Be Saved – this web site - CY – 2010)
This is a gospel for
sinners.
It is they who need a
gospel, sunk as they are in sin,
exposed as they are to condemnation and destruction. This is a gospel for you.
(This is a gospel for me – CY – 2009) Whoever
you are, you need it; and, in your
heart of hearts, you are well aware that it is so. God sent His Son that you might
be saved. Christ gave Himself for you. Unto you is the word of salvation sent.
Christ has suffered that you might escape, has died that you might
live. In Him
there is for you pardon for the past and strength for the present and hope for the
future. “Believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” This is a
gospel from God. Only He could send news adapted to the case of sinners, and
He has sent such news. Here is the expression
of His deepest sympathy, His
tenderest solicitude, His most Fatherly love. Coming from Him, the gospel cannot
be an illusion; it may be trusted. It is the wisdom of God and the
power of God
(ch. 1:24) unto
salvation. Yet, what is this gospel to those who believe
not?
Good news to those
who reject it is all the same as bad news. There is every
reason, every motive, for believing it. Christ will be glorified, God will be rejoiced,
angels will sympathize
and sing with gladness, (Luke 15:10) and YOU WILL BE
SAVED!
The gospel is worthy of belief in itself, and IT IS EXACTLY AND
PERFECTLY ADAPTED
TO YOU! BELIEVE IT AND BELIEVE IT NOW!
Reader,
will you not trust Jesus today – Today is
the Day of Salvation –
yesterdays are gone for ever and tomorrows never
come! “Wherefore
as
the Holy Ghost saith, To day if
ye will hear His voice, harden not
your hearts”. (Hebrews
3:7-8) TRUST JESUS TODAY! “Neither is
there salvation in any other: for
there is none other name under heaven
given among men, whereby we must be saved”. (Acts 4:12)
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