1Co 2:9 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"-- 1Co 2:10
these things God has
revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything,
even the depths of God.
One of the many profitable things about studying the Bible
verse by verse in its context is that we sometimes realize that verses we have
heard preached all our lives and have quoted ourselves, have been done so out
of context which many times results in a misunderstanding. Verse 9 above is a good example. It is generally taken to mean that Heaven is
so wonderful that we can’t even imagine its glories.
To be sure this is a truism.
There is no way we can fathom what it will be like to stand before the triune,
eternal, omnipotent, holy God. Paul hints
at this in Rom. 8:18 when he tells us that this life cannot compare to the next
and in 2 Cor. 12:4 when he is not permitted to relate what he saw while in
Heaven. It is a “no brainer” that we
have no real idea what lies ahead, but this verse in 1 Cor. 2 is not referring
to that.
The context of chapter 2 is pitting the natural wisdom of
man against the wisdom of God that can only be known by special
revelation. Vs. 7 says that while saints
have this wisdom, the lost do not; it is hidden from them. Vs. 8 is a case in point. Had Herod, Pilot and the Jewish leaders had
this wisdom, this revelation and believed it they would have never have
crucified Jesus.
In this context Paul quotes Isa. 64:4, not verbatim but in
spirit. If you study out Isa. 4 you see
that this is used to relate the idea of how wonderful it is for God to reveal
himself and have a relationship with man.
Vs. 4 suggests that as a rule no one really understood the glory of God
until he comes down and reveals himself to them in some way and this is why Paul
uses it in 1 Cor. The natural man has no
interest in the plan of God in saving sinners and bringing them to glory. The Jews didn’t even see themselves as
sinners so they had no interest in a savior who was going to hang on a tree,
become cursed by God all for the forgiveness of their sins.
Vs. 10 proves that vs. 9 is speaking of those lost who are in
darkness because it says that whatever is hid in vs. 9 from them has been (present
tense) revealed to us. That is why I highlighted it. Whatever vs. 9 is
speaking of we already know it!
So what is the meaning and why make it a point to explain
what this verse really means? First of
all, because it is never good to misquote a verse if we change its
meaning. God put it here for a reason
which is more important than any point we might want to make by misapplying it.
Secondly, this is showing that the natural man is unable to
believe the gospel until God reveals it to him by changing his heart and
mind. To me, this is a decidedly
Calvinistic verse in a decidedly Calvinistic couple of chapters. All of us are born into this life in the darkness
of sin in which we love ourselves and hate God and we care nothing for why he
made this earth and the salvation he has provided and what is more we are quite
happy to remain in the dark. This is the
worldly wisdom of this age that is taught in the universities and promoted in
the media. And if it is held to it will
lead us merrily to God’s Judgment.
What this passage is saying is that unless God comes and
reveals himself to us and changes our hearts to believe on him there is no way
we can come to the knowledge of salvation on our own. In other words, this passage is teaching the
effects of total depravity and the necessity of the sovereign intervention of
God to save without which we are all lost because our darkness won’t allow us
to see and love and believe who God is and what he is doing. If you read through these first two chapters
with this in mind I think it will be clear.
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