Revealing a Plan That No One Would Otherwise Ever Know - 1 Corinthians 2:6-16

Sermon Series: Confused?

There are few things in life that over time I have just reluctantly had to accept as things I will never understand. One of those things is the periodic table. I know well what the periodic table is from my days of high school and college chemistry. I know that it is a chart of different elements and that different sections of the chart represent elements that take the form of a solid, liquid, or gas. I also know that the chart can help you to know what the charges of the different elements are and which elements can be joined to other elements. But most of that never really made sense to me. I hated that the abbreviations for some elements didn’t look anything like their names (e.g. ‘Na’ represents the element sodium); I hated that the chart wasn’t a normal rectangular shape (the physical shape of the chart bothered me); and I hated that after all the time I spent looking at the periodic table that I was never able to have a better understanding of it. Thankfully I don’t ever have to make use of the periodic table any more. High school and college are behind me and I have little to no use for chemistry in my day-to-day life. The thing that is a regular part of our family’s life that I just can’t seem to understand now is “couponing.” I get that if I go to the grocery store to purchase a box of macaroni and cheese and I have a coupon that says $0.60 off a box of macaroni and cheese that I present to the cashier that I should have $0.60 subtracted from my total. But Amy has discovered ways of stacking coupons on top of existing sales at stores that double (and sometimes triple) coupons to save even extra money. I’m so incredibly grateful for her ability to do this because it saves our family a fortune at the grocery store each year. However, when Amy comes home and tries to tell me how she saved money I just can’t follow. For instance Amy will find a sale on macaroni and cheese where you buy three boxes and get two boxes free at a grocery store that happens to be tripling coupons up to $1.00 during that particular week. Then she’ll take three $0.60 off coupons (which are really each worth $1.80 off because they triple that particular week) and use them to buy three boxes of macaroni and cheese. When she gets home she tries to explain to me how exactly she combined the existing sales with the tripling coupons to save us money, but all I hear is that she got 5 boxes of macaroni and cheese and didn’t pay anything for them. I don’t know that I’ll ever understand exactly how she does that, but when the final result is 5 free boxes of macaroni and cheese you don’t spend a lot of time trying to understand ‘how’ – instead you just start boiling a pot of water so that you can enjoy some free macaroni and cheese!

I understand that I will probably never really grasp the periodic table or the best ways to coupon. But at the same time, there are individuals who have the intellectual ability to grasp those things. Certain people seem to have a natural ability to understand chemistry and when they look at the periodic table they see something that makes perfect sense. Other people, like my wife, have the ability to understand couponing and see sales papers and coupons as a way to save a significant amount of money each week (not just a handful of change). The fact that different people have different skill sets and specialized knowledge in different areas of life is clearly evident in our world. We can look all around us and see individuals who possess great knowledge about things that we have little to no understanding of at all. We can look on college campuses and find professors whose knowledge of science, literature, math, and engineering are far beyond what we could ever possess. In the kitchens of fine restaurants we can find chefs whose knowledge of cooking put our macaroni and cheese preparations to shame. On television we can see something like a Nascar race and realize that the drivers of those cars have a far better understanding of driving (something we all do every day) than we do and that the men who work on their pit crews have the knowledge and ability to tweak their cars and make them faster in a matter of just a few very short seconds. So while our knowledge and understanding of certain things may be lacking, it isn’t hard to find individuals who do possess great knowledge and understanding of the same things for which we lack understanding. The Bible tells us that there is one thing though that no one is able to understand or grasp on our own. There is one thing that remains a mystery to all people – that is, until God reveals it to them.

As we did our best to unpack 1:10-2:5 we spent some of our time noting Paul’s de-emphasis on worldly wisdom. We noted that Greek culture placed a high value on wisdom and that it appeared that they were somewhat confused about wisdom’s role in the message of the Gospel. Those who were a part of the church had believed the message of the Gospel; had responded by placing their faith in Jesus; and had been “sanctified in Christ Jesus” (1:2). But living in a culture that so highly valued worldly wisdom they were having a hard time divorcing the salvation they received through Christ from worldly wisdom – the culture had conditioned them to believe that something as valuable and sought after as wisdom must have contributed to their salvation in some way. As a result divisions in the church were surfacing as different individuals began to give too much credit to other individuals for the salvation which they had experienced. Paul went on to declare in those verses that salvation in Christ had nothing to do with worldly wisdom. In fact worldly wisdom actually acted as a hindrance to people coming to faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord. Instead, salvation is the result of God choosing us and the Spirit working through a foolish message, so that God and God alone receives the credit for the transformation that takes place in us. As we transition into the next part of Paul’s letter it’s important to keep in mind the context and remember the de-emphasis on the value and role of wisdom in regards to our salvation.

In 2:6 (having just de-emphasized worldly wisdom) Paul says, “Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age.” This seems a little odd if we are quickly working our way through the text! “Didn’t Paul just spend the last several verses making it sound as if wisdom wasn’t an important thing? Why now is he talking about ‘the mature’ and ‘imparting wisdom?’” These are good questions and the text provides some good answers. So let’s carefully unpack and examine these verses without assuming that Paul has just contradicted himself. 2:7 provides us with an important clue that we need to understand the context . “But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages, for our glory.” Paul helps us to identify who “the mature” are from verse 6 with the phrase “for our glory” in verse 7 – they are those who have placed their faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord and who are now a part of the church. Those who remain separated from God as a result of sin are never given the opportunity to share in His glory, whereas those who have been reconciled to God through faith in Jesus do share in His glory. So Paul refers to those who have trusted in Jesus as Savior and Lord with the title “the mature.” He then goes on to say that to “the mature” (i.e. to the believers in Christ) the teachers of the Gospel do impart wisdom – but not wisdom in the sense of ‘worldly wisdom’ that the Greek culture was in pursuit of – it was another kind of wisdom that wasn’t recognized by the rulers/leading thinkers of the age. Paul and the teachers of the Gospel were imparting a different kind of wisdom, it was a wisdom “of God” that had not been revealed to all people, but which God had foreordained for the glory of those who would believe in Jesus as Savior and Lord. (In the previous text we saw that it is only because of God that those of us who are in Christ Jesus have that standing [see 1:27-30]. It is God who chose us rather than us stumbling upon and choosing Him. So there is already a foundation that has been laid in this letter for the sovereignty of God to determine certain things.) In other words, before the creation of all things God decided beforehand that a certain ‘wisdom’ was to be set aside for some which would ultimately work out for their own glory (i.e. an eternal sharing of God’s glory). Paul was clear though that the foreordained wisdom of God that would lead to the glory of some was not a ‘worldly wisdom’ possessed by all or by those who appeared to possess a ‘worldly wisdom,’ for Paul stated clearly again in verse 8 that, “none of the rulers of this age understood this.” If this ‘wisdom’ had been made clear to all and it had been made available to all then Paul goes on to say that the rulers of the age would not have crucified Jesus.

So for the sake of clarity (and at the risk of being redundant) the “secret and hidden wisdom of God” isn’t a reference to some inaccessible teaching that can never be known by mankind. “Secret and hidden” meant that formerly it had been hidden in God from all human eyes but that now it has been revealed in history through Christ and made understandable to some through the Spirit. That “secret and hidden wisdom of God” which Paul spoke of in this part of his letter was a specific reference to the wisdom that God gives to some through His Spirit for the purpose of grasping and understanding salvation through a crucified Christ. This ‘godly wisdom’ had been hidden in God from all eternity until such a time that He was ready to reveal it. But because this particular wisdom was not revealed by the Spirit to everyone, the religious leaders and rulers during Jesus’ time did what ‘worldly wisdom’ demanded – they crucified the One who for them was only a messianic pretender. However, instead of crucifying a messianic pretender, they actually killed “the Lord of glory” himself.

Paul then continued to give the church at Corinth (as well as all who would read this letter) insight into what the content of this “secret and hidden wisdom of God” was. He added in verses 9 and 10, “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’ – these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit.” As Paul combines a couple of OT passages and concepts he begins by reminding his readers that God had previously declared that in His wisdom and greatness there were certain things that would be for the good of man that man had never seen God do before; certain plans that would be for the good of man that man had never heard clearly articulated; and certain concepts and ideas that would be for the good of man that even the most creative and intelligent minds had never dreamed up or imagined. God had prepared something for those who love Him that, had He not revealed it, would have remained a mystery because there was no category for it. What God was preparing no one had ever seen, no one had ever heard, and no one had even imagined. It’s hard to believe that at times. The way that information is exchanged and ideas are spread globally with just a few clicks of a mouse it’s hard to believe that there could be a plan or a concept that hasn’t at some point ever been imagined. But in God’s greatness, and majesty, and wisdom He established the greatest and most unique of plans, and it was this plan (that man had not seen, heard, or imagined) that God revealed to us through His Spirit – that salvation would come (as Paul had written earlier – see 1:23) through Christ crucified.

In the second part of verse 10 Paul makes a subtle transition to really make clear how this wisdom, which was once hidden in God, is revealed to certain individuals. Paul has revealed great truths in the early part of this letter regarding the role of the Trinity in an individual’s salvation. In the last part of 2:9 it is God the Father who has prepared and crafted the plan for our salvation. In 1:23 the plan is carried out and accomplished by God the Son (Jesus) who shed His blood to make atonement for sin, who died the death that each of us deserved, and who conquered the enemies we were powerless against – sin, Satan, and death – by rising to life again. But God’s plans and Jesus’ fulfillment of those plans would have remained misunderstood or gone without comprehension if what was really taking place through Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection was not made known to us through the third person of the Trinity, God the Holy Spirit. So moving forward let’s ask this question, “How is it that the Holy Spirit is able to know this hidden and secret wisdom of God, and how is it that He is the One responsible for making it known to us?” Paul helps answer these questions in the next few verses.

In response to the question, “How is it that the Holy Spirit is able to know this hidden and secret wisdom?” Paul answers, “For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 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” (2:10-11). Scripture teaches that the Holy Spirit isn’t a different god from God the Father (Yahweh), but that He is in fact God. It’s part of the doctrine of the Trinity (that there is only One God, but that He exists as three distinct Persons) which happens to be one of the most mind-boggling concepts in all the Bible. Because the Holy Spirit is God, He is able to know and comprehend the plan of salvation as God the Father crafted it. He’s not an outsider who is incapable of knowing the thoughts of God or unaware of God’s plans to rescue humanity. Paul says that His unique identity as the third Person of the Trinity gives Him the unique ability to search everything “even the depths of God.” So while it wasn’t the Holy Spirit’s responsibility to craft the plan of salvation or to carry out the plan of salvation, He fully knows the Father’s plan and fully understands the Son’s accomplishments, and it is His role to reveal those things to those whom God has chosen.

Paul explained in verses 9-10 that it is the Spirit who works in us to open our eyes, ears, and minds to the salvation which God made available through Jesus. It is the Spirit then who gives us an initial understanding of these truths so that we can, by faith, trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord and receive the gift of salvation which He freely offers. But Scripture also teaches that that isn’t all the Holy Spirit does in our lives. When we come to saving faith in Jesus He sends the Holy Spirit to reside in us as our helper. The Holy Spirit then helps us to continue to unpack and  understand more fully the person and mission of Jesus (see John 16:12-15) so that we will love Him more, treasure Him more, and serve Him more faithfully. Part of Jesus’ calling for His followers and one of the expectations which He has for each one of us is that we will be making other disciples by proclaiming the good news of salvation which comes through faith in Jesus. In order to do this well it’s important that we grow beyond our initial understanding of what Jesus has done for us to a more thorough understanding of the Gospel. So the gift of the Holy Spirit residing in us empowers us to know the good news of the Gospel better and to share the good news of Jesus with others more effectively. Listen to what Paul says in verses 12 and 13, “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. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.” This is a truly amazing declaration! Those of us who were once sinners, who were once separated from God, and who were helpless to do anything about our condition, have not only had the mystery of salvation through Christ made known to us and have not only received salvation through faith in Jesus, but we have received the Holy Spirit who is residing inside of us. We are no longer separated from God – He is living inside of us. And residing inside of us He is causing us to understand better the salvation we have received through Jesus. Then we, in turn, help pass the truth of the Gospel and of Christ on to others.

The ability to understand and grasp the plan of God which Jesus was carrying out on the cross and the ability to grow in our understanding and knowledge of the person and mission of Jesus, are real and profound ways in which God and the Gospel have impact on our everyday lives. If Jesus had not sent the Holy Spirit to reveal these things then Jesus, His mission, and His accomplishments would still be hidden from humanity and we would all still be dead in our trespasses and sin and separated from God. Listen well – there is absolutely no way for us to obtain this wisdom and understanding on our own. Paul said, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (2:14). Unless the Spirit of God is at work in the heart and mind of one who is not a believer in Jesus, then he or she simply will not understand. No matter how clearly someone may articulate the gospel to him or her, no matter how intelligent he or she may be by worldly standards – the truth of the Gospel can only be made known to us by revelation of the Holy Spirit.

Because the Holy Spirit (God), who knows the thoughts and ways of God the Father, is residing in those who are believers in Christ, those individuals (in humble dependence upon the Holy Spirit) have the ability to discern God’s perspective and judgment on all things (particularly as they pertain to the work of salvation through Jesus’ crucifixion). Paul speaks to this in verse 15, “The spiritual person judges all things . . .” The non-believer in Christ, on the other hand, is going through life without the presence of God residing in him, and without the One who reveals God’s wisdom and judgment. Therefore he is in no position to try to pronounce judgment on a follower of Christ, who is living according to the wisdom of God that has been revealed to him – “but is himself to be judged by no one. ‘For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ” (2:15-16).

The Bible is a book a book which is first and foremost about God. That truth is incredibly clear in 1 Corinthians 2:6-16. In these verses Paul is clearly instructing the church at Corinth in regards to God the Father’s unique and hidden plan of salvation that He makes known to certain individuals through the third Person of the Trinity, God the Holy Spirit. In these verses Paul gives some very clear insight into who the Holy Spirit is, what His purpose is, and how He is carrying out that purpose. So before we jump into the question, “How does this text apply to me?” we first have to stop and appreciate God’s self-revelation to us through His Word. God hasn’t asked us to guess about His character or the means by which He carries out His plans. Neither has God asked us to use our creative imaginations and worldly wisdom to try to know who He is or how He is at work in our world. God has revealed Himself to us through His word! That is huge! That means we don’t have to guess and we don’t have to use our own imaginations or worldly wisdom to try to discern who He is. Instead, He has graciously communicated truths about Himself through His Word so that we might know Him as He really is. This is a gracious and kind act of God – to make Himself known to us through His Word. So perhaps the greatest take away from these particular verses this week is simply to have a greater understanding of who God the Father is, who God the Holy Spirit is, and how God the Holy Spirit has graciously worked in your own life to shed light on personal sin, to provide understanding of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, and to call you to personal faith in Jesus. There is nothing wrong with reading a passage of Scripture, having our eyes opened more to how awesome God is, and then responding to His self-revelation in greater worship and love. But these verses can also challenge us to live differently – particularly in our own mission as the church and as disciples of Jesus who are called to make new disciples. Are you asking the Holy Spirit to help you daily grow in your understanding of the Gospel and of Jesus and His mission? Are you spending time praying that the Holy Spirit would be at work in the hearts and minds of the people who are around you who don’t know Jesus as Savior and Lord? Are you asking the Holy Spirit to convict your family members of their personal sin? Are you asking the Holy Spirit to help your friends and co-workers understand God’s saving work through Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection? Are you asking the Holy Spirit for opportunities to share with your neighbors the good news of Jesus and then asking Him to empower those words so that the Gospel begins to change their hearts? The Holy Spirit is God! He is residing in the hearts of those who have trusted in Jesus as Savior and Lord to help us! This is real, life-impacting stuff! Do you understand what He’s been given to us for and are you calling on Him – or are we guilty of neglecting Him as if He really isn’t all that important?

Connection Point Questions for Discussion:

1. Has anyone ever helped you to do or accomplish something that you would not have ever been able to do or accomplish on your own?  If so, tell us about what was done or accomplished and then tell us how you felt about the one who helped you accomplish it?  Did you share any of that with the one who helped you accomplish it, and if so, how?

2. According to our text from this week the Holy Spirit was working in our hearts and minds to help us understand something.  What is He working to help us understand (see vs. 9-10, 12 for help)?  What did the text say was the likelihood of understanding these things apart from the Holy Spirit (see vs. 14 for help)?  What (if any) should our response be to the Holy Spirit for revealing these things to us?  Is there any evidence of this kind of response in your own personal life, and if so what is it?

3. Based on what we learned from this text, who does the Holy Spirit equip and empower with God's wisdom (is it just pastors and teachers)?  How can the Holy Spirit help all of us in proclaiming the good news of Jesus to those who have not yet believed in Jesus as Savior and Lord?  How can the Holy Spirit help all of us in helping grow those who have already trusted in Jesus as Savior and Lord in the maturity of their faith?  Are you currently partnering with the Holy Spirit to make the good news of the Gospel known to someone who has not yet believed in Jesus; or to help another individual grow in the maturity of their faith?  What (if anything) do you need to do to be more obedient in this area of your faith and personal walk with Jesus?