Lesson 18 January 21, 2004
2:15-16 The
Spiritual
"But he who is spiritual appraises all things,"
What is the dominant feature of the spiritual Believer??
- It is the enabling power of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Believer.
Both of these conditions, sin in the life or rejection of truth shuts down the Holy Spirit's active ministry in the life, this is often referred to as loss of fellowship.
*** If this is true, that the H-S is the dominant factor in the life, then there should be also a manifestation of the Spirit's enabling in the life; that is the "fruit of the Spirit" Gal 5:22-23
"He who is spiritual" responds differently to the Word. "He appraises all things"
- So the spiritual believer investigates and comes to right conclusions related to spiritual truth. ("things of the Spirit")
"yet he himself is appraised by no man."
Is this saying that he, the spiritual man, is a law unto himself??
Need to Identify who it is that is evaluating the "spiritual man".
- It is the unbeliever, the natural man, the psuchikos man.
- That one has no f/o/r, no basis of evaluating the believer except thru human wisdom, human systems of perception, all colored, influenced by the sin nature.
First
we need to note that
1 - Major premise; 2 - Minor premise; 3 - Conclusion.
the major and minor premises are both true statements forcing you to arrive at the conclusion stated.
MAJOR: NO ONE CAN INSTRUCT GOD!
MINOR: WE HAVE THE MIND OF CHRIST, GOD'S MIND
CONCL: NO ONE CAN INSTRUCT US!
Major Premise:
"Who has known"; who among men has known the mind of the Lord, who has the spiritual wisdom to the extent that he should instruct the Lord!!
Notice the Minor premise; "We have the mind of Christ."
We have the thinking, the vpt, the standards, the mind of Christ.
Experientially as we appropriate that revealed wisdom under the ministry of the H-S then we will begin to look at life from our Savior's point of view, having His values, His desires being an integral part of our mind, our thinking. Comes as the Holy Spirit fills us with Christ.
What's the conclusion for these two premises??
Answer: in 2:15b "... he himself is appraised of no man."
Need to be very careful here; This is not arrogance here!
This is not arguing against the believer being teachable;
This is not the logic of arrogance but is spiritual logic that simply says:
- True wisdom is God's wisdom. Its from Him!! Isn't it??
- In the scriptures we possess God's wisdom.
- Therefore HOW can we reject that wisdom, reject God's Truth, and still examine, appraise, or instruct those who possess it.
- The answer very simply is, You can't.
*** We must recognize that not all who are in the family of God, believers, those indwelt by H-S, are not always enabled by the H-S and therefore unable to use God's wisdom.
This is the type of believer that Paul details in the next section 3:1-4.
Return to Study of Angelic Conflict - Man the third Party to the Conflict
6. As a Believer we are to walk by faith and not by sight. 2 Cor 5:7
7. Appreciation of spiritual things comes from the capacity gained from Bible Doctrine.
See this in Heb 11 OT super grace heroes
2 Tm 2:15
8. Mankind was created perfect and placed in a perfect environment, as were the angels.
9. The First Man and Woman were created with Body, Soul and Human Spirit. Gen 2:7; 22-23 (Trichotomous)
10. Hence, they had both material and immaterial being, as do the angels.
11. Un-fallen Man was permitted to be tempted by Satan, and the opportunity to choose for or against God. Gen 3
12. This parallels what Satan did with the other angels. Ezek 28:18 = you profaned your sanctuaries
13. Man procreates, to perpetuate the human race unlike the divine design for angels, and since of himself he can produce nothing better than himself, all his progeny receive the results of Adam's Fall. Rom 5:12
14. Mankind is born in a
15. He comes to God while living in a hostile environment from a position of hostility/enmity.
16. So everything that comes to man in a spiritual sense after salvation must be a result of intake and application of BD.
17. Apart from believing in Jesus Christ, man will share Satan's destiny.