1 Corinthians 2:9-12

Scripture: 1 Cor. 2:9 However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” – the things God has prepared for those who love him.

1 Cor. 2:10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

1 Cor. 2:11 for who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

1 Cor. 2:12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.

Teaching: In calling his audience to hear and understand the wisdom of God -- that Christ’s death and resurrection is the fundamental thing that the world needed (not the power, riches, and the other things of the world that people believe they need) – Paul asserts that if those rich and powerful “rulers of this age” understood who Jesus was when they crucified him, they would not have done so. Now, this death and resurrection was necessary and was the will of God, but because these “rulers” were blinded to the reality of Christ standing before them, they could not grasp what they were truly doing.

Paul then in verse 9 cites portions of Isaiah 64 and 65 to prove that this was always God’s plan. Paul then explains his citation in verses 10-12. The common interpretation of passages on heaven in Scripture is that no one can imagine how wonderful it will be – and this is true. However, Paul is making a different point here. This “mystery” of the wisdom of God (verse 7) has been revealed to us by His Spirit – we understand God’s plan for redemption in Jesus. God does not leave us in the dark as to what His plan for redemption is – it is no longer a mystery. What’s more, Paul says that just as a man’s spirit knows all of him, so, too, does God’s Spirit know all of God. There’s no part of God that is inaccessible by His Spirit. The thoughts of God, the plans of God, the wisdom of God, all of God is available to us – to the extent God allows – by the Holy Spirit. This is what Isaiah meant, and what Paul cites here, that without the Spirit of God, no one can know what God has prepared. But, those who do know Him, can understand – to an extent – what He has prepared.

Takeaway: Our minds cannot grasp how wonderful life will be in the Kingdom – living forever, without sin and with Jesus, in complete joy and fulfillment forever. We cannot grasp that because all we know in this life is incomplete joy, the reality of death, and sin’s effects. However, Paul tells us in this passage that God, in His grace to us, has enabled us to know His wisdom, His plans, and His love. We have access to the thoughts and heart of God by His Spirit, freely given to us by God so that we would know Him. While we may not understand it all, we are not stumbling around this life without knowledge of God or trusting in someone we do not know! When you consider it, that is truly amazing, and further demonstrates God’s great love for us. So, trust that you can go to the Lord and receive the wisdom from Him that you need. What a great and gracious Lord we serve, that He gives access to each of us to all of Himself.