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1
Corinthians 2:14
But
the natural man 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. - 1 Cor. ii. 14.
THE natural man is
not barely the sensual man, who is abandoned and given up wholly
to his carnal lust and pleasures; since he is not the only person
who is ignorant of spiritual things; which sense of the phrase
the Arminians were formerly fond of, though they have now quitted
it; but rather the man of reason, who is merely psychikos has
nothing but a soul, or bare reason in him, destitute of the grace
of God; which is the ease of every man in a natural state. Now
this man, whilst he is such, and by the mere light of nature, cannot
know the things of the Spirit of God. The utmost knowledge he can
have of the doctrines of the Gospel, here intended, is merely
notional and speculative, not spiritual and experimental. The
reason is, because they are spiritually discerned, that is, tried
and judged in a spiritual way. Nor can he receive them, so as to
love and approve of them; because they are foolishness unto him, absurd
and ridiculous. Wherefore, a divine operation of grace upon his
understanding affections, and will, is absolutely necessary, in
order to his spiritual knowledge, affectionate reception of, and
hearty subjection to, the Gospel of Christ; and without this he
will never understand it spiritually, nor receive and embrace it
cordially. But to this are excepted,
1. That "the
natural man here is not barely the unregenerate man; but the wise
man, and disputer of the world, who will admit of nothing but
what he can see proved by reason and so receives not things
revealed by the Spirit." I reply, admitting this sense of
the phrase, it follows, that if an unregenerate wise man, one of
the greatest abilities, and most refined parts, in whom reason is
sublimated, and wound up to its highest pitch it can well be, in
unsanctified nature, cannot know and receive spiritual things;
then an unregenerate foolish man, or one of meaner abilities, and
of a lower rank and size, can never, as such, understand and
embrace them. The apostle has pitched upon an instance which must
necessarily conclude all men that are unregenerate, in a state of
ignorance of spiritual things, and in an incapacity of knowing
them, without the special illuminating grace of the Spirit.
2. That "the
apostle speaks not of the inability of a Heathen to understand
the meaning of any revelation discovered unto him: for how, then,
it is asked, is it discovered to him? but of the necessity of a
supernatural revelation, that the hidden wisdom of God might be
made known to the world." In answer, a Heathen, whether a
philosopher, or a man of a more ordinary size, may be capable of
understanding the literal, grammatical meaning of a revelation
made to him, even of the external revelation God has made to the
world; as that the import of it is, among other things, that
Jesus is the Messiah, was born of a virgin, suffered, died, and
rose again, and thereby procured salvation for men; and yet have
no spiritual sense and apprehension of these shines, any relish
for them, gust of them, or faith in them; all which he will
remain a stranger to, unless accompanied with a special, internal
revelation, and application of them to him by the Spirit of God.
The necessity of which, and not of an external, supernatural
revelation, the apostle here demonstrates; for the latter, the
natural man, whether among Jews or Greeks, had; otherwise, it
could not with any propriety be said, that he receiveth not, or
rejects these things, and accounts them foolishness; which were
in consequence of an external, supernatural revelation made in
the ministry of the apostles, who preached Christ crucified, to
the Jews a stumblingblock, and to the Greeks foolishness; it
being with respect to them unattended with the demonstration of
the Spirit and of power.