God and Reason (7)

Then He took the twelve aside and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished. For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. They will scourge Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again.” But they understood none of these things… Luke 18.31-34

The importance of the mind
It would be hard to overestimate the importance of the mind in human life, and of reason as a primary tool of the mind. The mind is that component of the soul, intimately enmeshed with the heart and the conscience, which receives and processes information. The mind oversees such functions as thinking, remembering, planning, evaluating, associating, comparing, concluding, and much, much more.

So important is the mind in the life of faith that believers are called to be renewed in their minds, so that they can avoid the snares of worldly thinking (Rom. 12.1, 2). We are commanded to set our minds on Christ exalted, so that our thoughts may be informed by His Kingdom glory, outlook, and agenda (Col. 3.1-3). We are charged with overcoming and laying aside the old darkened, sinful ways of thinking that characterized us before we became believers (Eph. 4.17-24), so that we might put on the mind of Christ, which we have by virtue of being renewed by His indwelling Spirit (1 Cor. 2.16; Jn. 14.17, 26). We read of the Holy Spirit that He engages with us in intellectual activities, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things in order to teach us what God wants us to know (1 Cor. 2.12, 13).

The mind – and reason as itsmodus operandi – is an important portal for spiritual input and, therefore, a valuable resource for spiritual growth. With our minds, we may reason with God according to the terms of His invitation. Even those with minimal reasoning abilities – and doubtless, in some case, those with none – can know the Lord, because all human beings are made in His image and likeness. But deeper and more fruitful knowledge of God requires engaging our minds to reason with Him in response to His invitation.

This being so, why were Jesus’ disciples, of all people, completely unable to understand the very clear and detailed information He communicated to them in our text?

Knowing God
The disciples’ problem was the same as that of every other person in their generation, and every person today who has not come to salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ: They did not know the Lord. This is not to say that they did not have some knowledge of God and Christ. They certainly did. But not even the disciples were convinced that Jesus is the Christ, in spite of Peter’s confession. They knew Him, knew something about His capabilities, and even seemed to have a measure of love for Him. Reason had taken them far enough to be able to grant that Jesus was someone very special, perhaps even the Son of God and the Messiah of Israel. But no true spiritual power attached to that knowledge, so that whatever they had come to know of Christ and God by reason alone would not enable them to do anything other than deny and abandon Him when push came to shove.

“Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip?” Thus Jesus responded to Philip’s desire that He should show them the Father (Jn. 14.8, 9). Jesus knew that Philip did not know Him. He wanted Philip to know it as well.

But with the coming of the Holy Spirit, all whom the Spirit was bringing into the Kingdom of God’s Son would know Him, and that in a way that employs but goes even beyond the powers of reason (Col. 1.13; Jer. 31.34). God’s Spirit catalyzed the life and teaching of Jesus in the minds of His disciples in a new and more compelling way. Suddenly they understood. While their reason had only taken them so far in knowing the Lord and loving Him, with the coming of the Spirit, their minds were truly illuminated to the reality of Christ and His Kingdom.

A spiritual intervention
Reason apart from the teaching, comparing, and illuminating work of the Spirit of God can take us only so far in knowing God. At some point, without the Spirit’s intervention, sinful human beings will begin to bury what true knowledge of God they possess, and will erect a new, albeit false, framework of knowing around their thinking, which they use to make sense of their experience apart from God. False assumptions become the platform for all subsequent reasoning, as those who deny God build up walls against the knowledge of God, using the tools of reason graciously given by God.

We should not think, therefore, that we will be able by reason alone to bring a lost person to see the error of his thinking and to welcome him to the Kingdom of God. Reason can help to prepare the way for this, but it can only take us so far.

With the Spirit of God, however, reason becomes a powerful tool of the mind for increasing knowledge of God. By reason we understand the teaching of God’s Word – little by little, precept by precept (Is. 28.9, 10). By the use of reason, we apply ourselves to understanding the works of God throughout the creation, so that we grow in love for and fear of Him, and thus increase in wisdom (Ps. 111.2, 10; Eccl. 1.13). By reason and practice we learn to distinguish good from evil, right from wrong, and truth from error (Heb. 5.14).

In order to help our neighbors heed the invitation of God to reason with Him, we shall need the Spirit of God to be at work in them, as He is at work in us. And if we reason with God about this matter, it may please Him to send His Spirit to them, just as He did to us.

For reflection
1.  Meditate on Ezekiel 36.26, 27 and Galatians 4.6. How does the Spirit of God renew the knowledge of God in us?

2.  What new assumptions does the Spirit bring to help our reason function as God intends?

3.  Suggest some ways you might pray for God to send His Spirit to work in you, in your fellow believers, and in the non-Christians in your Personal Mission Field.

Next steps – Preparation: Make it a point to pray daily for the people you will see that day, that God’s Spirit will work in you and them for the purposes of His will.

T. M. Moore

This is part 1 of a 2-part series on God and Reason. You can download this week’s study as a free PDF, suitable for personal or group use, by clicking here.

We invite you to register for the free online course, One in Twelve: Introduction to Christian Worldview. In this course T. M. Moore provides a sweeping panorama of how life in the Kingdom of God unfolds in an age in flight from God such as ours. Set your own schedule and study at your own pace. Learn more, and register for One in Twelve, by clicking here.

Help us discover the state of people’s understanding of God’s truth. Watch the brief video explaining our Understanding the Bible Questionnaire (click here). Then download the Questionnaire and begin using it with the people in your Personal Mission Field. Be sure to come back to the website and record the answers you receive. We’ll update you from time to time on what we’re learning.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.