16. God’s Subjective – Revelation The Holy Spirit Must Quicken (part 2)
Let us now describe some of the effects of this Divine anointing. First, it is a realizing knowledge. Its grand Object is no longer known theoretically and inferentially, but actually and immediately, not by a process of reasoning but intuitively. God, who is spirit and invisible, is made visible and palpable to the soul. Does that strike some of our readers as being too strong a statement? It would not, had they experienced the same, and it should not, if they be at all familiar with Holy Writ, for of Moses it is said, “he endured as seeing Him who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27). God was real to his faith, though imperceptible to his senses. At the new birth such a discovery of God is made to the heart that its subject avers with Job, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye sees You” (42:5). The recipient of that manifestation is awed by a sense of His majesty, His authority, His power, His holiness, His glory. Such a revelation of the Most High is overwhelming: he dare not trifle any longer with Him, for he now knows something of the being and character of the One with whom he has to do. In like manner, the Gospel becomes to him something very different from merely an external proclamation by God’s servants—it now is “the ministration of the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:8) inwardly.
In the light of God the soul sees things as they actually are. Hitherto, if he had not a false concept of them, it was but a notional acquaintance at best. But now he views himself the present life, the hereafter, as God does, perceiving that all under the sun is but vanity and vexation of spirit. When truth is applied by the Holy Spirit its authority and spirituality are discerned, its power and pungency are felt, its savor and sweetness are tasted, its excellence and uniqueness are realized. When God is inwardly revealed to a person he becomes better acquainted with Him in five minutes this way, than in a lifetime of reading books and hearing sermons about Him. It is not an acquired knowledge, but an infused one, obtained by no mental efforts, but is Divinely imparted. As a very different image is begotten in the mind by actually seeing a person face to face than by looking upon his portrait, so by the secret operations of the Spirit a spiritual subsistence of God is wrought in the soul. Let the ablest artist paint a picture of the sun, let him use the brightest pigments and most brilliant colors, yet what a wan and insipid representation does he make in comparison to the shining and splendor of the sun itself! Glorious apprehensions of God and His Christ are conveyed and begotten in the renewed soul by the Spirit. He has now “seen” the Son (John 6:40) for himself, has “heard” His voice (John 5:25), “handled” Him by faith (1 John 1:1), “tasted that the Lord is gracious” (1 Peter 2:3).
Second, it is a convincing and certifying knowledge. By this inward and gracious teaching of God there is given to the heart such personal evidence of the wonders of wisdom and the riches of His grace as set forth in the Gospel, that he is fully persuaded of the same. A firm and unshakeable assurance of the verity of what is revealed in the written Word is conveyed to the soul, for the Spirit works an inward experience of the same in him, so that their reality and actuality is known and acknowledged. There is an ocular demonstration made to him by the light of the Word and the power of the Spirit revealing and applying them to the one born again, so that the teachings of the Scripture and the experiences of the believer, by these means, answer to one another as do the figures in the wax and the engravings in the seal. As a Spirit-taught person reads the Bible, especially much in the Psalms or a chapter like Romans 7, he finds the workings of his heart are accurately portrayed there, and says, “That is exactly my case.” Such an experience supplies far stronger proof than can either reason or sense, and though faith be occupied with things not seen by the eyes of the body and which are far above the reach of reason, yet it produces a conviction and certainty which is more conclusive and invincible than any logical demonstration.
The internal witness of the Spirit is much more potent and satisfying than all arguments grounded upon human reasoning. The natural man may be intellectually convinced that the Bible is the Word of God, and yet never have had an experiential sense of the spirituality of His Law and a heart-conviction that he is a guilty transgressor of it. He may entertain no doubt whatever that the Lord Jesus is the only refuge from the wrath to come, and still be a complete stranger in his soul to His so-great salvation. A spiritual assurance that the Scriptures are Divine can no more be obtained without the inward witness of the Spirit than can a spiritual understanding of their contents. It is an essential part of His distinctive work to produce a spiritual and supernatural faith in the hearts of God’s elect, so that they receive the Word on the alone testimony of its Author. When that faith has been communicated, he can no more doubt the integrity of the Scriptures for he now “knows the certainty of those things wherein he has been instructed” (Luke 1:4). Such an assurance will cause him to cling to the Truth and confess it though there were not another person on earth who did so. He now values the Bible as his dearest earthly possession, and no matter how he might be tempted to do so, will steadfastly refuse to “sell” or part with the Truth.
Third, it is an affecting knowledge. The notions possessed by the natural man, Scriptural though they be, exert no spiritual influence upon him and produce no godliness of character or conduct. They are inoperative, ineffectual, inefficacious. He may perceive clearly that sin is hateful to God and harmful to himself, that if cherished and continued in, it will certainly damn him, yet his lusts dominate him. He may be well informed upon the excellence of holiness, and the necessity of possessing it if ever he is to enter Heaven, yet self-love and self-interests turn the scales and prevent his seeking it wholeheartedly. A natural knowledge of spiritual things penetrates no deeper than the brain, neither influencing the heart nor moving the will. The empty professor may subscribe sincerely to the doctrine of man’s total depravity, but it never moves him to cry from the depths of an anguished soul, “O wretched man that I am.” The doctrinal light which the unregenerate have is like that of the moon’s: it quickens not, possesses no warmth, produces no fruit. A merely theoretical knowledge of the Scriptures, however accurate or extensive it may be, leaves the heart dead, cold, barren.
Radically different is that spiritual knowledge which God imparts to the renewed mind. It has a vitalizing, convincing, moving and powerful effect upon the whole of the inner man. It conveys a real subsistence of Divine things to the soul, so that the understanding discerns and knows them, the affections delight in and cleave to them, the will is influenced and moved by them. “Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am the LORD your God which teaches you to profit” (Isaiah 48:17). He teaches so much of the evil of sin as makes it the most bitter and burdensome thing in the world to us. He teaches us so much of our need for and the worth of Christ as moves us to freely take His yoke upon us—which none do unless they have been Divinely tamed. Spiritual light is like that of the sun’s, which not only illuminates, but warms and fructifies, and therefore is Christ designated, “The Sun of righteousness” (Malachi 4:2). All the real teaching of the Spirit has a powerful tendency to draw away from self unto Christ, to a fixation in and living upon Him to find all our springs in Him, to prove Him to be our everlasting strength.
Fourth, it is a humbling knowledge. This is another unmistakable effect of an immediate and supernatural revelation of God to a person. That spiritual illumination and inward teaching lays the soul low before God. Therein it differs radically from self-acquired learning and the intellectual teaching we absorb from men, for that only serves to feed our conceit: such knowledge “puffs up” (1 Corinthians 8:1). Truth itself when unapplied by the Spirit is only unsanctified knowledge, adding to our store of information but producing no lowliness of heart. But when the Lord teaches a soul, the bladder of self-sufficiency is punctured, and there is a “casting down imaginations, reasonings, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:5). He now renounces his own wisdom and becomes as a “little child.” The soul is brought to realize not that he is lacking in instruction, but that he is incapable of making a good use of what he already knows. He is now sensible that he needs to be Divinely taught how to effectually translate his knowledge into practice. The letter of God’s precepts may be fixed in his mind, but how to perform them he knows not, and therefore does he cry, “Teach me, O LORD, the way of Your statutes” (Psalm 119:33), “Teach me to do Your will” (Psalm 143:10).
Of too many Laodicean “Christians” must it be said, “your wisdom and your knowledge it has perverted you [caused you to turn away]” (Isaiah 47:10) from the only One who can effectually anoint blind eyes. But the wisdom which is from above is a self-emptying one, making its possessor cry, “Lord, teach me to pray” (Luke 11:1), and when he does, it is in a very different manner from the polished periods and eloquent language of what are termed pulpit “invocations.” The natural man will ask for relief when in temporal distress, though he has no sense of need for spiritual mercies. But one taught of God is painfully conscious of the fact that, “he knows not what he should pray for as he ought,” and has “groanings which cannot be uttered,” and that makes him implore the help of the Holy Spirit. Such a one prays, “Give me understanding that I may learn Your statutes.” “Incline my heart unto Your testimonies.” “Quicken You me in Your way.” “Teach me good judgment.” “Order my steps in Your Word and let not any iniquity have dominion over me” (Psalm 119:73, 40, 66, 133). Thus the soul is taught how perfectly suited is God’s Word to his deep need.
Fifth, it is a transforming knowledge. When God savingly reveals Himself to a person, a real and radical change is effected in him, so that the one alienated from Him is now reconciled to Him. The light of Divine grace is a prevailing and overcoming one, producing an altered disposition toward God, so that the one who shrank from Him pants after Him. Not only is Christ now feared, but adored. Divine teaching not only slays enmity against God, but conveys to the soul an answerableness to His holiness. It is affirmed of all such, “but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine whereto you were delivered” (Romans 6:17), that is, the mold of teaching into which you have been cast. At regeneration the heart is made tender and the will tractable. The characters of the renewed are formed by the Truth—for a corresponding impression is made thereon. Their hearts and lives are modeled according to the tenor of the Gospel. Truth is received not only in the light of it, but in the love of it as well. The inward inclinations are changed and framed according to what the Word enjoins, the faculties being fitted to respond thereto. He delights in the Law of God after the inward man, and chooses the things that please God (Isaiah 56:4).
The sanctifying discovery of God to the soul not only slays its enmity unto Him, subdues the lusts of the flesh, removes carnal prejudices against His holy requirements, but stirs up the affections after them. No longer is there a murmuring against the exalted standard which God sets before us, but rather a reaching forth and striving to measure up to it. The Spirit’s effectual application of the Word is always accompanied by a drawing out of the heart unto God, so that its subject is sensibly affected by His majesty and authority, His love and grace, His forbearance and goodness. So great was the change wrought in those who had been converted under his ministry, the Apostle could say of one company, “You are manifestly declared to be the Epistle of Christ ministered [instrumentally] by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God” (2 Corinthians 3:3). And why? Because, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, they were changed “into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord” (v. 18): changed from pride to humility, from self-love to self-loathing, from self-seeking to Christ-pleasing.
Sixth, it is an operative knowledge. There are multitudes in Christendom today who “profess they know God, but in works [not “words”] deny Him” (Titus 1:16). Much Truth has entered their ears and eyes, but it results only in idle notions, useless speculations, and frothy talk. Whereas those who by grace are made partakers of the Divine nature have a disposition and impulse unto the performance of duty, and therefore they not only long after communion with God, but diligently endeavor to please and glorify Him in their daily lives. At the new birth God puts His Law into their souls and writes it upon their hearts (Jeremiah 31:33), and that moves its favored recipient to exclaim “How love I Your Law!” (Psalm 119:97), and to manifest that love by diligently seeking to comply with the Divine precepts. The Spirit is given to the elect that He may “cause them to walk in God’s statutes” (Ezekiel 34:27). A saving knowledge of God constrains the soul unto obedience to Him: not perfectly so in this life, yet a real responding to His requirements. No sooner did the light of God shine supernaturally into the heart of Saul of Tarsus than he cried, “Lord, what will You have me to do?” “Being made free from [the guilt and dominion of] sin, and became servants to God, you have your fruit unto holiness” (Romans 6:22).
When the Holy Spirit effectually applies the Truth unto a person, he responds thereto: the soul is quickened and solemnized, God is revered, the affections are elevated, the will is given an inclination to deny self, renounce the world, resist the Devil. Thus it was with the Thessalonian saints: “For this cause thank we God without ceasing, because when you received the Word of God which you heard of us, you received it not as the word of men; but as it is in truth, the Word of God which effectually works in you that believe” (1 Thessalonians 2:13). It effectually prevails over sloth, the fear of man, worldly interests, everything which stands in opposition to it. “Who teaches like Him?” (Job 36:22). Divine teaching is both efficacious and intensely practical. As God’s creative words were mighty and effectual (Genesis 1), 50 are His teaching words (John 6:63; 15:3). “Hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments” (1 John 2:3). Keeping His commandments is the evidence and proof of a saving knowledge of God. Though the obedience of a Christian be far from flawless, yet is it real, spontaneous, sincere, impartial. Where no such obedience exists, then “he who says I know Him and keeps not His commandments [by prayerful and genuine endeavor] is a Liar” (1 John 2:4).
Seventh, it is a satisfying knowledge. The language of every truly regenerated and converted soul is, I ask for no better Savior than Christ, I desire no other peace than God’s—which passes all understanding; I need no superior Director through the mazes of this world than the infallible Scriptures. Though his station in life be the humblest and meanest, the one who has been Divinely quickened would not change places with those in highest office. The one in whose heart the supernatural light of God has shone, making him wise unto salvation, counts all other knowledge as comparatively worthless. Though he be a financial pauper, yet the one who has had the scales of prejudice and unbelief removed from his eyes, and Christ “revealed in him,” knows himself to be infinitely richer than the godless millionaire. The one who has had the Divine Law effectually applied to his conscience, his sins set before him in the light of God’s holiness, and has found cleansing and healing in the atoning blood of the Lamb, had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord than dwell in the mansions of the wicked. Joint heirs with Christ envy not the great of this world; those who are clothed with His righteousness look not with grudging eye upon those clothed in silks and flashing with diamonds.
Yes, this knowledge is a heart-satisfying one. It cannot be otherwise, for it is engaged with an all-sufficient Object. Nothing outside of Christ can suit the soul. Satisfaction is not to be found in ourselves, for we are mutable and dependent creatures. Nor in any of the things of time and sense, for they all perish with the using. Christ alone is the Fountain of Life and Happiness. He is all-sufficient for us, “for it has pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell” (Colossians 1:19), and therefore can He amply supply our every want. He is “altogether lovely,” the perfection of beauty. He excels all on earth, out-shines all in Heaven. The infinite mind of God Himself finds contentment in the Lord Jesus, declaring Him to be “Mine Elect, in whom My soul delights” (Isaiah 42:1). Every genuinely saved person readily sets to his seal that Christ is true when He avers, “Whoever drinks of this Water [the failing wells of earth] shall thirst again [as Solomon found, though he drank deeply from them all]. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:13, 14). A Divine discovery of the fullness, suitability, and excellence of Christ meets every need and satisfies every longing of the soul.
Let every reader, as he values his soul and its eternal interests, carefully and honestly test himself by what has been set before him. As the sin of Adam could not hurt us unless he had been our head by way of generation, so the righteousness of Christ cannot enrich us unless He be our Head by regeneration. There must be union with Him before we partake of His benefits. The bands of union are life and the Spirit on His part, faith and love on ours. There is no coming and cleaving to Christ in a saving way until the soul has “learned of the Father” (John 6:45). We have described some of the characteristics and effects of that “learning.” Speculative knowledge produces no spiritual fruit: no humility, no poverty of spirit, no broken-heartedness, no godly sorrow. Divine knowledge manifests a heart-searching, sin-discovering, conscience-convicting, soul-humbling, Christ- magnifying attitude. When Isaiah beheld the Holy One he exclaimed “Woe is me! for I am undone” (Isaiah 6:5). Have you ever been brought to the place where you have made such a confession? When Daniel had a vision of the Lord with “His face as the appearance of lightning and His eyes as lamps of fire,” he tells us, “my loveliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength” (10:6, 8). Has anything resembling that been duplicated in your experience?
Try yourself, we beseech you, by what has been pointed out. Assume not that all is well with you. Examine yourself, and your knowledge of Divine things. You may not know the very day of your regeneration, nor how it was brought about, but the evidences of it are apparent. Which do you really love the more: the pleasures of sin or the beauty of holiness? Which do you genuinely value most: God or the creature? Which are you actually serving: self or Christ? A sanctifying knowledge of God results in the heart being divorced from the things formerly cherished and idolized, and now cleaving to objects disliked and shunned. When the Spirit shines into the heart and reflects His own light from the Word into it, the soul is forevermore out of conceit with itself. When the Lord fully discovered Himself unto Job, he cried, “Behold, I am vile” (40:4). Have you ever been made conscious of the same thing before Him? Do you now perceive that, in yourself, you are a corrupt and polluted creature? Has the blessed Spirit made Christ real and precious to you? If so, there has been a radical change in your heart and life. When Christ was revealed to Paul, he had a contempt for all things else, ardent desires after Him, supreme delight in Him, and was willing to suffer the loss of all things for His sake (Philippians 3:8, 9). A saving knowledge of Christ gives us to prove the sufficiency of His grace, sustaining the soul amid trials (2 Corinthians 12:9).
“Being confident of this very thing, that He which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). That which we have sought to describe is only commenced at regeneration and conversion: henceforth we are to “grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). Our native spiritual blindness is only partly cured in this life, so that we “see through a glass darkly.” Believers are still completely dependent upon the Lord that He should “open their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45). They need to beg Him to make good unto them that promise, “The path of the just is as the shining light, that shines more and more unto the perfect day” (Proverbs 4:18). As the work of God is carried on in the soul, the Spirit shows him more and more what a Hell-deserving wretch he is in himself, causes him to groan frequently over his corruptions and failures, makes him more deeply sensible of his need and suitableness unto Christ, brings him more and more in love with the Savior, and stirs him unto an increased diligence in endeavoring to serve and honor Him. However far a saint may advance in an experiential acquaintance with Him, it is his privilege and duty to pray that he may be, “increasing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:10).
It is very necessary that the young Christian should clearly recognize that God’s work of grace in the soul is not completed in this life. There are some of His people who look within themselves for a faith that is not hampered with unbelief, for a love that is ever warm and constant, for pantings after holiness that vary not in fervor and regularity. They look for an obedience which is well-near perfect, and because they are unable to find that this is their case, conclude themselves to be unregenerate. They fail to realize that the evil principle of “the flesh” is left in them, and remains unchanged unto the end. It is indeed their bounden duty to mortify its lustings and to make no provision for the same (Romans 13:14), nevertheless, they will frequently have occasion to complain, “iniquities prevail against me” (Psalm 65:3), and daily will they need to avail themselves of that fountain opened to the Lord’s people for sin and for impurity (Zechariah 13:1). If they do not, if they trifle with temptations, consort with the ungodly, allow unconfessed sins to accumulate on the conscience, they will soon relapse into a sickly state of soul, lose their relish for the things of God, have their graces languish, and then they will be unable to discern in their hearts and lives the seven marks named above. A backslider will not find the fruits of righteousness in his soul.
It is also necessary to point out here that there is a radical difference between the manner of the Spirit’s working in regeneration and His subsequent operations. In the former, He wrought upon us as we were “dead in sin,” and consequently entirely passive therein. But after He has quickened us into newness of life, we concur with Him. That is to say, we are required to use the means of grace, especially the reading of God’s Word, meditating on its contents, praying for grace to conform thereto. The blessed Spirit will set no premium on slothfulness. We are to Work, but He graciously assists: “Likewise the Spirit also helps our infirmities.” As we are “led by the Spirit” to walk in the paths of righteousness, conscience testifies in our favor, and “the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the sons of God” (Romans 8:14, 16). But if we become careless and excuse ourselves therein, then the Spirit is grieved and obstructed, His comforts are withheld, and we taste the bitterness of our folly. The chastening rod falls on us until we repent of our waywardness and turn again unto the Lord. When matters are righted with God, the Spirit stirs us afresh to the use of means and again takes of the soul-satisfying things of Christ and shows them unto us.
Finally, let it again be emphasized that all the inward teachings of God are perfectly agreeable to the written Word. The revelations made by the Spirit to the souls of God’s elect and which constitute their own actual “experience,” and the revelation which He has made in the sacred Scriptures never conflict (Isaiah 59:21). When God speaks to the heart of man, whether it be in a way of conviction, consolation, or instruction in duty, He always honors the Bible by making express use of its words. Thus the written Word is the sole standard by which we must try all the teaching we have received: all must be weighed in the balances of the Sanctuary. “To the Law and to the Testimony: if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:20). Without that Divine safeguard we lay ourselves open to gross fanaticism and fatal deception. Whatever spiritual knowledge you think you have received, if it accords not wholly with God’s Word, it is not of Divine revelation, but is either of human imagination or Satanic insinuation. “The Word contains the revelation of Christ; the Holy Spirit from the Word reveals Christ. In a spiritual apprehension of Him eternal life is begotten in the soul, which while it is full of Christ, yet we do not see and believe on Him to life eternal until the Lord the Spirit be our Teacher and Instructor” (S. E. Pierce).
In conclusion, let us draw a few inferences from all that has been before us. (1) Herein we behold the sovereignty of God, who divides the light from the darkness as He pleases. Divine grace is discriminating (Romans 9:18). That particularity in which Christ dealt with souls still exists: “It is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven, but to them it is not given” (Matthew 13:11). (2) Hence we see the deep importance of distinguishing between that knowledge of the things of God which is naturally acquired and that which is Divinely taught the soul, and the need for ascertaining whether my knowledge is producing spiritual fruit in my life. It is a safe criterion to apply that whatever originates with self always aims at and terminates on self; whereas that which is from the Spirit draws out the heart and will unto Christ. (3) That those upon whom the Sun of righteousness has arisen cannot be sufficiently thankful or praise Him enough. How grateful we should be if we “know the joyful sound” (Psalm 89:15) and have found peace and joy in Christ! Well may we with wonderment exclaim, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself unto us, and not unto the world?” (John 14:22). (4) Why so few who hear the Gospel are truly saved under it. How different were the effects produced by the same Seed on the several soils (Luke 8:5-8): the heart must be plowed and harrowed before it is made an “honest and good” one (v. 15). (5) Why so many keen-brained and well-educated people are left in spiritual ignorance, while simple and illiterate souls are made wise unto salvation. (6) How that the preacher is wholly dependent upon the Holy Spirit. The ablest minister of the Word can no more of himself win souls to Christ than experienced fishermen could catch a single fish until He gave success (Luke 5:5). Neither the gifted Paul nor the eloquent Apollos was “anything”: it is God “that gives the increase” (1 Corinthians 3:7). Often the most carefully prepared and earnestly delivered sermons produce no fruit, while a plain and ordinary one is blessed of God. (7) How highly should the Christian prize the illumination of the Spirit and be looking continually to Him for instruction. He needs not a plainer Bible, but a clearer vision. I know no more of God to any good purpose than as I have been and am being taught of Him!
