REVEALED
By Elder Mark Green
Paul quoted the Old Testament to the Corinthians, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him” (1 Cor. 2.9). Then he contrasts that condition with this: “But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit.” There are certain things – spiritual things – that men cannot know apart from the revelation of the Spirit of God. “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” (v. 14). These things are foolishness to natural men because they have not been revealed to them. They are foolishness to such a man because he is a natural, unregenerate man and does not have the capacity to understand spiritual things.
“And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven” (Mt. 16.17). The thing that flesh and blood had not revealed and could not have revealed to Peter was the fact that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. No man ever has or ever will believe that from his heart apart from having a renewed heart. If a man does not know Christ, then it is impossible for him really to believe this wonderful fact about Him. “No man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him” (Mt. 11.27). It is impossible for a man to know God the Father or God the Son (or God the Holy Spirit, for that matter) apart from the revelation of Jesus Christ. “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (Jn. 17.3).
The essence of eternal life is the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ. This is a vital knowledge, not a scholastic or intellectual knowledge, otherwise it would be impossible for infants to possess it; and we know that John Baptist possessed it in his mother’s womb. Christ said that this knowledge is a special revelation, and that flesh and blood (mere human beings) do not have the power to convey it. That is why Jeremiah told the Jews that “they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them” (Jer. 31.34). Flesh and blood cannot do it in any case, and certainly not in the hard cases of infancy or mental incapacity, or with those in the farther reaches of the earth – but God can do it. He can teach men to know God where human beings cannot go, in situations where we could never have power to act. Therefore, for men to claim that they can teach men to know God is to claim to be able to do something that God has reserved exclusively to Himself. He has hidden these things from the wise and the prudent, but has revealed them unto babes, so that men may not think that it is our wisdom that brings us to know God.