What is the biblical doctrine of illumination?

The Spirit forms in the believer a faculty to understand what is revealed. We read in 1 Cor. 2:16, "But we have the mind of Christ". This is a remarkable statement, it means we have the thinking faculty of Christ. Not only has God worked in our hearts so that we recognise that He is revealing Himself, but He has given us His Spirit that we may understand what is revealed. Hence in that chapter we learn that spiritual things can be understood by those only who have spiritual capacity.

But God has come in His sovereign goodness towards us in this our natural weakness. In giving us His divinely inspired statements about Himself He has not at all left us to our own reasoning powers to speculate about what He says; but He has made us partakers of His own divine nature which has a capacity to grasp divine things when revealed, and then He has given us His own Holy Spirit to dwell in us to interpret His Word and to enlighten our renewed understanding as to its true meaning. This is a great boon. But it is only as we lean not on our own understanding and have a submissive will and a teachable heart that He can guide us into all truth (John 7:17; Prov. 3:5-6; 1 Cor. 2:10, 12, 14; John 16:13).

The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, because they are foolishness unto him. Neither can the child of God receive them by his natural reasoning powers. They are communicated to our intelligence by the energy of the Spirit of God when our understanding has been opened by the Lord to understand the Scriptures, and they must be received by faith. (Luke 24:45; 1 Cor. 2:12-14).

The revelation of God lies outside the realm of the natural man, for without the divine nature man is incapable of apprehending what God has revealed. When on earth the Son of God said, “I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes” (Matt. 11:25). The very words that reveal God and His mind are before all men in the Scriptures, yet the natural man cannot grasp their meaning. Words that bring the deepest joy to the one who is born of God, are unintelligible even to the greatest natural intellect where there has been no work of God within the soul. The divine nature through the new birth gives the capacity for receiving divine things, the indwelling Spirit is the power for their reception, and a state of heart produced in communion with God gives the condition in which God’s revelations are made good in the soul.

The Holy One gives the key to all spiritual knowledge (v. 20). It is truly encouraging to realize that regardless of our spiritual advancement or moral position, God's provisions of grace are equally available to anyone. Even the youngest babe in Christ has that unction and may know all things, because the Holy Spirit gives him spiritual intelligence. Isaiah reports about the whole vision being compared to a sealed book delivered to a person ; either that person knows how to read, but the book is sealed ; or he does not know how to read (Is. 29 : 11, 12). Contrariwise now, the Spirit opens God's Word for us and instructs us how to read it. God's message reaches our heart for our encouragement and enjoyment. The apostle Paul presents also that important truth to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 2 : 10-16). Revelation of the deep things of God is by the Holy Spirit. Communication of spiritual things is also through the Holy Spirit. Finally, reception into our heart and conscience is by the Spirit.

For discerning, we need the right spiritual condition. The "natural man," i.e., man in his natural or unconverted condition, does not discern them at all. The "spiritual," i.e., the converted man, not only indwelt but also governed and characterized by the Spirit of God, alone can take them in. Possessing the Spirit we have the mind of Christ. Governed by the Spirit the eyes of our hearts are opened to understand.

The Holy Scriptures are like no other writings. All other writings have had their origin in the mind of man, and with the conviction and expectation that the mind of the reader shall be able to grasp the meaning of that which is written. But this is not at all true of the Scriptures. It is not only not assumed by the writers of Holy Scripture that the mind of man will be able to seize the thoughts therein recorded, but its inability to do so is very distinctly affirmed (1 Cor. 2:14; Eph. 1:17; Col. 1:9; Luke 24. 45). The Holy Spirit, who inspired the writers, is the only One who can enable us to understand that which He has caused to be placed on record for our instruction in the mind of God.

Therefore a mere study of the Word, however necessary it be to study it, is not of itself sufficient to place us in possession of the thoughts of God. It is necessary that we should read it, pay attention to all that it brings before us, believe it even when we do not grasp its meaning, and meditate upon its precious utterances; but this should be done in prayerful dependence upon its gracious Author, and in distrust of our own natural reason, which is always infidel, and always infidel just because it is our reason, the reason of fallen flesh, which ever revolves in its own blind orbit, excluding every ray of light divine.

But God has come in His sovereign goodness towards us in this our natural weakness. In giving us His divinely inspired statements about Himself He has not at all left us to our own reasoning powers to speculate about what He says; but He has made us partakers of His own divine nature which has a capacity to grasp divine things when revealed, and then He has given us His own Holy Spirit to dwell in us to interpret His Word and to enlighten our renewed understanding as to its true meaning. This is a great boon. But it is only as we lean not on our own understanding and have a submissive will and a teachable heart that He can guide us into all truth (John 7: 17; Prov. 3: 5, 6; 1 Cor. 2: 10, 12, 14; John 16: 13).

The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, because they are foolishness unto him. Neither can the child of God receive them by his natural reasoning powers. They are communicated to our intelligence by the energy of the Spirit of God when our understanding has been opened by the Lord to understand the Scriptures, and they must be received by faith. (Luke 24: 45; 1 Cor. 2: 12-14).

He it is — and the same He is — by whom the apostles received spiritual things, were able to communicate them, and by whom, thereupon, others were able to discern them; 1 Cor. 2:12, 15. And here observe, that it is the same Spirit whom the apostles received in order to know the things of God, and by whom others have discerned them; that is, the apostolic gift of revelation and of communication, and the gift of spiritual understanding in the simple believer.

Perhaps we can take this opening of the understanding Of all the disciples (Lk. 24:45) as an illustration of the coming of the Holy Spirit to dwell in believers and take the things of Christ and make them real to them (Jn. 14:26). This shows that there is no understanding, no spiritual intelligence without divine intervention: 'But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For 'who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?' But we have the mind of Christ' (1 Cor. 2:14-16).

(Vv. 14, 15). Thus we learn that the wisdom of God is made known by revelation and communicated to others by inspiration. Now we learn that the reception of the truth is also by the Spirit of God. The natural man cannot receive the things of God; they are foolishness to him; they can only be spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual discerns all things. We do well to remember that it is the “spiritual”, not simply he that has the Spirit, that discerns all things. A man must, indeed, have the Spirit to be spiritual; but being spiritual implies a condition in which a man is under the control of the Spirit. Such discern all things, yet they themselves are not discerned of any. The spiritual man can discern the motives that govern the world, though the world cannot discern the motives and principles that govern the spiritual man.