Bible Question #34 - The Spirit in Man

Good evening. Welcome to another Wednesday night Bible study. So, tonight's Bible study, we pick up where we left off. Uh we are now on question number 34 in our Bible literacy test, Bible quiz. is our Bible study question this evening is question number 34 and it begins or asks the question spirit of man where do we find spirit of man now as I will I will attempt to do this evening what I try to do with each of the Bible studies within this series which is to ask the question why is this important what why do we need to know

this what's important about it so let me see if this evening we can do the same thing and attempt to answer that question. So the answer is 1 Corinthians chapter 2. So we can begin turning over there. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and we will read this is specifically verse 11. But we will be spending uh a little bit of time in this chapter because Paul has a lot to say on the subject of the human spirit. Okay.

So, we're here in 1 Corinthians chap 2 and verse 11. It says, "For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God except the spirit of God." So, this is where we find the scripture. This is uh defining for us that there is or or telling us that there is this thing called the spirit of the man.

Paul says this, it's just a fact as he says it. So it's interesting that he's not he's not wandering around the subject. He's not curious about this. He's actually just making a statement of fact. There is a spirit of the man which is in him. Every human being has it. That spirit allows a person to know the things of the man.

It explains human thought. It explains human reasoning, our planning, our decision making, what it means to essentially think like a human. You know, most people never stop to ask what makes a human mind different from an animal brain. Animals learn patterns. They react to danger. They search for food. But you know what? They don't do lots of things.

They don't draft constitutions. They don't compose music. They don't design buildings. They don't debate justice. Those things humans do. Why? Well, Paul's answer is simple. There is a spirit in man. So, tonight we want to examine what the human spirit is. Because understanding this matters. It explains both the greatness and the weakness of human civilization.

It explains why humans can act, why humans can advance in technology while remaining confused about what's right and what's wrong. It explains why true spiritual understanding does not come from intelligence alone. So I want to begin tonight by just realizing that God created man with a spirit. God created man with a spirit.

Paul speaks about this spirit as we just read in 2 Corinthians or excuse me in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 11. And Paul speaks about it as a settled fact. It's not a question. There's no doubt about it. He's not inferring that there's some reason to to wonder about this. It's an it's just an emphatic statement of truth.

His reasoning when he says for what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him. He's saying essentially you know the things of a man because you have a spirit in you. The spirit of man. Okay. A man knows his own thoughts because there is an inner faculty that makes thought possible. The body receives information through the senses, right? So we can hear, we can taste, we can see, we can feel.

Okay? So we have senses. So our body processes those senses and all of that information, but we also have a mind that is capable of thought. So we think, we can debate, we can contemplate what those senses are telling us. It's those it's that inner faculty that inner ability to think and process that is that spirit that is in us.

Job makes a similar point in Job chapter 32 and verse 8. Job chapter 32 and verse 8 where Job says now he's a contemporary with Abraham which which makes him you know pretty going pretty far back that's before the nation of Israel before the first before the old covenant okay and he says here it's recorded here in verse 8 of Job 32 but there is a spirit in man and the breath of the almighty gives them understanding.

The key term is understanding. The Hebrew word for this means to perceive or discern. That's what having a human mind does. That's that's the spirit that is within us. And that's what it gives to us. Understanding, the ability to discern, to perceive. That's essentially mental processing. You know, discernment means the ability to distinguish between things, to separate, to evaluate.

And of course, that's what we are capable of doing as human beings. Proverbs gives us a vivid picture of how this inner capacity functions. I'm going to turn over to Proverbs 20 and verse 27. It's an interesting scripture here. This is Proverbs 20 27. Speaking of the spirit of man, it says, "The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord searching all the inner depths of his heart.

" So, a lamp illuminates obviously what otherwise would be, you know, not possible to see. I suppose scripture describes the spirit in man as a lamp that searches inward. Human beings can examine their own motives. They can replay decisions. They can feel guilt. We human beings can weigh alternatives in our choices.

That internal review sets human life apart from animal life. Genesis shows the origin of this capacity in Genesis chapter 2 2 and verse 7. So Genesis chapter 2 verse 7 it says here in verse 7 and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being.

Now this verse describes two components coming together. First, God God forms the physical body. He did that obviously of the ground or of the dust as it's described here. Second, God breathes into that formed body the breath of life. The Hebrew word translated breath is nishama. Nea nishama. Now that's an important word.

Strong's concordance along with Brown Driver and Briggs dictionaries define nishama as breath or spirit. The term refers to the lifegiving breath that proceeds from God. Genesis describes a concrete act. God forms a body then imparts breath and the result is a living being. Now that breath is not merely oxygen as we just read from its definition.

Scripture later connects that divine breath with the ability to understand that is to perceive to discern. We read that in Job 32:8 that the breath of the Almighty God, the nashema of Almighty God gives him understanding. And so it not only is it life, it's understanding. Therefore, when God created Adam, he gave him not only a mind, he gave him intellect.

He not only gave him physical life, he gave him the ability to think, to reason, to understand, to discern. Now the Hebrew word that's translated in Job 32:8 as understanding, that word means to perceive or discern. So we see then this direct connection between the breath God gives and the discernment that came with it.

So that moves us past instinct, doesn't it? An animal reacts to stimulus, but a human being can pause. We can weigh alternatives. We can choose different things because we've analyzed them. A human being can learn language, develop mathematics, record history, revise plans. We can make plans and then revise plans.

No animal is capable of that. That capacity for discernment flows from the spirit God placed within man. Zechariah confirms that this inner element is not self-generated. It's formed by God. Let's read in Zechariah 12 and verse 1. Zechariah 12 and verse 1. Here we go. I just went a little bit too far. Okay.

Zechariah 12:1 burden of the word of the Lord against Israel. Thus says the Lord who stretches out the heaven lays the foundation of the earth and forms the spirit of man within him. So undeniable proof from the inspiration of God through the prophet Zechariah that it is God in fact who gave man his spirit.

this capacity for understanding, reasoning, processing, mental thinking. And of course, the word forms shows intention and design. God forms the spirit of man within him. So, human intellectual capacity is not an accidental thing. It isn't self-created. We didn't give ourselves intellect. It is a created feature of human life and it's built into mankind and was from the beginning.

When we place these passages together, a clear picture emerges. God forms the body from the dust. God breathes the nama of life into that body. God forms the spirit within man. That spirit provides understanding and discernment. This foundation explains the observable difference between human life and animal life.

Human beings construct legal systems and hold trials. Human beings compose music and write books. Human beings develop medicine, design buildings, pass knowledge on to the next generation. Humans can analyze their own conduct and hold themselves accountable. These actions require memory, abstract thinking, foresight, moral awareness. Paul's logic in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 depends on this shared experience.

A man knows the things of a man because he possesses this inner faculty. Matthew P writes in his commentary on the Holy Bible, quote, "No man knows the secret thoughts of another man, but only the spirit of a man which is in him." The second point I want to make this evening is that animals do not possess the spirit that man possesses.

We've seen that obviously from the pages of our Bibles that God formed the spirit in man and that this spirit grants understanding and discernment. So now let's look and see whether or not that's true of the animal kingdom. Solomon states distinctly that this is not so. Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verse 21. Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verse 21 where he says who knows the spirit of the sons of men which go upward and the spirit of the animal which goes down to the earth.

We know clearly he's talking about what happens after death. Somehow God takes back that spirit of man to himself, not in in the form of a spirit being. It's just taken back and stored by God until the resurrection. But he says that's not so of the animals. When the animal dies, its spirit, its mind simply goes to the ground. So we see a clear distinction in how Solomon viewed human beings and the difference between a human being and an animal.

Both breathe and both die. Both live and die. The difference is what happens to the spirit. So when we observe animals, we see learning and adaptation. This is true. Animals respond to in to reward and punishment. They solve limited problems. They can even demonstrate memory and pattern recognition.

But nothing in the animal kingdom resembles the human capacity for moral judgment, legal structure, cumulative written knowledge, or even long range institutional planning. They don't demonstrate any of those characteristics. Scripture describes animals in terms of instinct. Second Peter chapter 2. 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 12. Second Peter, sorry about that.

Chapter 2 verse 12 it says but these here he's talking about the depravity of false teachers but basically he says but these like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed speak evil of the things they do not understand. Peter uses this phrase, natural brute beasts. The emphasis is on the instinctive behavior.

Animals operate according to built-in drives. We call that instinct. So, they hunt. They defend territory. They seek food. They even reproduce according to patterns that remain essentially the same from the very beginning. This is how God created them. And so, they do what they were created to do. You know, a a giraffe eats the same food that the original giraffes ate.

Uh, you know, a cow today eats the same food that a cow has always eaten. It's it's like, well, how come there's been no change? They don't change. Like, there's not a preference. They don't go, you know what? Today, I think I'm going to eat eggs. If you don't eat eggs, you don't eat eggs. It's the way it is. And so, it's an interesting thing to realize the limitations of instinct.

God gave an animal its operating system. It's a very fundamental, a very rudimentary operating system. Modern cognitive scientists acknowledge this distinction even when it studies animal intelligence very carefully. For example, Thomas uh Sudenorf, professor of psychology at the University of Queensland's he writes in his book called the gap the science of what separates us from other animals.

I'll let me quote him. It says, quote, "The physical continuity between humans and other animals is incontestable, but human minds seem extraordinary. Our mental capacities have spawned civilizations and technologies that have changed the face of the earth, whereas even our closest animal relatives remain unobtrusively in their dwindling forests.

" He's talking about monkeys and apes. you know, according to evolutionists, uh, there, you know, we are linked to them. Somehow they that, you know, man came from them. According to evolutionary theory, we came from those. Yet, they're still there. Mankind isn't. Apes don't form civilizations. They're not out there constructing buildings and designs and setting up laws and and statutes and ordinances for how a building can be constructed.

and the research that must be in place uh and the studies that must be performed to ensure that that that the place the building would be constructed is is viable and it's safe and it's sound and it won't produce a biohazard or something like that. They don't think about biohazards. They don't think about, you know, any of that kind of thing that we human beings think about.

He's not dismissing the animal behavior, by the way. He acknowledges the physical continuity. Yet, Sudenorf recognizes that human mental capacity produces civilization. It produces technology, recorded history, long range planning, obviously things that animals don't demonstrate. He goes on to explain that humans possess what researchers call mental time travel.

Mental time travel, it's the ability to project themselves backwards into memory and forward into future scenarios. Animals can't do that. The ability allows humans to draft laws intended to govern future generations. We can build cities that outlast whoever built them. We can preserve accumulated uh knowledge across centuries. Consider conscience.

Human beings can violate a moral standard and later reflect on that violation. We can examine our conduct. We can feel conviction. We can either defend ourselves or we can admit guilt. That kind of internal courtroom does not operate in the animal world. Paul explains this in Romans 2 14 and 15. Romans chapter 2.

Okay. Romans chapter 2 verse 14 says, "For when Gentiles who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these although not having the law are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves and their thoughts accusing or else excusing them.

So notice this language. Paul describes conscience. Conscience as bearing witness. He describes thoughts that accuse or excuse. That's internal moral reasoning. It's not instinct. That's evaluation of right and wrong. You remember Adam and Eve taking of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

That choice was the choice to choose for themselves what is right and wrong. To not allow God to define right and wrong for them any longer. That was that choice. And in taking of that apple or that fruit, pardon me, and taking of that fruit, they passed on to the rest of humanity that same choice. We will decide for ourselves what is right and wrong.

That's that internal process that we are going through on a daily basis where we evaluate, we either excuse or accuse ourselves. So this word translated conscience means co-nowledge. It's awareness within oneself. A human being can step back and judge his own behavior. He can recognize a violation even before anyone else points it out.

Animals do not operate that way. They may respond to pain or discipline. They may adjust their behavior to avoid punishment, but there's no evidence of internal ethical debate. A dog may lower its head and cower after being corrected. It doesn't weigh justice. It doesn't confess wrongdoing. It doesn't reform behavior because it's concluded that righteousness demands a change in behavior.

No. Romans 2 describes something uniquely human. Inner moral testimony. That testimony aligns perfectly with what we would have seen or what we have seen about the spirit that is in man. The human spirit provides discernment. It enables conscience. It allows thoughts to accuse or defend. That internal moral process has no parallel in the animal kingdom.

You know what? Language further illustrates the distinction. Animals communicate through sound, posture, even gestures. Humans develop grammar. We write books. We preserve law codes. We refine knowledge through written record. A child can begin learning at the point where the previous generation left off. That cumulative progression has no equivalent in the animal world.

Animals do not draft constitutions. They don't convene courts. They do not debate ethics. They do not develop medicine or mathematics or engineering. Human civilizations advance because the spirit in man enables abstract thinking, memory, foresight, and moral reasoning. Humans plan decades ahead. Humans construct systems of justice.

Humans write music and literature that express ideas about purpose and meaning. Humans ask questions about destiny and existence. Nothing in the animal kingdom reflects that full range of intellectual capacity. That being said, the spirit that is in man has limits. So we've seen that God created man with a spirit and that this spirit explains human intellect that we are different from the animals.

But now we have to face a different question. If the spirit in man gives such remarkable ability, is that ability enough to understand the things of God? Interesting question if you stop to ponder it. Paul addresses that in 1 Corinthians chapter 2:14. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 14 where Paul says, "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.

" The natural man, that's that's what's important about that. That's really just describing a human operating within human capacity alone. How we are with the mind that God gave to us as we were born. So that mind as we are is not capable of understanding spiritual things. So this Greek word that is translated as natural man.

Theyer's Greek lexicon defines this as quote the principle of animal life which men have in common with the brutes. In other words, it's how you were created. That's really all it's saying. So this natural man is just how you were created. All right. So Paul's describing a person functioning to live and breathe just like the animals but also only with the spirit in man.

The animals don't have that. So the life that God gave man which only includes human intellect. Okay. So now what Paul says about that condition, the natural man does not receive the things of the spirit of God. So it's not about this isn't about intelligence. We've already defined that the natural mind has intelligence. So it's not about that.

The problem is that it's limited. Human intellect can analyze the physical world. That's where mathematics comes from. That's where our designs, that's where our communication, all of that comes from our natural existence. But the human mind, that human spirit within us cannot by itself penetrate spiritual truth. You need to let that sink in.

Notice what Paul said about that condition of human beings. The natural man does not receive. Literally means to take, to accept, does not receive the things of the spirit of God. This explains something we see in the modern world. Humanity has mapped the human genome. We have sent probes beyond our solar system.

We perform complex surgery on the human body, even on animal bodies. We develop artificial intelligence. As remarkable as that is, yet moral confusion increases in this world despite human intellect. Human beings can master physics while redefining right and wrong because that's what we do.

So we're incapable of these incredible intellectual feats while at the same time as these incredible moral defeats. We can build cities while destroying families. We can design weapons capable of enormous destruction while claiming moral progress. So this tension exists because the spirit in man grants intellectual capacity but it does not grant spiritual understanding.

Paul reinforces this earlier in the chapter. We're in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Let's read verse 10. Verse 10 says, "But God has revealed them to us through his spirit. For the spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God." So the spirit has access to something we do not. The spirit of God has access to the deep things of God. We don't.

The key word here is reveal which means to uncover, to disclose, to make manifest. Spiritual truth must be disclosed to us by God. It's not discovered through reasoning or logic or human mental processing or intellect or anything else. It only comes through the spirit of God revealed given to us. So Paul's analogy in verse 11 becomes clearer here because just as the uh as only the spirit of man knows his inner thoughts, only the spirit of God knows the deep things of God.

Human intellect cannot find that knowledge on its own. It has to be given to us by God. So this boundary protects us from pride. We don't get to set ourselves up on that big high pedestal of how great we are because we don't give ourselves access to God and God knowledge. Only God can do that for us. Intelligence is a gift from God.

He gave every human being that wonderful gift. That's what allows us to build and to calculate and to design and to organize. But it does not give authority to redefine God's laws or judge his purpose. We have no access to that without God. Scripture shows examples of this limitation. You know, the leaders in Jerusalem during Christ's ministry were educated men.

They studied scripture. They debated doctrine. Yet, many failed to recognize the Messiah standing before them. The issue was not lack of mental ability. It was the absence of spiritual discernment. They did not have the spirit of God. Paul makes this contracts. We're still here in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Notice verse 16.

He says, "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he that he may instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ." All simply just acknowledging human beings don't have the mind of the Lord. But when we receive the spirit of God, we receive the mind of Christ. That means that we are sharing in Christ's way of thinking.

Obviously, that doesn't happen by human intellect and a human and you know training our own mind. Somehow that requires the spirit of God working with the human spirit. This explains why education does not equal wisdom. The person may hold multiple degrees and still reject the authority of scripture. Another person with little formal education may understand God's purpose clearly because God has granted them spiritual discernment through his spirit.

The spirit in man explains human achievement. It explains culture. It explains science. It explains law and language. It explains conscience. But it also explains why mankind can advance in technology while remaining divided about moral truth. Human re reasoning reaches its boundary when it approaches the deep things of God. It can't access that.

And now Paul's not belittling intellect. He's defining its limits. The spirit in man allows us to know the things of a man. The spirit of God allows us to know the things of God. And understanding that limit keeps us humble. Well, it should keep us humble. It reminds us that knowledge alone does not save. It reminds us that revelation is necessary.

Now, the fourth point I want to bring up in this study is how the spirit of God works with the spirit in man. Okay? So we've established that the spirit of man grants intellect. We've also established that intellect alone cannot access the deep things of God. Now we have to answer a practical question. When God gives his spirit, what actually happens? Does God override the human mind? Does he force us to believe? Does he compel us to obey? Scripture does not describe receiving God's spirit as coercion to those things. It describes cooperation.

We read earlier how Paul made this central comparison in verse 11 of 1 Corinthians chapter 2. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God except the spirit of God. Okay. So Paul's analogy teaches mental structure. We have an intellect, a mind capable of reasoning and thought.

So does God come along and move that mind aside to give us his mind? No. We still maintain our mind. The human spirit is what gives us access to human thought. But the spirit of God gives access access to God thought. They're not the same, but they do operate in parallel with one another.

God's mind now in and with our mind. Paul explains the purpose of receiving God's spirit in verse 12. 2 Corinth, we're still here in 1 Corinthians chapter 2:12 says, "Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God." This is the point.

How do we have the mind of Christ? Because we have the spirit of God. And notice the point that's being made there. Why did God give us the spirit? It says that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. That's the reason he gives us his spirit. That we might know the things of God. John, excuse me, Jesus describes the process in somewhat simple language in John.

Let's let's turn over here to John chapter 16. John chapter 16 and I'll read verse 13 here where he's talking about the spirit. It says, "However, when it," you'll notice that in your New King James and your King James, they use the word he because that's a desire from those who translated the scriptures to say that the Holy Spirit is a person and so they want to use he.

But actually in the Greek, the word has a gender. Okay? Spirit has a gender. And actually that gender is uh is the spirit is neutral. The anyway you get it's a whole other study. I'll come back to that another time. I've already talked about that in a different study. All right. Anyway, so let's read it accurately because the Holy Spirit is not a person.

It's a power. And so we read it correctly. They say, "However, when it, the Spirit of truth, has come, it will guide you into all truth, for it will not speak of its own authority, but whatever it hears, it will speak, and it will tell you things to come." The word guide here is active, but not coercive. This isn't the same thing as, let's say, you're a prisoner in a in a in a jail and the the guards come along and you're escorted to meal time or something like that.

You're escorted to go see the uh the warden. That's not that what this is called. The word is deliberately used here is guide. And you know what you do with a guide? You follow the guide. He he's going to point things out. He's going to show you where you're going. Um you know, he's going to he's going to help you to understand the journey.

But he's a leader. He's not making you, he's not forcing you to come along. That's an important distinction here. So, the spirit of God works with the spirit in man by illuminating truth and strengthening understanding. The human mind still evaluates. The human still chooses. Paul explains this partnership over in Romans chapter 8.

Romans chapter 8 on verse 16 Paul says here the spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Now notice the phrasing here the spirit itself with our spirit together they bear witness that we are children of God. This Greek phrase bears witness together with our spirit. This describes joint testimony.

Two operating together to witness the same thing. It would be like they're both called to testify on the stand and they both say the same thing. This tells us something essential. God created the human mind with the capacity to receive his spirit. It was designed for that purpose to work with our mind. The spirit in man provides the structure for thought, the structure for conscience, the structure for choice.

But God's spirit works within that mental structure. Animals were not created with that capability. Scripture never speaks of God's spirit bearing witness with the spirit of a beast. Now, let's pause here for just a second. Someone may ask about Balam's donkey. Didn't Didn't God's didn't go didn't the the donkey speak? How could the donkey speak? Well, doesn't and doesn't that prove that animals can receive God's spirit if he chooses to give it to them? Well, let's go back briefly here.

We're going to take a quick detour here. Don't lose your place of what we're talking about. We're simply talking about now how the spirit works with the mind of God, with the human mind, but yet it doesn't work with the animal mind. And and someone might argue, whoa, hey, how hang on. What about Balam's donkey? Okay, go back to Numbers chapter 22.

Let's just quickly read this. I don't want to leave this as a hanging chad because it'll be gnawing on some of you. So, let's go to Numbers chapter 22 and let's address this directly. Numbers chapter 22 and verse uh 28. It says, ' Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey and she the donkey said to Balam, "What have I done to you that you have struck me these three times?" Okay, this is the essentially the donkey talks to Balum.

It's an animal. How can an animal be talking to a human being unless God gives that animal his spirit and to enable it to talk? Is that the thinking here? But notice what the text actually says. It does not say that the donkey developed understanding. It does not say the donkey received discernment. It does not say the donkey was given the spirit of God.

It says the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey. The action belongs to God. This was divine intervention. God caused speech to occur. It spoke words that God enabled it to speak. The New Testament actually confirms or reinforces this. We were we were earlier in second Peter chapter 2. Let's go back there. Second Peter chapter 2. Now we'll read verse 16.

You know, this is the same section, isn't it? What we read earlier from verse 12, but it was all about the depravity of false teachers. But here in verse 16, he makes the point. He says, "But he was rebuked for his iniquity." talking about Balum, a dumb donkey speaking with a man's voice restrained the madness of the prophet.

He didn't say a smart donkey, a donkey given the Holy Spirit, a donkey filled with wisdom, none of that. He called it a dumb donkey cap, incapable of speech, of making human voice sounds, not capable of actually speaking as a human. So that makes this a miracle. So notice what the do donkey didn't do. It didn't preach a sermon. It didn't prophesy future events.

It didn't explain doctrine. It simply delivered a rebuke a rebuke from God that exposed Balam's blindness. Miracles, which is what that was. They don't redefine creation. I'll give you an example. When when God parted the Red Sea, do all seas now capable of parting themselves? No. When Jesus multiplied the loaves of bread, can all bread now, let's say, self cut into pieces or divide itself and make more bread by itself? Of course not.

You know, when Christ made the wine, is water now capable of instantly changing into wine whenever it wants to? And the answer, of course, is no. Those are miracles. God acting on his creation. Now those you could say are coerced, forced. The donkey didn't have a choice. You think you think God said to the donkey, "Hey, would you mind? Would would you mind? I just wanted to know how you feel about this.

" Of course not. That's what makes it a miracle and God's action that we recognize here. Okay. So, I just wanted to pause on that to say you're not seeing evidence in Balam's donkey of God giving his spirit to an animal the way that he gives his spirit to us. Okay. All right. End of sidebar. Back to the main message.

Now, let's be clear about something else. Okay. The spirit of God does not force obedience. Scripture consistently calls for our response. Remember Acts chapter 7 and verse 51. Acts chapter 7 is where Steven is giving his sermon. You remember that? That didn't end particularly well for him. But let's notice verse 51 of Acts chapter 7.

He says, "You stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears. You always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you." That's interesting, isn't it? But it does prove something. The Holy Spirit can be resisted. If it could not be resisted, Steven's rebuke makes no sense. So the spirit enlightens us. It convicts us. It strengthens us.

But it does not remove our free will. Paul describes another aspect of this working. Let's go to 2 Timothy chapter 1. Second Timothy chapter 1 and verse 7 where Paul says simply that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but the spirit he gives us is of power and of love and of a sound mind. That phrase sound mind means self-control or disciplined thinking.

So God's spirit strengthens the mind. It empowers mental self-control. This is important because the spirit of God does not bypass human intellect. It doesn't displace it. It doesn't replace it. It works with it. reinforces our intellect. It strengthens our ability to choose rightly. Think about repentance.

When a person comes to understand sin, what happens? We know real repentance, we see change. The mind recognizes truth because God reveals it through his spirit. first on the outside working with us and then on the inside helping us to actually change. So the conscience then gets stirred. The heart becomes convicted and the will chooses to change direction.

The spirit of God does not move a person like a puppet. You know, he doesn't stick his hand up into our brain and start mouthing for us the correct words he wants to hear. No, but it does sharpen our awareness and it strengthens our resolve. Paul explains that spiritual understanding that our spiritual understanding grows through this cooperation between our mind and the mind of Christ given to us.

The thinking of Christ through the spirit. Ephesians 1 17 and 18. Ephesians chapter 1 17 and 18. Paul says here in verse 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling.

What are the riches of his glory and of his inheritance in the saints? The phrase eyes of your understanding being enlightened describes our intellectual enlightenment illumination so that we can see the truth. the understanding. Well, we have that we can understand if God reveals something to us. So, it is the spirit that enlightens our understanding, doesn't it? That's the point.

So, this language harmonizes perfectly with Proverbs 20 27, which we read earlier. The human spirit is a lamp. Now we see that God adds to that light his spirit illuminating the truth for us to see. Our mind is capable of lighting up to a certain degree but not enough to see the spiritual.

God adds so that we can see the spiritual. But nothing in this process eliminates free will. This also explains why God's calling matters. God initiates the conversion process. He reveals the truth. He draws us into a relationship with him. But the human response remains our choice. Jesus said in John chapter 6 verse 44, John chapter 6 verse 44 he says no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws Paul's attracts that's what that means draws him and I will raise him up at the last day.

The word draw literally means to attract. It does not mean to compel irresistibly to force to make someone do something. Drawing requires a response. So now we can state everything that we've learned very clearly. God created a man with a spirit capable of thought, discernment, choice, understanding. That spirit makes human beings compatible with the reception of God's spirit.

When God gives his spirit, it works with the human spirit to illuminate truth to strengthen our conviction to empower our obedience. The mind still thinks, the conscience still evaluates, the will still chooses, the spirit does not override our mind. It enables spiritual understanding. This preserves both human responsibility and divine initiative.

Animals were not created with this mental structure. They operate by instinct. They do not evaluate divine law. They don't wrestle with repentance. The human spirit provides the necessary framework for moral accountability and spiritual growth. That's why Paul's argument in 1 Corinthians 2 is so precise.

The spirit in man explains human intellect. The spirit of God explains spiritual understanding. And the two working together is what happens when God gives us his spirit which leads us to grow spiritually in our understanding in our moral choices in becoming the children that God wants us to be. The final point completes the picture.

The spirit in man gives us the capacity to think. The spirit of God gives us the capacity to understand his truth and obedience flows from a mind that chooses to respond to that revealed truth. That's how it works. And that's why question 34, the spirit of man, is important for us to know and understand.