February 21, 1988
Most students would agree that they prefer objective questions to those that solicit a subjective response. In life as in test taking, the subjective is a moving target, increasing the likelihood of missing the mark entirely. In this message, Alistair Begg encourages us to reject the despair of a subjective approach to life. Instead, we can embrace Christ and Him crucified as the only correct answer to the most important questions we face.
1And I, when I came to you, brothers,1 xdid not come proclaiming to you ythe testimony2 of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2For I decided to know nothing among you except zJesus Christ and him crucified. 3And aI was with you bin weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of cthe Spirit and of power, 5so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men3 but din the power of God.
6Yet among ethe mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not fa wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, gwho are doomed to pass away. 7But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, hwhich God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8None of ithe rulers of this age understood this, for jif they had, they would not have crucified kthe Lord of glory. 9But, as it is written,
l“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has mprepared nfor those who love him”—
10these things oGod has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even pthe depths of God. 11For who knows a person's thoughts qexcept the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12Now rwe have received not sthe spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13And we impart this tin words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, uinterpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.4
14The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are vfolly to him, and whe is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15The xspiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16y“For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But zwe have the mind of Christ.
Copyright © 2024, Alistair Begg. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.