07/19/2
However, as it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him"- but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. —1 Corinthians 2:9
Within our Christian circles, I have heard hundreds of people say things like, "You never know what God's going to do," or "The ways of God are higher than our ways." They say these things as if they could never understand Him. These types of statements might be accurate for the unsaved, but they are simply untrue for us who have been born again. Before we accepted salvation and made Jesus the Lord of our lives, we were estranged from God by many things. First, we were alienated from Him because of sin. Second, we were separated from Him in proximity. And third, we were disconnected from Him due to our lack of understanding. Now through Christ, God has closed all of the gaps that separated us from Him.
God is righteous and holy—that's just who He is. He is perfect in all that He does and in His judgments. This is true partly because His judgments are final. A long time ago, God judged sin and righteously called the penalty of sin death. It's important to understand that up until now, He has only judged sin and not the individual. This judgment has created a great void between God the Father and the people to whom He so desperately wants to show His love. The good news is that Jesus was made to be sin and was judged for us. His death, burial and resurrection have removed the barrier of sin. Those who have received His Lordship are no longer separated from God by sin.
Before the resurrection, there were only two places on the earth to find the manifested presence of God. God's presence was manifested in the temple and people could make contact with Him there. Then, when Jesus—God come in the flesh—walked the earth, God came out of the temple and made Himself available to all who would come. Now, as a wonderful part of the new birth, God through the Holy Spirit actually lives and dwells inside the spirits of men. Through Christ we are no longer separated from God's presence because He is ever-present in our lives as we carry Him with us.
In the past, God was a mystery to men. They had to be taught about Him by priests or prophets. Men were separated from God in understanding. God is Spirit and the truths about God must be spiritually understood. If a man isn't spiritual, but is natural or even sinful, then He can't comprehend the very essence of God or even begin to understand the way He thinks. That's why God has given us His precious Holy Spirit. In that wonderful gift, God has shared with us His very thoughts. If you've been born again, God shouldn't be hard for you to understand because He now lives in you and shares His current thoughts by the Spirit dwelling within you.
If you have been born again, if Jesus is your Lord and Savior, then God isn't far from you—He's near. You don't have to go to a special place designated by men to find Him—He's right there with you. If you’re part of the body of Christ, then God's ways aren't too difficult to understand because you now have His thoughts in you. God is not separated from you any longer—He has drawn you near!
Scriptural Context 1 Corinthians 2:6-15
Concept Reinforcement "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ. —1 Corinthians 2:16
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own… —1 Corinthians 6:9
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. —2 Corinthians 5:21
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