1 Corinthians 2:14 “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.”

Hello readers, today’s blog is for those that don’t “get it”. There’s nothing wrong with not being able to get it, in fact, it’s to be expected. And I don’t say that in an arrogant way, and hopefully you read to find out that fact. And I hope today that you will realize and recognize the true reason why you don’t get it. When I say “don’t get it”, I’m referring to the Bible. People don’t get it, that’s fact. But the Bible tells us why that is. And the Bible teaches and explains what is happening in those that don’t get it, but also how to fix it.

And you should really read 1 Corinthians 2 for yourself, because my thoughts are primarily from that chapter.

At the outset, one of the biggest challenges to telling people to “read their Bible” is that many people do not have a Bible these days, and many if they do, have one of these new “hip” versions of God’s word. Many versions of the Bible are a recent phenomena, it didn’t use to be this way. But many people that hate God’s word have gone into the Bible publishing business, there are people making new Bibles for money, and others make new Bibles to change what the Bible teaches.

But one of the problems with new Bibles is that in seeking to make God’s word “easier to understand”, they’ve taken people further from understanding. Because the issue with understanding the Bible has never been the “thees” and “thous” and the correct usage of the king’s English… the barrier to understanding is spiritual. So when I talk about new Bibles, it’s that they’ve changed the text to try to “get it” rather than realizing it’s they that need to change in order to “get it”. The Bible doesn’t need to change, YOU and I need to change.

What you have to realize about the Bible is that it is a spiritual book. It is called “the sword of the Spirit” in Ephesians 6:17. Jesus Christ, when he was preaching in John 6:63 said “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” And in saying that Jesus Christ was pointing us to where the issue really is in understanding the Bible… because the distance between you not understanding and understanding God’s word is the same distance between flesh and spirit, and those two are utterly separate!

The Bible is authored by the Holy Spirit of God. Men were inspired to speak and write, and that’s how we got the Bible. Yes human penmen were used, but it is God’s word. If you note the word “inspired”, that word is very related to the word “spirit”. And because the Bible is authored by the Holy Spirit, it takes the Holy Spirit to understand it. Anyone can read the Bible, but for most people, they are blinded to the truth that is therein. The wisdom of God’s words are hidden from them. And that’s frustrating isn’t it. Because as smart and capable as you think you are, your pride just takes you further from it! That’s how insulting the gospel is, that fishermen and tax collectors could understand what the scribes and Pharisees could not! And not just Bible, but the salvation therein is also kept from them, though it is laid out in such simple form a child can grasp it. And in fact, you must become as a child to enter the kingdom as Jesus said.

So there is a key to understanding the Bible, and the key isn’t your wisdom and intellect. The key is not your iq. The key is not in years of study. They key is not in changing the Bible. The key is not in the Greek and Hebrew text. Remember how Jesus said woe unto the lawyers because they had taken away “the key of knowledge”. What key is that?

Though you can read the Bible, and though you can assimilate it and great minds can draw lots of sense from it through intellectual and rational means, they only way you truly get it is through spiritual enlightenment. The Bible uses words like “quickened” and “enlightened” when it comes to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, beginning at salvation, because we need light, because without light, we cannot see. Just go into a pitch black room and you cannot see a thing. Turn the lights on, and now you can see what’s what and where’s where. So we need light. Jesus Christ said he was the light. So we mentioned “keys” before, and the key is him, it’s not in me, and it’s not in you. You know how modern day people talk about “you’ve got it in you”… well sorry, that’s a lie, the answer is not in you, the key is not in you.

But now, let’s explain why you cannot “get it”. Like why is it that anybody can’t just read the Bible and make perfect sense of it. Because it is the truth, yet why do not many people see and revere it as the truth? It’s a book that saves lives and builds lives, yet why are so few saved? There’s a problem, and this is the problem, a problem that we are going to clearly identify and see laid out in scripture, which is spiritual death. You know how Jesus said his words are spirit and life? Well, the problem is that we are DEAD.

So let’s go back to Genesis 3, read it for yourself! But in Genesis 3 we read about the fall of man. God had created a perfect creation, everything was perfect. The man and the woman that he created, the crown of his creation, he placed in the garden of Eden… paradise. God didn’t hold back any good thing from them, but he told them one “do not”. And the “do not” was for their good. Often we think God is against us having a good life… but God told them not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for their good. Because if they ate of it, they would surely die. And when they disobeyed God and ate of it, die they did. And if you read Genesis 3, you’ll find that there was a third party involved… the serpent, who we know is Satan, the devil. So he has a role in our spiritual death too.

But the important fact we want to draw from Genesis 3 is that mankind died spiritually in the day that they disobeyed God. Physically they lived many hundreds of years before dying, but that day, the instant they disobeyed God, they died spiritually. And that “death” is what has separated man from God, and that includes God’s word, to this day. Think about it, when someone dies, and their dead body is lying in the coffin, they can’t hear you, see you, feel you, touch you… they’re not aware of you, they’re not conscious of you, they do not interact with you. They’re dead to you and you’re dead to them. And now translate that physical picture of the spiritual realm, and in spiritual death, man is dead to God.

Let’s consider the word “death”. Death is primarily defined as “That state of a being, animal or vegetable, but more particularly of an animal, in which there is a total and permanent cessation of all the vital functions, when the organs have not only ceased to act, but have lost the susceptibility of renewed action.” And a secondary meaning of death is “Separation or alienation of the soul from God; a being under the dominion of sin, and destitute of grace or divine life; called spiritual death”.

With these definitions in mind, we see that death carries with it the idea of “separation”. When people die, they are separated from those that are still alive and that permanently. Death is horrible for that reason, because death has such a finality to it, you cannot see or communicate or contact that person that has died anymore. It is a complete and utter separation.

You may wonder how does one sin way back then, if it happened, affect me? Well the fact is, we all come from Adam and Eve. We all are born in Adam’s fallen image. Corrupted seed all the way from the beginning. And you take after Adam, like he sinned and lied and blamed, so do you and so do I. We inherited Adam’s sin, we are born in our sins, as David wrote in Psalm 51:5 “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” So we are all born spiritually dead, and because we are spiritually dead, we are utterly separated from God in the death of our sins. Isaiah 59:2 “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.”

So that’s the problem, spiritual death. So then how is this problem solved? Do you want it solved? Maybe you are happy in a life alienated from God, or maybe you want to draw nigh, which is it. The fact is, if you are spiritually dead in your sins, you cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God, which is God’s word.  That’s why Jesus Christ told Nicodemus, a religious man, but a lost man, that “ye must be born again”. Note: you can be religious, but spiritually dead. Many people at churches are as dead as those not at church.

And no, Jesus wasn’t talking about physical rebirth, but spiritual rebirth… which, when that happens, the Bible says that God “hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,” So we are begotten AGAIN! Born again! Are we are begotten again by someone, that is Christ, and more particularly, Christ’s resurrection from the dead, which when you believe on him, you are resurrected with him spiritually. How you are begotten again unto God is through God’s only begotten Son, who is the first begotten of the dead, when you are in Christ, you are raised with him in spiritual newness of life. Notice how the issue of “getting” the Bible ties directly to the person of Jesus Christ. He is the key, not was the key, he is the key right now to your spiritual life.

Maybe this is all a bit heavy, but think of it like this. There are two kingdoms. We are all born into the kingdom of this world, who’s god is Satan. This kingdom is totally separate from the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. God’s kingdom is an invisible kingdom to your physical eye. You see the evidence of it in people’s lives, like Christians who radiate the love of Christ to you, but you do not see it. God’s kingdom is a spiritual kingdom, one day to rule and reign on this earth, but the time is not yet. But now, to see and enter into God’s kingdom, you have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation from sin. That’s how you enter. He is the door. And when you get saved, you are “translated” into that kingdom, it is very mysterious, because you don’t see it physically, but it is a spiritual reality. And that’s why this Bible translation issue in churches is really so stupid, because salvation is a translation, if God can’t translate his word, how can he translate your soul and spirit?

To further (hopefully) help to understand, think about your pet dog or pet cat. Why don’t they think like you? Why aren’t they like you? Why don’t they behave like you? Why do they not communicate like you? Because they do not have the spirit of man that you have. You know how to be a human and are a human, because you have the spirit of man in you that every other animal does not. That’s what makes humans unique and special, because we are not just another animal, we were originally created in the image of God. And knowing that, it also means that our ultimate purpose is found in God, and you will never find ultimate fulfillment, purpose and peace in any other than Jesus Christ, who restores us to our created purpose. You were created in the image of God for relationship and fellowship with God, but that image has been lost in sin, do you want it back?

So please read 1 Corinthians 2 for yourself, it will explain to you better than I can why you do not get it, why the Bible is stupid to you, and it’s not because the Bible is foolish, it’s because you are (and I am!), and please re read it if you do not get it, ask God to show you what he is saying. Because I’ve talked to a number of my people in my lifetime, and I’ve experienced the truth that is that no matter how hard I might try, or even how well I won’t do, I cannot rationalize and explain you into the kingdom of God. There is no other entry but through the preaching of the cross which is received and believed. Yes I can give you good arguments and answer your questions about everything, but ultimately you must be born again. You cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God until you are born again by the Spirit of God. An “able minster” of the New Testament is someone that can minister the Spirit of God to others through preaching the gospel. We are ministers of the Spirit of God through the preaching of the cross, and that’s where the illumination is found. Jesus is the light of the world, if you want light, you need Christ, not my fancy or not so fancy arguments.

And so, if the Bible seems stupid to you, know that it is not a reflection of the Bible, but yourself. It’s not the Bible isn’t full of wisdom, it’s that God’s wisdom is hidden from you, you are blinded to it in unbelief and deadness of sins. 2 Corinthians 4:3,4 “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” Satan does not want you to see the light, his very job is to blind you to the truth of the gospel. Is he doing a good job of that in your life? Is the gospel hid to you? Has Satan hidden it from you?

The very point of the Bible is your and my salvation, that is our most important need, everything else flows from that fact, including understanding and “getting it”. It’s not God can’t articulate himself, it’s not he’s got poor social skills, it’s not that the Bible doesn’t make sense, but we have to be saved from our nonsense. A dead person is non responsive, all vital functions have shut down, and that is the sad plight of the unbeliever, sin will prevent you from ever truly living. Please just believe the Bible, even if you don’t see it all yet, the only thing you really need to “get” in order to get everything else is that you are a sinner, and Jesus Christ died for your sins, putting those facts in place in your life will order the rest. May God bless you and have a great day, and hopefully the beginning of the eternal day of your life.

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