One important concept that applies to Bible study is the importance of regeneration. Paul tells us, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14). First, consider what Paul is saying here.
Sometimes we might look at this passage as if it said this: “The unregenerate man cannot have intellectual understanding of the Scriptures, since only the Holy Spirit gives understanding. Those without the Spirit are going to see the Bible almost as if it were gobbledygook or were written in ancient hieroglyphics.” That is not what Paul is saying here. He is not denying that unregenerate men may understand the Bible (the things of the Spirit) on a purely intellectual level – the natural man may very well be able to state what the Bible says. What Paul is saying is that the natural man will not take the Bible to heart, that he will not accept it as true, that he will not love it, because only the Holy Spirit can work that in him.
Consider two other passages in Scripture which bear this out.
However, what Scripture shows is that it is entirely possible for unregenerate men to have an intellectual grasp of the Bible. It is not a fault in the teaching of the Bible if unbelievers can intellectually comprehend that teaching. It is certainly possible for students to get As on all our Bible tests, to memorize Scripture, to give all the right answers in class, and yet be unbelievers. That is not a fault in our teaching, but is actually to be expected, based on the experience of Jesus and Paul.
So does that mean we should be satisfied if our students can ace all our tests, if they can recite many Scriptures from memory, if they know all the right answers in Bible class? Is that all we look for? Of course not! We long most of all that our students be true children of God – that they all come to saving faith in Christ, that they live their lives for Him, that they worship Him in Spirit and in truth. No teacher of the Word of God is content with students who can simply give the right answers on Bible tests, but who have no love for Christ. In fact, Bible teachers grieve over such students, for those students are heaping greater judgment upon themselves. Having known the truth and rejected it, they come under greater condemnation than if they had never known it to begin with. “For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them” (2 Pet. 2:21). Those students who ace our Bible tests but who reject Christ will be judged more severely at the final day than if they had never heard the Bible.
But should we then conclude that we should not teach the content of the Bible, since it will only increase judgment on our students who are not believers? By no means! “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” (Rom. 10:14) If our students do not hear the Word of God – the whole Word of God – they are never going to come to saving faith. The Holy Spirit uses His Word – the Bible which is taught in Bible classes – to bring our students to saving faith in Christ.
Are all our students going to come to saving faith? If we have students – either current or former – who appear to be unbelievers, does that indicate a fault with our Bible teaching? Not necessarily. Consider these cases:
We must remember that there is a limit to what we can do in this regard. Only the Holy Spirit can change the hearts of our students, so it would be illegitimate to place “regeneration” as a goal of our curriculum. That is something which we cannot expect to achieve on our own. Our emphasis must be to present the whole truth of God in the context of prayer, while we profess our need of the grace of God as much as our students do.
The point here, is that we can (and should) faithfully teach the whole Word of God, press the claims of Christ on our students, pray earnestly for their salvation, and grieve over those who are lost – we can do all those things and still have students who are unregenerate and who reject the faith, either while they are here or after they leave. That is not necessarily a fault of our Bible instruction, but instead is the result of sin in the hearts of our students, and a recognition that the Spirit of the Lord regenerates whom He will.
[1] http://bible.cc/1_corinthians/2-14.htm
- The natural person – in the context, that is someone who is not regenerate, someone who does not have the Spirit of God working in their lives, someone who is not a true Christian.
- He does not accept the things of the Spirit of God – The key word here is “accept.” It also means to “receive” or to “hold on to.” The force of the word is to embrace them. As Barnes says in his commentary, “he rejects them as folly; he does not perceive their beauty, or their wisdom; he despises them. He loves other things better.”[1]
- They (the things of the Spirit) are folly to him – In the Bible, “folly” does not mean “incomprehensible,” as if it were in a foreign language. Instead, it refers to things that are vain, useless, or worthless. Paul’s point here is that, for the unregenerate man, the things of the Spirit are counted as empty or as worthless.
- He is not able to understand the things of the Spirit – Literally, the text says he is not able to “know” them. Again, we need to consider what the Bible says about “knowing.” Rarely does the word refer to what we consider “intellectual knowledge” as in “I know that 2+2=4.” Instead, “knowledge” in Scripture refers to love, commitment, or a covenant relationship, as in “for whom He [God] foreknew, them He also predestined” (Rom. 8:29). So this phrase in 1 Cor. 2:14 needs to be seen as parallel to the previous phrase, that the natural man “does not accept the things of the Spirit of God.”
- The things of the Spirit are spiritually discerned – The key word here is “discerned,” which means “judged, scrutinized, or questioned” especially in a courtroom setting to determine the truthfulness of something. What Paul is saying here is that the only way things of the Spirit can be properly judged or accepted as true is by the working of the Holy Spirit. He is not saying the natural man cannot figure them out, or cannot intellectually comprehend them. Instead, the man without the Spirit cannot properly judge the truthfulness of the things of the Spirit.
Sometimes we might look at this passage as if it said this: “The unregenerate man cannot have intellectual understanding of the Scriptures, since only the Holy Spirit gives understanding. Those without the Spirit are going to see the Bible almost as if it were gobbledygook or were written in ancient hieroglyphics.” That is not what Paul is saying here. He is not denying that unregenerate men may understand the Bible (the things of the Spirit) on a purely intellectual level – the natural man may very well be able to state what the Bible says. What Paul is saying is that the natural man will not take the Bible to heart, that he will not accept it as true, that he will not love it, because only the Holy Spirit can work that in him.
Consider two other passages in Scripture which bear this out.
- Acts 26 – Paul here is presenting his defense before King Agrippa. At one point, Paul says, “King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe” (vs. 27). However, it is obvious from the context that Agrippa was not a regenerate believer. So what did Paul mean here? He was saying that Agrippa had intellectual knowledge of what the Old Testament prophets said. Even though Agrippa was unregenerate, he was able to follow an intellectual defense based on the prophets.
- Matthew 23:1-3 – “Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, ‘The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do.” Jesus is telling His followers that the scribes and Pharisees – who were definitely not faithful believers – had the position of teaching the Scriptures, and His disciples needed to hear that teaching, but not to follow the lifestyle of the scribes and Pharisees. What the scribes taught was true, insofar as they were presenting the Scriptures (from the “seat of Moses”). But their lifestyle showed that they did not truly accept or grasp that teaching. Jesus does not deny that the scribes and Pharisees had a true intellectual knowledge of the Scriptures – He is saying that they did not believe those Scriptures from their heart.
However, what Scripture shows is that it is entirely possible for unregenerate men to have an intellectual grasp of the Bible. It is not a fault in the teaching of the Bible if unbelievers can intellectually comprehend that teaching. It is certainly possible for students to get As on all our Bible tests, to memorize Scripture, to give all the right answers in class, and yet be unbelievers. That is not a fault in our teaching, but is actually to be expected, based on the experience of Jesus and Paul.
So does that mean we should be satisfied if our students can ace all our tests, if they can recite many Scriptures from memory, if they know all the right answers in Bible class? Is that all we look for? Of course not! We long most of all that our students be true children of God – that they all come to saving faith in Christ, that they live their lives for Him, that they worship Him in Spirit and in truth. No teacher of the Word of God is content with students who can simply give the right answers on Bible tests, but who have no love for Christ. In fact, Bible teachers grieve over such students, for those students are heaping greater judgment upon themselves. Having known the truth and rejected it, they come under greater condemnation than if they had never known it to begin with. “For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them” (2 Pet. 2:21). Those students who ace our Bible tests but who reject Christ will be judged more severely at the final day than if they had never heard the Bible.
But should we then conclude that we should not teach the content of the Bible, since it will only increase judgment on our students who are not believers? By no means! “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” (Rom. 10:14) If our students do not hear the Word of God – the whole Word of God – they are never going to come to saving faith. The Holy Spirit uses His Word – the Bible which is taught in Bible classes – to bring our students to saving faith in Christ.
Are all our students going to come to saving faith? If we have students – either current or former – who appear to be unbelievers, does that indicate a fault with our Bible teaching? Not necessarily. Consider these cases:
- In Colossians 4:14 and Philemon 1:24, Paul refers to Demas as one of his fellow workers. However, near the end of his life, Paul says that Demas was “in love with this present world [and] has deserted me” (2 Tim. 4:10). Demas showed himself (at least at that point in time) to be an unbeliever, as one who loved the world more than he loved Christ. Is that because Paul had not taught him properly? Did Paul not disciple and mentor Demas appropriately? Was Paul merely satisfied that Demas was following along with him for years, but was not concerned about his soul – is that why Demas deserted Paul? Of course not. The fact that Demas turned away was an indictment against Demas, not against Paul.
- Judas Iscariot had the inestimable privilege of following the Lord Jesus Christ for three years. He heard the very words of life from the Savior’s lips; he did miracles in the name of Jesus; he went through a three-year mentorship along with the other disciples. And what happened? He betrayed the Son of God! Surely we would not point to Judas and say that Jesus’ teaching was at fault, that Jesus should have done more to call Judas to saving faith, that Jesus should have spent more one-on-one time with Judas rather than spending all that time teaching, preaching, healing, etc. No, Judas sat under the most perfect course of instruction the world has ever seen, and still he rejected Christ.
- We are always going to have both regenerate and unregenerate students in our classes. In this world, the wheat and tares grow together (Matt. 13:24-30). They are not finally separated until the harvest (the final judgment). We can count on having unregenerate students in our classes (or school, or church). Our teaching must take that into account.
- We cannot know which students fall into which category. “The Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7). “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? I the Lord search the heart” (Jer. 17:9-10). We can be fairly confident that some of our students may be unregenerate (although it is possible that a particular class could be made up entirely of true believers). But we cannot know which students are regenerate and which ones are unregenerate.
- “What about Christ’s teaching that ‘you will recognize them by their fruits’ (Matt. 7:16)? Doesn’t that mean we should be able to tell which of our students are regenerate and which are not – not infallibly, but to some degree?” Notice about whom Christ says this – false prophets (vs. 15). So, in context, Christ is not here saying that we should be able to know a person’s status of regeneration by looking at their lives (their fruits). Rather, He tells us to examine the outcomes (fruit) of the work of a prophet (teacher). Is that teacher producing disciples who are opposed to the things of God, who live ungodly lives? Then that is a false prophet – you can discern the prophet by the results he produces. Of course, Christ later applies a similar concept to individuals in Matthew 12:35 – “The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.” A person’s heart condition – regenerate or unregenerate – will manifest itself in outward behaviors. However, that might not happen instantly or even in a limited time frame. An unregenerate person may for a time (even a long time) appear outwardly to be regenerate. Consider again the example of Judas Iscariot. For three years, he gave outward indications of being one of Jesus’ true disciples. Or consider John’s teaching: “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us” (1 Jn. 2:19). Here were individuals who, for a season, appeared to be true believers; however, they abandoned the faith, showing that they never had been truly regenerate. On the other hand, a regenerate person may live in a way that looks the same as an unregenerate person. Consider Peter – here was someone who denied the Lord with curses. To all outward appearances, at that time he seemed to be an unbeliever in the same category as Judas Iscariot. However, Peter was truly one of the regenerate, and the Lord restored him. The same thing was true of King David, the man after God’s own heart, who committed adultery and murder. At that point in his life, David would have appeared to be unregenerate. However, the Lord graciously forgave him and restored him. Even true believers may fall into grievous sin and may, for a time, appear to be unregenerate. Over time, however, the Lord so works in their lives that they manifest the fruit of the Spirit. All this is to say that, while we may look at the fruits of our students’ lives and have an idea about their heart status, we have to recognize that the outward appearances are all we can look at – the Lord alone looks on the heart.
- “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deut. 29:29). If we cannot know the status of our students regarding regeneration, what do we do? “All the words of this law.” That is, since we cannot know the secret things of the Lord, we are called to do what He has revealed to us in His Word. And, for our purposes, we have outlined that above as we considered Matt. 28 and 2 Tim. 3. We are to make disciples by teaching the whole Word of God – a Word that provides instruction, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness.
- Since the entire Bible is profitable, according to 2 Tim. 3, God is able to use any portion of His Word in the lives of our students for those purposes. The Lord may use any part of Scripture to bring a student to saving faith. We tend to think about the “obvious” salvation passages (John 3:16, the “Romans Road,” etc.), and believe that if we are going to see our students come to saving faith then we must narrow our teaching to those “salvation” passages. However, we all have heard testimonies about individuals who were brought to saving faith in Christ by hearing what might be thought to be an “obscure” passage. And remember that Christ said that the entire Old Testament spoke of Him (John 5:39; Lk. 24:27). That means that, for example, in our Old Testament Survey class (even in the books of Judges, Esther, or Lamentations), we may present Christ to our students and see some of them come to saving faith in Christ.
We must remember that there is a limit to what we can do in this regard. Only the Holy Spirit can change the hearts of our students, so it would be illegitimate to place “regeneration” as a goal of our curriculum. That is something which we cannot expect to achieve on our own. Our emphasis must be to present the whole truth of God in the context of prayer, while we profess our need of the grace of God as much as our students do.
The point here, is that we can (and should) faithfully teach the whole Word of God, press the claims of Christ on our students, pray earnestly for their salvation, and grieve over those who are lost – we can do all those things and still have students who are unregenerate and who reject the faith, either while they are here or after they leave. That is not necessarily a fault of our Bible instruction, but instead is the result of sin in the hearts of our students, and a recognition that the Spirit of the Lord regenerates whom He will.
[1] http://bible.cc/1_corinthians/2-14.htm