Ministry of Grace Church

But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

Truth to Learn

The Holy Spirit reveals the truth of the gospel to Christians.

Behind the Words

“Has revealed” is translated from the verb apokaluptō. This word is made up of apo, meaning “from” or “away from” and kaluptō, meaning “to cover” or “to conceal.” Therefore, we see that apokaluptō means “to uncover” or “to reveal.”

The words “to us” are from the first person plural personal pronoun humin, meaning “to us, by us, or in us.” As we have mentioned before, word order is important in Greek. In the Greek text, this is the first word in this sentence, indicating special emphasis on this word.

“Searches” is from the Greek verb ereunaō, which means “to search into,” “to investigate,” or “to explore.”

The words “all things” are from the Greek word pas, meaning “all” or “every.” It is expressed in the neuter person, so it refers to “all things” or “everything.”

Bathē is the Greek word translated “deep things.” It refers to something that is deep, like the ocean. Metaphorically, it refers to something that is very great or profound.

Meaning Explained

Paul has been talking about God’s wisdom in His plan of salvation. This truth is hidden from the minds and hearts of natural man but is now being revealed to those who believe God’s truth. You may recall that Paul told us that “the rulers of this age” did not, and do not, understand the wisdom of God. Instead, they think they are wise in their own reasonings, which God sees as foolishness. In yesterday’s verse we were told that the natural mind of man cannot understand God’s wisdom. But now, we learn why Christians can understand this wisdom.

We are told here that the understanding of God’s plan of salvation is revealed to us (those who believe His truth regarding the substitutionary death and subsequent resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God) by His Spirit. When Jesus was speaking to a crowd of people, He thanked the Father for hiding these truths from the “wise and prudent” and for revealing them to us:

At that time Jesus answered and said, "I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes." (Matthew 11:25)

Notice that our salvation is the work of all three persons of the godhead. The father chose us (Ephesians 1:3, 4; 1 Peter 1:2), the Son gave His life for us (1 Thessalonians 4:14), and the Holy Spirit reveals the truth to us (1 Corinthians 2:10, John 16:12-14). Also notice that even though Christ’s death was sufficient to pay the penalty for everyone’s sins, without the Father having chosen us and the Holy Spirit having revealed the truth to us, we could not be saved.

Application

These truths about our election, God’s choice to save us and the revealing of this truth to us by the Holy Spirit, are hard to accept by many Christians. Instead, they want to believe that salvation is based on their own choice to believe the truth. However, the Bible clearly teaches that our salvation is God’s work, not our own. This should cause us to be humbly grateful.