What role do we and the Holy Spirit play in understanding
the Bible? Is our task primarily (or ‘only’) to ‘let go and let God’ and ‘be
lead by the Spirit?’ Now certainly all believers are lead by the Holy Spirit
(Rom. 8), but does this negate any human effort? Do our attempts to understand
the text of Scripture simply account to nothing more than trying to understand ‘by
the flesh?’
Human effort and spirituality are not antithetical. One of
the most basic justifications for this is seen in the person of Jesus Christ.
Though fully God—completely and wholly divine—he was also fully man, complete
with his limitations and weaknesses. To deny Christ’s humanity as though it
were beneath him (a form of ancient docetism), is to deny the goodness of
creation. Christ’s incarnation was certainly very humbling, but it was not
evil. In fact, Paul would want to say that all of creation is good because it
was made by a good God (1 Tim. 4:4).
Here then is the connection between the incarnation and the
goodness of thinking: Christ’s full humanity legitimizes our human efforts in
understanding Scripture. Sweating, thinking, pondering are all physical acts…and
they are good. That the immortal God would become man is certainly an
affirmation of the goodness of creation. Those who resist personal efforts of
study, therefore, are implicitly attacking the goodness of the humanity of
Christ.
Thus, the distinction between what we often mean by being ‘lead
by the Spirit’ or ‘trying to understanding a passage’ is a false dichotomy.
There is nothing necessarily less spiritual about analyzing the grammar of a
text or the historical context. Conversely, there is nothing more spiritual
about refusing to study simply because you believe the Spirit will give you
understanding. Matter is good. That includes our brains. As we use them, in
total submission to God, we are acting spiritually.
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