Dulled Minds…Foolish Reasoning

Dulled Minds…Foolish Reasoning

"The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Corinthians 2:14).

The men of Christ’s day heard Him speak and saw Him work and were at a loss to account for Him.  They were not willing to call Him God, for that would have meant the acceptance of His standards of righteousness and the consequent condemnation of themselves.  Yet they knew He was not an ordinary man.  They asked Him whether He were Elijah, John or another of the prophets.  They called Him a wine–bibber, as though to associate His sayings with those of some of His companions.  It must be realized that there was something in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ that was not intelligible on the basis of any ordinary human explanation.  His enemies saw this and said that He had a demon, His friends and family tried to protect Him from this outrageous accusation by the equally foolish apology that He was a lunatic!  What an example of dullness of perception of the human mind untouched by the Spirit of God!  It is no wonder that God says that "The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Corinthians 2:14).

Can it be possible that His family and friends ever thought Him insane?  The evidence that they did is clearly set forth in the Gospels, and we wish to tell the story and show what Jesus Christ said and did when men thought that He had gone crazy… Men thought that Jesus Christ was demon–possessed or crazy because He was God, moving, speaking, and working according to the methods that are beyond human understanding.  God tells us through Isaiah, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8-9).  Because there is this warfare of the divine against the human which is now in a fallen state, that which God does will always appear foolish to those who are untouched by the Spirit of God in regeneration.  This is the reason for Christ’s great imperative, "Ye must be born again" (John 3:7).

Dr. Barnhouse warns us that rational appeals alone will never change the way men think about Christ.  Unless the Holy Spirit brings life to their dead minds they will never understand the ways of God.  Preach the Word…trust His work of grace to change the sinners reasoning.

Further Reading: Matthew 12:43-50