Things That Are Free
So we have the spirit of man that knows everything about man and then we have the spirit of God that knows everything about God. Verse 12 says we have not received the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. I think we can all agree that it is the spirit of God that knows everything about God and not the spirit of man. Let’s remember that man operates out of his own spirit in this world and the wisdom he uses only knows about man.
If the spirit of God knows everything about God and He lives in you, what do you suppose He wants to teach you? He wants to teach you the things of God that have been freely given to you. He doesn’t say the spirit will tell you how to work for the things of God. He also will not tell you how to believe for them either and what to do to get these things from God. He will teach you those things that are freely given to you by God.
When you hear people telling you what you must do to get right with God, you are NOT hearing from the spirit of God because the spirit of God teaches you the things that God has given are free. If you have to work to get and stay righteous (right standing with God) then is that something that’s free? How can it be free if you must work and strive to get it and keep it? What you are hearing from is the spirit of man and we have seen that it is something God calls foolishness.
The spirit of God will only tell you one thing and that is that everything that comes from God is free. In verse 13 it says the spirit of God will not teach you what man’s wisdom teaches but that which the Holy Ghost teaches. Paul is telling them he is not going to be teaching them with what man’s wisdom teaches. He chose to teach them in a different way than what they were used to hearing. He was teaching them what God had given to them that was free.
What is this that Paul was telling them they had received freely from God? It cannot be that they had to stay under law and work at keeping their right standing with God. If he was telling them that, then he was not telling them something that was free if they had to work for it. No, He was telling them God had freely given them righteousness through the redemption that had been purchased for them at the cross by God’s Son. That is what has been freely given to us by God and it was a free gift to all mankind. He was not looking at any of this through his own (man’s) wisdom but through the spirit of God that knows all things about God.
If you are listening to what you are being told about how to stay in God’s grace and what you must do and continue doing to keep in that right standing, then you are listening to man’s wisdom and it is foolishness. If you are listening to what the spirit of God says you will be hearing about everything God has freely given to all of us. Redemption, justification, sanctification and all that is free without our works or involvement. It is finished and it was all given freely.
