Luke 24:45 “And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.”
In the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit confirms the truth to us that it is the Lord who opens our understanding to His word. The context of this passage is that this was the first night that the Lord Jesus had appeared to the disciples after He was raised from the dead. On that occasion the Lord began to teach the disciples a number of things that they could not understand while He was still with them in the flesh. But now that Jesus had been raised from the dead and the saints had seen Him and believed, they were at that point born-again and so Jesus could open their understanding to the scriptures and He could now teach them spiritual truths that they could not grasp before. And so we see the principle reinforced, which is that unless the Lord Jesus opens our understanding to His word our minds cannot be renewed.
Ephesians 1:15-18 “Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, (16) do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: (17) that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, (18) the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.”
We have seen thus far that in order to renew our minds we first need understanding of God’s word, and that it is only the Lord who can give us that understanding. And so we have seen that when we come into the kingdom that the Lord takes the veil away from our hearts and opens our understanding to the scriptures for the first time. Nevertheless there is a further truth regarding this concept that we need to understand, which is that the Lord does not give us full understanding of all of His word the moment we are born-again, but rather the revelation that He gives to us is progressive. And so it is for this reason that the scriptures teach us that prayer is required in order for the saints to grow in spiritual understanding. In other words we need to continually ask God to give us more understanding of His word. The apostle Paul understood this truth, which is why as quoted in the above passage of scripture, he prayed for the church at Ephesus that the eyes of their understanding would be enlightened. And so even though that church had been taught God’s word Paul recognised that he needed to pray for them to receive further revelation of God’s word so that their minds could be further renewed. And so we see that as believers we need to be constantly praying the same prayer that the Holy Spirit taught Paul to pray, for as we do God will begin to answer that prayer and we will begin to see truths in His word that we have never seen before as God takes us into progressive understanding of His word.
1 Corinthians 3:1-2 “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. (2) I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able.”
In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul speaks of the milk and the solid food of God’s word. Paul uses these analogies to explain the concept of the saints initially having limited understanding of God’s word and only progressing to a deeper understanding of His word as they grow in the Lord. And so in this passage Paul confirms the truth to us that the saints receive progressive revelation of God’s word, and the reason he gives for that is because young Christians are unable to understand certain truths in God’s word because their mindsets, still being carnal, would not be able to comprehend it. And so initially believers can only partake of the milk of God’s word, but as they spend time in God’s word and as they begin to understand parts of His word He then begins to reveal more to them thus enabling them to start partaking of the solid food of God’s word.
Hebrews 8:10 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the House of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
Under the New Covenant God writes His laws in our spirits and in our minds. This truth is confirmed to us by the Holy Spirit in the above quoted passage of scripture. This is one of the major differences between the saints under the New Covenant and the Old, for God never wrote His laws on the hearts and minds of the Old Covenant saints. God writes all of His laws in our spirits the moment we are born-again. However, God only writes His laws in our minds as and when He opens our understanding to His word. Nevertheless when God writes His laws in our hearts and minds that word becomes a part of us for all eternity.
Michael E.B. Maher
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