Colossians 3:9-10 “Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, (10) and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.”
In the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit once again confirms the truth to us that the born-again spirit has spiritual understanding, for the new man that He is referring to in this passage is the born-again spirit of the believer. I want you to notice from this passage that the Holy Spirit says that our spirits are renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created our new man. A more accurate translation of the word “renewed” in this passage is “made new”, and that would be the more appropriate rendering of this word, for our spirits have become new creations of God (2 Corinthians 5:17) which includes their understanding, whereas our minds are not new creations and thus still need to be renewed (Romans 12:2). In other words the Holy Spirit is telling us in this passage that our born-again spirits, which have been created by God in the image of Jesus Christ, have been given knowledge and understanding. So does that mean that our spirits know everything that God knows? Not at all, for the apostle Paul teaches us very clearly that in this life we only know in part, and that we will only have perfect knowledge when we go to be with the Lord Jesus and see Him face to face (1 Corinthians 13:9-12).
Hebrews 10:16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them.”
The question is then asked, what knowledge and understanding does God impart to our spirits when we are born-again? The answer to that question is that it is the knowledge and understanding of God’s word that is imparted to our spirits. In the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit confirms this truth to us, for in this passage God says that under the New Covenant He puts His laws into our hearts. The heart that God is referring to in this passage is the spirit of the believer. When God puts His laws into our spirits He does so by giving our spirits understanding of His word, for if we did not understand the word written in our hearts it would be of no benefit to the saint at all. For not understanding God’s word is the same as not having access to His word. And so there is another important aspect of this truth that we need to understand, which is that our spirits are not reliant on an external source for spiritual understanding of God’s word, for our spirits are taught by God Himself. Our Lord Jesus confirmed that same truth to us when He was on the earth, when He stated that the New Testament saints would be taught by God (John 6:45).
1 John 2:20-21 “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. (21) I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.”
The context of the above quoted passage of scripture is that the apostle John is teaching the church about false teachers. And so in this passage John confirms to us the same truth that the apostle Paul taught, i.e. that our spirits have full knowledge of God’s word, for he says that we know all things. When John says that the saints know all things he goes on to elaborate what he means by that statement, for he speaks about us knowing the truth of God’s word and not being deceived by any false doctrine that we may come across in our Christian walk. In this passage John also confirms to us where our spirits acquire their knowledge of God’s word, for he speaks about the anointing teaching us all things. The anointing that John is referring to in this passage is the Holy Spirit.
Michael E.B. Maher
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