1 Corinthians 2:9-10 (ESV)
[9]
But, as it is written,
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him”—
[10]
these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches
everything, even the depths of God.
In
verse nine above Paul quotes from Isaiah 64. Two thoughts come to mind as I
reflect on these two verses. The first is that what is being written in this letter
to the Corinthian church by Paul is not Paul’s thoughts or ideas. It seems
common today to hear about Paul’s theology or Paul’s gospel in contrast to
Jesus’s gospel and theology like they are two different things. But Jesus said,
“whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise” (Jn 5:19), “I do nothing
on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me” (Jn 8:28), and “what
I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me" (Jn 12:50). Jesus also
said, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth,
for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak
(Jn 16:13). So Jesus said what the Father told him to say and the Spirit speaks
what he hears from the Father and the Son. What Paul wrote is sourced in the
Old Testament scriptures and the revelation of the Spirit. How can there be any
distinction or disagreement then between Jesus and Paul? It is one gospel and
one theology whether you are reading Jesus’s words or Paul’s. These are not
Paul’s ideas. They are God's.
Second,
what God promises to those who love him is something even beyond our
imagination. We live in an incredible world, and yet it is a world tainted by sin.
What God has planned for us is something beyond our imagination. As a child I
remember being taught that heaven was a place where we were going to be singing
all the time. I imagined us standing on the gold paved streets singing forever.
To be honest, that didn’t seem like a lot of fun. Of course when I raised that
objection I was told that when I got there I would really like it, but that
didn’t help a lot. Biblically, that could not be further from the truth. Heaven
is so much more. It is a very real place where we will live, serve, work, and worship
in ways that are yet beyond our imagination. To be honest, the reply I got when
I was a child was right, only in a much bigger way than I understood. When I
get there I will really, really like it.
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