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The Natural Man's Relation to Spiritual Truth

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The Natural Man's Relation to Spiritual Truth
I Corinthians 2:14

by John A. Kohler, III

According to this verse, the things of the Spirit of God (i.e., truths taught by the Holy Ghost; spiritual things) are spiritually discerned (i.e., evaluated, appraised, and understood only through the enablement of the Holy Ghost). What, then, is the precise relation of the natural man to spiritual truth?

I. The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God.

    A. The natural man is an unsaved, spiritually-dead, totally-depraved sinner. He is a soulish man, or a man who is dominated by the things of the world, the flesh, and the Devil.

    B. He does not receive (i.e., accept with favor, greet and welcome, admit into his heart) the truths taught in God’s Word, including those basic truths related to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

II. The natural man regards the things of the Spirit of God as foolishness.

    A. The word foolishness means “silliness, stupidity, or absurdity.”

    B. The natural man looks upon the truths taught in God’s Word, including those basic truths related to the gospel, as a lot of unimportant, irrelevant nonsense.

III. The natural man cannot know the things of the Spirit of God.

    A. The word know means “to perceive, comprehend, or understand.”

    B. The natural man does not have the capacity or ability to properly understand the truths taught in God’s Word, including those basic truths related to the gospel.

“Imagine that the natural man is like an AM-FM radio. God is transmitting spiritual truth by way of the Heavenly Broadcasting System (HBS) on an FM frequency. The FM part of the natural man’s receiver is totally broken; only the AM works, and it is tuned into the World Broadcasting System (WBS). This man has no capacity to receive the divine transmission of truth. His real need is a total repair job of the FM works. In a sense, this is what happens when regeneration takes place.” Robert Gromacki

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