Due Apprehensions

I have recently been reading R. C. Sproul’s book; “The Soul’s Quest for God.” In the book I am gaining some great insights into the Biblical pattern for spiritual growth. I was struck by the chapter on Divine Illumination and just how essential the power of the Holy Spirit is for us to truly grasp and understand and know and enter into relationship with God.

Sproul bases the chapter on a famous sermon delivered by Jonathon Edwards in 1734 entitled “A Divine and Supernatural Light”. The sermon is based on Matthew 16:17;

Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.

Of this verse, Edwards states; “The spiritual light is not the suggestion of any new truths or propositions not contained in the Word of God…But this spiritual light that I am speaking of, is quite a different thing from inspiration. It reveals no new doctrine, it suggest no new proposition to the mind, it teaches no new thing of God, or Christ, or another world, not taught in the Bible, but only gives a due apprehension of those things that are taught in the Word of God.”

So we are reminded that for spiritual growth there must be a work of the Holy Spirit in each of us. That work is a comforting assistance in the illumination and understanding of the Word of God in a manner that is due the Word of God.

Sproul maintains that there are some things non-Christians can learn; they can be affected to some degree, but are so much less than true illumination and revelation. So by divine illumination we can begin to see and understand the things of God in a manner worthy of God…that is “due apprehension”.

Edwards goes on to tell us that it is so much more than knowledge; it is so much more than a rational belief. Edwards states; “There is not only a rational belief that God is Holy and that holiness is a good thing, but there is a sense of the loveliness of God’s holiness…there is a difference between having an opinion that God is holy and gracious, and having a sense of the loveliness and beauty of that holiness and grace. There is a difference between having rational judgment that honey is sweet, and having a sense of its sweetness.”

Father, we thank you for your Holy Spirit who provides the divine illumination, who reveals and helps us have the due apprehension of your Word. Thank you that through Christ and by your Spirit and Word we can come to truly know, to sense, to taste the sweetness of a relationship with you.

Grace and Peace!