MAN'S MENTAL FACULTIES NO HELP IN THE TRUTH

MAN’S MENTAL FACULTIES NO HELP IN THE TRUTH

In reply to your letter as to ‘the mental faculties of man’ — Man’s mental faculties, as far as I see, do not help him in receiving the truth. If a man does not understand the truth which he is attempting to present he cannot bring it home to the conscience. The plainer you speak and the more you address the conscience the more you leave your hearers without excuse, but very often the plainer you make it the more incomprehensible it is to the natural understanding. Take for example John 4: 14: He that “drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst”. The more you expound “never thirst” the more incomprehensible it is to the natural mind, because it is contrary to all human experience. Some will say it is splendid, but impossible. I do not see that your natural mind is any help to you in acquiring the things of God. The natural man understandeth not the things of the Spirit of God. The Corinthian snare is man’s wisdom. The Galatian snare is perfection in the flesh. When you acquire the meaning of scripture by the human mind you reduce it to the human level. This is the great mischief of the human mind. As far as I know there is not a doctrine in the Bible which is known according to scripture in any of the systems of men. I admit there is a measure of truth. Man’s side is in a way accepted, but God’s side is left out. Try any of the doctrines and you will see that I am right. The Lord’s supper according to scripture is, “In remembrance of me”. In Christendom it is — ‘Take and eat this bread in remembrance that Christ died for thee’, and so on. Even among ourselves it has been said that the resurrection of Christ was the receipt that all our sins were atoned for. It is true that it is so, but it is very much more. The Man who glorified God, while bearing the judgment due to us, has been raised from the dead — the Man of God’s pleasure. It is by the word of the kingdom being received in the human mind that the “mustard tree” has been constructed. See Matthew 13.

I admit that man’s mind as a human instrument in voice or language is used to convey the words of God to man; no doubt Paul was an accomplished man; but the moment you try to establish the truth by mental ability, or by working on a man’s mind or feelings, you are denying, however unintentionally, the great truth of the gospel — that our old man has been crucified with Christ. If you address man’s mind you acknowledge him, instead of pressing on his conscience that he is lost.

I have been much interested in studying the havoc the human mind has made of the truth by attempting to interpret the word of God. I remark that the human interpretation always omits God’s side in the gospel, and in everything. The resurrection is regarded as only a receipt, the gospel as only a clearance before the throne, and so on.