1 Corinthians 2:10, “These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him?”
These Things?
First, what are the “these things” that God has revealed through the Spirit? It refers back to the “hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory” (v.7). And what is this hidden wisdom of God? It is the wisdom that one receives when they accept the message of Christ crucified (vs.2, 6). The Word of the cross—the proclamation of the crucified Christ—imparts to those who receive it a secret and hidden wisdom of God, a revelation preserved since before creation and intended for the glory and the joy of God’s people. And what is this revelation? What does the Word of the Cross communicate to us about God? I think we get a hint by considering the sources of Paul’s blended OT citation in verse 9:
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined…”
Whatever the wisdom is that the word of the cross imparts, Paul believes that this citation (drawing from both Isaiah 64:4 and 52:13-15) encapsulates it. And in considering these two texts, we find an absolutely glorious vision of just what this “secret and hidden” wisdom of God is.
The OT Context
Let’s look first at Isaiah 64:4. To get the context, I’ll start at verse 1,
“O, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence…to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might quake at your presence…From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for Him.”
Very interesting. Paul draws on a passage in Isaiah in which the people of YHWH call upon Him to “rend the heavens and come down,” defeating His enemies and—crucially—revealing His name. A mountain-shaking salvation is envisaged in which YHWH acts decisively for the sake of His people and, in doing so, makes His name—His character, His identity, His glory—known to the world. The “no eyes has seen” section that Paul draws upon in 1 Corinthians 2 is here directly related, not so much to wisdom from God, but to God Himself. HE HIMSELF is the one that no eyes has seen or ear heard….
Now, with this in mind, let’s consider the other OT echo in 1 Cor. 2:9, namely, Isaiah 52:13-15.
“Behold, my servant shall act wisely; He shall be high and lifted upon and shall be exalted. As many were astonished at you—His appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and His form beyond that of the children of men—so shall He sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of Him; for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.”
At first it may seem utterly dissonant for Paul to have brought this text together with 64:4. What commonality is shared between a passage that talks about YHWH’s decisive, earth-shattering, Name-revealing salvation and one that speaks of the suffering and marring of His servant? And yet—glory to God!—the joining together of these two concepts (indeed, the recognition of them as one and the same reality) is the very Wisdom of God imparted to our souls by the Word of the Cross! Paul brings these two texts together in 1 Corinthians 2:9 because the “secret and hidden wisdom of God” revealed in the message of Christ crucified is precisely this!
Putting It Together
YHWH, the one true God, has acted to decisively save His people and—more than that—definitively reveal His name in the person of the marred-and-exalted servant. Praise to His Name! It is in the person of the marred servant, it is in the body and life of Jesus Christ who is exalted on the cross, wounded beyond the form of mankind, it is in this weakness, in this ugliness, in this suffering, in this “foolishness” that YHWH rends the heavens and comes down so that the earth quakes and His enemies are scattered and His people are saved and His name is declared and every tongue confesses that “From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for Him.”
The wisdom of God imparted to us in the word of the cross is the recognition that Isaiah 64:1-4 happens in Isaiah 52:13-15…..it is, as Paul will say elsewhere, the shining into our hearts of the light of the knowledge of the glory of God (Isaiah 64:1-4), in the face of Jesus Christ (Isaiah 52:13-15). Hallowed be His Name!! THIS, THIS, THIS is that which no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined.
A Side Note About Heaven
So often people take verse 9 to be referring to the eternal state or “heaven,” or the New Heavens and Earth, but that just isn’t the case. I don’t understand how that confusion has happened. These words are clearly referring to the knowledge of Who God Is imparted to us in the word of the crucified Jesus! Of course, to know God in Christ IS eternal life and IS the joy of the New heaven and Earth, so in this sense verse 9 is talking about the glory of the eternal state.
Back To The Original Text
“These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him?”
We’ve just established that “these things” refers to the saving knowledge of YHWH’s name as revealed in the crucified Jesus Christ. These things are revealed to us through the Spirit. This is precisely what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:17-4:6 and what Jesus Himself teaches in John 16:14, namely that it is the Spirit who unveils to us the fullness of God in Christ. But notice the rationale that Paul gives for this: the Spirit reveals these things to us because the Spirit searches out even the depths of God.
The “depths of God.” We get a sense of what this phrase means when we see that Paul likens it to the “things of a man” which are known only to that man. The secret and hidden things—as Paul has already said in verse 7–the things that we do not share, perhaps cannot share with others. The deeply intimate, deeply personal—even incommunicative—aspects of our person….that is what Paul means when he talks about the “depths.” And he says that, through the word of the crucified Christ, the depths of God are made known to us. THAT is a staggering and glorious concept….
The depths—the intimate, personal, secret, the otherwise incommunicable elements of God’s character, of His personality, of His being and essence—these things are made known to us through the Spirit of God in Christ and Him crucified. The crucified Jesus is the “Narnian Wardrobe” opening into the heart of God….He is the fullness of the infinite being declared perfectly and completely within time and space….He is the Name of God perfectly transposed, the character of God perfectly manifest, the essence of God perfectly revealed……if we would know God, if we would know God, if we would have eternal life, then let us know nothing except Jesus Christ, crucified and risen!!!
