“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11)
The Basket Case Chronicles #18
“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God” (1 Cor. 2:12).
The Spirit of God knows what God is up to. The Spirit of God knows the deep things of God. Obviously, the infinite thoughts of the infinite God cannot be given to us—any more than you could teach high level calculus to a puppy not yet housebroken. We cannot contain the deep things of God. But certain aspects of the deep things of God, the things that God has “prepared for them that love him” (v. 9) can be revealed. They were hidden, unrevealed, in previous generations because God had not determined to unveil them yet. So we must distinguish between the secret things that pertain to the nature of God (Dt. 29:29) and the secret things that are only hidden for the time being. The former are incommunicable attributes of God, and cannot be given to creatures. Omniscience cannot be given to a creature, although love can be. Both omniscience and love are attributes of God—and one cannot be share and the other can be.
One of the things that can be shared with us is what God is going to do for us. The spirit of this world will not tell us these things. The spirit of this world will try to keep this good news away from us. But the spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, is given to us so that we might know. Know what? The answer is those things that God is giving to us throughout the course of redemptive history. It is the Spirit of God who gives eschatological hope.