How Does the Spirit Work Through Scripture? - by John MacArthur

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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Dr. MacArthur is continuing his series. We have commented on other parts of this series here and here.

This is a troubling presentation. First, Dr. MacArthur completely misrepresents various Scriptures, especially regarding "The Word." We love and honor the Scriptures, so please don't think we are minimizing them. But just to be clear, the Bible itself almost never refers to the Word as Scripture. When God speaks, generally this is the Word of God speaking. That is, His speaking is a person, titled the Word of God, the pre-incarnate Jesus.

The Son is the Word, and the Bible is the written Word of God. But the Son, the Word, and the Bible are not interchangeable. The Son exists independently from His titles. His Word exists independently from what has been written down. And what has been written down does not address the totality of what He has said. 

The Word is the things God speaks through His Word Jesus. The Bible is a record of some of that Word, just like a book is a record of some of its author's thoughts. Jesus Himself as a person is both the pinnacle of God's communication as well as the vehicle of His communication in these last days (He. 1:1-2). 

God is recorded as having written only three things: The ten commandments (Ex. 31:18), on Belshazzar's wall (Da. 5:5), and in the dirt (Jn. 8:6). Every other message from God is by Him speaking. This speaking is known as prophecy. Prophecy is God speaking His Word to man. Everything we know about God is because He revealed it by speaking. 

Some of that speaking was written down and collected together into what we call the Bible. The entire Bible is composed of God speaking His Word. There is nothing in the Bible that was not spoken by God. Certainly the Bible records the words of people who spoke, and even the words of spiritual entities, both good and evil, but even those words are in the Bible because of God's intention.

Second, Dr. MacArthur wants there to be a difference between illumination and revelation. The former is for contemporary believers, but the latter is only for the apostles 2000 years ago. We believe this is incorrect.

The Greek word "illumination" is 

phótizó, bring to light, make evident, reveal

We find the word here, translated "enlightened:"

Ep. 1:17-18 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know...

Notice that Paul also uses the word "revelation" in this passage. That word is 

apokalupsis, revelation, unveiling

So Paul uses BOTH words in his prayer for the Ephesian church. He wants them illumined and he wants them to have the Spirit of revelation. And both things are so that they will "know." Lest we think that Paul was not referring to direct revelation, later in his letter he writes:

Ep. 3:2 Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, 3 that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation...

This passage uses the same word, apokalupsis. Here Paul wants the Ephesian church understand the revelation he was given, which happens to be the same word he applied to them in Ep. 1:17-18 regarding THEIR understanding. Thus it is clear that Paul does not claim that receiving revelation was unique to him. He wants the Ephesian church to have revelation like he did. 

With these things clearly in mind, we will be able to see the profound errors of Dr. MacArthur's presentation.

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This post was first published in July, 2016. —ed.

Most of the modern discussion about the Holy Spirit focuses on His supposedly ongoing miraculous and revelatory ministries. But despite what the charismatic church would have us believe, the Spirit is not revealing new truth and prophecies to God’s people today. (A summary denial. We hope he will demonstrate this with the Bible.)

Nor is He is deploying miraculous power at the whim of televangelist faith healers and prosperity preachers. (Well. Is the Holy Spirit then deploying His miraculous power apart from these "whims?")

Instead, the Holy Spirit’s work always centers on the Word of God. (Faith healers and televangelists vs. the Holy Spirit. This is a false binary choice. Dr. MacArthur sets us us up to where we have to choose between these things when there are other choices available. This is deceptive. 

Further, it's an undocumented claim. We hope he will demonstrate this with the Bible.)

Over the last several days we’ve focused on His role in the inspiration of Scripture. But His work did not end with the closing of the biblical canon—today He works through His Word in the lives of His people.

The Spirit Illuminates

Divine revelation would be useless to us if we were not able to comprehend it. That is why the Holy Spirit enlightens the minds of believers, so they are able to understand the truths of Scripture and submit to its teachings. The apostle Paul explained the Spirit’s ministry of illumination in 1 Corinthians 2:14-16. There he wrote,

But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For “who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

Through the illumination of the Word, the Holy Spirit enables believers to discern divine truth. (cf. Psalm 119:18)—spiritual realities that the unconverted are unable to truly comprehend. (This is such a colossal misrepresentation of the Bible that we are truly left breathless. Paul was not talking about Scripture!

Read the whole chapter. Paul was explaining how he came to the Corinthian church, not with fancy words [1Co. 2:1] but with demonstrations of the Spirit's power [1Co. 2:4]. He came speaking God's wisdom, not man's wisdom [1Co. 2:6], which was revealed by the Spirit [1Co. 2:10]. 

Not illumined, revealed. 

We have the Spirit so we may understand what He has given us [1Co. 2:12]. The unspiritual man does not understand what comes via the Spirit [1Co. 2:14], but the spiritual man discerns the truth [examines, investigates] of everything [1Co. 2:15].

Why did Paul write this? He proceeds to tell us:

1Co. 3:1-2 Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly — mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.

Paul nowhere even hints that he's talking about Scripture. We can read it for ourselves, right there in the Bible. Paul was setting up the Corinthian church so as to tell them they were spiritual babes and could not handle the spiritual things God told him.

Dr. MacArthur is either mistaken or deceived. Paul was not talking about Scripture.)

The sobering reality is that it is possible to be familiar with the Bible and still fail to understand it. (This is sadly ironic, since Dr. MacArthur has a reputation for being an exemplary Bible teacher.)

The religious leaders of Jesus’ day were Old Testament scholars, yet they completely missed the point of the Scriptures (John 5:37-39). As Christ asked Nicodemus, exposing the latter’s ignorance about the basic tenets of the gospel, “Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?” (John 3:10). Devoid of the Holy Spirit, unbelievers operate only in the realm of the natural man. To them, the wisdom of God seems foolish. (Dr. MacArthur continues to misrepresent the issues.)

Even after Jesus was raised from the dead, the Pharisees and Sadducees still refused to believe (Matthew 28:12-15). Stephen confronted them with these words: “You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did” (Acts 7:51; cf. Hebrews 10:29). (Sigh. What did they refuse to believe, Dr. MacArthur? Words. Spoken words of the Gospel. They did not refuse to believe the Scriptures, but rather the message being preached to them. 

You know, this is pretty basic stuff. It's written plainly. Only a person blinded by preconceptions could do what Dr. MacArthur is doing.) 

The truth is that no sinner can believe and embrace the Scriptures without the Holy Spirit’s divine enabling. As Martin Luther observed,

In spiritual and divine things, which pertain to salvation of the soul, man is like a pillar of salt, like Lot’s wife, yea, like a log and a stone, like a lifeless statue, which uses neither eyes nor mouth neither sense nor heart. . . . All teaching and preaching is lost upon him, until he is enlightened, converted, and regenerated by the Holy Ghost. [1] (Wow. Dr. MacArthur can't even get Martin Luther right. Now admittedly we only have that snippet he quoted, but it seems pretty clear that Martin Luther was not talking about Scripture either.)

Until the Holy Spirit intervenes in the unbeliever’s heart, the sinner will continue to reject the truth of the gospel. (Yes! He got it right, finally.)

Anyone can memorize facts, listen to sermons, and gain some level of intellectual understanding about the basic points of biblical doctrine. But devoid of the Spirit’s power, God’s Word will never penetrate the sinful soul. (Again correct. Assuming of course Dr. MacArthur has not relapsed into talking about the Scriptures again. We say this because "the Word" is not synonymous with "the Bible," as we mentioned previously. 

If Dr. MacArthur was referring to the logos and not the graphé, these statements are accurate.)

Believers, on the other hand, have been made alive by the Spirit of God, who now indwells them. Thus Christians have a resident Truth Teacher who enlightens their understanding of the Word—enabling them to know and submit to the truth of Scripture (cf. 1 John 2:27). (Sigh. Let's quote the Scripture:

1Jn. 2:27 As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit — just as it has taught you, remain in him.

No surprise, Dr. MacArthur picks another Scripture out of context. John refers to "the anointing" teaching them. The anointing is chrisma, referring to the anointing oil, symbolic of the Holy Spirit. John directly told them the Holy Spirit directly taught them. "All things." 

This is not the Scripture. John's three letters never mention the word "Scripture." This verse is not about Scripture.)

Though the Spirit’s work of inspiration applied only to the human authors of Scripture, His ministry of illumination is given to all believers. Inspiration has given us the message inscribed on the pages of Scripture. Illumination inscribes that message on our hearts, enabling us to understand what it means, as we rely on the Spirit of God to shine the light of truth brightly in our minds (cf. 2 Corinthians 4:6). (Ho-boy. Let's quote:

2Co. 4:6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

Again, this is not about the Scriptures. Here the illumination is to know the glory of God as we see Christ. We are beginning to be really troubled by Dr. MacArthur's explanations. Few of them have even been close to correctly representing what the Bible actually tells us.

The next section does not require comment. We will jump back in when necessary.) 

As Charles Spurgeon explained, “If you do not understand a book by a departed writer you are unable to ask him his meaning, but the Spirit, who inspired Holy Scripture, lives forever, and He delights to open the Word to those who see His instruction.” [2] It is a glorious ministry of the Holy Spirit that He opens the minds of His saints to understand the Scriptures (cf. Luke 24:45) so that we can know and obey His Word.

Of course, the doctrine of illumination does not mean that believers can unlock every theological secret (Deuteronomy 29:29), or that we do not need godly teachers (Ephesians 4:11-12). It also does not preclude us from disciplining ourselves for the purpose of godliness (1 Timothy 4:8) or from doing the hard work of careful Bible study (2 Timothy 2:15). Yet we can approach our study of God’s Word with joy and eagerness—knowing that as we investigate the Scriptures with prayerfulness and diligence, the Holy Spirit will illuminate our hearts to comprehend, embrace, and apply the truths we are studying.

Through His ministry of inspiration, the Holy Spirit has given us the Word of God. And through His ministry of illumination, He has opened our eyes to understand and submit to biblical truth. Yet, He does not stop there.

The Spirit Empowers

In perfect concert with His ministry of illumination, the Holy Spirit empowers His Word so that as it goes forth, it convicts the hearts of unbelievers and sanctifies the hearts of the redeemed.

In evangelism, the Holy Spirit energizes the proclamation of the biblical gospel (1 Peter 1:12), using the preaching of His Word to pierce the heart and convict the sinner (cf. Romans 10:14). As Paul told the Thessalonians, “For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction” (1 Thessalonians 1:5). Elsewhere, he explained to the believers at Corinth, “And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:4-5). If the Spirit did not empower the proclamation of His Word, no one would ever respond in saving faith. Charles Spurgeon vividly illustrated that point with these words:

Unless the Holy Ghost blesses the Word, we who preach the gospel are of all men most miserable, for we have attempted a task that is impossible. We have entered on a sphere where nothing but the supernatural will ever avail. If the Holy Spirit does not renew the hearts of our hearers, we cannot do it. If the Holy Ghost does not regenerate them, we cannot. If He does not send the truth home into their souls, we might as well speak into the ear of a corpse. [3]

The Holy Spirit is the omnipotent force behind the Lord’s promise in Isaiah 55:11—“So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.” Without His divine empowerment, preaching the gospel would be nothing more than dead letters falling upon dead hearts. But through the Spirit’s power, the Word of God is “living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).

Apart from the Holy Spirit, the most eloquent sermon is nothing but hot air, empty noise, and lifeless oratory; but when accompanied by the almighty Spirit of God, even the simplest message slices through calloused hearts of unbelief and transforms lives.

The apostle Paul similarly described the Word of God as “the sword of the Spirit” in Ephesians 6:17. In that context, Scripture (And here we must jump back in. Dr. MacArthur was ably explaining the" proclamation of His Word," i.e., the preaching of the Gospel, but suddenly swerves, out of context, back to Scripture!

This has gotten so muddled that we can barely discern it anymore. Scripture becomes the Word, then becomes proclamation, then becomes Scripture again, then becomes the gospel, then becomes preaching, then becomes the Scriptures again, and now we are left with a pile of rhetorical detritus.

We will try to finish this article, but we are not optimistic.) 

is depicted as a spirit-empowered weapon that believers ought to use in their battle against sin and temptation (cf. Matthew 4:4, 7, 10). The Word of God is not only the divinely energized means by which sinners are regenerated (cf. Ephesians 5:26; Titus 3:5; James 1:18), but it is also the means by which believers resist sin and grow in holiness. (The Holy Spirit is absent in this equation. Dr. MacArthur credits the Scriptures for His work.)

As Jesus prayed in John 17:17, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” In 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Paul describes the sanctifying effects of God’s inspired Word—that the Scriptures are sufficient to fully equip believers for spiritual maturity.

In 1 Peter 2:1-3, Peter made a similar point:

Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.

Those who have tasted of God’s grace in redemption continue to grow in sanctification through the internalization of His Word. True believers are marked by a hunger for the Scriptures, delighting in God’s Word with the intensity with which a baby craves milk (cf. Job 23:12; Psalm 119). In all of this, we are being conformed into the image of Christ—a ministry that the Spirit accomplishes by exposing our hearts to biblical revelation about the Savior (2 Corinthians 3:18). He makes it possible for “the Word of Christ [to] richly dwell within you” (Colossians 3:16), a phrase that parallels Paul’s command to “be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18), so that the fruit of a transformed life is seen in the way we express our love to God and to others (cf. Ephesians 5:19-6:9; Colossians 3:17-4:1).

The Bible is a living book because the living Spirit of God energizes and empowers it. The Word convicts us, instructs us, equips us, strengthens us, protects us, and enables us to grow. Or more accurately, the Holy Spirit does all those things as He activates the truth of Scripture in our hearts.

As believers, we honor the Sprit when we honor the Scriptures—studying them diligently, applying them carefully, arming our minds with their precepts, and embracing their teaching with all our hearts. The Spirit has given us the Word. He has opened our eyes to understand its vast riches. And He empowers its truth in our lives as He conforms us into the image of our Savior.