Jesus Christ’s work was accepted as a perfect redemption for us. He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High, because He had fully and ably completed the redemption that met every demand of justice and every need of fallen humanity.
1 Corinthians 2:12, is a great challenge to us dear believers, “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.” What more can we ask for beyond things freely given to us. We have the right to know the things that have been freely given to us in the redemptive work of Christ.
They are of no value unless we know them. Colossians 3:10 is a suggestion of the Father’s heart's desire toward us. It reads, “And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:” Please notice carefully that the New Birth is “putting on the new man.” When we are saved or born again, it is our spirits that are recreated.
Thereafter the Holy Spirit, through the Word, renews our minds, and that renewing brings us into fellowship with the Father. Adam was created, spiritually and intellectually, in the image and likeness of God. When he fell, his mind became darkness. 2 Corinthians 4:4 give credence, “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”
This tells us that the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving that they may not know the true God or spiritual things. The natural mind is blinded to the knowledge of supernatural things. We read 1 Corinthians 2:14, “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
There are certain things that the natural person can know about revelation. She/he can understand the Spirit's great argument in the book of Romans in regard to God’s redemption for humanity. The first eight chapters of Romans are written in the realm of sense knowledge. This is so that a sense knowledge person can know how to become a child of God.
Having said that, the sense knowledge person cannot understand Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians. These were given that we, believers, should be led into all the knowledge of our rights and privileges in Christ. We give an example. Colossians 1:12, reads, “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made [qualified us to] us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light:”
Every child of God the Father has the ability to know the Word, whether she/he recognizes it or not. Primarily we’re told in John 16:13, “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.”
The Spirit of truth was to guide us into the reality and into the fullness of our privileges in Christ. He was to take the things of Christ that were wrought for us in the great Substitutionary Sacrifice and make them real in our lives. He was not only to make it historically clear through the revelation that was given to Apostle Paul but He was to make it experimentally real in every believer's life who sought to know and enjoy its fullness.
You remember in Colossians 1:9, “For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;” That is the Spirit’s prayer for the church. Every one who desires this knowledge may have it. We should be bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in this exact knowledge.
Isn’t this an amazing statement? We read in Ephesians 4:7, “But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.” Every one of us has grace to enter into all the riches of our inheritance. John 1:16 intimates this, “And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.” The reason that He says, “grace upon grace” is that our hearts shrink from the fact that this fullness, this completeness and this perfectness of Christ has become ours. His grace is there and it is “grace upon grace” that is going to enable us to enter into all that belongs to us.
This is hammered more in Ephesians 4:11-13, “[11] And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; [12] For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: [13] Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:”
I repeat the last portion, “unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:” Wow! Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. Grace and peace be multiplied to you through knowledge.