Meditation - What Should I Expect When I Read My Bible?
by Isaac Overton
Question 57: What is the illumination of the Holy Spirit?
Answer: The illumination of the Holy Spirit is the gracious work of God whereby, through the Word, the Spirit opens our hearts and minds to understand spiritual truth, through which he brings us into living communion with the Father through the Son.
Your alarm wakes you up at 6am. Thankfully, you deliberately kept it out of reach to anticipate the ever-tempting snooze button. You open your eyes blearily, and drag your body into a sitting position on the side of your bed. Most days, you succumb to the temptation to immediately check all your favourite apps on your phone, but lately you’ve been getting better at avoiding this. You set yourself to avoid checking your screens at least until after you’ve taken some time to read your Bible and pray. That’s why you’re up at 6am, after all.
You walk to the kitchen, mostly awake now, grab a drink of water, and set up your coffee plunger. You want to be the kind of person who stretches and does a few light exercises at this point, but you’re not there yet. Coffee in hand, you make your way to the spot where you normally do your devotions. Your habit is to read a chapter from the Old Testament, a chapter from the New Testament, and perhaps a proverb or psalm. This morning you read about not boiling a kid in its mother’s milk in Exodus 23. Beyond that perplexing verse, you note in the rest of the chapter that God takes justice in society seriously. In the New Testament you read Romans 4, and it encourages you somewhat after the rough time you had with Romans 2 a couple of days ago. But you’re still not sure about Romans 2.
You take some time to pray, focusing on the Lord’s Prayer, and expanding out each petition to be a bit more specific on what’s going on in your life. And then… the day kicks off. People are moving in the house. Quiet time is over, it’s time to go. Time to go to work. Time to go to school. As the day unfolds, and you get on with your stuff, the question pops up in your mind a few times: Is that what my devotional time is supposed to be like? Shouldn’t it be… deeper? Richer? Something?
There is a doctrine in the reformed and presbyterian tradition that addresses some of these questions, at least in part. It’s called: the Doctrine of the Illumination of the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t tend to get discussed a lot, but it is an often used piece of furniture in the house of reformed theology. The most obvious place to find it is in the Westminster Confession, Chapter 1, Article 6. It goes like this: “…we acknowledge the inward illumination of the Spirit of God to be necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the Word…” That’s it. That’s as far as the explanation goes in the confession itself. That tends to be what the discussion on illumination is about.
The idea is that – as we read God’s Word – we need the Holy Spirit to illuminate our hearts so that we can see, understand, and be transformed by what we read. It’s not limited to personal reading, of course, but covers any engagement with God’s Word, including when we come under the preaching of his word. And, I might add, it is a perfectly true and gloriously sound doctrine. In 2 Cor 2:12-14 we see this clearly: “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” That’s about as clear as it comes! Without the Spirit’s enabling work, we simply are not able to understand spiritual truths. The Apostle Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:15-17 also shows our need for the Spirit’s illuminating work in our hearts. Psalm 119:18 likewise expresses this reality in the psalmist’s prayer: “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.”
Having said that, I do believe that what the Holy Spirit is doing in his work of illumination is actually far deeper and more significant than what we generally suppose. Yes, the Holy Spirit is shining his light of illumination into our souls as we read his word. He is giving us the capacity to see what’s there when we would not otherwise be able to see it, the ability to rightly understand and interpret spiritual truths. But this act of illumination is not merely an act of enabling us to read words on a page. It is deeper. It is personal. It is, as Ike Miller puts it, “human participation in the Son’s knowledge of the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Ike Miller, “Seeing the Light” in: Uyen, In your light, p.14). I think you’ll agree, that is a richer and deeper concept than what is articulated in the Westminster Confession. I suggest that those words from Ike Miller are heavier than the universe in what they contain, I recommend reading them again. In fact, I’ll quote them again. Illumination is “human participation in the Son’s knowledge of the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Miller, “Seeing the Light” in: Uyen, In your light, p.14).
I stumbled across Miller’s quote in another book by Paul C. Uyen. It’s called: “In your light we see light: A Reformed Theology of the Divine Illumination.” It is an absolutely masterful and wonderful work of theology. I commend it to your bookshelf. My thoughts here are a kind of summary taster, but your thought on this doctrine will be wonderfully expanded if you get yourself a copy of Uyen’s book and read it. Oh, one more thing: Don’t forget to read it! Too many books on my bookshelf have suffered from that malady. They look good, but they must be read! But I digress. Let me give you, at least, the main idea that Uyen is trying to get across to us.
As he points out: “Discussion on illumination… limits itself to the interpretation of Scripture” (Uyen, In your light, p.14). The Westminster Confession is a classic example of what he’s saying, and – for my part – whenever I have heard the doctrine discussed, it has focussed in on the interpretation of scripture. Uyen gives us a much fuller understanding of what’s going on when the Spirit illuminates our hearts. As we read the scriptures, “In contemplative union, we participate in the Son’s knowledge of the Father and the Father’s knowledge of the Son through the Spirit from glory to glory” (Uyen, In your light, p.18).
The Holy Spirit’s work of illumination is one which goes beyond the mere reading of a book. It is spiritual intercourse with God the Father, revealed in Christ the Son, in the power of God the Holy Spirit. “The economy of illumination is the trinitarian operation of God, the Father, Son, and Spirit, to make their knowledge ours, transforming and perfecting us with the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of his Son” (Uyen, In your light, p.17).
Does Uyen’s claim, and the new depth he brings to bear on the doctrine of illumination, stand up to scrutiny in the light of scripture? A thousand times yes. Let’s consider a few key passages that show this.
First, John 16:13-15. “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. ” The Holy Spirit, as he guides us into all spiritual truth, is not just sharing words on the page of a book. He’s giving us the “mind of Christ” (1 Cor 2:16) which the Book of Books gives to us. We might share our what’s on our mind in a written letter or email, but the Holy Spirit shares God’s mind with us through the written Word of God.
Second, Matthew 11:27, “All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Jesus sent the Holy Spirit (Jn 16:13), and the Spirit’s work is to reveal God the Father to us through God the Son. Illumination is deeply personal, it is a divine act of self-revelation.
Third, 1 Cor 2:10-12. “...these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.” This passage explicitly shows us that the Holy Spirit knows the mind of God, and it is God’s mind which he reveals to us in the process of illumination. It’s all the more clear when we realise that it proceeds one of the classic texts on illumination that we considered earlier: 1 Cor 2:12-14. 1 Cor 2:10-14 is, perhaps, the single clearest text we have that marries the traditional notion of illumination with the deeper thesis that Uyen brings to our attention.
Fourth, 2 Cor 4:6. “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” This passage tells us that God shines into our hearts through the apostolic proclamation (2 Cor 4:5), now infallibly recorded in scripture for us. As the apostles brings the gospel proclamation to believers, the light brings the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. This is the very process of stepping into communion with the Most High God, through Christ Jesus.
Fifth, 2 Peter 1:3-4. “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. ” It is by the knowledge of God, revealed in Christ, that he grants us life – and even that he makes us partakers of the divine nature. This passage does not make explicit reference to the word of God as the means by which he gives this knowledge to us, but the scriptures amply testify that this is indeed the case (e.g. 2 Tim 3:15).
“To have union with another person is to share his heart and mind” (Uyen, In your light, p.15). When the Holy Spirit illuminates our hearts in the reading and hearing of God’s Word, it is not just an enlightened reading of the books of the Bible. It is the active experience of our union with Christ. It is the experience of a living, dynamic, spiritual communion with Christ.
Why, then, doesn’t it feel more mystically spectacular when we read our Bibles, then? If we are entering into the experience of mystical communion with Christ when we read his word, shouldn’t it be some kind of otherworldly experience of infinite wonder? Well, go back to our last quote from Uyen: “To have union with another person is to share his heart and mind” (Uyen, In your light, p.15). Perhaps, in some ways, it’s not so mystical after all. If a loved one went to war and wrote home, how precious would that letter be to those who received it? It would read, and re-read, and treasured. More importantly, in the reading there is a conveying of the mind to the reader, an exchange of the soul. When the soldier comes home, the letters over the course of time have deepened the relationship, and are an important part of lovers reunited. In his Holy Word, God has written a letter to us, as it were (literally, when it comes to the Epistles). As we read, as God’s mind through Christ is revealed to us by his Holy Spirit, we share in his heart and mind.
Yes, there is something mystical and incomprehensible about this experience. The Spirit does as he will, and who can say where he comes from or where he goes? (Jn 3:8). And yet, as you prayerfully open up your Bibles each day, take a moment to be still in the presence of the Lord. Ask him to speak to you. Pour out your heart. Thank him for being with you. Tell him you long for the day when your communion will no longer be one of faith, but you long to see him. The intimacy we shall have in that day, when all sin is done away with, and we are bodily in the presence of the Lord Jesus, is of an order we now only dimly begin to understand. Nevertheless, our union and communion with him now is real, and is the highest blessing we have in this life. Praise God for the Spirit’s work of illumination in our hearts through Christ, his word. May our time with him in his word be sweet!
SDG.
---
Pastor Isaac Overton
Reformed Church of Box Hill