The unbeliever does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. God has revealed these to us by the Spirit. Illumination is something that comes directly from the Holy Spirit and is available to every believer.
Illumination is the divine influence of God’s Spirit that helps individuals understand the truth of God contained in the Bible. Illumination: the Understanding of Truth by Believers It does not have anything to do with the giving of Scripture by God. The terms divine inspiration and illumination can be explained as follows:ĭivine Inspiration: the Recording of God’s Truthĭivine inspiration refers to the supernatural influence upon the writers of Scripture that caused them to accurately record God’s truth. What Is Divine Inspiration and What Is Illumination? Since some people confuse divine inspiration and illumination, it is important that we have a correct understanding of how each term is used. The terms divine inspiration and illumination are used by people to explain certain aspects of the recording of Scripture, as well as the understanding of what is recorded. Is the Bible the Authoritative Word of God – Question 10 Phil Tuttle is president of Walk Thru the Bible.What’s the Difference Between Divine Inspiration and Illumination?
#ILLUMINATE DEFINITION BIBLE SERIES#
Read the first article in the series here the second article in the series here and the third article in the series here.
Instead, start with the Holy Spirit and ask, “Lord, will You please show me what this means?”Īnd He will be more than happy to turn on the lights for you. Don’t make the first stop even your pastor, as much as we treasure pastors and their impact in our lives. Next time you read something in the Bible and it confuses you, don’t let your first stop be a commentary. “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).Ībram couldn’t boast in God’s covenant and blessing, and neither can we boast in our salvation. This covenant with Abram is an early picture of God’s covenant of salvation with Christians. We know that His commitment to us is much more than ours could ever be to His. Like Abram, we aren’t worthy of God’s blessing. Not only does the Holy Spirit illumine Scripture, but He goes even further by helping us apply the Scripture to our lives.Īs we think through what we see of God’s nature in Genesis 15, we also see where our own nature falls short.We learn that God’s goodness and faithfulness had nothing to do with Abram’s being worthy-he wasn’t-and everything to do with God’s commitment to build up and bless a nation of people set apart for Himself.
He made the covenant with Abram without requiring anything from him. The Holy Spirit throws light on a passage by helping us understand its meaning.įor example, in the passage above in Genesis 15, God passes through the animals as a flaming torch.What is illumination? It literally means to turn on the lights. One way the Holy Spirit ministers to and grows believers in Christ is by illuminating God’s Word. Even though the Word is inspired and profitable, as Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:16, we still sometimes have a hard time grasping what God is saying through it. Perhaps you have read and reread passages like these but still had no clue what they mean. Have you ever read a passage of the Bible and had no idea what it was about? Maybe it was God’s depiction of His covenant with Abram in Genesis 15, Naomi’s instructions to Ruth about approaching Boaz (Ruth 3), Jesus’ exhortation to lose our lives in order to save them (Matthew 16), or Paul’s writing about being seated with Christ in the heavenlies now (Ephesians 2). In this article, we’ll talk about the fourth word: illumination. In the third, we looked at canonization-how the Bible was put together. In the second post, we looked at inspiration-how God inspired the Scriptures. In our first post of this series, “Five Words Every Bible Lover Must Know,” we talked about revelation-about how God reveals Himself to us through Scripture. Do you sometimes hear words in Christian circles that are unclear or confusing? Oftentimes those words relate to the Bible itself: how it came to be, how it was put together, how God uses it, and more.
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