A quick Bible word search for “illumination” would leave you emptyhanded. The word, like many others in theology, isn’t explicitly biblical. Why talk about it, then? Like many other theological terms, it summarizes a concept woven throughout Scripture’s pages. It gives us a hook on which we can hang our beliefs.
We discussed the concept of illumination in passing in our discussion on Scripture’s clarity. The fact that Scripture is clear means that it can be understood by all who read it. Yet unbelievers reject it, and believers sometimes misunderstand it. Why? One reason we noted then is that, though Scripture is clear, we cannot properly understand it without the Holy Spirit’s help. We can only understand Scripture intellectually, personally, and transformationally if God enlightens our understanding and teaches us from His Word. The Spirit must illuminate us for us to properly understand the Bible. That, in a nutshell, is the doctrine of illumination.
Defining Illumination
Scripture cannot be understood without the Spirit’s illuminating help. Understanding, in this sense, is more than intellectually grasping the concepts behind words. It is more than knowing word definitions, syntax, and grammar and realizing, on the basis of those, what is being communicated. Fully understanding Scripture includes both the realization of what the words mean and of what we must do because of that meaning. It begins with the intellect, progresses to personal understanding, and results in changed beliefs and behavior.
As I’ve previously discussed, understanding something is a threefold process. It is first intellectual, then personal, then transformational. As we make sense of this progression, we can also begin to see how and when the Spirit’s illuminating power works.
Intellectual understanding is cognitive. All understanding begins in the mind, in knowing what is being said. When reading literature—scriptural or otherwise—this understanding comes from processing the words, grammar, syntax, etc. and deducing what the writer is intending to communicate. When reading the Bible, the rules are the same. Intellectual understanding means reading the text of Scripture and rightly deducing the meaning of said text.
On the basis of the clarity of Scripture we can say that anyone—saved or unsaved—can read the Bible and understand it intellectually. Let’s take John 3:16-17 as an example text: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” Any person with elementary reading abilities can read those verses and understand several things:
- God loves the world.
- He loves the world so much that He sent His only Son to save those in the world.
- Whoever believes in the Son for salvation will enjoy everlasting life.
- Whoever rejects the Son will perish.
These are plainly laid out in these verses and are not difficult to understand cognitively. The words are common, the grammar straightforward, and the immediate meaning is clear. But many have read or heard this text, glossed over it, and failed to realize that it bears on them.
But, if one does understand the intellectual meaning of this text, contemplates it, and realizes that he is himself in the world, and that he must believe in the Son of God to be saved or else he will perish, he begins to understand Scripture personally as well as intellectually. The truth is now more than a distant objective reality, but it taps him on the shoulder and demands action. It calls him to reject his sin and trust in Christ for salvation, to embrace with the will what he knows in his mind.
Does this step require the Spirit’s illumination? A man can understand intellectually without illumination because Scripture is clear. Can he also understand Scripture personally without the Spirit’s help? I suggest that he can, on the basis of 1 Corinthians 2:14: “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him.” Why does the unregenerate man reject the truth? Not because he doesn’t understand it, but because he does, and he thinks it is foolish.
In the broader context of 1 Corinthians 1-2, Paul is talking about the message of the cross being foolish to an unbelieving world. The unbelievers in Corinth would likely have been able to follow as the apostles preached Christ’s substitutionary atonement or His two-fold nature as the God-man. They would have followed the logic and heard the call to believe the gospel, knowing full well what was being preached. The gospel was not gibberish to them. They knew the truth intellectually and realized it applied to them personally, but they rejected it as foolish, as undesirable.
It seems possible, then, that a man could know the truth both intellectually and personally without the Spirit’s help. Let’s say he does. What about the third element? Is transformational understanding possible independent of illumination? Here I think we have to say no, again on the basis of 1 Corinthians 2. As we finish reading verse 14, we find that the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit because they are “spiritually discerned.” This teaches us that a man must be both regenerated by the Spirit and filled with the Spirit to understand the truth transformationally. He is fully dependent on God’s illumination for this last element of understanding. Again, an unregenerate man can read a biblical text, understand the meaning of the words, and even realize that those words bear on him. But he cannot embrace that truth volitionally (with his will) by himself, for that truth is “spiritually discerned.”
It is this last step of understanding, then, for which we need the Spirit’s illuminating grace. Full understanding is more than cognitive; it is also volitional. To understand Scripture is to not only comprehend it but also to submit to it. It is to know the truth in our minds, realize that it ought to apply to us, then following through by submitting our wills to believe the truth and live according to it.
If it is possible for us to understand Scripture intellectually and personally without illumination, does that mean the Spirit is never active in these aspects of understanding? I don’t think so. Though illumination is especially focused on God’s enabling our ability to obey, it includes intellectual and personal understanding as prerequisites for obedience. We cannot obey God’s Word if we do not understand it mentally and see its significance for us personally. Though we can begin to understand the Bible using only our natural faculties, we will never gain a full understanding of the gospel without His enlightenment. He empowers our minds so we can understand far more than we could on our own. He wrote Scripture, and He is the master interpreter, guiding our learning and enabling our understanding. And He not only teaches us from the Word, but He shows us how biblical truths ought to impact us. He makes it personal. Finally, He helps us make the necessary adjustments in our own beliefs and practices so we live in line with the truths of His Word. Without His illumination, we would never reach a mature understanding intellectually, personally, or volitionally.
From a different angle, we also understand that God’s purpose in divine revelation is more than informative. God intends His Word to do far more than just give us facts. Yes, the Bible is a history book, but it is a history of redemption, intended to impact us personally and transform us immediately and eternally. It is a doctrinal book, but that doctrine is intended to lead us into relationship with God. It is a book of poems, but the poetry is more than artistic. It shapes our lives, guiding our emotions through grief, sorrow, repentance, and into joy, love, and worship. It is a moral book, teaching us the substance of righteous living. God intends the Bible to impact us personally, not just mentally. The means God uses is His Word, but the end of that means is relationship, is hearts in joyful fellowship with their Maker.
His purpose in revelation is our transformation. That transformation is achieved as the Spirit teaches us His Word, shows its relevance to us personally, then enables our willing obedience. Understanding the truth, then, is first cognitive, but is ultimately volitional. The end goal of revelation is our salvation and our sanctification, both of which are accomplished only by the Holy Spirit’s illuminating grace.