I Love You, Lord
A Meditation on Spiritual Sense
Perhaps many of you have
heard these old riddles: What has eyes but cannot see? What has
ears but cannot hear? What has hands but cannot touch? What has a
tongue but cannot taste? What has a nose but cannot smell? (I put
the answers at the bottom of this page in case you want to test
yourselves). But did you know that Scripture poses the same riddle to us
in Psalm 115, but gives quite a different answer. What has a mouth but
does not speak? What has ears but does not hear? What has a nose
but does not smell? What has hands but cannot feel? Answer:
idols made by human hands. This makes sense, of course, but it is not the
whole answer for the Psalmist then says “Those who make them become like
them; so do all who trust in them” (Psalm 115:8). What the Psalmist
is not so subtly implying is that idol makers and idolaters cannot see, hear,
touch, feel or smell. But can this really be so? Perhaps the Psalmist
is overstating his case to make a point—a little poetic exaggeration for the
sake of a good argument? This could be, but I don’t think so. I
don’t think so because Jesus himself speaks of those who have ears but cannot
hear (Mt.
In 2
Corinthians 4:3ff. Paul is speaking of his gospel and the fact that it is
“veiled” to those who are perishing. In verse 4 he goes on to explain why
and what is hidden from their sight: “In their case the god of this world has
blinded the minds of unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the
gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” Here we have an
example of people who have eyes and yet cannot see. They have physical
eyes that receive light and brains which turn these light signals into images,
and yet there is a “light” which cannot be discerned by these eyes, the light
of the glory of Christ. They cannot behold the unsurpassed beauty,
excellence or loveliness of Jesus in the gospel. They are spiritually
blind.
To be sure
there is still much that they can see and even love as they come to
Scripture. Early Princeton theologian A. A. Alexander gives an
illustration of this when he says that the unbeliever’s understanding is like a
blind man teaching about colors. “The blind man has his own ideas about
colors, and may understand their various relations to one another, and all the
laws that regulate the reflection and refraction of light, as well as those who
see. This was remarkably exemplified in the case of Dr. Sanderson, who,
though blind from his early infancy, delivered an accurate course of lectures
on light and colors, in the University of Oxford. Just so, an
unregenerate man may be able to deliver able lectures on all the points of theology,
and yet not have one glimpse of the beauty and glory of the truth with which he
is conversant” (Thoughts on Religious Experience, pg. 63).
The question
then is, how do you come to see the beauty and glory of Christ found in the
gospel? How is this divine light perceived if our physical eyes cannot
behold it? To never see a sunset is a great loss, but to never behold the
beauty of Jesus is a loss extending to eternity. Paul points us to the
fact that a miraculous work of creation or re-creation is needed for us to
perceive the beauty of Christ, “For God, who said, ‘Let the light shine out of
darkness,’ has shown his light in our hearts to give us the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” This
knowledge or sight only comes through a work of God’s renewing grace upon the
heart of man. He must shine His light into our hearts.
The unbeliever
may understand and even accept all orthodox theology, but what he can never
have is a spiritual apprehension of the glory of Christ. He may be able
to use his imagination to envision what the glorious Jesus looks like, just as
we are able to imagine the form and face of other things or people we have
never seen. This is not the light that Paul is describing. Rather,
it is a “spiritual sense” that Jesus is gloriously precious and beautiful and
compelling beyond all competing treasures.
To be quite
honest I find it almost impossible to describe exactly what this glorious
vision is like. It is like trying to describe the taste of honey to
someone who has no sense of taste. How do you do that? Eventually,
you say, “You’ve just got to somehow taste it for yourself.” I think that
Paul says the same thing when he says that natural man (unregenerate man apart from
the working of God’s Spirit) does not accept the things of God “he does not
understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (I Cor. 2:14).
Without the Spirit of God opening our eyes and enabling us to taste and see, we
just won’t “get it.” Spiritual discernment is not just being able to
rationally grasp the teaching of Scripture; it is grasping the meaning
and having your heart gripped, entranced, enthralled by the gracious God you
meet with there.*
Do you see what
we are getting at? God the Father is not just a doctrine to be
grasped; Jesus is not just a historical figure to be imagined and learn
interesting facts about; the Trinity is not just truth to be believed.
God is not a proposition to be agreed with. He is a Person to be known and
experienced. “Taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:7)!§
Have you
seen? Have you tasted? God is more gracious and more glorious and
more magnificent and more amazing than anything or anyone else in heaven or on
earth. Until you have seen and tasted for yourself God will be a distant
and unreachable figure and the treasures and comforts of this world will be the
desires of your heart.
This brings us
back to the Psalmist and what he tells us in Psalm 115. Hearts that are
in love with what our hands can produce and treasure or place their trust in
the things of this world, are hearts that are truly blind and deaf and
tasteless—senseless. They are senseless to the greatness and glory of
God. They have eyes but they cannot see God’s face. They have ears
but they cannot truly hear His voice speaking to them moment by moment.
They have tongues but they cannot taste the sweetness of Jesus nor speak of it
to others. They have hands but they cannot feel the presence of their
Father. They become like the idols which they love, trust and
behold. But “we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord,
are being changed into His likeness from one degree of glory to another”
(2 Cor. 3:18). We become like that which we behold.
The Psalmist is
not overstating or exaggerating. He is telling us of our true spiritual
condition before God—unless the Spirit of God has moved within our hearts.
May I ask
again? Have you seen? Have you tasted? Has your soul been
overcome? If not then ask God that He might give you this new sense, this
spiritual discernment—that you may truly know and experience the greatness and
glory of God by the power of His Spirit working in and through His Word.
To truly know Him, to seek Him passionately, to see and feel the glow of His
glorious countenance, to become like Him, this is what are hearts long for and
this is what it means to be a Christian and to say sincerely, “I love you,
Lord.”
Longing to
Taste and See More of the Sweetness of Jesus with You,
James
A potato;
Corn; A clock; A shoe; An airplane
* For those who may wonder whether this teaching of needing a “spiritual
sense” of God’s glory falls within the realm of historic, reformed faith, I
would recommend the following works: Jonathan Edwards, Religious
Affections and his sermon A Divine & Supernatural Light Immediately
Imparted to the Soul, by the Spirit of God, Shown to be Both a Scriptural &
Rational Doctrine: A.A. Alexander, Thought on Religious Experience,
pgs. 59-66; A.A. Hodge, Outlines of Theology, ch. 29, On
Regeneration; David Brainerd’s Journal, pgs. 279-82, among others.
§ Let us not forget, however, that the glory of God is primarily “seen and
tasted” in the gospel, in the Word. If you want to more clearly behold
the beauty of Christ then you must seek Him through pray-soaked meditation upon
the Word of God.
__________________________________
©
James Calderazzo
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