The Revelation of Grace

The Spirit of God desires to reveal to you what God has prepared for those who love him.

About this revelation, 1 Corinthians 2:9 says:

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart has imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

The revelation that God through his Spirit wants to give you is not something conceived in the mind or heart of a person...no person could dream, invent, develop, create, or design what God has prepared for you.

What God has prepared is beyond the heart and mind of mankind.

It is beyond the imagination and intelligence of mankind.

What God wants to reveal to you is not something mankind designed, nothing you can see with your eyes or hear with your ears causing you to say, “Look at what this person created!” or “Listen to what this person did!”

What God wants to reveal to you was conceived in the very heart and mind of God.

How do you receive the revelation of what God has prepared for you?

1 Corinthians 2:10 gives us the answer.

It says, “But God has revealed it to us by the Spirit.”

So what is this revelation that God wants to give to you by his Spirit?

1 Corinthians 2:12 provides the answer.

It says, “What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.”

The revelation God wants to give you by his Spirit is the understanding of WHAT GOD HAS FREELY GIVEN YOU.

Let’s take a look at the context of 1 Corinthians 2:9-12 so we can better understand what God has freely given us.

Paul is the writer of 1 Corinthians.

In the context, Paul is explaining the source of the message that he taught others.

The source of his message came from God and was the very wisdom of God which God prepared for us before time began and destined for us to experience (1 Corinthians 2:6).

What is this wisdom?

Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 2:2

“When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except JESUS CHRIST AND HIM CRUCIFIED.”

He also tells us about this wisdom in 1 Corinthians 1:17-18

“For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach THE GOSPEL—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest THE CROSS OF CHRIST be emptied of its power. For THE MESSAGE OF THE CROSS is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

And again in 1 Corinthians 1:30-31, he expounds upon the wisdom of God:

“It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord’.”

The wisdom of God was the cross of Christ where Jesus paid the price for our sins (redemption), where Jesus took upon himself our unholiness and gave us his holiness, and where he took upon himself our unrighteousness and gave us his righteousness.

Therefore we say, “Look at what Jesus did for me!”

He forgave my sins, and he made me holy and righteous!

God’s wisdom revealed to us in the person and the cross of Christ is what Paul spoke when he taught others.

This is the wisdom the Spirit taught Paul and that Paul taught others.

Paul writes, 

“This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.” (1 Corinthians 2:13)

The Spirit of God taught Paul spiritual truths that came directly from the heart of God (1 Corinthians 2:10-11).

These spiritual truths were everything God freely gave us in Jesus (2 Corinthians 2:12).

Through this revelation, Paul had the very mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16).

Paul, with the mind of Christ, then taught others these truths.

In 2 Corinthians 3, we gain more insight into the what God taught Paul.

“You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” (2-4)

“Such confidence we have through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” (5-6)

“Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!” (7-10)

“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (17-18)

We see in these verses that God taught Paul the truths of the new covenant of grace.

These truths of the new covenant are complete forgiveness, righteousness, and life in Christ in contrast to condemnation and death coming from the Ten Commandments, the law of Moses (2 Corinthians 2:4-10).

It is this message of grace that Paul reached people with.

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:15:

“All this is for your benefit, so that THE GRACE THAT IS REACHING MORE AND MORE PEOPLE may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God."

The spiritual truths of grace were taught to Paul Paul by the ascended Jesus. Paul then taught people the truths of grace (Acts 20:24).

Grace is everything that God did freely for us in Christ to forgive our sins, make us righteous, free us from the condemnation and death of law, create peace between God and us, and reconcile us to himself (see Romans).

Through faith in Jesus, we receive all that God has freely given to us in Jesus (Romans 3:21-25; Ephesians 2:8-9).

We receive salvation, forgiveness, eternal life, and righteousness.

The Spirit of Jesus comes to live in us, freeing us from the law and transforming us into the very image of Jesus (2 Corinthians 3:17-18). 

The Spirit desires to give you this revelation of grace...the very wisdom of God.

The Spirit wants to write upon your heart the truths of grace, which will transform your life.

You can read in Romans 3-8, 2 Corinthians 3-6:2, Galatians, Ephesians, and Hebrews about the truths of grace Jesus revealed to Paul and that Paul wrote down.

In Romans 3:23-24, Paul writes,

“...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified FREELY BY HIS GRACE through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

In Ephesians 1:6-8, Paul writes,

“...to the praise of HIS GRACE, WHICH HE HAS FREELY GIVEN US IN THE ONE HE LOVES. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.”

The Spirit wants to give you the wisdom of God, the revelation of all God has prepared for you, which no human heart can imagine and no human mind can conceive.

It is the revelation of his grace - which is all that he has freely given to you in Jesus.

He has given to you…

...salvation,

...forgiveness,

...righteousness,

...holiness

...eternal life,

and much, much more!

Through faith in Jesus, let the Spirit of Jesus write these truths upon your heart as he gives you the revelation of grace.