Originally preached: July 30, 2023
Beyond the Shallow: Unearthing the Deep Things of God
"But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God."
(1 Corinthians 2:10)
These words from the Apostle Paul are not merely a statement of theological fact; they are an invitation, a beckoning into a realm of knowing God that transcends the superficial, the readily apparent. There is a depth to God, an ocean of wisdom, love, and purpose, that He yearns to unveil to His children. And the key to this unveiling, the divine explorer of these profound realities, is His own Spirit. As we gather around His Word, let us lean in, hearts open, ready to be led beyond the shallow and into the “deep things of God.”
A Triune Welcome to Profound Communion
How astonishing is the New Testament truth that we, as sanctified believers, are invited into fellowship with each person of the Godhead. It’s a truth that, when grasped, flavors every aspect of our spiritual journey. Our “fellowship is with the Father” (1 John 1:3), a relationship of intimate belonging. We are “called unto the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:9), sharing in His life, His sufferings, and His glory. And through it all, we experience the sweet “communion of the Holy Ghost” (2 Corinthians 13:14), the very presence of God dwelling within us.
This trinitarian embrace is not for a distant, conceptual understanding of God. No, “God intends for us to have deep, meaningful, personal, intimate fellowship with” Himself in His triune being. And this very intention, this desire for closeness, “lends heavily to the notion… that God intends to reveal to us deep things.” Unlike the Old Testament saints, whose dealings were predominantly with God the Father, with glimpses and prophecies of the Son and Spirit, we stand in a New Covenant reality, invited into a richer, more fully revealed communion. This profound fellowship is the fertile ground from which the deep things of God spring forth into our understanding.
The Spirit’s Unveiling: Beyond Human Pedestals
The context of Paul’s declaration in 1 Corinthians 2 is a careful dismantling of reliance on human wisdom and worldly status. He cautions the Corinthian believers against the tendency to “glorify those who preach the word of God,” whether it be Paul himself, or Apollos, or any other messenger. The core message is clear: “God revealed it to me, and then I’m giving it to you. So don’t look at me. Look at God.” The messenger is but a conduit; the source, the glory, the revelation itself belongs to God alone.
This caution extends beyond the religious sphere to the secular. Paul urges them not to “place any confidence… on those who are in rule and authority,” be they religious leaders like the Sadducees and Pharisees, or the Roman authorities of the day. Their positions, their power, did not grant them access to divine wisdom. Indeed, “for all of their authority, for all that they had, they they still put Jesus to death.” They missed the greatest revelation of all. How often do we fall into a similar trap, placing “false authority on on people’s position”? We see it with “social influencers,” celebrities, or even managers on the job who, “because they have the title and a captive audience, they’re the smartest person in the room.” Paul sweeps away these human pedestals, redirecting our focus. He is “getting us to the place where we are placing our full and complete confidence in what thus saith the Lord.”
And how does this divine revelation come? “But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit.” The Holy Spirit, the Comforter Jesus promised, the One who “leads us and guides us into all truth,” is the very means by which God unlocks these deep things. It’s a beautiful, almost “double revelation,” as it were: “God reveals his truth in the word, and then the Holy Spirit reveals the word unto us.” This isn’t a layering meant to obscure, but the divine method of operation, designed for those He loves.
From Shallow Waters to Unfathomable Depths
There is a subtle, yet pervasive, human “tendency to be enamored with, and pursue, things that are not deep.” We can become satisfied with surface-level understanding, content to wade in the shallows of spiritual experience. But the call of God has always been to “launch out into the deep.” True faith, the kind that apprehends the profound realities of God, “is not where those things are revealed” on the shoreline of comfortable, predictable understanding. “You don’t learn faith by walking on solid ground.”
Consider the prophet Daniel. When King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that baffled all his wise men, they confessed, “There is not a man upon the earth that can shew the king’s matter” (Daniel 2:10). But Daniel knew a deeper source. He declared that “there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets” (Daniel 2:28), for “he revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him” (Daniel 2:22). God isn’t just someone who turns on the light; “He is the light,” the absolute source of all truth and illumination.
This brings us to that often-quoted, sometimes misapplied passage: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). We can “fall into the trap of of blanketly applying this to things that are temporal or natural, material in nature.” But the context steers us deeper. These “things” are not primarily about unimaginable earthly blessings that remain forever beyond our grasp. Rather, Paul is emphasizing that the source of God’s wisdom is not human. God says, “This won’t be things that you think. This won’t be your your ponderings… I must show you these things.”
And the glorious continuation in verse 10 is, “But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:10). What the natural mind cannot conceive, what human ingenuity cannot discover, the Spirit makes known to the seeking heart. These are not things God keeps from us; they are things He joyfully unveils.
The Measureless God and Our Need for His Light
The patriarch Job, amidst his profound suffering, grappled with the immensity of God. His words echo the cry of a soul reaching for understanding beyond its own capacity: “Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?” (Job 11:7). He paints a picture of a God whose wisdom is “as high as heaven… deeper than hell… The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea” (Job 11:8-9). This is not a God we can simply figure out through intellectual pursuit or human effort. The sheer scale, the overwhelming “expanse” of His being, leads to one humbling conclusion: “Unless he reveals himself, I cannot attain.” Our posture, then, must be one of eager receptivity, acknowledging our limitations and His limitless capacity to make Himself known.
This revelation is not an external lecture but an internal impartation. The apostle John speaks of this when he writes, “These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie…” (1 John 2:26-27). In a world saturated with information and misinformation, where it is “beyond difficult to know what is truth,” this “anointing,” the Holy Spirit dwelling within, becomes our unerring guide. He “teaches you all things,” sifting truth from error, leading us into the very realities of God. Jesus prays to the Father, “sanctify them, Your word is truth.” The Spirit illuminates this Word, making it alive and powerful within us.
Beyond “I Think”: Entering the “Thinkings” of God
As we continue in 1 Corinthians 2, Paul repeatedly uses the word “things”: “the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God… For what man knoweth the things of a man… even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God… that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak… comparing spiritual things with spiritual… the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10-14). What are these “things”? They are, profoundly, the “thinkings” of God.
There is an infinite chasm between human “thinkings” and divine “thinkings.” Man often “thinks on things that might be. These are are myths or theories. Things that are not necessarily true.” Our thoughts are so often subjective, shifting with new information or changing circumstances. “You ever try to have a spiritual, conversation with someone and the argument is laced with, “Well, I think..”? At the risk of being offensive, I do not care what you think when it comes to the foundational truths of God! “There is a way that seemeth right unto man”, but it ends in death and destruction (Proverbs 14:12). Human thought pertaining to God’s thought, at its best, can merely speculate. It is limited by its temporal perspective while “faintly forget[ting] things that have happened in the past, and… blind to the things that are in the future.”
But God’s “thinkings” are of an entirely different order. “God’s thinking, first of all, is not myth.” We “have not believed cunningly devised fables” (2 Peter 1:16) when we embrace His Word. When God thinks, He “is not bound by present moment, but God thinks out of his eternal perspective.” And crucially, “the things that God thinks are true… God can only think things that are true. It’s intrinsic to his nature.” His thoughts are not speculations; “God’s thoughts are realities.” They are “universal, eternal truths” that “shall come to pass,” because He is not a “man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent” (Numbers 23:19). When the Holy Spirit reveals the “deep things,” He is ushering us into the very thought-realm of the Almighty, sharing with us truths that are as eternal and unshakeable as God Himself.
“So Loved”: Plumbing the Depths of Divine Affection
Let us consider one such “deep thing”: the love of God. The world bandies about the word “love” with casual ease, often reducing it to mere sentiment or fleeting emotion. But the love of God is a profound, active, sacrificial reality. We hear the familiar words of John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son…” There is an immeasurable depth in that “so loved.”
While the incarnation, the giving of His Son in birth, is a magnificent display of God’s love, the full measure is revealed elsewhere. As 1 John 4:9-10 declares, “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” The “deep thing” of God’s love, the piercing tenderness and incomprehensible depth of that “so loved,” comes into sharpest focus at Calvary.
It is when God, by His Spirit, “places us and sets us at the foot of the cross,” that “the depth of the love of God becomes crystal clear to us.” There, as we behold the Son, “who knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21), bearing the crushing weight of our transgressions, becoming the “propitiation for our sins,” we begin to understand. We see His suffering, His sacrifice, His willingness to endure the unimaginable “that we might have life.” In that sacred space, the abstract concept of love is transfigured into a breathtaking reality. And this revelation is not merely for our admiration; it is to transform us. Understanding His sacrificial love – “Love looks like sacrifice. Love looks like, giving up of your only, giving up of your best” – redefines our love for Him. Suddenly, the call to “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1) no longer seems an arduous demand, but a fitting, joyful response to such immeasurable love.
Angelic Awe and the Unfolding Mystery
The sheer depth of God’s ways, particularly His plan of salvation, is something that even celestial beings ponder with wonder. Paul, in Ephesians, speaks of the mystery of Christ, “Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel” (Ephesians 3:5-6). This grand, inclusive plan was “hidden even from the angels,” beings who have spent “countless millennia in heaven with God.” They “marvel at salvation,” looking with awe upon God’s relationship with redeemed humanity.
If those who have dwelt in God’s immediate presence for eons are still captivated by the unfolding mysteries of His wisdom, how much more should we approach His revealed truths with humility and eager anticipation? This reality, this scale of God’s thinking, should lead us to echo Paul’s own doxology after plumbing the depths of God’s redemptive plan: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” (Romans 11:33). This is the place God desires to bring us, not to a full comprehension (for He is incomprehensible), but to a place of awe-filled worship at the brink of His infinite depths. He says, “There is a place by me. I want to show you some stuff. I have to reveal some things to you. I have deep things that I wanna share with you.”
A Call to Hunger for the Profound
The journey into the deep things of God is not for the passive or the easily satisfied. “God wants us to want the deep things of God.” It requires more than a “cursory glance at scripture.” It calls for a “deep, reflective, meditative look by prayer and fasting at the truth of the word of God, the thinkings of the word of God.” We have His Word, the repository of His thoughts, His eternal truths. And we have the indwelling Spirit, the divine Interpreter, whose “fellowship… leads us and guides us into the truth of the deep things of God.”
These are not depths we can discover on our own. “He has to reveal” them. Whether it is His love, His mercy, His grace, or His faithfulness, “there are attributes of God that if we just if we just spout them off as conceptual notions of who God is without yielding ourselves to the revealed depth of truth in it, we will miss the fullness of what God has for us.” There is “no shallow to you, O God. There is no top surface to you.” The One who sits in eternity, whose throne is in heaven and whose footstool is the earth, cannot be shallow.
May a holy hunger be stirred within us, a dissatisfaction with the superficial, and a passionate pursuit of the “deep things of God.” As we diligently seek Him, as we search His Word with hearts yielded to His Spirit, He will continue to reveal Himself. For He delights in sharing the “thinkings of God, the thoughts of God, the realities of God that are objectively true” with His beloved children. Let us, then, “dig deep.” Let us launch out, trusting the Spirit to guide us into the glorious, life-transforming depths of our amazing God.
