Seeing Jesus Christ
But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Cor. 2:14)
Natural man cannot receive the things of God – he has no frame of reference — because natural man, left to himself, does not know Jesus Christ. All discernment in the Christian life is the product of knowing and seeing Jesus Christ. HE is the Light and the Truth.
Left to myself, my natural man will instead accept as the Truth whatever my makeup tells me is the Truth — I will accept God only in a way that reflects my own makeup — either in a positive way or a negative way. This is why there are so many people, including many professing Christians, who believe some of the most blatant errors. It is why there are so many versions of, “natural Christianity.” These are the product of natural, religious man. People read the Bible, and use themselves — their reasoning and brain power — to mirror what they think is Christianity. But these are spiritually dead. They are deception because they are the product of man using himself as the basis to determine the Truth. The problem is not a lack of brains – but of spiritual darkness. We need to see Christ.
Jesus said, “Unless you are born from above, you CANNOT see.” (see John 3:3) Note that: You CANNOT see. Thinking, studying, arguing, reasoning, and even the best religion possible labelled with the name of Jesus, cannot give us sight. We must be BORN — born from above. We must have CHRIST IN US. This means death and resurrection. Its a LIFE — born out of our taking our place in the Cross and being raised in Christ. Only then can we begin to see Jesus — and because we see and know Him, can we have a growing discernment regarding all else.