And so Paul’s point is not to explain the method of how the Spirit knows all things, it’s more simple: The Holy Spirit knows everything-even the depths of God- because he is God. He doesn’t learn things after the fact his knowledge is eternal and unchanging! God’s knowledge is qualitatively different than our knowledge.
The Spirit does not learn by taking courses or adding layers of knowledge like we do. This is what theologians call the doctrine of simplicity.
Men run algorithms because they don’t know, the Spirit knows because his knowledge is perfect, exhaustive, absolute. Now, this doesn’t mean the Spirit has to run an algorithm to determine what God is thinking. The Holy Spirit searches everything, meaning he knows everything, even the mind of God. Man can build the largest computer system, but he can’t mine data like God. To put it colloquially, Google has nothing on the Holy Spirit. And what he searches is everything in creation. Verse 10 reads, “For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.” The word speaks of rigorous research or exhaustive examination. The first thing Paul says about the Spirit is that he searches. Rather, the pneumonic device serves to help us get a handle on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians, especially as it relates to the Spirit’s ministry of illumination. The seven truths are not meant to suggest Paul aligns his teaching with the seven spirits of God. With passing reference to the Isaiah and Revelation, I want to suggest seven truths about the Spirit of God in 1 Corinthians. While the Spirit has power to restore creation (Isaiah 32:15) and raise the dead (Romans 8:11), the primary way he works today is in the granting spiritual understanding, what Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians 2:10–16. As mentioned in a previous essay, the working of the Spirit is not seen primarily in visible acts of supernatural power, but in granting spiritual life and mental receptivity of God’s work of salvation.
Significantly, this stands behind much of what Jesus says in John’s Gospel (see 14:26 15:26 16:13–14). While Lordship and might (גְּבוּרָה) are mentioned, the primary emphasis is cognitive. This sevenfold description locates the work of the Spirit in the realm of wisdom and knowledge. Verse 2 is where the seven descriptors of the Spirit are found, in that the Spirit is Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins. And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. Greg Beale affirms the plausibility of Isaiah 11 (and Zechariah) being in the “background of the ‘seven spirits.’” In that passage, which “shows that God’s sevenfold Spirit is what equips the Messiah to establish his end-time reign,” the prophet writes, Wonderfully, the same Holy Spirit who dwells in God’s heavenly temple (1:4) has been sent to dwell in local churches (5:6).Īt the same time, the sevenfold spirit of God may also refer to Isaiah 11, where the Spirit of the LORD is said to “rest upon” the shoot of Jesse (i.e., the forthcoming king from David’s tribe). Rather, as with so many images in Revelation, the numeral seven represents the fullness of the Spirit abiding in God’s throne room and dwelling with the churches. In no way does the number represent something contradictory to the triune nature of God (three-in-one), nor does it crassly suggest there are seven spirits who represent God. While enigmatic, the symbolic use of the number seven in Revelation gives credible explanation: The seven spirits are God is a reference to the Holy Spirit, who is the perfect and complete Spirit of God. In the book of Revelation John speaks of the “seven spirits of God” (1:4 3:1 4:5 5:6).
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