Sheding Light On The WORD
Fri, July 6, 2007 at 8:51PM 
A Definition: Understanding Illumination
Illumination is a special and further work of the Holy Spirit in which He overcomes the noetic effects of depravity and enables spiritual believers to be enlightened to the propositions of the Bible. It is a special work in that the believer’s understanding would be cryptic at best without the aid of the Holy Spirit, and it is a corollary work in juxtaposition to the Holy Spirit’s work in revelation and inspiration. [1]
A Comparison: Light and Darkness
Light and darkness stand to illustrate the distinction between believers and unbelievers in illumination. Physically speaking, if any person sat at a desk with God’s Word 12 to 18 inches away from his or her eyes without light (no window allowing natural light, no manufactured light from candles, lamps or electricity) reading and comprehension could not happen. Even though the Bible may be translated into the person’s native language, and printed clearly and neatly on a well designed page, and the reader has the skill to read and comprehend information through identifiable vocabulary, sentences, paragraphs, chapters and storylines; the entire process is defeated because of the absence of light. What light is to the eye illumination is to the mind. Spiritually speaking, any person who sits to read God’s Word must have sufficient illumination provided by the Holy Spirit to grasp and assimilate the truth into their mind and react biblically to reality. Exposing others to the Word of God in this way is the benchmark of pastoral work. This is the essence of Paul’s argument in 1 Cor. 10-16, in which he says the regenerate person receives truth through the Spirit, who is uniquely qualified for this ministry (vs. 11-12). The result is “That we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God” (vs. 12a) and the process is referred to as the “Teaching of the Holy Spirit” (vs. 13).Unregenerate persons are without help (or light) in understand God’s Word. Paul says of Gentiles (or the unregenerate) in Eph. 4:18, “...having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God,...because of the blindness of the heart.” Therefore what light does for reader physically illumination does for the reader spiritually.
A Reflection: Do we have a Problem with a Living Word?
Reader response strips the Holy Spirit of this Divine work. It proposes that the meaning of the text rests on the interpreter’s reflection on the text tempered with his / her world-view, presuppositions and circumstances. This is a cultural norm natural to any society committed to humanism. For example, reader response warps the Constitution of the United States into a “living document.” But that is strikingly similar language to the Bible’s vivification. Does not Heb. 4:12a say, “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword…”? 1 Pet. 1:23 adds, “…having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.” What are we to say to our people who wrestle with this issue? Is this not the undercurrent for open attacks on the authority and sufficiency of Scripture such as the Da Vinci Code?
A Response: A Sufficient Response to Reader Response
A wholelistic theology of illumination provides a balanced view of the relationship between God’s Word and God’s people. At the origin of the Scriptures God moved men by the Holy Spirit to produce written revelation (2 Pet. 1:21 - “...holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”). Today, God moves men and women by the Holy Spirit to know and obey his written revelation (2 Tim. 3:17 - “...that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”). The similar reference to the “Man of God” referring to the Scripture writer (2 Pet. 1:21) and Scripture reader (2 Tim. 3:17) should not be quickly overlooked, coming from Peter and Paul. But are the relationships to the text identical? Developing a consistent, biblical understanding of inspiration and illumination will ease the tension.
The process of illumination is a combination of the believer yielding themselves as much as it is the Holy Spirit filling and illuminating them. Paul, being well aware of the believer’s responsibility to yield, prays that the Ephesians believers will have their spiritual eyes opened by illumination (Eph. 1:16). For the Ephesians this included wisdom and revelation (vs. 17), but even with fresh revelation illumination was necessary for complete understanding.
[1] Charles R. Swindoll and Roy B. Zuck, ed., Understanding Christian Theology ( Nashville : Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003), 510.
Reader Comments