We should never forgot that the Holy Spirit dispenses many blessings on whomever he wants in order to benefit all humanity. The Spirit gave skill and knowledge to Bezaleel and Aholiab to construct the Tabernacle (Exodus 31:2; 35:30). Therefore, it shouldn’t be strange to us that the most important truths in human life are given to us by the Holy Spirit. Some Christians might ask, “How can the Holy Spirit work with the ungodly who are alienated from God?” They argue that the Spirit can only dwell in believers because he is the Spirit of holiness by which we are consecrated to God as his temple. Of course that’s truth. However, the Spirit still fills, moves and invigorates all things. Moreover, the Spirit often works according to the nature of each kind of being in accordance with the Law of Creation. If the Lord is pleased to assist believers by the work of non-Christians in physics, linguistics, mathematics, and other similar sciences, we should receive these things as good gifts from God. If we do not use these insights, we could be rightly disciplined for laziness!

Don’t get me wrong. If someone is very happy merely because he is highly intelligent and talented in investigating the things of this world, his satisfaction will be fleeting and vain because it is not based on a solid foundation of truth. Augustine and others rightly argue that the gracious gifts God bestowed on humanity were withdrawn and the natural gifts of humanity were also corrupted after the fall. These gifts are not corrupt in of themselves because they proceed from God. Instead, they ceased to be pure because human nature is corrupted.

“Blogging the Institutes” is my on-going attempt to paraphrase John Calvin’s work, the Institutes of the Christian Religion. You can find out more about the series in the Introduction. For all the posts in this series, check out the Master List.