We have already pointed out Plato’s mistake of assigning all sin to ignorance. We also repudiate the belief that all sin occurs through deliberate forethought and intentionality. All of us know too well from experience how we often mess things up even when our intention was good. Our reasoning ability is filled with so many delusions, stumbles on so many obstacles, and gets entangled in so many traps. We always wander away from the truth! 

Human reason is of little value to God. The apostle Paul shows that “we not are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us” (2 Cor. 3:5). When he says speak this way, he is referring to our will or what we love. Instead, he denies our ability to think the right way. You may wonder: Is our thinking, intelligence, and discernment so defective in God’s sight that we really can’t think about or do anything that is right?  It’s hard for us to accept this truth because we regard our intellect so highly. Yet Scripture declares that the Holy Spirit knows the thoughts of people and declares them to “vanity” (Ps. 94:11). He also says that “every intention of the thoughts of [humanity’s] heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5). If everything we think, everything we plan, and everything we resolve to do is evil, how can we ever think of doing what is pleasing to God? He only accepts what is righteous and holy! 

Whatever direction our mind goes, it thinks miserably vain things. David was conscious of this weakness when he prayed, “Give me understanding, that I may keep your law.” (Ps. 119:34). By wanting to get a new understanding, he admits his own is insufficient. He doesn’t just do this once, but in one psalm, he repeats the same prayer almost ten times! What David asked for himself, the apostle Paul prayed for the churches: “And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Col. 1:9-10). When Paul wrote that this blessing of understanding comes from God, he implies that it does not come from human beings. 

St. Augustine also speaks of the inability of human reason to understand the things of God. Just as our eyes need the light of the sun to see, so our minds needs God’s illuminating work to understand spiritual truths (August. de Peccat. Merit. et Remiss. lib. 2 cap. 5). Furthermore, even though we can open our physical eyes to see the light, our mental “eyes” remain shut until the Lord opens them. Scripture also does not say that once our minds are illuminated by God then they stay open by themselves. Paul refers to continual opening of our minds to spiritual things in the earlier prayer of Colossians 1:9-10. David also writes of the need for God’s continual illumination: “With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments!” (Ps. 119:10). Even though David had been regenerated, he confesses that he still needed God’s direction in every moment so that they wouldn’t fall away from the knowledge which was given to him. He elsewhere prays for the renewal of a right spirit, which he had lost by his sin (Ps. 51:12). Even though God temporarily withdrew it from David, it is also God’s prerogative to restore it. 

“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.