Important Lessons for a Very Peculiar ChurchSample

What is a natural person?

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

What is a natural person? A natural person is simply an unbeliever in Christ, a non-Christian. This natural person, in contrast to a spiritual person, lacks the Spirit of God dwelling in him. Indeed, the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit.

Why not? Why doesn’t the natural person, the non-Christian, accept the things of God? It’s not just that he does not accept them or that he will not accept them, but that he cannot accept them. “They are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them.”

The unbeliever lacks the capacity to grasp spiritual things. It’s not mental capacity, but spiritual capacity. He lacks the spiritual capacity to grasp God’s truths. 

The Bible says that a natural person is spiritually blind and spiritually dead. Until God’s Spirit opens a person’s eyes and gives life to a person’s soul, he or she is spiritually blind and spiritually dead. Just as a deaf man cannot hear a piano concert, just as a blind woman cannot see a beautiful painting, just as human ears cannot hear high-frequency radio waves, so the unbeliever cannot accept God’s truth.

Decades ago, as an enthusiastic young follower of Christ, I shared Christ with an unbelieving friend. No matter how cogent and persuasive my arguments, they didn’t penetrate his heart. I was frustrated and probably a bit surprised, because I felt my reasoning was sound. But I should not have been surprised. Blind people don’t see, dead people don’t move, and natural people don’t grasp spiritual truth. Until God opens their eyes by His grace, they just don’t get it.

God may use our reasoning and our speech, but never forget: only God can save people.