Illumination

The eyes of the heart enlightened

The psalmist prayed, "Open my eyes that I may see wondrous things from Your law" (Psalm 119:18). Scripture is written clearly, yet a heart under sin does not receive it as God's word:

The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

1 Corinthians 2:14

Wesley explains why such a person does not know them: "As he has not the will, so neither has he the power" Wesley. So the Spirit must work. The risen Jesus "opened their minds to understand the Scriptures" (Luke 24:45); the Lord opened Lydia's heart "to respond to Paul's message" (Acts 16:14); and Paul prays that "the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know the hope of His calling" (Ephesians 1:18). As Matthew Henry remarks, "Even good men need to have their understandings opened" Matthew Henry.

Illumination is not revelation or inspiration. Revelation is God making himself known; inspiration is the Spirit moving the writers of Scripture so that what they wrote is God's word; illumination is the Spirit enabling today's reader to grasp that word. It rests on the promise that the Spirit "will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own" (John 16:13). Illumination does not replace study and meditation; it works through them.

The church's confession

Augustine said that what people hear with the outward ear comes from men, "yet what they understand is given them from within; from within is light and revelation" Augustine. Calvin taught that our certainty that Scripture is God's word comes from the inner testimony of the Holy Spirit Calvin, Institutes 1.7. In the Reformation some set the Spirit's voice within against the outward word, and the Reformed churches answered that the Spirit works by and with the Word. The Westminster Confession, having said that nothing is to be added to Scripture "by new revelations of the Spirit", continues:

Nevertheless we acknowledge the inward illumination of the Spirit of God to be necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the Word.

Westminster Confession 1.6

Where the traditions differ

Every tradition confesses that without the Spirit's help Scripture cannot be rightly understood. The emphasis differs on where that light is given. Protestants stress that the Spirit gives understanding to every believer through a clear Scripture, while testing that understanding together within the church's teaching and creeds. The Catholic Church teaches that the Spirit guides the whole church, and that the task of authoritatively interpreting Scripture has been entrusted to the church's teaching office Dei Verbum. The Orthodox churches speak of the Spirit giving understanding as Scripture is read within the church's tradition, worship and prayer. Among evangelicals, views divide over whether the Spirit still gives prophetic words today (see the gifts of the Spirit), but they agree that no such word stands beside Scripture, and that every word must be tested by it. See the lesson The inspiration and authority of Scripture.