What was undiscoverable by human reason, God hath revealed by his Spirit. XInto us^ i. e. unto those to whom this revelation, was made, viz. " the holy apostles and prophets," Eph, 3, 5. This revelation was made by the Spirit, for he alone is competent to make it ; for he alone searches the deep things of God. Searches^ i. e. explores, accurately and thor- oughly knows. The word does not express the process of investigation, but rather its results, viz., profound knowledge. Thus God is said to search the hearts of the children of men, to intimate that there is nothing in man that escapes his notice, Rom. 8, 27. Rev. 2, 23. So there is nothing in God unknown to the Spirit. The deep things^ i. e. depths of God, the inmost recesses, as it were, of his being, perfections and purposes. The Spirit, therefore, is fully competent to reveal that wisdom which had for ages been hid in God. This passage proves at once the personality and the divinity of the Holy Ghost. His personahty, because intelligent activity is ascribed to him ; he searches / his divinity, because omniscience is ascribed to him ; he knows all that God knows.
11. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him ? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
This verse is designed to illustrate two points : First, as no one knows the thoughts of a man but the man himself, so no one knows the thoughts of God, but God liimself Therefore no one but a divine person is competent to make a revelation of the thoughts and purposes of God. Second, as every man does know his own thoughts, so the Spirit of God knows the thoughts of God. His knowledge of what is in God is analo- gous to that which we have of the contents of our own con- sciousness. The analogies of scripture, however, are not to be pressed beyond the point which they are intended to illustrate. The point to be illustrated here is, the knowledge of the Spirit. He knows what is in God, as we know what is in ourselves. It is not to be inferred from this that the Spirit of God bears in other points the same relation to God, that our spirits do to us.
12. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God ; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.