“We must acknowledge that it is the Holy Spirit who enables us to acknowledge and respond to God’s authoritative Word in Holy Scripture (Jn 3:3, 5; 2 Cor. 3:14–18; 4:3–6; 1 Thess. 1:5; 2:13).
The Spirit enables us to perceive Scripture’s inherent brightness and to taste its inherent sweetness. The light of the sun does not illumine the eyes of a blind man.
Nevertheless, the Spirit’s work of “illumination,” the work whereby He enables us to see and to receive Scripture as God’s word (cf. 1 Cor. 2:12, 14), does not add light to Holy Scripture any more than the healing of a blind man adds radiance to the sun.
The Spirit, by His illuminating work, enables us to see the light and to savor the sweetness that belong to Scripture in and of itself as God’s divine Word.”
–Scott R. Swain, Trinity, Revelation, and Reading: A Theological Introduction to the Bible and Its Interpretation (London; New York: T&T Clark, 2011), 75.
Leave a Reply