“Orthodoxy, or right opinion, is, at best, a very slender part of religion. Though right tempers cannot subsist without right opinions, yet right opinions may subsist without right tempers. There may be a right opinion of God without either love or one right temper toward Him. Satan is proof of this.” (A.W. Tozer quoting John Wesley)
Nicodemus was a man with a lot of right teachings of God. How many of the Scribes and Pharisees had orthodox teachings of God? While they had many problems, it might have been that their real problem was trusting in human wisdom and tradition. “At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants” (Matthew 11:25). We should take note that Jesus did not say that the Father had hidden these things from the secular wise and intelligent, but these things were spoken to the religious. So it is not just the smart atheist or the smart liberal that Jesus is speaking to, but even to those that are orthodox and yet wise in their own eyes.
Let us think of a very learned and yet orthodox man. How is that man to understand the things of God? The natural man cannot understand the things of God (I Cor 2:14) because the Spirit alone can reveal the things of God. Jesus said that it was not flesh and blood that had revealed things to Peter, but His Father who was in heaven (Mt 16:17).
So as we think of things like this, no matter how smart an individual is only God can reveal spiritual things to that person. Orthodox doctrine as teaching the letter of the words is nothing that an unbelieving person cannot grasp with the mind. It is the Holy Spirit alone that can take those words and open up the beauty and glory of God to human beings through those words. Orthodoxy, though very important, is never enough in and of itself.
Other than Christ, Satan has perhaps the greatest knowledge of the Bible and of the character of God than an unsaved individual can have. However, what does he lack that his great intellectual powers cannot give him? Most likely he is an expert in Hebrew and Greek. Most likely he knows vast amounts of the history of the Church. Without doubt he knows theology books inside and out. However, he has never been humbled and he has never received the kingdom of God like a child. He does not have access to the Holy Spirit who alone can open the eyes of the heart to see the glory of God.
So what is it that human learning can give a person that Satan does not have a lot more of? What is it about orthodoxy that can teach a man more than Satan already knows far better? These questions should do some prodding in our hearts so that we can ask ourselves what we are focusing on. No matter how much human learning we obtain, the Holy Spirit is the One who must show us that those things really mean. This is not to knock learning and even vast amounts of learning, but it is to say that all that learning will amount to nothing if the heart is not humbled before God and taught by the Holy Spirit. Christ’s word is that all must become like a child in order to enter the kingdom. What theology book can we turn to that will teach us that? How much learning is needed for a man to come with his face in the dirt to humble himself before God? Could it even be that a thirst for knowledge can simply be a proud man wanting to know more than others?
We have been taught to listen to the scholars in order to understand Scripture. But are we so sure that understanding Scripture depends on modern scholarship rather than to know the living God? What is it that the scholar has to offer? The scholar has opinions to offer on the background and on parts of a disputed text. Without knocking those (and in fact these things can be very helpful) we must assert that the Bible was written by the Holy Spirit and the believer has direct access to the writer of Scripture. It is the Spirit alone who can open up the deep things of God.
“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me;
and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life” (John 5:39-40). The scholars in the time of Jesus studied Scripture a lot. But they did not understand that the Scriptures were to take them to Christ. The same thing is true today. There is a need for scholars, but we must never think that the scholar is able to understand the spiritual issues of Scripture apart from the Holy Spirit. Orthodoxy and the outward meaning of a text is not the same thing as knowing God. It is the Holy Spirit that is said to guide His people into the truth (John 16:13). At least that is what Jesus thought. We must humble ourselves in order to be humbled so that we can know God.
God Loves... Himself 
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