2015.04.26_The Spirit of Truth

Significance of the Holy Spirit

God is the source of Truth and every blessing. He is the only One who can and who actually desires to bless mankind. He desires to give what He has abundantly according to His perfect blueprint. In other words, He helps man overcome his limitations and weaknesses in order that he might receive what God is giving.

Out of everything God gives us, the Gospel is the most important. He Himself came to deliver that Gospel to us, and made it possible for us to actually receive that through experience. Hence we have received salvation and the right to enter Heaven.

God revealed Himself through His only begotten, Jesus Christ, and witnesses Him through the Holy Spirit. So in order to know God, we must know Jesus Christ; and in order to know Jesus Christ, we must rely on the Holy Spirit. God saved us through Jesus Christ, and for us to hold on to our salvation until we enter Heaven, God helps us by the Holy Spirit. Whoever wants to come before God must rely on Jesus Christ, and to be led by Jesus Christ, he must receive the Holy Spirit’s help. In short, nobody go before God without the help of the Holy Spirit.

Despite such significance of His role, not all Christians actually honor the Holy Spirit. With their lips they might acknowledge His existence and honor Him in their prayers, but in reality, they do not give Him any room to do His work. Perhaps they regard Him as a mere accessory to God.

Whoever desires to go to Heaven has to depend on the Holy Spirit wholly. Some people argue, “Isn’t it right to say that a person doesn’t have to receive the Holy Spirit to be saved?” That is correct. People can still receive the forgiveness of sins and obtain life, even if they have not received the Holy Spirit because the One who died on the cross is not the Holy Spirit. However, underestimating the importance of the role of the Holy Spirit by fixing oneself upon such argument is the same as ignoring the order of God’s plan, which will ultimately devastate their eternal life. We must keep in mind that even God does not disregard the Holy Spirit’s operation, nor does Jesus Christ go beyond it.

The Spirit of Christ and the Holy Spirit

Before we go on to looking at the importance of the Holy Spirit’s role, there is one thing we need to clearly understand, and that is, if anyone is of Christ, the spirit of Christ is in him. Through the death of His flesh, Christ paid the price of sin that our souls were meant to pay; and by His resurrection He gave us the spirit of Christ. This did not come about by merely becoming aware or grasping some kind of notion. Jesus’ life does not come inside us simply through our awareness of some particular concept. Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you” (Jn 6:53). One must have the experience of eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of Man in order to possess the life that is in Jesus.

Then what does it mean to eat and drink the flesh and blood of the Son of Man? John 5:25 says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.” The spiritually dead mankind needs to hear the voice of the Son of God in order to live, because faith comes from hearing (Ro 10:17). So verse 24 says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.” The moment we hear the Gospel and believe, our souls are moved from death to life, which is the spirit of Christ coming into us.

The spirit of Christ is not the Holy Spirit. Unlike the Holy Spirit, the spirit of Christ is not a person; it refers to the spiritual essence of the life that is in Jesus. The spirit of the Adamic man is a living spirit, while the spirit of Christ is the life-giving spirit (1Co 15:45). When Jesus said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (Jn 6:63), it was the life-giving spirit He was referring to.

Jesus is the Word which became flesh. To eat and drink the flesh and blood of the Son of Man means to receive the Word that became flesh, and believe in His works. The reason we can eat and drink Jesus’ flesh and blood is because He suffered in His own body. For us to eat and drink His flesh and blood means we accept the merits of His death and resurrection. This is how we abide in Him and He in us.

The fact that we have been brought to life through the life-giving spirit is not just a perception but a reality. Therefore having the spirit of Christ in us should not be taken in an abstract sense. Is it possible for some notion in our minds to become the condition for our salvation? If it was, that would suggest that people with memory loss due to health problems could lose their salvation. Salvation is not an abstract notion but a fact and an inerasable experience. This is the reason we can humble ourselves on the earth as we head confidently towards eternal life.

If the Holy Spirit Did Not Indwell Us…

One day Jesus said to His disciples, “But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart” (Jn 16:5-6). The disciples were in shock and lost for words to hear that Jesus was going away. Their hearts were overshadowed with despair because they did not realize what Jesus was about to do. So then Jesus told them, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you” (Jn 16:7). What was going to happen when the Helper Holy Spirit comes for Jesus to say this?

No mother would ever say to her newborn baby, “Do you know how hard it was to birth you? From now on, you’re going to have to look after yourself.” Children need the care of a mom. Mom has to do all kinds of things for her baby throughout day such as feeding and changing diapers. That does not mean that a baby cannot survive without receiving mom’s love. As long as food and clothing are provided, the baby will survive. However, people who grow up without their mom’s warm touch and gentle care are likely to have troubled personalities. These people tend to have a defensive attitude towards others, and because they never received tender care and attention from other people, they struggle in giving attention and care to others. They regard it a loss for them to show kindness or service to others, but moreover, they have trouble appreciating and cheerfully accepting favor and kindness from others.

Jesus paid the heavy price by bearing all kinds of suffering and made us God’s children. So how precious are we to God? Now, would Jesus abandon us saying, “Do you know what I had to go through to make you become God’s children? From now on, you have to live on your own”? If Jesus did really treat us that way, our souls would probably fall into trouble before He returns.

If Jesus had simply disappeared from the disciples’ sight without a word 2,000 years ago, it would not have been easy for them to follow His will to the end. The same goes for us. Though we have obtained the glorious citizenship of Heaven, if Jesus is not near us to care for us, we cannot experience any transformations and development both inwardly and outwardly. We would still be tainted in our old temperament, habits and frame of mind, unable to use our lives to prepare for the Kingdom of Heaven.

If the Holy Spirit does not indwell and help us, we cannot successfully worship God; whether we pray or give service, they would all be void of God and we would only be trying to follow our moral conscience. We would neglect matters such as storing our treasures in Heaven which is only possible by the inspiration of God, let alone think about resisting the Devil. We would not obey God’s word that came from His own lips, and forsake His word at the slightest difficulty.

When we continue to live separated from God in this way, the fact that God’s life came inside us would turn into a long distant memory. Then, the dividing work of the Devil would only increase, and the demons would become even more vicious in their operations to torment our flesh and cause sicknesses. Despite such circumstances, the church will be left without any provision of God’s power and gifts to solve all the problems on its own.

Jesus commanded us to love one another, which does not imply that we do only if we can. He called this brotherly love “a new command” and so emphasized it that it was almost as if it replaced the Law. That is because this is essential to the church’s continual existence and growth. However if the Lord is not near us, we would follow the old rough habits and ways of our former days in the world inside the church too, resulting in all sorts of irresponsible and low conduct and behaviors. And if somebody is evangelized to the church under these circumstances, s/he would feel doubtful as to whether they want to associate with such people and leave. These awful scenarios that remind us of the verse, “in the end times the love of many will grow cold,” are possible if we suppose that the Lord is not near us.

The Holy Spirit’s Teaching and Guidance for Each Person

What if Jesus had not ascended to Heaven and still remained on the earth? It would be impossible for Him to care for each and every Christian throughout the world. When He was on the earth, even the disciples, apart from Peter, John and James did not get many chances to be beside the Lord. So what about the countless Christians from all the nations around the world in the present time? If Jesus had remained in Jerusalem, most people would never get the opportunity to even shake His hands, other than those near Jerusalem who are likely to be the ones holding ecclesiastical authority. Jesus desired to look after each and every soul by sending the Holy Spirit from Heaven, and thus nurture us better than He did His disciples while He was on the earth. That is why He said, “It is to your advantage that I go away.”

Though people were able to take Him away when He was on the earth, they cannot any more. The Lord, whom we could only see from afar in the past, now abides in each of us individually. Hence He is truly our Lord. But that is not only for this present time, for He promised to be with us to the end of the age (Mt 28:20), the promise of Immanuel.

After the resurrection, Jesus stayed on the earth for forty days, and this was a most critical time for His disciples. Having witnessed His resurrection, they believed Him as the Son of God and were saved. Nevertheless, they still did not know much about Jesus Christ, and so those forty days were very significant to them. During that time, they came to comprehend the Scriptures as well as understand the works of Jesus Christ and God’s heart for sending Him. It was like a dream for them to walk together with God who had come down to the earth during those forty days, as if they were on honeymoon. It was a time when Jesus personally met the souls who were saved, to teach and guide them. The reason He sent us the Holy Spirit is to lead and guide all the believers in the same way.

Be Trained and Used by the Holy Spirit

There is another important thing we need to understand. When the Holy Spirit descended in Jerusalem, the Jews had been trained by the Law over 1,500 years. Hence they were already disciplined in self-control, patience, kindness, obedience and so on. So even young children were able to hold back their tears and suppress themselves from crying when they got hurt. These people became better-trained after meeting Jesus, and later received the Holy Spirit. In contrast, we the Gentiles are lagging behind them considerably.

Since Jesus told us to preach the Gospel to all the nations, we must obey His word. However in order for us to work to the measure of the Jewish Christians, a great deal of effort is necessary. By being transformed under the tender care and guidance of the Holy Spirit, we need to become a bigger and finer vessel than the Jews. Just as Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:29), we need to be changed in our characters that the Holy Spirit may use us. We must conduct ourselves by the guidance of the Holy Spirit instead of conforming to the desires of our flesh as we did in the past. Only when we do so will the church grow, and after that be able to preach the Gospel to all the nations.

Each of us needs to carry our own cross and lead a public ministry. If we have hope in the eternal Kingdom of Heaven, we must have a public ministry. For the Jews, they always remembered and dedicated for the temple, even though they were not near God. But now, God abides within us and wants to fulfill His will through us. Therefore, we need to be used by God so that God’s will is fulfilled swiftly. God will later reward us according to what we have done. Just because we have been saved, we must not be conceited and remain stationary, nor is it proper for us to think of going to Heaven at this very moment. The Holy Spirit wants to nurture and use our souls which Jesus has saved through such tremendous cost.

Jesus said, “When the Spirit of truth has come, He will glorify Me” (Jn 16:13-14). He also said, “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. At that day you will know that I am in You and you in Me” (Jn 14:18-20). This does not mean that the Holy Spirit will pop up in our thoughts once in a while. The Holy Spirit enables us to experience. The experiences we have through the Holy Spirit will teach and nurture us, and also lead us to the eternal kingdom. We need to humbly follow the Holy Spirit’s teaching and guidance. The Lord’s words which said, ‘It is to your advantage that I go away’, should be fulfilled in us.