- Overcomer Literature Trust
- Swindon
- Wiltshire
THE KING’S WORK IN US.
By J.C.Metcalfe.
“He will guide you into all truth” (John 14 v13).
It is most important that we should understand the part the Holy Spirit plays in applying in our lives the great and wonderful things that have been accomplished for us by the Lord Jesus Christ in His Cross and resurrection.
In John's Gospel chapters 14, 15 and 16 we look at the witness given by the Lord Jesus to the coming, the work and the place of the Holy Spirit in the Church. The first reference to the Holy Spirit in these chapters is, "If you love Me you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counsellor to be with you for ever - the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you” (John 14 v15-17).
Three facts appear in these verses.
i. Because the Lord Jesus went back to the Father, pleading the blood of His sacrifice on the Cross for us, the Comforter was sent, not just as a temporary guest but to remain for ever in the hearts of His people (see Eph. 1 v13-14 and 4 v30).
ii. He is the Spirit of truth, not only of truth as revealed in Scripture, but of sincerity and honesty, and cannot be received by the world, but only by those who are born again (see Col. 1v13)
iii. He comes to dwell in us, and to form in us the nature of the Lord Jesus (see Eph. 3 v16-17, 1 Cor. 6 v19).
In John 14 verses 25 and 26 we read, “All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you”. The Holy Spirit has come to be our Teacher. He will also quicken our memories so that we can remember the teachings and portions of Scripture which we have studied for ourselves. This does not mean that He will teach us all kinds of things which do not concern us. He has not come to make us religious experts but to show us how to live so that God will be glorified. We must recognise that only the Holy Spirit can reveal the things of God to us and must submit ourselves day by day to His teaching.
In the closing verses of chapter 15 we find the Lord speaking more concerning the work of the Holy Spirit. “When the Counsellor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, He will testify about Me. And you also must testify, for you have been with Me from the beginning" (John 15 v26-27). The coming of the Holy Spirit into the world, to bring the Church into being, is always closely linked with the thought of witness. Passages such as Luke 24 v45-49, Acts 1 v7-8, Acts 9 v17-22 also show this.
The Holy Spirit of God has one great work in which He is engaged in this age, to bear witness to the grace of God given to us in the Lord Jesus Christ and to exalt Him (see also 1 John 5 v6, Rom. 8 v15-16, 1 Cor. 2 v12-13, 1 Peter 1 v22.). He does this through those in whom He lives. The work of the Christian in this world is to give evidence, to be a witness and in this connection we must always remember that what we are and how we live speaks much louder than what we say. “Let your light”, said the Lord Jesus, “shine before men, that they may see your good deeds, and praise your Father in heaven" (Matt. 5 v16).
Peter, possibly remembering this command wrote, “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us" (1 Peter 2 v12). Unless it has behind it a life in which the power of God is seen, testimony is of little value.
There are many who think that testimony is talking about their own spiritual experiences, and begin to value those experiences more than they do their Lord. “He will testify of Me,” said the Lord Jesus. One of the finest examples of pure testimony is Peter’s sermon recorded in Acts 2 v14-36. He passed over in a few sentences the fact of the wonderful pentecostal experience into which he and the others gathered in the upper room had just entered, and becomes absorbed in speaking of Christ, and Christ alone.
Today, testimony is often restricted to meetings composed of sympathetic fellow-Christians, but the whole of the New Testament shows that the right place for witness is to the outsiders with whom we live and work. They need to see the evidence of all that God has done for and in us by our daily lives, and hear from our lips the praises of our great and glorious Saviour, not about our experiences.
Chapter 16 contains the fullest teaching of all on this subject, "I tell you the truth, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counsellor will not come . . . when He is come, He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin because men do not believe in Me; in regard to righteousness because I am going to my Father, where you can see Me no longer; and in regard to judgment because the prince of this world now stands condemned . . . when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own . . . He will bring glory to Me” (John 16 v7-15).
Verses 7-11 speak of the particular way in which the witness of the Holy Spirit is carried on as far as the world of unconverted men and women is concerned. Three things are spoken of concerning what He convinces those who are without Christ about. The first of these is sin (v8-9), and a particular sin is emphasised so as to leave no room for doubt, “Because they believe not in Me”. Faith in the Crucified, Risen and Ascended Saviour gives pardon and power over sin. The one sin that takes people to hell is refusal to accept Christ as Lord and Saviour. It is possible to only be sorry about sin because of the resulting difficulties, but the Holy Spirit shows us ourselves, as God sees us, and how hopeless any effort at self-improvement is. Then the way is clear for Him to reveal that Christ is the only answer to our need.
Next comes the fact of righteousness (v8 and 10), “in regard to righteousness because I am going to the Father, where you can see Me no longer”. His next revelation is that God is “just and the One who justifies those who have faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3 v26), “and the Lord has laid on Him (the Lord Jesus) the iniquity of us all” (Is. 53 v6). He has accepted His Son as our representative, and will not only look upon us as righteous but will make us righteous in and through Him. “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5 v21). When the Holy Spirit has revealed sin, as seen from God's standpoint, then the way is open for Him to show the wonderful provision God has made for us in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Finally comes the fact of judgment (v8 and 11), “in regard to judgment because the prince of this world now stands condemned”. When the Holy Spirit begins to speak to our hearts we begin to understand that heaven and hell are real, that this world is doomed, that Satan, its prince and god, and all who ally themselves to him are under the wrath of God (John 3 v36).
John 16 verses 12-15 re-emphasise much of what we have already seen of the ministry of the Holy Spirit to the Christian. The Lord Jesus tells His disciples that He has many more things which He wishes to tell them, but that until the Cross has been endured and they have His Spirit living in them they cannot understand them. He then makes them some promises about what the Holy Spirit is to do for and in them.
i. He will lead them into all truth. Day by day to the end of their lives, they could be certain that all the truth they needed to know would be shown to them as they sought Him in humble dependence.
ii. They can be absolutely certain that all they learn from Him is that which is of God and not some delusion invented to lead them astray.
iii. He will show them things of the future. They will not be taken by surprise by the trials or events of life but will find step by step the undertaking of the Spirit of God. They will learn in practical experience that “in all things God works for the good to those who love Him" (Rom. 8 v28). Therefore their hearts are at rest and their lives are lived in peace.
iv. He will consistently seek the glory of the Lord Jesus. When the Holy Spirit is at work Christ is always exalted and placed in His rightfiul position as the One Who has the first place (see Col. 1 v18-19). Those who are taught by the Holy Spirit always seek the glory of the Lord Jesus, not their own.
v. He will reveal to the seeking, hungry heart the comfort and glory of the inheritance bought by the precious blood of Christ (1 Peter 1 v17-21), and cause such to “understand what God has freely given us” (1 Cor. 2 v12).
Let us be quite clear about this. We can know nothing of the grace and power of God except through the work of the Holy Spirit. We cannot bear witness either by life or lip apart from His enabling. God has decreed that it is through Him and Him alone that the great salvation secured for us by the Lord Jesus Christ will be made real to and in us.
From: ‘Out of Adam - Into Christ’.