Gospel of John [Joh 16:8]. The Doctrine of the HS, part 14. Joh 14:16, 26; 15:26: 16:7; 2Pe 1:20-21; 2Ti 3:16.Title: Gospel of John [Joh 16:8]. The Doctrine of the HS, part 14. Joh 14:16, 26; 15:26: 16:7; 2Pe 1:20-21; 2Ti 3:16.
Another title of the Holy Spirit is that of Comforter, from para,klhtoj, meaning “a helper, succorer, aider, assistant; so of the Holy Spirit destined to take the place of Christ with the apostles” [Thayer]
It is found frequently in the gospel of John in the upper room discourse.
Joh 14:15 "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
Joh 14:16 "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;
Joh 14:17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you.
Joh 14:25 "These things I have spoken to you, while abiding with you.
Joh 14:26 "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.
Joh 14:27 "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.
Joh 15:17 ”This I command you, that you love one another.
Joh 15:18 "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.
Joh 15:19 "If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
Joh 15:20 "Remember the word that I said to you, 'A slave is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.
Joh 15:21 "But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.
Joh 15:22 "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.
Joh 15:23 "He who hates Me hates My Father also.
Joh 15:24 "If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.
Joh 15:25 "But they have done this in order that the word may be fulfilled that is written in their Law, 'They hated Me without a cause.'
Joh 15:26 "When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness of Me,
Joh 15:27 and you will bear witness also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.
Joh 16:7 "But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper shall not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.
This title reveals the Holy Spirit as one who is always ready to help the Christian.
The many titles of the Holy Spirit with their manifold meanings speak eloquently of the beauties of His Person and the wonders of His attributes.
The many aspects revealed speak of His infinite Person, equal in power and glory with the Father and the Son.
As many Scriptures in combination with one another, if cited, would prove that to the Holy Spirit the titles God, Jehovah, the God of Israel, Jehovah God, Jehovah God of Hosts are ascribed, it is certain that, in the divine reckoning, the Holy Spirit is One of the Glorious Three with the undiminished authority and exaltation which belong to Deity alone. The Scripture is numerous and absolute in its conviction that the Holy Spirit possesses every attribute of deity and is a person.
Christian Theology, Dr. William Cooke: Thus each reviving spring, and each successive generation of men and inferior animals, like a new creation, is declaratory of the Spirit’s presence and omnipotent energy. In the economy of grace the Holy Spirit performs a benign and conspicuous part. He begins, carries forward, and completes the work of salvation in the hearts of his people. It is impossible to estimate the immense amount of moral and spiritual good resulting from his holy influence upon the human heart. He is the great source of light and grace to the world-the fountain of holiness, love, and joy; and, excepting the gift of Christ, the bestowment of his agency is the greatest and most important blessing ever conferred upon our fallen world.
In the first two verses of the Bible two Persons of the Godhead are mentioned - God and the Spirit of God.
Psa 33:6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, And by the breath [ruach = breath or Spirit or spirit] of His mouth all their host.
There are certain divine undertakings which are said to be wrought by the three Persons of the Godhead, notably, creation, the death of Christ, and the resurrection of Christ; and there are divine undertakings which belong specifically to One or Another of the members of the Godhead. Christ became incarnate. The Father gave the Son. There are achievements that only the HS undertakes and they are divine in origin.
The Spirit inspires the Scriptures, generates the humanity of Christ, and regenerates those from among the lost who believe.
The Spirit takes part in the production of the living word, the humanity of Christ, and the production of the written word, the divinity of Christ's mind revealed to mankind.
If all the work of redemption was accomplished and then God abandoned to the men of God the work of writing our sacred books, according to their own wisdom; and their writings would have present to us on the natural language of their supernatural illuminations, of their convictions and their charity. But this is contrary to the testimony of the Scriptures. Our writings would have been no different than Augustine's, Luther's, Calvin's or a multitude of other enlightened men in the truth and Holy Spirit, but with errors of omission, language, exaggeration, prejudice and without a sacred, inspired text from which to correct these errors of every human mind no matter how spiritual or enlightened.
It is not so with our sacred books. They contain no errors, all their writing is inspired of God.
2Pe 1:20 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation,
2Pe 1:21 for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
2Ti 3:16 All Scripture is inspired by God [theopneustos] and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
2Ti 3:17 that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
It is not that some of it is from men and some is from God, as in His voice or dream recorded.
Every verse is from men and every verse is from God.
As we must choose to walk in God's plan but it is the Spirit who works in us to walk in God's plan.
The doctrine of inspiration is much like the doctrine of the filling of the HS or walking by means of the Holy Spirit. Our volition is not turned off but we are supernaturally empowered, educated, and led by the very One who inspired every word of Scripture in its original writing and language.
None of the words ought to be neglected, and we are called to respect them and to study them even to their least iota and to their least tittle; for they are pure and purified by the Lord and not by man.
Psa 12:6 The words of the Lord are pure words; As silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times.
These assertions, themselves testimonies of the word of God, contain precisely our last definition of Theopneusty, and lead us to characterize it finally, as:
Inspiration - “that inexplicable power which the Divine Spirit formerly exercised over the authors of the Holy Scriptures, to guide them even in the employment of the words they were to use, and to preserve them from all error, as well as from every omission.”
The Scriptures are the Holy Spirit's literary monument.
When error or imperfections are thought to exist, it would be the first impulse of a truly devout mind to investigate whether the difficulty does not arise in the sphere of the finite understanding. No more does the human element in the Written Word jeopardize the infinite excellency of the divine element therein than does the humanity of Christ, the Living Word, jeopardize the Deity which He is. To believe the Bible to be an inerrant document is to honor its Author the Holy Spirit, to respect the Bible’s own claim for itself, and to agree with the conclusions of devout scholars of all generations. It has been pointed out that the Sadducees denied the resurrection, which denial indeed did not alter the fact of the resurrection, but only prompted Christ to say to them: “Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.”
The ministry of God the Holy Spirit to the world: Convincing.
The convincing work of the Holy Spirit is threefold--of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment—and much light falls upon the character of this essential ministry of the Holy Spirit when it is observed that the end which He accomplishes is the impartation of an understanding of facts, which understanding results in an enlightenment essential to an intelligent acceptance of Christ as Savior. We return to our study in Joh 16 to develop this point.
The Spirit as prosecutor.
Though this passage is in reference to unbelievers it is not stated to them but to believers. This reveals that an understanding of this doctrine is vital to the believers who witness of Christ to the world.
Joh 16:7 "But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper shall not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.
Joh 16:8 "And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment;
Joh 16:9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me;
Joh 16:10 and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you no longer behold Me;
Joh 16:11 and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.
The convincing work of the Holy Spirit is threefold--of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.
The Holy Spirit imparts an understanding of facts that are essential to an intelligent acceptance of Christ as Savior. Common Grace.
The soulish man cannot understand these things without this impartation by God the Holy Spirit.
The fall of Adam was full of tremendous consequences. Because of it, sin was imputed to the race: men are spiritually dead apart from Christ; men possess a fallen nature which manifests itself in all walks of life; and, important to our present study, men are unable to comprehend the truth of God.
Men are completely unable to comprehend the truth of God.
The Scriptures bear constant witness to the inability of man. It is stated flatly:
1Co 2:14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
1Co 1:18 For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
The unsaved Gentiles are declared to walk in spiritual darkness:
Eph 4:17-18 This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart
Rom 8:7 the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so
Christ bore witness to the inability of natural man to come to God when He said,
Joh 6:44 "No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.
In addition to natural inability is the work of Satan blinding the hearts of the lost to the light of the gospel.
2Co 4:3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing,
2Co 4:4 in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
Satan uses false religions, evolution, and many other things as substitutes for salvation in Christ and so blinds the minds of the unbelieving. However, God the Holy Spirit lifts that veil for every person and reveals to each one the reality of the sin of unbelief, the righteousness that only Christ possesses, and the judgment of the cross.
The condition of man is hopeless apart from divine intervention.
Man's inability originates from his ignorance of God and His grace due to corruption of man’s whole being, perversion of his sensations, feeling, and tastes, and blinding of his understanding. In the fall, man remained accountable and relatively remains a free agent. He retains ability to understand and may rise in this realm to unusual heights. Even his aversion to the good and inclination to the evil, while springing from his fallen nature, has its origin in his utter inability to appreciate the person of God and the inherent loveliness of righteousness.
The real reason for man’s hatred of God is his ignorance of what God is. |