As I mentioned, I have been going through a book by Dr. J.I. Packer entitled “Knowing God”. The book in its entirety has been nothing short of life changing, but one section in particular stood out to me recently.
One of the main points Packer makes in his section about the Holy Spirit is that many Christians do not realize fully the role of the Holy Spirit, and its importance in the lives of believers. The first reason he gives for the importance of the Holy Spirit is this: “Without the Holy Spirit there would be no gospel and no New Testament.” When Christ came to earth, he had a group of followers who witnessed His ministry of preaching, teaching, healing, and all around serving. When the time came for Christ to leave earth (following His death, burial, and resurrection), he commissioned His followers to continue His gospel spreading ministry, and make more disciples “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). It’s interesting to note that these same people were the ones who had repeatedly failed 1.) to understand the reason for Christ’s life and ministry was (evidenced by their arguing with Him about His impending death, burial, and resurrection), 2.) believe in His power (evidenced by their constant lack of faith regardless of everything they had seen Him do), and 3.) be faithful in their own ministry (sleeping while He told them to stay alert, etc). It would seem that these men would be a rather poor choice for the responsibility of teaching all nations about the glories of Christ.
BUT, they would not do this alone. Christ promised them that the Holy Spirit would teach them and aid them in their ministry. “The Counselor…will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (Jn. 14:26). The point is, it was only by the work of the Spirit of God that these fallible men, who had failed so many times before, would be successful in spreading the gospel to all nations. And turns out He was right – the Holy Spirit came upon these men, and the gospel was spread to the glory of God. The Holy Spirit taught/reminded/testified the gospel to these disciples, and inspired them to communicate it without error. Thus the gospel, thus the New Testament. Were it not for the Holy Spirit, the New Testament gospel message would not be.
(the second main reason is forthcoming…)
