LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
The Spirit First
Then Us
“The Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. And you also must testify...” (John 15:26-27).
From these words spoken by the Lord Jesus, and others that we will review as we continue, we can derive that the true witness of Christ is the Holy Spirit, and that neither natural talent nor the believers' good intention cannot replace it.
The expression: And you also must testify supposes an antecedent, which is the Spirit. The Holy Spirit would testify first, and then the disciples would testify later. This put them, -and puts us - in second place.
Here, as in all things that we have been seeing, the believer decreases, so that God can intervene. There are times in which God grants us the grace of failing in our intentions to speak of Christ so that we can understand this. Despite this, it continues to be a problem for many of us.
Indeed, one of the most difficult things for Christians to understand -due to their good and noble desires and intentions to serve God - is that they cannot do God’s work. A great part of this work -the most important part - is to give testimony of Jesus Christ.
The Lord said: –When he (the Holy Spirit) comes, he will convict the world of its guilt in regard to sin and righteousness. (16:8)
The Lord was clear in affirming that the work would be carried out by the Spirit, not man. Before the Holy Spirit came, the world could not be convinced of sin, of righteousness or judgment. Following the same line of thought line we can say: now that the Holy Spirit has come -and is here - nobody can be convicted except by him. It was good that he came, but it is also very good for us to allow him -now that he is already here - to act in us and through us.
To understand that it is the Spirit and not us who do God’s work, can cause two different reactions to take place in us:
a) it humiliates us, because it removes our protagonism, or
b) it reaffirms us, because we see the great help that God has given us, due to our incapacity. He who goes before us, who we follow, who gives testimony of the truth is God himself.
Who can give testimony of Jesus except the Spirit of God? Nobody else can give testimony of him, because it is too high a matter for flesh and blood.
The impotence of the flesh
The Lord had to tell His disciples, a short while before ascending to the heavens: –Stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high. (Luke 24:49)
The order was to remain still until receiving power. They could not give testify about Jesus nor do God’s work without receiving power. In this task, the flesh is impotent and useless.
Very often we see how efforts are made to preach Christ by ‘lending a hand’ from the resources of the flesh. The result is, of course, disastrous.
You may write a beautiful poem or speak with a florid speech; but your words will sound hollow and empty; they will be heard as if they are hollow, without background, without substance and without the Spirit. Your thoughts are only human, very poorly human, that they will try to describe the indescribable, but in vain.
You will seek to praise Jesus, but you won't be able to do it without the Spirit. You will feel your worn-out, pale words, you will feel that they are like but ragged garments placed on His sublime Person.
Even the Lord Jesus could not have given testimony of the Father without the grace granted by the Spirit; we likewise, and more how much more so for us, won't be able to give testimony of Jesus without the Spirit.
A single topic
The work and function of the Holy Spirit is very different to what we think the work and function of a good witness of Christ must be. The Holy Spirit is not embarrassed by having a single topic: the Lord Jesus Christ.
We want to be varied and surprising in our speeches. We want to be motivational in our sermons. However, the Spirit always says the same thing (yet with the freshness of life); he doesn't do anything nor say anything without giving testimony of Jesus. He will always seek to exalt Jesus Christ in whatever work or teaching he may be guiding us in.
Just as Christ was very reiterative in speaking of the Father and glorifying Him in all things; so too the Spirit, in this dispensation, is insistent in giving testimony of Jesus.
The words that the Spirit uses
There are those who think that the deep things of God must be expressed with a special language, and then they invent strange words. They seek the help of Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and create an artificial language used to speak truths that Paul and the other apostles said simply with every day words.
They create a language of specialists, for special people. They become like a doctor or an engineer. They enclose their deep knowledge in terms that are incomprehensible for most people. They create a meta-language, that is to say, a language that is beyond the one that we all speak. They understand each other, but they exclude those that don't have their knowledge. They are surrounded by a halo of mysteries in front of others, possessing a knowledge that is forbidden for the rest.
Those people of the world, in human disciplines, who do this, can be excused, by reason of what man is like. But the fact that it also happens among God’s children, in atmospheres where simplicity must prevail, is not so excusable. What have they achieved by doing this? They have removed the truth from God’s common people; they have made them think that God’s truths are not for simple people, but only for those who know Latin, Hebrew or Greek.
What do we see in the Scriptures? What words does the Spirit use? The Spirit accommodates the spiritual to the spiritual. There are words - precisely those of the Scriptures - that were chosen by the Spirit, and that are adequate to express spiritual things. They are not exotic, nor are they farfetched. They are available and within reach of all. The Spirit will always speak in this way, and wants us to do the same. The more we use these, the purer and more transparent our message will be.
Paul would later say to Timothy: –If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk... (1Timothy 6:3-4)
Jesus' pure words, brought to the memory and placed in the mouth by the Holy Spirit, will be the most effective means to preach the gospel and to build up the saints.
Paul also says to the Corinthians: –Now this is our boast: our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God. We have not done so according to worldly wisdom but according to God’s grace. (2 Cor.1:12).
Simplicity and sincerity is Paul’s instruction when speaking of Christ. What is ours? Will it be necessary to invent new words in order to speak the truths that - as some assume – “we have discovered and that have never been spoken of before”? If the Spirit had to create some word in order to know God’s truths -such as "redemption", or perhaps " propitiation " – and which are already in our hearts, let us use them in the Spirit, and we will see how the same Spirit that inspired them will again use them to speak of the beloved Son of God, of His person and of His work.
Deification of gifts
There are those who think that the Spirit came to fill the Christian with spectacular gifts that astonish people and that give them an aura of spirituality. However, the Spirit was poured out for something higher and nobler than that. He came to give testimony of Jesus Christ.
We must leave these “spiritual games”, these infantile emphases, the deification of gifts behind, in order to come to the truly spiritual issue: Jesus Christ’s testimony. The Lord has almost remained without witnesses for a long time, because of Christian’s misleadings; who searched after their own vanity, in endless discussions over the gifts of the Spirit.
We have to return the protagonism to the Holy Spirit, because he is the only one who knows how to speak of Jesus.
Teach and remind
The Lord Jesus said to the disciples: –But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit... will teach you all things, and will remind you of everything I have said to you. (John 14:26).
This double function, of teaching and reminding, belongs to the Holy Spirit. What things will he teach? All things. What things will he remind us of? Jesus' words. That is to say, all the things that are centered in Jesus.
The most agile memory is too fragile for this. The most lucid brain is too clumsy for such a feat. How could we trust in what is flesh and blood? Our teacher and reminder is the Holy Spirit.
Oh, what impotence the flesh has! What humiliation for the smug speaker! What a setback for the one that has gotten used to the applause of an effervesced auditory with human words! Nothing but the Spirit is able to do this.
If the Word that we receive today gives us life and encourages us, it is because the Spirit takes it and applies it to our present necessity; he makes it real and alive to us.
He will bring glory to me
–He will bring glory to me by taking what is mine and making it known to you - the Lord said to His disciples. (John 16:14).
On another occasion the Lord said: –I do not accept praise from men (John 5:41)
What do these words mean? God doesn't need man and his vain applause. All that man could offer Him of themselves is an excuse for their own glory. It is a platform on which one is exhibited before men. The greatest prayer without the Spirit is like the Pharisee’s longer prayer, without life or fruit.
Christ said that the Holy Spirit will glorify him, and not man. Is this sufficiently clear for us? Or will we have to continue failing in our efforts by doing this, simply to end up understanding it at some later date?
May the Lord allow us the grace of yielding before the Spirit, so that he takes control over our words and actions, so that what we do and say truly glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ. Only in this way will our Lord’s words be completed in our lives: – And you also must testify...