Comforter and Teacher

Today's Devotion Wednesday, March 6, 2019

Comforter and Teacher

Today's Text But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. John 14:26

The Holy Spirit is Christ's representative, but divested of the personality of humanity, and independent thereof. Cumbered with humanity, Christ could not be in every place personally. Therefore it was for their [the disciples'] interest that He should go to the Father, and send the Spirit to be His successor on earth. No one could then have any advantage because of his location or his personal contact with Christ. By the Spirit the Saviour would be accessible to all. No one could then have any advantage because of his location or his personal contact with Christ. By the Spirit the Saviour would be accessible to all. In this sense he would be nearer to them than if he had not ascended on high. The Comforter is called “the Spirit of truth.” His work is to define and maintain the truth. He first dwells in the heart as the Spirit of truth, and thus he becomes the Comforter. There is comfort and peace in the truth, but no real peace or comfort can be found in falsehood. It is through false theories and traditions that Satan gains his power over the mind. By directing men to false standards, he misshapes the character. Through the Scriptures the Holy Spirit speaks to the mind, and impresses truth upon the heart. Thus he exposes error, and expels it from the soul. It is by the Spirit of truth, working through the Word of God, that Christ subdues his chosen people to himself. In describing to his disciples the office work of the Holy Spirit, Jesus sought to inspire them with the joy and hope that inspired his own heart. He rejoiced because of the abundant help he had provided for his church. The Holy Spirit was the highest of all gifts that he could solicit from his Father for the exaltation of his people. The Spirit was to be given as a regenerating agent, and without this the sacrifice of Christ would have been of no avail. The power of evil had been strengthening for centuries, and the submission of men to this satanic captivity was amazing. Sin could be resisted and overcome only through the mighty agency of the third person of the Godhead, who would come with no modified energy, but in the fulness of divine power. It is the Spirit that makes effectual what has been wrought out by the world's Redeemer. It is by the Spirit that the heart is made pure. Through the Spirit the believer becomes a partaker of the divine nature. Christ has given his Spirit as a divine power to overcome all hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil, and to impress his own character on his church....(The Review and Harold, Nov. 19, 1908) At all times and in all places, in all sorrows and in all afflictions, when the outlook seems dark and the future perplexing, and we feel helpless and alone, the Comforter will be sent in answer to the prayer of faith. Circumstances may separate us from every earthly friend; but no circumstance, no distance, can separate us from the heavenly Comforter. Wherever we are, wherever we may go, He is always at our right hand to support, sustain, uphold, and cheer.... The Comforter is called “the Spirit of truth.” His work is to define and maintain the truth. He first dwells in the heart as the Spirit of truth, and thus He becomes the Comforter. There is comfort and peace in the truth, but no real peace or comfort can be found in falsehood. It is through false theories and traditions that Satan gains his power over the mind. By directing men to false standards, he misshapes the character. Through the Scriptures the Holy Spirit speaks to the mind, and impresses truth upon the heart. Those who are under the influence of the Spirit of God will not be fanatical, but calm and steadfast, free from extravagance in thought, word, or deed. Amid the confusion of delusive doctrines, the Spirit of God will be a guide and a shield to those who have not resisted the evidences of truth. Every man, woman, and child that is not under the control of the Spirit of God is under the influence of Satan's sorcery, and by his words and example he will lead others away from the path of truth. When the transforming grace of Christ is upon the heart, a righteous indignation will take possession of the soul because the sinner has so long neglected the great salvation that God has provided for him. Note: In some areas phrases have been omitted by the compilers for whatever reason. I have restored them as underlined text, that the full intent of the author may be given.

My Thoughts: My friend, the Comforter that that Jesus promised to send was not another person that is different from the Father and the Son, but was Himself to come to them in another form. Jesus promised to send them the Spirit of truth, when He just a few verses before said "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:6). Jesus was opening up to them spiritual realities plainly, but they could not grasp the realities He was speaking to them. Therefore He began to use an illustration that they could understand what He was saying. He used the illustration of the Comforter saying "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." (John 14:16-18). Notice that the Comforter that was the Spirit of truth, and that they know Him and He was dwelling with them. Then He says "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." He was opening to them that though He was going away that He would come to them in another form. He would be with them by His Spirit. The church uses these texts in John 14 to prove that the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead, when in reality it does not. Notice that the Greek word John used for Comforter is Paraklaytos. It is used only 5 times in the Bible and only by John. In John 14:26 it says that the Comforter is the Holy Ghost, and the last place it is used is in 1 John 2:1 saying "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate [Comforter] with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:" John used the same Greek word in 1 John but it was translated advocate. Thus John was saying that the Comforter is Jesus Christ the righteous. My friend, the Comforter is not a third person, different from the Father and the Son; a being that has never been human; does not know what it is like to struggle with sin in the flesh; one who has not gained the victory over sin. The Comforter is Jesus Christ the righteous, One who knows the depths of sin, has gained the victory over it, and He offers to us His Spirit that we may live His life in place of our own. Thus is fulfilled the promise of God saying "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them." (Ezekiel 36, 26, 27). God bless,

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Thursday: The Indwelling Spirit