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Christ’s Favorite Subject, June 26
It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will
not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is
come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.
John 16:7, 8
.
Christ, the Great Teacher, had an infinite variety of subjects from which to
choose, but the one upon which He dwelt most largely was the endowment of the
Holy Spirit (
Selected Messages 1:156
).
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
fullness 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 upon His church.
Of the Spirit Jesus said, “He shall glorify me.” The Saviour came to glorify
the Father by the demonstration of His love; so the Spirit was to glorify Christ by
revealing His grace to the world. The very image of God is to be reproduced in
humanity. The honor of God, the honor of Christ, is involved in the perfection of
the character of His people.
“When he [the Spirit of truth] is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and
of righteousness, and of judgment.” The preaching of the Word will be of no avail
without the continual presence and aid of the Holy Spirit. This is the only effectual
teacher of divine truth. Only when the truth is accompanied to the heart by the Spirit
will it quicken the conscience or transform the life. One might be able to present the
letter of the Word of God, he might be familiar with all its commands and promises;
but unless the Holy Spirit sets home the truth, no souls will fall on the Rock and
be broken. No amount of education, no advantages, however great, can make one
a channel of light without the cooperation of the Spirit of God.... This promised
blessing, claimed by faith, brings all other blessings in its train. It is given according
to the riches of the grace of Christ, and He is ready to supply every soul according
to the capacity to receive (
The Desire of Ages, 671, 672
).
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