| The Holy Spirit, Part 8: The Holy Spirit as the Illuminator of Truth |
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| Written by David Lawrence |
| Monday, July 05 2010 00:00 |
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In our last study we underscored the basic Christian belief that the Holy Scriptures are the result of the direct inspiration by the Holy Spirit working through the human authors of the text. There is a difference between revelation and illumination. If we revisit the passages in which Jesus informed his eleven chosen disciples about the coming of the Spirit with a view to what meaning those words would have to us today, it would not be that the Spirit would grant us additional revelation to supplement the Bible, but rather that He would illuminate the revealed truth in our hearts and personalize it in our own experience. In that way the Spirit guides us into all truth, into not only the objective revelation but into the comprehension of it. In that way he takes from what belongs to Jesus and makes it belong to us. How could we be sure? Let us recall that Paul continually reminds Christians that everything they are to do is “by the Spirit,” and I would certainly think that is by the illumination of the Word that the Spirit grants to us individually. There are too many references to cite them all; I could only recommend that you use a concordance or online help such as Bible Gateway to follow the usages of the word “Spirit” in the writings of Paul. It is usually impossible to separate out the Spirit’s role in sanctification from the Spirit’s role in illumination; actually, illumination is a part of sanctification. However, I selected one representative passage, Eph. 1:17-18, “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.” Paul does not mean here that the Spirit would give them additional truth, but that He would illuminate the truth so they would know Christ better and know the glorious riches of our calling. Because the references are so many, there can be do doubt of the truth of the statement that the Holy Spirit illuminates the word in our hearts as He enables us to live the Christian life. I can only suggest that our readers make their own journey through Scripture to discover the abundant evidence of the accuracy of this assertion. |
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