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 A Ministry dedicated to preserving the truth and accuracy of the infallible Word of God. |
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| The Way to Pentecost: Chapter 12 "The Spirit of Truth" | |
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The Way to Pentecost
Our Lord spake of Himself as the Truth, and of the Holy Ghost as the Spirit of Truth. The
revelation, inspiration, and interpretation of truth are in a special and unique sense the work of the
Divine Spirit. God has spoken through His Spirit. It is reasonable to expect that He would. He had
made man for fellowship. and it is incredible that God should expect fellowship without mutual
speech, especially when the need of revelation became manifest. Had there been no sin man would
have still needed a guide to things beyond himself. Someone must have told him of things above
and beyond himself, for there are many things that cannot be found by searching. By faith we know
these things, but there is no sure basis for faith without revelation. Still more is revelation
necessary when sin darkens the understanding. Love could not be silent in the presence of such
need and peril. God has spoken He has revealed His mind, declared His will, and set forth His
way to Truth, and Life, and Power. By the Spirit of Truth God spake through the Prophets, and by
Him has come the inspired and infallible revelation of God.
The Bible is the record of the Revelation of God through the Spirit. The Prophets of the
Old Testament claimed to be the spokesmen of God on the ground that they had received a
revelation from God. They are God's messengers, for they have heard His voice. They gave
account of the way the Word of the Lord came to them, and their claim to speak for Him is that they
have received His Word. The same authority is claimed in the New Testament. The Gospel came
to the apostles by Revelation. Our Lord despaired of making them understand the Gospel of His
Cross, but He assured them that the Spirit of Truth would reveal it to them; and He did. Pentecost
was the crowning day of Revelation.
The Bible never defines inspiration. It insists upon the fact, but it never attempts to explain
the theory. That is left to the theologians, and the theory must be deduced from the facts, and it must
take account of all the facts. For all practical purposes, the assurance that it is an energy of the
Spirit of Truth, sufficient to secure accurate and adequate expression, satisfies all reasonable
demands. The fault of most discussions on inspiration is that they have overlooked some important
facts and factors. Some have claimed for the Bible more than the Bible claimed for itself, and
others have ignored some of its demands. Both would have escaped their pitfalls if they had taken
pains to know the doctrine of the Holy Spirit and understand the relation of the Spirit of Truth to
the Word of God.
Modern methods have specialized in the Scriptures, and in nothing has the change wrought
been so drastic and, for the time being, disastrous. It is claimed that the orthodox and traditional
views have been demolished for ever, and that never again will the Bible be regarded as a Divine
and infallible Book. Great sport has been made of the superstitious reverence of the devout who
accepted all its parts as equally inspired and of equal value. The so-called traditional view has
been ignorantly or willfully misrepresented, or flippantly caricatured. It is difficult to be patient
with the spacious shallowness and colossal vanity that masquerade under the claims of modernity
and scientific criticism, but it will be plain in the end that they have helped to a better
understanding of the Truth. They have taught us much of the human and historical side of
inspiration. The Spirit works by human cooperation. He spake by the Prophets. No prophecy came
-- as Weymouth translates it, -- of the Prophets' own prompting. Holy men of God spake as they
were moved of the Holy Ghost. He moved; they spake. There was no suspension of personal
powers, personal consciousness, personal gifts. Inspiration intensified personality. but it neither
changed nor confused it. The message was spoken by many voices, and when it came to be written,
the writing of the Divine Word was by a man's hand." A careful study of St. Luke 1:14; I Peter
1:11, 12, II Peter 1:21, and Hebrews 1:1 would safeguard our thinking against many errors. There
are diversities of inspiration, but one Spirit, and He is the Spirit of Truth. There are sixty-six
books in the Bible, but it is one Book. There are many writers, but only one Author. The unity of
the progressive Word is the miracle of the Spirit in revealed truth.
All agree that we must have an interpreter. The Sacerdotalist holds that the Church is the
custodian and interpreter of the Scriptures. He argues that the living voice is more than the written
Word. That depends on whose voice it is. We do need an interpreter, an infallible teacher, a
trustworthy guide, and the interpreter of the inspired Word is the Spirit of Truth. The mere
grammarian cannot find it. The controversialist cannot explain it. The critic knows not its secret.
The carnal mind cannot perceive it. The natural man cannot possess it. The twice-born see. The
anointed know. The Spirit that revealed illumines, and He that inspired interprets.
The Spirit of Truth honors the Word of Truth. He consents to be tried by the Word of God.
Illuminations that come from Him are in harmony with the Word. He guides into all truth. The Sons
of God are led of the Spirit of Truth. The world cannot receive Him, but they know Him. In the
world the Spirit of Truth convicts, challenges, condemns; to the Spirit-filled He illumines,
interprets, and transforms.
Had a Scriptural view of the Person and Work of the Holy Ghost been more powerfully
prevalent in the Church, not merely in her formularies, but in reality and life, there would never
have been so much occasion given to represent the teaching of the Church on the inspiration of
Scripture as "mechanical" and "converting men into automata"; and the whole question would not
have assumed such a scholastic and metaphysical form. For then the living testimony and the
written testimony would appear both as supernatural and Spirit-breathed. The more the supremacy
of the Holy Ghost -- Divine, loving, and present -- is acknowledged, the more the Bible is fixed in
the heart and conscience. But if the "Book is viewed as the relic and substitute of a now absent and
inactive Spirit, Bibliolatry and Bible-rejection are the necessary results." Without the Spirit of
Truth even the Word of Truth is a dead letter. It is the Spirit that quickens, illumines, and interprets
the Word.
Divine truth is not of grammar, of learning, or of logic, but of the Holy Spirit of God. He is
given to reveal "the deep things."
"The Spirit searcheth the deep things of God." There is no adjective in the Greek. It is not
"deep things," but "deeps." There are fringes of the Divine Glory such as Moses and the Prophets
saw, and they are glorious and wonderful, but there are depths, abysses, like those of the heavens
and the sea. Deep beyond deep, fathoms unfathomable, and these the Spirit of God searches and
reveals. He does not search to discover. In Romans 8:27 and in Revelation 2:23 God and Christ
are said to "search." It implies thoroughness, and not quest. The Spirit is ever active in fathoming
the depths of God. His omniscience is ever exploring and revealing the depths of God. Romans
11:33 unites the ideas of depth and unsearchableness.
The point of the argument is that the deeps in God cannot be known by any other means than
the revelation of the Holy Spirit. Just as the deep things in a man are known only to the spirit of a
man, so the deeps of God are known only to and by the Spirit of God. Our wisdom cannot discover
Him. The princes and rulers of the world's intellect and intelligence cannot know Him. The well is
deep, and they have nothing wherewith to draw. The deep things are not discovered; they are
received. They are not achieved; they are believed. They are not taught; they are revealed. The
Spirit is the Spirit of God, and by Him we know the things of God.
The Spirit is given to glorify Christ No man can know Jesus without the distinct revelation
of the Spirit. The deeps of Christ cannot be explored by human wisdom. His life in Nazareth may
be reconstructed by novelists, dramatized by genius, and immortalized by art; but the Christ is not
in them. "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost" (I Cor. 12:3). The same is
true of His teaching. Grammar cannot discover its truth, and the letter killeth. It is also true of His
word. The Cross must always be an enigma, a stupidity, and anathema to the wisdom of this world.
It belongs to the deeps known only to the Spirit and to those enlightened and instructed of Him. The
depths of Christ are unsearchable. The love of Christ passeth knowledge. The grace of Christ is
immeasurable. The glory of Christ is unfathomable. There are deeps beyond deep, heights beyond
height. Deep calls unto deep, and glory unto glory. To the natural man they are without meaning; to
the taught of the Spirit they are eternally sure. We know Him, and we know that we know Him
because we have an anointing of the Holy One that takes of the things that are His and reveals them
unto us.
"The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the
spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of fear of the Lord."
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