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of Christ Jesus.” 2 Timothy 2:3
The Problem -- Sin
The Plan -- Redemption
The Provision -- The Cross
The Power -- The Holy Spirit
The Potential -- Faith
Lesson 1-1
The Problem - Sin
Genesis 2:16–17
Genesis 3:1–7, 12–16, 21
Lesson 1-2
The Plan - Redemption
Romans 8:28-30
Lesson 1-3
The Provision - The Cross
John 1:1–5, 14, 18
1 Corinthians 5:1–4
In eternity past, God planned for the salvation of men and women whose creation and fall had not yet become a reality in time. After their creation and fall, at the perfect moment in human history, Christ came to Earth to execute the plan.
Everything in the universe points to the Savior. Every principle, every promise, every truth in the Word of God has value only as it relates to the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is why Colossians 1:18 says that the whole plan of God is summarized in one thing: that He have preeminence—first place—in everything.
Christ’s preeminence stands on two things: His Person and His work. Who is Jesus Christ? He is—and always was—God. At a point in time, He became—and always will be—man. Near the end of the first century, at a time when the doctrines of both the deity and the humanity of Jesus Christ were under attack, the Apostle John wrote to clear up the confusion over just who Jesus was.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” John 1:1–2
Go back, John says, as far as you want to go, a million years, a billion years before creation, and wherever you start, the Word “was.” This word is eimi in the Greek, meaning “to be.” In the imperfect tense, it means continuous existence in the past.
Not only did the Word exist in the beginning, but the Word was “with God.” The Greek pros means “face-to-face.” John is declaring the uniqueness of the Word, the fact that He is set apart from God the Father. In the beginning the Word existed; the Word had eternal existence in the past and was face-to-face with God and, therefore, stands unique from God. And “the Word was God.” John could not be any more dogmatic about the deity of the Word.
He repeats the idea of the uniqueness of the Word in the statement, “He was in the beginning with God.” This time John uses the personal pronoun houtos, meaning “this unique person.” John is stressing the fact that this Word is not a force, not a power, not an emanation, but a Person. This Person has existed forever, is unique from God, and yet is God.
“All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” John 1:3–5
“All things” includes everything that is created. “Came into being” is from the verb ginomai, which means for something to come into existence that was not in existence before. In the phrase “by Him,” John uses dia, the preposition of instrumental agency. This tells us that Jesus Christ is the Creator of all things. A few verses later, in John 1:10, we are told that “the world was made through Him.” Apart from Jesus Christ, “nothing came into being.”
Later in his account, John would record similar words spoken by the Lord on His last night with the disciples, “Apart from Me, you can do nothing” John 15:5. As nothing came into being in the physical creation apart from Jesus Christ, so nothing comes into being in the spiritual realm “apart from” Him. Apart from relationship with Him, nothing in life has meaning or reality.
This is the idea John is expressing when he writes “in Him was life.” In Greek, there are two words for “life.” Bios refers strictly to the physical aspect of life. Zoe—the word used here—refers to life in the absolute sense—life as God has it. This is the word used for quality of life, value, meaning. In the word “was” (the tense The Cross 21 says “always was”) essence and quality of life and “the life was the Light of men.”
With the Fall, man had become alienated from this life Eph. 4:18. But now, somehow, all of the qualitative life that existed in the second Person of the Trinity throughout all eternity, became the Light of men when the Word entered the human race. He came that all men might become partakers of this life through faith in Him John 3:15; Col. 1:21–22.
This life was the Light in the darkness of a dead world, the Light that shone and was not comprehended. This Light that revealed to the fallen human race how God could bring to bear all His divine essence on the problems of man, this Light was illustrated in the Person and life of Jesus Christ.
“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14
“Became” indicates a transition from eternal pre-existence to existence in time. The Word laid aside the glories of Heaven or, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 8:9, “though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.” The word “poor” used here refers to utmost, absolute poverty. Why did He become poor? So that we could become exceedingly rich!
The word “dwelt,” skenoo, means “to tabernacle.” It means that what was seen in the Old Testament in the tabernacle of Israel— the Shekinah Glory—had now become flesh and blood. God no longer resided in the temple; He now resided in a human body and His glory was concealed in the tabernacle of human flesh.
God the Son chose to set aside the rights of His deity, leave the throne room of God, and travel through billions of light years in space to take upon Himself the form of an infant and enter into this world. He who was omnipotent chose to subject Himself to the frailty of human flesh. He who was omniscient chose to subject Himself to the limitation of human thought. He who was omnipresent chose to confine Himself in the flesh to the limitations of time and space and matter.
“No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared [explained] Him.’” John 1:18 (NKJV)
Jesus Christ is the only visibly revealed member of the Trinity. The Greek word translated “explain” in the New American Standard Version and “revealed” in the King James Version is exegeomai. It means “to draw out in narrative, to unfold in teaching, to recount, declare, reveal.”
Every Old Testament appearance of God was the preincarnate Christ. The second Person of the Trinity appeared on Earth in bodily form described in some cases as “the angel of the LORD” Gen. 16:7–13; 22:11–18; 31:11–13; 48:15–16; Exod. 3:2–14; Judg. 6:11–23; 13:2–22, in some as “a man” Gen. 18:1–33; 32:24–32; Josh. 5:13–15; Dan. 3:24–25, and in some simply as “the God of Israel … the LORD” Exod. 24:9–11.
At times, He appeared in a form called “the glory of the Lord.” He was the cloud and pillar of fire that led and defended the Jews throughout their wilderness wanderings Exod. 13:21–22; 14:19; 16:7, 10; 24:16–17; 33:18–23. He was the luminous cloud which rested over the ark of the covenant, between the golden cherubs, in the holy of holies, in the tabernacle and later in the temple Exod. 25:22; 33:9–10; 40:34–38; Lev. 9:23; 26:11–12; Num. 16:42; 1 Kings 8:11; 2 Chron. 5:13–14.
The term “Shekinah Glory or simply “Shekinah,” from the Hebrew shaken, which means “to dwell,” came to be used by Jews to describe these visible manifestations of the presence of God. Jesus Christ is the Shekinah Glory. With the incarnation, this glory entered humanity. “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” John 1:14.
He did not lose any of the powers that were His as deity; but as a man, He chose to live under the rules He would expect us to live by. He submitted Himself to the will of the Father John 6:38. He taught the teachings of the Father John 7:16. He did that which was pleasing to the Father John 8:29. He sought the glory of the Father John 8:50.
“And John says, “we beheld His glory.” “Glory” means God’s character and essence reflected. It was not the glory of wealth and riches, not the glory of personal appearance or attractiveness. It was what is called in the Old Testament “the beauty of holiness.” It was the beauty of total perfection, total purity—the most beautiful thing in the universe: God’s character revealed in a single human being, a man “full of grace and truth.”
“No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.” John 1:18
God is spirit; He is invisible. But the Son has “explained” Him. Jesus Christ is God, born into this realm as the seed of the woman Gen. 3:15. “When the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law” Gal. 4:4. Now God in human flesh reveals God in eternal spiritual essence. “Explain” is exegeomai from which we get the English word “exegesis.” It means “to bring out the true meaning, to reveal in the light, to fully explain, to display something in its fullest sense.” Jesus Christ displays, in the fullest sense, the character of God and reveals God to the human race.
to be an example. He was born to die. Without His death, His perfect life would do man no good at all. Man’s problem was not lack of a high enough standard; it was his inability to live up to any standard. The Law had proved that man could never work his way to God. Between man and God stood the barrier of sin. Man was helpless to pay the penalty for the past and hopeless to do better in the future. He was helpless and hopeless, that is, until the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
“Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.” 1 Cor. 15:1–2
In 1 Corinthians 15, the Apostle Paul explains first the power and then the content of the Gospel. What Paul was making known was the Gospel he had preached. The word euaggelizo, from which we get “evangelize,” simply means “to proclaim good news.” In order for the Gospel to accomplish its purpose, someone has to proclaim it.
After Paul proclaimed the Gospel, these people received it. Paralambano means “to take as one’s own.” These people were given the message and they received it by grace through faith. They believed in Jesus Christ.
The verb “stand” is from <em?histemi< em="">. In the perfect tense, it means that at a point of time in the past they took a stand with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ, with the result that they will stand forever. Paul uses this tense to emphasize their eternal security. According to Romans 5:2, the stand of the believer is in grace. “Saved” is in the present tense. Paul is saying, “You are saved now; you are going to be saved tomorrow and next week and next month and next year. You are going to be saved forever.” Why are these people saved? Because they believed in the Gospel.</em?histemi<>
If Paul is saying that these people have eternal security in Christ, why does he suggest in 1 Corinthians 15:2 that they might have believed “in vainin vain” is explained in verses 12–19.
We know from verse 12 that there were in the Corinthian church people who did not believe that someday there would be a physical resurrection. The idea of physical resurrection was totally foreign to the philosophies under which the believers in Corinth had been
The New Testament was written in the language used in the Greek-speaking world from about 300 B.C. to about A.D. 500. It was known as Koine or “common” Greek because it was street language—the language of the people—as opposed to the classical Greek of literature.
Koine Greek was devised by Alexander the Great for one reason: to conquer the world. When Alexander first began pulling together an army from the Greek city-states over which he had won ascendancy, he found he had a serious problem. When his drill sergeants bellowed, “Left face, forward march,” every soldier moved in a different direction. There was no one Greek language. The men of Athens spoke with the classical eloquence of Attic Greek; the Spartans communicated in the monosyllabic grunts of Doric Greek.
Before he could ever hope to conquer the world, Alexander had to conquer the tongue. His Greeks had to have one clear, easy-to-understand language. The language through which God would communicate the New Testament message was originally designed to be so clear, so exact, that in a combat
raised. Greeks looked at the body as a prison. When Paul taught a bodily resurrection, they thought of being in prison forever.
Faith in Jesus Christ had saved these people, even though they denied the physical resurrection. But Paul wants them to grow now, and he knows they need to understand the doctrine of the resurrection. In 1 Corinthians 15:12–14 verses, he tells them that if there is no physical resurrection, then Christ Himself has not been raised from the dead. If Christ has not been raised, then both Paul’s preaching and their faith are “in vain”—empty, meaningless, useless. If Christ has not been raised, there is no solution for sin. If their hope in Christ is meaningful only in time and not eternity, then they are wasting their lives believing in Him.
The only way a person can believe in vain is if the message he believes is false. In verse 2, Paul is saying, “Look, if you believe this message and you believe that Jesus Christ is raised from the dead, then you are saved and you do stand in grace. If you believe some other message, then whatever you have believed is worth nothing.”
situation every person on the battlefield would immediately understand his commanding officer’s instructions.
Alexander had been taught by his tutor, Aristotle, to think with mathematical precision. When Alexander’s desire for accuracy and clarity in language met with his mathematical mindset, Koine Greek was the result. It was the perfect language in which to communicate absolute truth.
Nowhere is the potential for accuracy clearer than in the Greek system of verbs. Every Greek verb has a three-fold fix, so the reader can know exactly what the verb means. The three “fixes” are tense, voice, and mood.
There are five tenses in Greek. Each tense tells the reader two things about the action the verb is describing: the time of the action and the kind of action. The possible times are past, present, and future. The possible kinds are linear (continuous or progressive action) and punctiliar (action that occurs at a point of time). A line (________) illustrates linear action. A point (•) illustrates punctiliar action.
The present tense shows progressive action in the present time (________). When Jesus says in Matthew 7:7, “Ask … seek … knock,” the present tense tells us that He does not mean,
“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” 1 Cor. 15:3–4
Now Paul goes back to the basics, to that of first importance. What is the most important thing to know about the Bible? It ought to be this right here. Paul says this is number-one priority. This is the most important doctrine we can have clear in our minds because it is the most important thing that Paul received.
1. Christ died for our sins. This was His substitutionary death. He died the death we all deserve because “the wages of sin is death” Rom. 6:23. He paid the penalty for every sin ever committed—every sin in the past, in the present, in the future. All our sins were poured out on the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.
2. Christ died according to the Scripture.Christ’s death was according to the plan of God, and that plan was pictured in the Old Testament. Everything in the Old Testament points forward to the promised Messiah, to the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. (For a very few examples see Gen. 3:15, 22; Leviticus 1–5; 16; Job 19:25–27; Psalms 16; 22; and Isaiah 53. )
“ask once and then quit,” but “keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking.”
The aorist tense shows action that takes place at a point in time—that point could be in the past, present, or future (•). In Acts 16:31, Paul’s instruction to the Philippian jailer is in the aorist tense, telling him to make a once-for-all decision: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”
The perfect tense, which cannot be adequately expressed in English, shows completed, past action having present results (•________). John 19:30, “It is finished,” says that the work of Christ on the cross was completed at that point in time, but its results continue forever.
The imperfect tense shows continuous action in the past (________•). In Acts 1:6, the disciples “were asking” the risen Lord if He was about to restore the kingdom to Israel. The imperfect tense here tells us that they did not ask just once; they kept asking the same question over and over again.
The future tense can show either continuous or completed action in the future.
3. Christ was buried. Why is it important that He was buried? Because He had to be truly dead. First-century Jews believed that the soul and the spirit did not totally depart from the body until the end of the third day. So, the fact that Jesus was buried and was in the tomb for three days was crucial to the message.
4. Christ was raised from the dead. The fact of Christ’s resurrection is the only basis for the Christian’s hope. The verb here is in the perfect tense, which means it was a past action having continuous. present results. The result of the resurrection is efficacious every day. Because of victory over death, Jesus Christ is to the believer the source of resurrection life John 10:10–11; 11:25–26; Eph. 2:7; Col. 3:1–4; 1 John 5:11–12) and the source of resurrection power Rom. 6:4; Matt. 28:18; Eph. 1:19; Phil. 4:13.
The Gospel—the Good News—is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are all born physically alive but spiritually dead Gen. 2:17; Rom. 5:12; 6:23. When we believe the Good News, we are turned around. Identified with Christ in His death and resurrection, we are now dead to sin and alive to God Rom. 5:8; 1 Cor. 15:22; 2 Cor. 5:21. We have become a new creation.
The three Greek voices show the relationship of the subject to the action of the verb. In the active voice, the subject produces the action (implying, therefore, choice on the part of the subject). In the passive voice, the subject receives the action. In the middle voice, which has no English equivalent, the subject produces the action and participates in some way in the result or the action. The middle voice is like a boomerang.
Mood shows the relationship of the action to reality from the viewpoint of the speaker. There are four moods in Greek. The indicative mood expresses real action. The subjunctive, optative, and imperative moods express three different kinds of potential action.
First Corinthians 15:1–2 gives a good illustration of how clearly Koine Greek can communicate—and of how inadequate is English to express the subtleties of Greek. In two verses, there are seven different verbs and five different constructions:
“Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.”
| I make known is present, active, indicative | ________ | |
| I preached is aorist, middle, indicative | ||
| You received is aorist, active, indicative | ||
| You stand is perfect, active, indicative | •_______ | |
| You are saved is present, passive, indicative | ________ | |
| You hold fast is present, active, indicative | ________ | |
| You believed is aorist, active, indicative |
The present tense and active voice of the verb “make known” tell us that at the time Paul was writing this letter, he was choosing to continuously proclaim the Good News. When he says he “preached,” the aorist tense tells us that at some earlier point in time, he had told the Corinthians how to be saved and they had, in a moment of time, made a decision to “receive” the Word—they believed in Jesus Christ. With “stand” in the perfect tense, Paul is saying that at a point of time, they took their stand, with the result that they will stand forever. (The stand they took was faith in the only solid foundation—Jesus Christ.) The present, passive, indicative “are saved” tells us that they did not save themselves. They received a salvation that is always in the present—it will last forever.
of the phrases, “if you hold fast” and “unless you believed in vain,” this verse is often used by people who deny the eternal security of the believer. In English, it does sound as if salvation depends on our being able, in our own strength, to hold on. But there can be no question about what this verse says in the Greek.
In Greek, there are four ways to say “if.” The first-class condition means “if, and it is true.” When Satan said to Jesus in Matt. 4:3, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread,” he used a first-class condition. Satan had no doubt that Jesus was God.
The second-class condition means “if, and it is not true.” When Simon the Pharisee in Luke 7:39 said to himself, “If this man were a prophet He would know who and what sort of person this woman is,” he used a second-class condition. Simon was saying, “If Jesus were a prophet, but He is not ...” He was displaying his unbelief.
The third-class condition in Greek is closest to the English “if.” It means “maybe it is true and maybe it is not.” When Jesus said in John 14:15, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments,” He was saying that we have a choice. Maybe we will choose to love Him and maybe we will not, but if we do love Him, we will keep His commandments.
The fourth-class condition, which is very rare, means “if, and I wish it were true, but it is probably not.” Peter used the fourth-class condition in 1 Peter 4:16 when he wrote, “If anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not feel ashamed.” The people to whom he was writing were suffering; Peter wished they were suffering because of their faith, but he knew most of their suffering was because of their lack of faith.
In 1 Corinthians 15:2, Paul uses a first-class condition. A more literal translation would be, “by which you are save [since] you hold fast the word …”
The meaning of the second “questionable” phrase in 1 Corinthians 15:2, “unless you believed in vain,” is just as clear, but only when studied in the context of the entire chapter cf., 1 Cor. 15:12–19, especially verse 14, where “in vain” is defined. See page 24–25.
Koine Greek is by far the most accurate language known to man, but it is still a human language. In interpreting the Word, if we know the rules of the Greek language, but do not know the rules of Bible study (see page 58), we will veer off course in our theology. Even if we understand the Greek language and the science of interpretation, but are not filled with the Holy Spirit when we study, we will not understand a single thing God has to say to us 1 Cor. 2:14.
The work of Christ on the cross is:
1. Punitive. It was a payment, a judgment. Jesus took upon Himself the judgment for all sin Gal. 3:13; 2 Cor. 5:21.
2. Substitutionary. Jesus Christ died in our place. Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would be wounded for our iniquities and bruised for our transgressions Isa. 53:5–6; Lev. 1:4; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Pet. 2:24.
3. Voluntary. Jesus knew the plan of the Father, and He went willingly to the cross John 10:18. Isaiah says that He set His “face like flint” Isa. 50:.
4. Redemptive. “Redeem” is exagorazo. Agorazo means “to buy in the slave market.” Ek means “out.” When Jesus Christ entered this world, we were in the slave market of sin. He walked in, paid the price for all of us, and opened the gate so all who wanted to, could go free Gal. 3:13; 4:5.
5. Propitiatory. It satisfied God’s righteous demand for a perfect sacrifice for sin; Christ was that perfect sacrifice Rom. 3:25; 1 John 3:2.
6. Reconciling. By it, we are restored to a relationship of peace with God Rom. 5:1.
7. Efficacious. It is effective. When anyone puts faith in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, that work accomplishes his salvation Rom. 5:9; 2 Cor. 5:21; Eph. 2:13; Heb. 9:11–12.
8. Revelatory. It reveals much about God—His love, His compassion, His mercy and grace, His condescension, and more John 3:16; Rom. 5:8; 1 John 4:9–10.
The present tense and active voice of the verb “make known” tell us that at the time Paul was writing this letter, he was choosing to continuously proclaim the Good News. When he says he “preached,” the aorist tense tells us that at some earlier point in time, he had told the Corinthians how to be saved and they had, in a moment of time, made a decision to “receive” the Word—they believed in Jesus Christ. With “stand” in the perfect tense, Paul is saying that at a point of time, they took their stand, with the result that they will stand forever. (The stand they took was faith in the only solid foundation—Jesus Christ.) The present, passive, indicative “are saved” tells us that they did not save themselves. They received a salvation that is always in the present—it will last forever.
of the phrases, “if you hold fast” and “unless you believed in vain,” this verse is often used by people who deny the eternal security of the believer. In English, it does sound as if salvation depends on our being able, in our own strength, to hold on. But there can be no question about what this verse says in the Greek.
In Greek, there are four ways to say “if.” The first-class condition means “if, and it is true.” When Satan said to Jesus in Matt. 4:3, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread,” he used a first-class condition. Satan had no doubt that Jesus was God.
The second-class condition means “if, and it is not true.” When Simon the Pharisee in Luke 7:39 said to himself, “If this man were a prophet He would know who and what sort of person this woman is,” he used a second-class condition. Simon was saying, “If Jesus were a prophet, but He is not ...” He was displaying his unbelief.
The third-class condition in Greek is closest to the English “if.” It means “maybe it is true and maybe it is not.” When Jesus said in John 14:15, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments,” He was saying that we have a choice. Maybe we will choose to love Him and maybe we will not, but if we do love Him, we will keep His commandments.
The fourth-class condition, which is very rare, means “if, and I wish it were true, but it is probably not.” Peter used the fourth-class condition in 1 Peter 4:16 when he wrote, “If anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not feel ashamed.” The people to whom he was writing were suffering; Peter wished they were suffering because of their faith, but he knew most of their suffering was because of their lack of faith.
In 1 Corinthians 15:2, Paul uses a first-class condition. A more literal translation would be, “by which you are save [since] you hold fast the word …”
The meaning of the second “questionable” phrase in 1 Corinthians 15:2, “unless you believed in vain,” is just as clear, but only when studied in the context of the entire chapter cf., 1 Cor. 15:12–19, especially verse 14, where “in vain” is defined. See page 24–25.
Koine Greek is by far the most accurate language known to man, but it is still a human language. In interpreting the Word, if we know the rules of the Greek language, but do not know the rules of Bible study (see page 58), we will veer off course in our theology. Even if we understand the Greek language and the science of interpretation, but are not filled with the Holy Spirit when we study, we will not understand a single thing God has to say to us 1 Cor. 2:14.
The work of Christ on the cross is:
1. Punitive. It was a payment, a judgment. Jesus took upon Himself the judgment for all sin Gal. 3:13; 2 Cor. 5:21.
2. Substitutionary. Jesus Christ died in our place. Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would be wounded for our iniquities and bruised for our transgressions Isa. 53:5–6; Lev. 1:4; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Pet. 2:24.
3. Voluntary. Jesus knew the plan of the Father, and He went willingly to the cross John 10:18. Isaiah says that He set His “face like flint” Isa. 50:.
4. Redemptive. “Redeem” is exagorazo. Agorazo means “to buy in the slave market.” Ek means “out.” When Jesus Christ entered this world, we were in the slave market of sin. He walked in, paid the price for all of us, and opened the gate so all who wanted to, could go free Gal. 3:13; 4:5.
5. Propitiatory. It satisfied God’s righteous demand for a perfect sacrifice for sin; Christ was that perfect sacrifice Rom. 3:25; 1 John 3:2.
6. Reconciling. By it, we are restored to a relationship of peace with God Rom. 5:1.
7. Efficacious. It is effective. When anyone puts faith in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, that work accomplishes his salvation Rom. 5:9; 2 Cor. 5:21; Eph. 2:13; Heb. 9:11–12.
8. Revelatory. It reveals much about God—His love, His compassion, His mercy and grace, His condescension, and more John 3:16; Rom. 5:8; 1 John 4:9–10.
Lesson 1-4
The Power - The Holy Spirit
John 6:37–39; 14:15–17
John 15:26–27; 16:7–14
Midway through His public ministry, Jesus stood in the crowded Jerusalem temple on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles and made an extraordinary promise.
“If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.’” John 7:37–38
Jesus was quoting from the prophets Jeremiah and Isaiah (Jer. 2:13; 17:13; Isa. 12:2–3; 44:3; 55:1; 58:11). We do not know how many of those who heard these words understood what Jesus was talking about. With the advantage of hindsight, the Apostle John, writing long after the event, explained what the Lord meant.
“But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” John 7:39
Jesus Christ, speaking before the cross, was saying that at some point in the future those who believed in Him would receive the Holy Spirit. But, as John explains, the Spirit would not be given until Jesus had won His victory on the cross. Not until His last night with the apostles did Jesus again approach the subject of the coming of the Holy Spirit. John 13–17 is known as the Upper Room Discourse. In these chapters, Jesus is preparing His disciples for what would happen after His death and resurrection. He wants them to understand that the power on which He relied, the power by which His life was victorious, will be available to them. And so, He introduces them to a new age—the Church Age—and to the two great resources that would make this time unlike any before it: the completed Word of God and the indwelling Spirit of God. The heart of His message here is the soul filled by means of the Spirit and filled with the Word. Throughout His life on Earth, Jesus had relied only on these provisions. With them alone, He had met every temptation, every obstacle, every trial. At the very beginning of His public ministry, He had set His course, going into the wilderness filled with the Holy Spirit and answering each of Satan’s assaults, not with logic or argument or physical power, but with the Word of God.
Now, He wants these men who will be responsible for taking Christianity to the whole world, to understand that when the Spirit of God and the Word of God meet, they generate divine power that is always a reflection of the life of Jesus Christ.
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” John 14:15
“Love” here is the present, active, subjunctive of the verb agapao. The active voice means that they must produce the action of the verb; they must choose whether or not to love Him. The present tense means continuous action. The subjunctive mood
The Holy Spirit is, like the Father and the Son, both personal and individual. Though all three members of the Trinity are equal and share the same divine essence Isa. 6:8–9; Jer. 31:31–34; 1 Cor. 12:11; 2 Cor. 13:14, the works of each differ. The Holy Spirit was intimately involved in the work of Jesus Christ on Earth.
- The Holy Spirit was the agent of Christ’s conception Matt. 1:18
- The Holy Spirit’s sustaining ministry to the incarnate Christ was prophesied in the Old Testament Isa. 11:2–3; 42:1–4; Matt. 12:18–21.
- The Holy Spirit was given without measure to Christ John 3:34
- The Holy Spirit had a special relationship to Christ during His earthly, public ministry Matt. 3:16–17; 4:1; Mark 1:12
indicates potential: Jesus is saying, “Maybe you will decide to keep on loving Me and maybe you won’t. But if you do, you will keep My commandments.” “Keep” is tereo, meaning “to guard, to watch over, to preserve, to treasure.” We only watch over and guard those things that we value in our lives. Therefore, while obedience is implied in Jesus’ words here, it is not really the main thrust of this verb. There are other words He could have used for simple obedience. He chose this word because He is emphasizing an attitude of watchfulness, an attitude that values and seeks to preserve His commandments—His Word.
If we really love Jesus Christ, we will guard, preserve, and treasure His Word. The Word will have value to us because it is His Word and we love Him. If we do not have this kind of personal relationship, then we have religion without reality. But when that intimacy exists and we treasure His Word, our lives are entirely changed. Life becomes a continuous adventure because we know who we are and why we exist and who it is who loves us. When we treasure His Word, we begin to live the same abundant life that He lived.
“And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever, that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you.” John 14:16–17
- The Holy Spirit provided the power to Christ’s earthly ministry Matt. 12:28; Luke 4:14–15
- At the cross, the Holy Spirit withdrew from Christ. During the last three hours on the cross, the Holy Spirit did not sustain Jesus who was, in that time, experiencing spiritual death Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34; Psalm 22:1
- The Holy Spirit was actively involved in Christ’s resurrection Rom. 1:4; 8:11; 1 Pet. 3:18
- The Holy Spirit provided the power for the resurrection ministry of Christ Acts 1:2
- As the Holy Spirit empowered Jesus Christ during His earthly ministry, so He empowers the Body of Christ—the Church—today through the filling of individual Christians 1 Cor. 12:7–13; Eph. 5:17–18
While the Holy Spirit has always sustained all life Job 27:3; 33:4, He has worked differently in the lives of individual men and women in different ages. The Holy Spirit is directly mentioned in Scripture only five times in the period before Abraham, but His ministry of revealing God to men is evident in the amount of divine truth understood by men like Job and Noah. In the time between Abraham and Christ—the Age of Israel—the Holy Spirit came upon certain men, usually for the purpose of revealing truth, or preparing or empowering for service Gen. 41:38; Exod. 28:3; 31:3; 35:31; Num. 11:18–25; 27:18; Judges 3:10; 6:34; 11:29; 13:25; 14:6; 15:14; 1 Sam. 10:9–10; 16:13; Daniel 4:8; 5:11–14; 63; Zechariah. 4:3, 12–14. Believers could obtain the Holy Spirit by asking 2 Kings 2:9–10; Luke 11:13, but they could also have Him taken from them Psalm 51:11. In the Church Age, the Holy Spirit permanently indwells every believer John 7:37–39; 14:16–17; 1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19–20; Rom. 8:9; Gal. 3:2; 4:6.
The word “other” is allos, referring to another of the same kind, the same kind as Jesus Christ. Helper” is arakletos from para, which means “beside,” and kletos, which means “to call.” A parakletos was someone who was called to another’s side to encourage, to give help, to succor. It is sometimes translated “comforter,” sometimes “helper,” sometimes “counselor.” It can also be translated “encourager."
The Lord Jesus Christ, who is “the same yesterday, today, and forever” Heb. 13:8, has promised that He will never leave us and will never forsake us Heb. 13:5. When He promises that the Holy Spirit will be with us forever, we can take that promise to the bank. God, who never changes, has given His Word. The fact that He will be with us forever means that no believer is ever alone—ever. We may think we are alone, we may feel lonely, but we are never alone. “The Spirit of truth” is one of many names by which the Holy Spirit is known in the Bible. Among those names are “the Spirit of wisdom and understanding” and “the Spirit of counsel and strength” Isa. 11:2, “the eternal Spirit” Heb. 9:14, “Spirit of glory” 1 Pet. 4:14, “Spirit of life” Rom. 8:2, “Spirit of holiness” Rom. 1:4, “Spirit of wisdom” Eph.1:17, and “Spirit of grace” Heb. 10:29.
Three times in this discourse, Jesus identifies the Holy Spirit as “the Spirit of truth” John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13. First John 5:7 says that “the Spirit is the truth.” In His closing prayer for the disciples—and for all those who would believe on Him through them—Jesus asks the Father to sanctify them in the truth. Then He adds this explanation: “Your word is truth” John 17:17.
This title—“the Spirit of truth”—reminds us that what the Holy Spirit does in us, He does through the truth, the Word of God.
When the Lord promises that He who has been with them will be in them, He is telling these disciples that a marvelous, miraculous change is about to take place. The Spirit of God had been with them by virtue of the fact that He indwelt and empowered Jesus Christ during His 33 years on this Earth. When they stood near Jesus, they were standing near the Holy Spirit. When they saw the power in Jesus, they were seeing the power of the Holy Spirit. But Jesus is telling them that someday soon, the Holy Spirit would come to indwell and empower each of them. That day was the Pentecost described in Acts 2.
"When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness of Me, and you will bear witness also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.” John 15:26–27
Now the Lord begins to describe the work of the Holy Spirit in this new age that is about to dawn. When He comes, Jesus says, the Spirit will bear witness of Christ.
First, He will bear witness to the believer. Romans 8:16 says His Spirit “bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” The Holy Spirit witnesses to us of the relationship that we have to God. He emphasizes to us the provisions that we have in Christ. It is because of the Holy Spirit that we are able to cry “Abba, Father,” to the Almighty God Rom. 8:15.
Then the Holy Spirit bears witness through us. This is the ministry of evangelism or what Paul calls, in 2 Corinthians 5:14–21, the ministry of reconciliation. We are, Paul says, ambassadors of Christ.
Parakaleo is one of the oldest and richest words in the Greek language. The compound, para, “alongside,” and kaleo, “to call”—conjured up at least five vivid pictures to the Greeks. It was used to mean:
- To rekindle a flame. Parakaleo pictured someone gently, patiently blowing on dying embers to bring a fire to life again.
- To rekindle a flame Parakaleo pictured the cries of a frightened child in the night calling for the comfort and reassurance of his mother and father.
- To call a physician. Parakaleo pictured someone who was injured calling for a physician to set his broken bone or bind his wound.
- To stabilize the troops. Parakaleo pictured the military officer who, in the heat of battle, could calmly encourage, exhort, and steady the frightened soldiers in his ranks.
- To plead one’s case. Parakaleo pictured the counsel for the defense, making an appeal for his client before a judge.
Jesus told His disciples that the Holy Spirit would be the Parakaletos—the Encourager, the Helper, the Consoler, the Comforter—who would take His place. All the things that Jesus was to the disciples, the Holy Spirit would be when Jesus was gone. The Spirit would do in the disciples what the Lord in the flesh could only do for them.
The progression here is important. We must listen to the Holy Spirit’s witness to us before we have anything to say to a lost and hurting world. If we are not listening to the still, small voice of God the Holy Spirit telling us what we have in Jesus Christ, if we have allowed the enemy to rob us of our assurance and conviction and inner strength, if we have not trusted in His Word, and if we have denied the Spirit’s ministry to us, how can we expect Him to have a ministry through us to other people? How can we hope to tell other people that Jesus Christ is the answer if we are confused ourselves? How can we hope to give other people encouragement if we are discouraged? We have to allow God the Holy Spirit to perform His work in us first.
“But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.” John 16:7
“Advantage” is the Greek sumphero. It means “to hold everything together.” When the Lord Jesus Christ said, “It is to your advantage that I go away,” the disciples’ faces probably fell. They did not want Him to go away. We would not have either. When He said, “It is to your advantage,” He was saying, “It is so that you can hold everything together that I am going away.”
Jesus is promising that the Holy Spirit will come to make us able to cope, able to function under the strain of life, to handle the everyday disappointments, attacks, temptations. The Holy Spirit is the source of the supernatural power that propels us and is the only possible explanation of how any of us are able to live the Christian way of life. But the Lord reminds the disciples that without His death and resurrection there would be no life for anyone.
“And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you no longer behold Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.” John 16:8–11
“Convict” is from elegcho, a word used for ancient courtroom cross-examinations. It means “to totally and completely refute an opponent.” Who is the opponent here? It is Satan, the adversary, the accuser, the slanderer, the liar, the murderer 1 Pet. 5:8; Rev. 12:10; John 8:44. The Holy Spirit’s first work in men is that of conviction. To convict means to make the truth of the Gospel clear to the unbeliever, so that he knows the choices before him. He convicts unbelievers of three things:
- 1. Sin The sin here is unbelief. Jesus said men have sinned “because they do not believe in Me.” The first thing the Holy Spirit wants the unbeliever to know is that it is a sin to reject Jesus Christ.
- 2. Righteousness The righteousness is the victory of Jesus Christ on the cross. The second thing the Holy Spirit wants the unbeliever to know is that Jesus Christ is victorious in the angelic conflict and that the only basis of righteousness for man is Christ’s work on the cross.
- 3. Judgement The judgment is the eternal separation from God which is coming because Satan, the ruler of this world, has been judged. The third thing the Holy Spirit wants the unbeliever to know is that each of us chooses for ourselves whether we will share in the eternal damnation of Satan or in the eternal glory of Christ.
If you are an unbeliever, the Holy Spirit has three things to tell you. He will not tell you where Cain got his wife. He will not you the illumination to answer the exact time of the writing of the book of Daniel, or whether there were two or three Isaiahs, or any of the other theological disputes people get caught up in. All He wants you to know is: number one, it is a sin to reject Jesus Christ; number two, the only righteousness that counts with God is what Christ won on the cross; and number three, Satan has been judged and if you reject Christ, you will share his destiny.
“I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me; for He will take of Mine, and will disclose it to you.” John 16:12–14
After He has convicted us for salvation and we have believed, the Holy Spirit becomes our companion and guide. He will not mystically pour truth into us or visit us with rapturous feelings of ecstasy. His mission is to guide us into the truth, but we have to make ourselves available to His leading. This means we must study the Word. As we study, the Holy Spirit will enlighten the eyes of our heart Eph. 1:18 so that the Bible will begin to make sense to us. He will teach us that which we study. He will help us recall that which we learn.
When the Lord Jesus Christ at the Feast of Tabernacles first hinted at the coming of the Holy Spirit, His call went out to all who were thirsty. His promise was that the Spirit would quench the thirst of everyone who believed in Him. “He who believes in Me” John 12:44 is the condition on which the promise is fulfilled.
If you are an unbeliever, you will never know genuine contentment in life. You will never know the moment-by-moment stability that comes from having the thirst of a parched soul quenched by God the Holy Spirit.
If you are a Christian and you have gone through this day in fear, in defeat, battered and blown by the winds of life, then you have not believed in Jesus Christ today. You have doubted Him, and if you doubted Him, your spiritual thirst was not quenched.
When we let the Holy Spirit satisfy us, He will give us the opportunity to satisfy others. That same water that quenches our spiritual thirst will quench the thirst of others around us. It will widen from a trickle to a stream and from a stream to a river—a river that will refresh many. As the water flows, the Holy Spirit’s mission is accomplished: Jesus Christ is glorified!