Continuing with the thought of our need for a teacher once we have entered Redemption's gate, which is Christ. Why Redemption? You may ask, because it is there having passed through that we are given the Holy Spirit Who is our Comforter, Guide and Teacher. The revealer of all things now to become Christ. Okay looking to Pastor Hoekstra's writing on Grace and then I will return to my focus on the Spirit Teacher and His working. I will make use again of the ESV translation and will edit things as the LORD the Spirit leads.
"The Resurrection Essential to the Gospel of Grace"
"And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is vain and your faith is also vain . . . And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins . . . But now Christ is risen from the dead." (1Corinthians 15:14, 17, and 20)
"The early Church persistently proclaimed the resurrection of the LORD Christ Jesus. This was not an option for them; neither is it an option for us. The Grace of GOD that is available in HIS Gospel for both Justification and Sanctification requires a risen Lord, Who became LORD and Christ. The resurrection is essential to this Gospel, which is the New Covenant of Grace.
The Spirit of GOD emphasized this strongly, as He inspired Paul to write: "And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is vain and your faith is also vain." If Jesus had not been raised from the dead, our preaching would be empty. If Christ were still in a tomb, His Salvation mission ended in failure, not victory. There would have been no Redemption made available through which His Salvation would come to the obedient. Jesus is the object of our faith. If He is not alive, our trusting Him would be fruitless. Jesus frequently taught of His death and resurrection. "The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes (the Jews), and be killed, and be raised the third day" (Luke 9:22).
Furthermore, Paul wrote: "And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins." The Gospel of forgiveness of sins includes the Resurrection. "I declare to you the Gospel which I preached to you . . . that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures" (1Corinthians 15:1, 3-4). Faith is only as effective as its object. If our Lord is not resurrected, it is useless to place our confidence in Him. If we are trusting in a dead Savior to forgive us and set us free, we are still guilty and bound.
However, our Lord is not in an ancient tomb. "But now Christ is risen from the dead." He rose victorious over sin and death, bringing everlasting Righteousness to all who believe. "[faith] was accounted to [Abraham] for Righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us [i.e., credited to our account] who believe in Him Who raised up Jesus our LORD from the dead, Who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our Justification" (Romans 4:22-25). Thus, all of the Grace Blessings of the Resurrection (within us) are ours by faith. "Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to Grace" (Romans 4:16).
The Spirit As Teacher:
Nehemiah 9:16-25 "But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey Your commandments. They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that You performed among them, but they stiffened their necks and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But You are a GOD ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast Love, and did not forsake them. Even when they had made for themselves a golden calf and said, 'This is your God who brought us up out of Egypt,' and had committed great blasphemies, You in Your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go. You gave Your good Spirit to instruct them and did not withhold Your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst. Forty years You sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell. "And You gave them kingdoms and peoples and allotted to them every corner. So they took possession of the land of Sihon king of Heshbon and the land of Og king of Bashan. You multiplied their children as the stars of heaven, and You brought them into the land that You had told their fathers to enter and possess. So the descendants went in and possessed the land, and You subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hand, with their kings and the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they would. And they captured fortified cities and a rich land, and took possession of houses full of all good things, cisterns already hewn, vineyards, olive orchards and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in Your great goodness."
Luke 12:8 (Jesus is speaking) "And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges Me before men, the Son of Man also Will acknowledge before the angels of GOD, but the one who denies Me before men Will be denied before the angels of GOD. And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit Will Not be forgiven. And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit Will Teach you in that very hour what you ought to say."
John 14:25-31 (Jesus is speaking) "These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father Will send in My name, HE Will Teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; My Peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. You heard Me say to you, 'I am going away, and I Will come to you.' If you love Me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe. I Will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on Me, for I do as the Father has commanded Me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here."
1Corinthians 2:6-13, 14-16 "Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a Secret and hidden wisdom of GOD, which GOD decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the LORD of Glory. But, as it is written, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what GOD has prepared for those who love HIM"—these things GOD has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of GOD. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of GOD except the Spirit of GOD. Now we have received kept the spirit of the world, but have received within the Spirit Who is from GOD (and is GOD), that we might understand the things freely given us by GOD. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual Truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of GOD, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. "For who has understood the mind of the LORD so as to instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ."
1John 2:23-25, 26-27, 28-29 "No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the Promise that HE made to us—Eternal Life.
I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But the anointing that you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as His anointing (Messiah and Christ, the Spirit of all Truth) Teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as HE has taught you, abide in HIM.
And now, little children, abide in Him, so that when HE appears we may have confidence and not shrink from Him in shame at His coming. If you know that HE is Righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices Righteousness has been born of Him."
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