Those who are genuine saints yet disbelieve, or deride, or reject, or who for whatever reason are fearful of our imperfect communication in #4 over at Christ, Our Covenant have nothing to fear unless you have concluded you are among the guilty.
Those who have expressed distrust because we have boldly expressed our common reliance upon the work of God the Spirit have their own problems and it is very telling. Why would I say such a thing? Because of the evidence!
Almost always our detractors share a tendency, or at the very least a serious bent to look to, and solely rely upon, the outward commands in God´s written Word, as if the outward commands by themselves are capable of, or have within them, a power to transform the hearer or the reader into the image of Christ.
This is where I see the greatest danger in their communications. They have offered little more than lip service to the most important work of God in his New Covenant and that being the continuing work of his Holy Spirit upon the hearts and minds of his slaves. God´s Spirit is ever transforming his saints and his written Word speaks to this truth. A truth, as I said, they sorely neglect. Practically speaking they hold the paper and print of their Bibles and printed standards closer to their hearts than the Spirit of God and Christ whom they claim has established his rule upon their persons. As was true of Peter, their speech betrays them.
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, (17) even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. (18) “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. (19) Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. (20) In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. John 14:16-20
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. John 14:26
But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. John 15:26
Nevertheless, 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. (8) And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: (9) concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; (10) concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; (11) concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. (12) “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. (13) When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. (14) He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. John 16:7-14
Almost without exception those who oppose this truth of which the written Word testifies will deny that they have a greater or exclusive reliance upon the written Word than of a dependence upon the agency of the Spirit but we have learned to be suspicious of such denials. You really cannot blame us. They should listen to themselves. The weight of their writing and speech that they have produced in defense of the “letter’ from either testament has far outweighed the token words they have spoken or written with respect to God “in them’ or, of the glorious workings of God´s Spirit, who by his power alone transforms sinners in less than an instant of our time, miraculously, into beings who immediately shine forth the glory of the face of God.
I believe what we have expressed in point #4 is an alarm intended to initiate an awareness that we as God´s saints have sorely neglected the One, upon whom God has designed and intended to be his offspring´s Holy Companion, and who is their source of all things good and holy in their expression, and that expression, is rightly his very own property.
Could you imagine for a moment apostles and disciples who had never enjoyed a meal with, communed with, wept with, or were taught by, or led by, our blessed Lord while he walked on this earth? Do you not hear our Lord as he informs his saints that the Spirit is another like himself. A companion.
The empty charge that we set aside or diminish the importance of the written Word of God is false for it is the Holy Scriptures that has informed us of these things and it is to the Holy Scriptures that we see and understand what is the beginning and end of God´s marvelous work in those whom he has set apart for himself.
The fact of the matter is this. God´s written word is all the more more precious because the living WORD has brought life to us. In his written Word it is testified that this new and radical experience of the work of the Spirit of God in our inner man is true. Through the written Word he speaks to us as his children and not as those who continually live under the power of sin. From our Spiritual Birth and onward we look to the Word of our God and Father as the revealing of His perfect will. We receive the written Word as Paul has so often communicated, with Grace and Peace.
And as for me, this is my covenant with them,’ says the LORD: “My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children´s offspring,’ says the LORD, “from this time forth and forevermore. Isaiah 59:21
The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. (5) The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. Isaiah 50:4-5
So then, before you would cast aside #4 at Christ, Our Covenant, I would plead with you to look to the written Word of God to see if these things of which we speak are true or false.
In Love.
