In
the times of the Prophets, God taught His people to live a righteous life that
would clearly set them apart from the rest of the world by giving the written Laws
that they were to follow (throughout Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy). These
all involved good works that would stem from their faith and love for God and
prevent them from choosing wickedness by their own free will when the Law was
clearly teaching them to identify right from wrong.
Aphrahat
speaks of the Laws that were instated by God and explains how they were purely
dependant on man’s self-control alone. He quotes Jesus’ two commands which bind
the whole Law “love the LORD your God with all your might and strength and love
your neighbour as yourself”…
When
you begin to investigate both these commandments, upon which hang the whole
strength of the Law and of the prophets (you will see that) if indeed both
these commandments, upon which hang the whole strength of the Law and of the
prophets, had been fixed in the heart and mind of human beings, then it would not have been necessary for
the Law and the prophets to have been written down, as it is written, “The Law
is not given to the just, but to the wicked” (1 Tim. 1:9). And the Law was
given because of the wicked. If justice had stayed among human beings, the Law
would not have been required. Again if the Law had not been set down, the
strength of God would not have been known in all generations through all the
wonders which He manifested. (Aphrahat Demonstration II on Charity)
Clearly
the written Law was not enough to prevent God’s people from wilfully straying into
wicked ways that grieved God, and so God made a new covenant (promise) with His
people saying: 33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the
house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law
within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be
My people. 34 They will not teach again, each man his neighbour
and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to
the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
(Jeremiah 31:33-34)
This
new covenant that God promised was facilitated by our Lord Jesus Christ;
through His teachings, His life example, His death, resurrection and ultimate giving
of The Holy Spirit. Before Jesus was arrested and crucified, He spoke of
His fore coming death to His heavy hearted disciples (John 14:1-3) and at the
same time He comforted them by assuring them that He would not leave them, but
would ask the Father to send the counsellor (The Holy Spirit) to be with them
and guide them 16 I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you
forever; 17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because
it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides
with you and will be in you (John
14:16-17). Christ was telling the Apostles what would happen when the Spirit
would abide within them. These promises are also given to us when we receive
the Holy Spirit through baptism.
Jesus speaks of the role of the Holy Spirit who would dwell
within His disciples and subsequent believers, not in the people of the
world. Just as God promised in Jeremiah 31 above; that when He puts the law
within us and on our heart, we will “know Him”, so too Christ here tells
His disciples that they will receive the Spirit of truth because they “Know
Him” and He will be in them. Christ’s words indeed came to fulfilment upon
the day of Pentecost, fifty days after Christ’s ascension, where the Apostles
received the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4) and in turn baptised many believers
including adults and children on the same day. (Acts 2:38-39).
Today,
when we are born into a Christian family, our Holy and Apostolic Church teaches
us that it is the believing parents’ duty to ensure their infant children also
receive baptism and raise them up in the Christian faith and doctrines of the
Church. So they in turn, will also receive the gifts of The Holy Spirit and treat
their bodies as “temples of the Holy Spirit’ (1 Corinthians 3:16), by
performing good and faithful works for themselves and others.
The
main role of The Holy Spirit is to lead us, counsel us and teach us to live
righteously in the Lord in a way that aligns with His will for our lives, as He
dwells within us by His Spirit and teaches us, unworthy sinners to live a life
of faith that is manifested in our faithful acts and good works. (James Faith
without deeds is dead).
We
see the importance of this in-dwelling relationship we have with God through
His Spirit when we look to Jesus our Lord and learn from His example:
John
14:11-15 11 Believe
Me that I am in the Father and
the Father is in Me; otherwise believe
because of the works themselves. 12 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who
believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.
Just
as the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son, so it is with us, who
possess the third character or Qnuma of the Holy Trinity, God’s Holy Spirit
dwelling within us. As Jesus
states above, you can tell that the Father is in Him because of the works we
see Him perform. So too for us today, who have God’s Spirit dwelling within us,
we also should perform righteous works, and even the works that Christ did by
faith.
To
further explain to those who believe that works are indeed not needed for our
salvation, we should ask; why did Christ teach His disciples you will know a
tree [or a person’s standing with God] by its fruits [works] (Matthew 7:19-20)?
Why did He say “not everyone who says to
me Lord, Lord will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of my
Father who is in Heaven will enter’ (Matthew 7:21)? Why did He rebuke those who
seemingly had faith and performed miracles in His name by saying to them, “I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.”
(Matthew 7:23)? Why does St. James teach us “just as the body without the spirit
is dead, so faith without works is dead? (James 2:26) Why did St. Paul teach us
to “continue to work out our salvation in fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12)?
And why did our Lord give us the Counsellor to help us, guide us
and teach us to perform 'good deeds' to conform with the likeness of God’s
righteous character (Galatians 5:22-25)?
Today,
some ways we recognise that we are living in the Spirit is when we feel comfort
in doing righteous works that are in step with His Spirit. We may also feel a
personal conviction when we have committed an ungodly deed, when we have
slipped up in sin, or are struggling with sinful thoughts; it is The Holy
Spirit within us that is guiding our hearts and our conscious, enlightening us
to fulfil God’s will in our lives. In times of these experiences we should
thank God for His mighty comfort or conviction and repentantly choose to turn
from our wicked ways, and turn to His ways and continue to glorify His name
through the working of His Spirit in our lives. For right after Jesus spoke
about the giving of The Spirit He said, “if you obey my commands (to love God
with all your might and strength and love your neighbour as yourself) the Father
and I will make our home with you (John 14:23). Clearly, good works
stemming from our love for God and our love for others are indeed necessary to genuinely
serve God through the help of His Spirit who abides in us.
Next
week: Fruits of the Spirit (Part II) – Inheriting the Kingdom of Heaven.
This week’s song: Speak to me Lord –
Rebecca St. James
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