It is only in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ that we have truth fully brought out. I will learn truth through the Holy Spirit, and He is the only power of my knowing the truth, and is therefore called “Truth” in 1 John 5:6 (and is “the Spirit of Truth; Jhn 14:17; 15:26; 16:13; 1Jo 4:6).
When you speak of the truth, you do not mean merely either the divine nature in its perfectness, or His person “from whom cometh down every good gift” (Jas 1:17). But why is it that the Lord Jesus should be emphatically the Truth (Jhn 14:6)? He is the One who objectively has presented to me that which shows me the bearing and relationship of everything to God as well as to man.
If I want to test any one thing, I never can arrive at its full character till I view it in connection with the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is the truth subjectively (Jhn 14:17—NC), because no man can behold the Lord Jesus or find the truth in Him without the Spirit’s ministry. He is the revealer of the Lord Jesus; our own mind cannot see Him. Even the new man cannot of itself understand Him, or enter into the things of God (The Holy Spirit is the Creator of our new birth - Jhn 3:5, 6, 8 and the Author and Teacher of the Word of God (2Pe 1:21; 1Co 2:13—NC).
You will observe how strikingly this was shown when the disciples themselves had to wait till the Lord Jesus opened their minds to “understand the Scriptures” (Luk 24:45), and after that, for power to act on them. After they were converted, they needed the ministry of the Spirit to utilize the Scriptures. Beside, again they must wait for power to testify the truth from the Scriptures to others. They required to have the ministry of the Spirit, distinct from the new nature for the purpose of entering into the things of God.
Mere human nature never understands the things of God, but the new nature does. In order to do it, the Spirit’s ministry is requisite. The new nature is characterized by dependence. The Holy Spirit acts in His own power. So that we do not merely need dependence upon God, but enablement from the Spirit to enter into truth. It is not a matter of being converted merely, but of the practical entering into the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the way of the Father as brought out in the ways of His Son (“practical entering” is in the doing of God’s guidance—NC).
To gather evidence of God’s being is one thing; to know Him is another. It may come down to the Law, but does this give me truth (all of God’s mind for us—NC)? Its design was more for making the discovery of man than of God (revealing sinful state of man—NC). Its operation was that man might thereby learn what he is in himself. It runs like a ploughshare, when directed by the Spirit into the heart, and lays bare many furrows, and discovers what man never knew was there before.
But the Law was never meant to show what the Father is to man in grace. At best is declares what a man ought to be as well as do; but this is not the truth (entire truth—NC). What I ought to be is not God’s truth but my duty. Law was the standard for a man in the flesh; and hence it never was given till man was a sinful man. “The Law was given by Moses,” not to or by Adam. The commandment laid upon Adam was never called the law, although it was, of course, a law (Gen 2:16, 17).
You will never find truth, even in the Bible, if you sever it from the Lord Jesus Christ! But the moment the same blessed One, who has shown me in His own life and death what man is, has also shown me in the very same what the Father is, then all the clouds break and the difficulties vanish. Now I know my Father, beholding Him in the Lord Jesus Christ.
—William Kelly (1821-1906)
MJS daily devotional for January 25
“The day we were saved, total war was declared between sinful self and the Holy Spirit. Lasting peace will come when we rest in Calvary’s conquest of sin and self, and allow that victory to be applied by the faithful Spirit of God.”—MJS
“The Holy Spirit does not reason from what man is for God, but from what God is to man. Souls reason from what they are in themselves as to whether God can accept them. He does not accept you thus; you are looking for righteousness in yourself as a ground of acceptance with Him. You cannot get peace in this way. ‘But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us’ (Rom 5:8).
“The Holy Spirit always reasons down from what God is, and this produces a total change in my soul. It is not that I abhor my sins; indeed I may have been walking very well; but it is ‘I abhor myself.’ The Holy Spirit shows us what we are, and that is one reason why He often seems to be very hard and does not give peace to the soul, as we are not relieved until we frankly, from our hearts, acknowledge what we are. Until the soul comes to that point He does not give it peace—He could not; it would be healing the wound slightly. The soul has to go on until it finds there is nothing to rest on but the Cross-proved goodness of God; and then if God be for us, who can be against us?”—John Nelson Darby (1800-1882 – father of dispensationalism)
When you speak of the truth, you do not mean merely either the divine nature in its perfectness, or His person “from whom cometh down every good gift” (Jas 1:17). But why is it that the Lord Jesus should be emphatically the Truth (Jhn 14:6)? He is the One who objectively has presented to me that which shows me the bearing and relationship of everything to God as well as to man.
If I want to test any one thing, I never can arrive at its full character till I view it in connection with the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is the truth subjectively (Jhn 14:17—NC), because no man can behold the Lord Jesus or find the truth in Him without the Spirit’s ministry. He is the revealer of the Lord Jesus; our own mind cannot see Him. Even the new man cannot of itself understand Him, or enter into the things of God (The Holy Spirit is the Creator of our new birth - Jhn 3:5, 6, 8 and the Author and Teacher of the Word of God (2Pe 1:21; 1Co 2:13—NC).
You will observe how strikingly this was shown when the disciples themselves had to wait till the Lord Jesus opened their minds to “understand the Scriptures” (Luk 24:45), and after that, for power to act on them. After they were converted, they needed the ministry of the Spirit to utilize the Scriptures. Beside, again they must wait for power to testify the truth from the Scriptures to others. They required to have the ministry of the Spirit, distinct from the new nature for the purpose of entering into the things of God.
Mere human nature never understands the things of God, but the new nature does. In order to do it, the Spirit’s ministry is requisite. The new nature is characterized by dependence. The Holy Spirit acts in His own power. So that we do not merely need dependence upon God, but enablement from the Spirit to enter into truth. It is not a matter of being converted merely, but of the practical entering into the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the way of the Father as brought out in the ways of His Son (“practical entering” is in the doing of God’s guidance—NC).
To gather evidence of God’s being is one thing; to know Him is another. It may come down to the Law, but does this give me truth (all of God’s mind for us—NC)? Its design was more for making the discovery of man than of God (revealing sinful state of man—NC). Its operation was that man might thereby learn what he is in himself. It runs like a ploughshare, when directed by the Spirit into the heart, and lays bare many furrows, and discovers what man never knew was there before.
But the Law was never meant to show what the Father is to man in grace. At best is declares what a man ought to be as well as do; but this is not the truth (entire truth—NC). What I ought to be is not God’s truth but my duty. Law was the standard for a man in the flesh; and hence it never was given till man was a sinful man. “The Law was given by Moses,” not to or by Adam. The commandment laid upon Adam was never called the law, although it was, of course, a law (Gen 2:16, 17).
You will never find truth, even in the Bible, if you sever it from the Lord Jesus Christ! But the moment the same blessed One, who has shown me in His own life and death what man is, has also shown me in the very same what the Father is, then all the clouds break and the difficulties vanish. Now I know my Father, beholding Him in the Lord Jesus Christ.
—William Kelly (1821-1906)
MJS daily devotional for January 25
“The day we were saved, total war was declared between sinful self and the Holy Spirit. Lasting peace will come when we rest in Calvary’s conquest of sin and self, and allow that victory to be applied by the faithful Spirit of God.”—MJS
“The Holy Spirit does not reason from what man is for God, but from what God is to man. Souls reason from what they are in themselves as to whether God can accept them. He does not accept you thus; you are looking for righteousness in yourself as a ground of acceptance with Him. You cannot get peace in this way. ‘But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us’ (Rom 5:8).
“The Holy Spirit always reasons down from what God is, and this produces a total change in my soul. It is not that I abhor my sins; indeed I may have been walking very well; but it is ‘I abhor myself.’ The Holy Spirit shows us what we are, and that is one reason why He often seems to be very hard and does not give peace to the soul, as we are not relieved until we frankly, from our hearts, acknowledge what we are. Until the soul comes to that point He does not give it peace—He could not; it would be healing the wound slightly. The soul has to go on until it finds there is nothing to rest on but the Cross-proved goodness of God; and then if God be for us, who can be against us?”—John Nelson Darby (1800-1882 – father of dispensationalism)