March 10
“These things I have spoken to you while being present 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 things that I 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 heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. You have heard Me say to you, “I am going away and coming back to you,”’” John 14:25-28.
The Lord Jesus had often told His disciples that He was going to leave them. As a result, they had a lot of questions. They did not always understand what He was talking about. While they had their Christian faith, they still were tossed about with various doubts.
In their day, they did not have the familiar hymn that is a favorite of many Christians today, but had they had it, they certainly could have sung it:
“Just as I am, though tossed about
With many a conflict, many a doubt,
Fightings and fears within, without;
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.”
Jesus assured His disciples that He would not leave them comfortless. They needed comfort and they needed help to continue in the faith and to face the many difficulties that lay in the future before them. To that end, Jesus gave them the promise: “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 things that I said to you.”
You and I also need the assurance of the presence of the Holy Spirit. Through the written Word of God, which is the Word of Jesus, the Holy Spirit brings us to faith and keeps us in the faith. He calls us out of spiritual darkness into the marvelous, glorious light of the Gospel. To the Romans, the apostle Paul wrote, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit,” Romans 15:13. He calls us to faith with the Good News of our salvation, which was gained and provided for us by the innocent suffering and death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit also keeps us in the saving faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God and our only Savior. The apostle Peter wrote, “(You) are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time,” 1 Peter 1:5. In Scripture, we are given the assurance, “(Be) confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ,” Philippians 1:6. To the Thessalonians, the apostle Paul wrote, “When you received the Word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe,” 1 Thessalonians 2:13.
The Holy Spirit assures us of the peace that we have with God. It is the peace and pardon that Jesus gained for us by His suffering, death, and resurrection. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
“Salvation unto us has come
By God’s free grace and favor;
Good works cannot avert our doom,
They help and save us never.
Faith looks to Jesus Christ alone,
Who did for all the world atone,
He is our one Redeemer.” Amen.