The Spirit and the Word: A Treatise on the Holy Spirit in the Light of a Rational Interpretation of the Word of TruthSweeney, Z. T. (Zachary Taylor)
Religion
The Spirit and the Word: A Treatise on the Holy Spirit in the Light of a Rational Interpretation of the Word of Truth
Sweeney, Z. T. (Zachary Taylor)
Holy Spirit
3. _The Spirit maketh intercession for us_. This is not a work done in
us nor upon us, but is something done for us before the throne of God.
We can not dogmatize as to _how_ the Spirit maketh intercession, but
Paul says he does it "_according to the will of God_." This is a fact
that appeals to _our faith_ and not to our Christian _experience_. It
"can not be uttered." We can rest upon it and draw comfort from it as a
child draws strength from its mother's breast. We can also draw comfort
from the fact that Christ "ever liveth to make intercession for us,"
though we have no knowledge as to _how_ he does it.
4. Another work of the Spirit is to "_change us from glory to glory_."
"But we all, with unveiled face, reflecting as a mirror the glory of the
Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as
from the Lord the Spirit" (2 Cor. 3:18). The figure used here by the
apostle is taken from the process of mirror-making among the ancients.
They hadn't the glass mirrors of our day, but a mirror of highly
polished metal. A piece of coarse metal would be placed upon a stone and
the workmen would begin to polish it; at first it made no reflection at
all, but when polished for awhile would give a distorted and perverted
reflection; but in the process of polishing, that reflection would grow
clearer and clearer, when finally a man could behold his face in it
perfectly reflected. And so with us. When taken into the great spiritual
laboratory of Christianity we are blocks in the rough, but in the
polishing process of the church and spiritual surroundings we begin to
reflect the image of our Master, and when we have completed the work, we
reflect him as perfectly as a human being can. Take, for illustration,
the brothers Peter and John. At first they were called Boanerges, sons
of thunder; they wanted to call down fire from heaven to destroy men who
differed from them; but in the great laboratory of the Christian life
they grew more and more Christlike, transformed by the Spirit of God,
until at last we see the old apostle John at Ephesus, beautified and
ennobled, sitting in his chair and lifting up trembling hands, and
saying to the young disciples: "Little children, love one another, for
love is of God." We see the transforming power of the spiritual
atmosphere of the church and the Christian life upon human nature.
Christian, with this illustration before you, how can you excuse
yourself for keeping out of the spiritual atmosphere of God, for staying
away from the communion and the spiritual convocation of God's people?
Is it a burden and a duty to attend the house of God, or is it a
pleasure gladly and joyfully anticipated? When you rise on the Lord's
Day morning, do you say, "Must I go to church to-day?" or do you say:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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