“However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you” (John 16:13-14 NKJV).
The church today is facing a crisis of truth. The ill wind of religious relativism that is sweeping through our world has created privatized faiths and beliefs, especially among our younger generation. The regime of absolutes in terms of belief and morals has been thrown overboard in favour of personal convictions. I was talking recently with a young fellow who is enmeshed in sordid moral issues and the fellow unabashedly tutored me on what he considered to be the prevailing interpretation of Christian morality. It all came down to the point that what matters in morals today is that the person or persons enjoy what they are doing and ensure that what the person is doing does not directly harm others. The crisis of truth we face in the church is gradually and progressively denuding traditionally accepted standards of behaviours for believers in the society. Religious belief today is seen by increasing number of people as being not a matter of factual truth of what it affirms but of the sincerity with which such beliefs are held. The wider implication of this shift in the perception of truth is that the difference between the different religions of the world is no longer seen as the difference of truth and falsehood, but the difference in interpretation of and approach to the same reality. This line of thought certainly portends serious danger to the gospel of Christ, because it compromises the central truth of the Bible that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life and that no one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6). The truth that Christ is the Author of our salvation is non-negotiable for all true believers. Believing this truth is a prerequisite for working with the Holy Spirit.
Jesus is the Truth. Holy Spirit guides us to Him. Stand firm, don’t compromise – preach Jesus, the gospel, with renewed vigour in Jesus’ name
One of the reasons our Lord gave for the coming and the continued presence of the Holy Spirit in and among believers is to keep us adequately informed of the truth, except for those who chose to remain purposefully misinformed. Our Lord describes the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of truth. He is the Spirit of truth because He is the Spirit of Jesus who is the Truth. The Apostle John warns us about the presence of the spirit of antichrist in the world now saying, “By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world” (1 John 4:2-3 NKJV). Notice that this does not mean any person who believes in the humanity of Jesus is of God; it rather refers to any person who believes that Jesus, who is God, was born as a human being. This is the truth that all the other religions of the world have chosen to remain purposefully uninformed or deliberately misinformed about. This is the central truth the Holy Spirit is committed to upholding before the world. The Holy Spirit magnifies Jesus as the Truth by helping us understand His word which is truth (John 17:17). He does not come with any new message of His own but only what He hears from Jesus. Any presentation of the gospel that attempts to detract from the Jesus who was born of Mary, who went about teaching, preaching and healing, who suffered and died by crucifixion under Pontus Pilate, who was buried in the tomb of Joseph the Arimathea, who rose from dead after three days, who ascended to heaven, who sent the Holy Spirit on the Pentecost Day to empower the church to witness for Him on earth and who will soon come back, should be considered a false gospel. The true gospel is all about Jesus –the Truth.
The Holy Spirit is here to glorify Jesus as the absolute Truth and seeks to bring the world to believe in Him. He is here to convict the world of sin because they refused to believe in Christ (John 16:8-9). Our Lord revealed how one can know the truth saying, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32 NKJV). The Holy Spirit reveals Jesus the truth to people in order to free them from ignorance and the damnation that comes with it. He is the Spirit of liberty and the tool of His liberation is the word of truth. Paul testified, “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise” (Ephesians 1:13 NKJV). Facing eternity without Christ is a very dreadful proposition. The Bible remains the only authentic guide to the future of humankind. Let us embrace it anew and preach it with renewed vigour to checkmate Satan’s resolve to enslave people whom Christ died for in Jesus name.
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