THE SPIRIT AND BODY OF CHRIST.
HERE is our Lord’s promise for His church for all time: “If ye love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world can not receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him; but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” John 14 : 15–17. 1. Note the condition,—obedience, a heart submitted to do the whole will of God. 2. Note the promise,—“I will pray the Father.” 3. Note the result, the fruition,—He, the Father, shall give you another Comforter, that He, the Father, may abide with you forever. For the Spirit of truth, the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, brings with it to every soul and in every soul the presence of God the Father, and Jesus Christ our Lord. A little further on Jesus presents this truth in these words: “If a man love Me, he will keep My words; and My Father will love him, and We [the Father and the Son] will come unto Him, and make Our abode with Him.” Verse 23. The Spirit is a comforter in that it brings to every child of God the presence of Father and Son, bringing them as near to living faith as tho they were bodily, personally present. The Spirit testifies of Jesus. It dwelt in Him while He was here upon the earth. It enabled Him to do all He did do in mighty miracles and triumphant victories; and it is therefore also the Spirit of Christ. It witnesses of Christ; it is the manifestation of Christ to the believer. Of that Comforter Jesus said: “Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth; for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak; and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify Me; for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you.” John 16 : 13, 14. This is the Spirit of Christ; for Christ did not testify of Himself, but of the Father; and those who have Christ’s Spirit will not testify of themselves, but of Christ. Those who are bound to Christ by this living union of His Spirit, compose His church. This church is well illustrated by the body, while the head is Christ. For the Father “hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the Head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.” Eph. 1 : 22, 23. “And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church.” Col. 1 : 17, 18. Not only so, but as the head is connected by means of the brain and nerves with every member of the body, so Christ is “the Head of every man.” 1 Cor. 11 : 3. He is the great Director, the “Leader,” the “Commander to the people.” To Him is the church to look; from Him the body is to be supplied, and is to execute in and through its various members and functions the will of the Head. What a blessed truth is this! How it transcends all human councils, and diets, and popes! Christ and His Word! His Word, open to every soul who will come in faith and humility, with a heart to know and do His will! He Himself, accessible to every one who comes in His name! His Spirit, giving power and life to His entire church, witnessing for Him before the world! Christ our Head liveth ever. He gives not away to some poor fallible man calling himself infallible. His children need never to apologize for the acts of their Head. They need never feel that He will fail, and then wait and tremble and doubt as to whom schemes and craft and intrigue shall put in His place. Christ is risen. Christ liveth ever. Christ is the Head of the church. Christ is the “Leader” and the “Commander to the people.” Christ “is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him.” Christ’s blessed Spirit of life, the Comforter, brings His presence and fulness to every heart, and fits for holy service every soul which will yield to its baptism by putting away all of sin and self. Therefore, reader, that you may know Christ, “receive ye the Holy Ghost.”