Saturday, June 13, 2015
2 Corinthians 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
BLESSED THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT
With His Word God shares the Holy Spirit with us, for that word "communion" means to share. As He proceeds from the Father and the Son into your heart through the Gospel in Word and Sacrament, the Holy Spirit brings you the comfort, the unity, and the peace of God. It is He who works those things in our heart, for He is that, " ... God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant ... [May He] make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ" (Hebrews 13:20f).
As unregenerate sinners, we were incomplete, for we were without God. We were separated from Him by our sins. But the Holy Spirit uses God's Word to make us complete, using the Law of God to show us our sins, to work sorrow in our hearts over our sins, and to show us our need for the Savior. The Spirit then uses the Gospel to show us that Savior and to lead us to faith in Him, bringing the Savior into our heart through the the gospel. With the Son, also then comes the Father, for it is the work of the Spirit to sanctify us (to make us holy before God through the forgiveness of our sins). By applying that forgiveness to us as individuals through the Gospel, "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs -- heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ" (Romans 8:16f). It is through this work of the Spirit that we become complete, the children of God in every sense of the Word. We are His children here in this world through faith in Christ, and we are His children in eternity, as we inherit the kingdom of our Father, for the Spirit continues to work in us until that Day, as it is written, "He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6).
Until that Day, the Spirit works in us that we might be complete in every good work, that we might do those things that are the will of God, comforting one another with the Word, united in that Word and at peace with one another, so that, by that Word, there will be no doubt in our minds that the God of love and peace is with us.
