Friday, June 2, 2017
John 16:7 "Nevertheless, I tell You the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper [or, the Comforter] will not come to you. But if I depart, I will send Him to you."
REJOICE! JESUS ASCENDED TO SEND THE COMFORTER!
As our Prophet, Priest, and King, Christ Jesus preaches to us and through us, prays for us, and rules over all things for us. But how does Christ work, not only for us, but through us?
In John 6:13-15 Jesus also promised His disciples that "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. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you."
Even as Jesus taught His disciples while He walked with them, the Holy Spirit would teach believers with the same Word and the same teachings that Christ Himself taught. This message the Holy Spirit would proclaim through the Apostles and in the New Testament Scriptures, even as He had proclaimed the same will of God through the writers of the Old Testament, for "... no Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:20-21).
By that Word we believe and trust that the forgiveness of sins that Christ won for all people on the cross, is ours through faith. We read in 2 Corinthians 5:19 that "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them..." And in 1 John 1:7 we read that "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin." This is the comfort that the Comforter brings us through Word and Sacrament.
