You Know Him

And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you (John 14:16-17).

Once the Holy Spirit began the work of separating the people of Christ from those of the world, His work of sanctification began. At this point the disciples, apart from Judas Iscariot, were saved. Jesus said they were (John 13:10), He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you. This reference was not just to their physical feet, or their entire body, but they were clean spiritually - they believed in Jesus as the Christ of God and had been saved. 

Jesus said these disciples ‘know’ the Holy Spirit, for He dwells with you and will be in you. How was the Holy Spirit with them? By the presence of Jesus Christ, who was filled with the Holy Spirit. (Luke 4:1) Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. How will the Holy Spirit be in them? When He is sent by the Father to live in them. (John 14:16) And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever. That promise was fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost. (Acts 2:1-4) When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. 

By virtue of the fact the Holy Spirit lives in the life of every follower of Jesus Christ, their ‘body’ becomes the Temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). Does this mean the Christian is perfectly sinless? No. The old sinful flesh remains. (Romans 6:11-14) Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. 

If the Christian is perfectly sinless, Paul would not have commanded the Christians to ‘reckon’ (consider, think) themselves dead to sin, or to not let sin ‘reign’ (continue to rule) in their mortal bodies, or to not present their members (parts of their bodies) as tools to work unrighteous acts. So, how is it possible for the Holy Spirit to live where sin is still present? By the grace of God through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. (Leviticus 16:16) So he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, for all their sins; and so he shall do for the tabernacle of meeting which remains among them in the midst of their uncleanness. Amen.

Pastor