Lesson 8: In Spirit and in Truth, part 3
John 7:37-39 - On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this He said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Jesus came to baptize with the Holy Spirit; the Spirit could not stream forth till He was glorified (John 1:33, 7:37-38, 12:7). It was when He had made an end of sin, and was entering into the Holiest of all with His blood, and there on our behalf received the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:33), that He could send Him down to us as the Spirit of the Father. It was when Christ had redeemed us, and we in Him had received the position of children, that the Father sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts to cry, “Abba, Father.” The worship in spirit is the worship of the Father in the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Sonship.
This is the reason why Jesus here uses the name of Father. We never find one of the Old Testament saints personally appropriate the name of child or call God his Father. The worship of the Father is only possible to those to whom the Spirit of the Son has been given. The worship in spirit is only possible to those to whom the Son has revealed the Father, and who have received the spirit of Sonship. It is only Christ who opens the way and teaches the worship in spirit.
And in truth. That does not only mean in sincerity. Nor does it only imply in accordance with the truth of God’s Word. The expression is one of deep and Divine meaning. Jesus is “the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” “The law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” Jesus says, “I am the truth and the life.”
In the Old Testament all was shadow and promise; Jesus brought and gives the reality, the substance, of things hoped for. In Him the blessings and powers of the eternal life are our actual possession and experience. Jesus is full of grace and truth; the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth; through Him the grace that is in Jesus is ours indeed, and truth a positive communication out of the Divine life. And so worship in spirit is worship in truth; actual living fellowship with God, a real correspondence and harmony between the Father, who is a Spirit, and the child praying in the spirit.
We continue this in our next lesson.
Prayer: Holy Master, teach me this blessed secret of sonship, to be in perfect union with You, in this living fellowship where Your every word becomes my dearest desire.