Fulfilling the Promise
And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. — John 16:8
One of the chief beauties of the Scriptures is that they contain the wonderful promises of God, which, in times of difficulty, serve as an anchor and comfort for God’s beleaguered children. What greater comfort can there be than to stand on the sure foundation of God’s Word and not on the vain and fickle pretensions of men? At times, however, the remnants of indwelling unbelief, fueled by the devil, rise up within as a torrent and cause us to question the goodness of God and whether these precious promises really apply to us personally. Thankfully, the Word also contains the fulfillment of many of God’s promises, which prove to us that His promises can be trusted and that His Word is indeed true.
John 16:8 gives one of Jesus’ great Pentecostal promises, foretelling the coming of the Comforter — the Holy Spirit — and the reproving or convicting work that He will accomplish in the hearts of men. Later on, in the book of Acts, we have an example of how this promise was actually fulfilled. In His convicting work, the first thing the Holy Spirit will convict men of is the sin of unbelief. The world doesn’t need to be convicted of the reality of sin; sin abounds on all sides so that even the unbeliever has to acknowledge its pervasive presence. Men need to be convicted of the particular sin of not believing in Jesus and how offensive this is in God’s sight. He has given His Son and man refuses to believe in Him. [more…]
The Nature of Justifying Faith
Justifying faith is not a simple assent to the truths of the gospel. Judas knew the Scriptures, and without doubt assented to the truth of them when he was a zealous preacher of the gospel; but he never had so much as one ounce of justifying faith in his soul…
Even Judas’ master, the devil himself — one far enough, I suppose, from justifying faith — assents to the truth of the Word. He goes against his conscience when he denies it. When he tempted Christ he did not dispute against Scripture, but from Scripture, drawing his arrows out of this very quiver (Matt. 4:6). And at another time, he makes as full a confession of Christ as Peter himself did (Matt. 8:29, compared with Matt.16:17). Assent to the truth of the Word is but an act of the understanding, which reprobates and devils may exercise. But justifying faith has its substance both in the understanding and the will; therefore it is called a believing ‘with the heart’ (Rom. 10:10). ‘Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest’ (Acts 8:37). It takes in all the powers of the soul. [more…]
From The Christian in Complete Armour by Willian Gurnall
