Whosoever

“And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, so that He may be with you forever,” (John 14:16).

The word “and” connects this verse to the one before. “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” (John 14:15) So the Comforter is conditional on keeping what Jesus commands.  This is a foundational Truth and belief that the Holy Spirit only lives in those who have followed the commandment to believe in Jesus and to make Him Lord over our lives. To some it may seem insurmountable and only for those “super” humble people, but that is a lie from the pit of hell. There are two truths that dispel that lie. One is that salvation is for “whosoever.” And the other is that God isn’t waiting for us to “turn a leaf” before we come to Him. But the conditional mandate is still there regardless.

In these Scriptures and others I have studied there are a zillion truths we can garner, but I concentrate in just a couple at a time because God’s Word is exhaustive and would take volumes to explore. And,  we learn a little at a time, bite by bite. And we grow a step at a time. The Lord is so gracious, but our human reasoning is so judgmental, critical and demanding of ourselves. The Lord knows our defects and our weaknesses and has made all the allowances we need according to our hearts’ desire and love for Him. He is not some ogre waiting for us to fail, but is waiting for us to catch up to the end product He sees in the future, “strong in the Lord and the power of His might.” So I hope in your review of these studies you will also be gracious when you see the different paths I could have taken. (I have no idea why the Lord would inspire me to write this apology, but I just write as I’m led.)

As mentioned before, salvation is for “whosoever.” There is not a soul who hasn’t been saved that doesn’t know the Scripture John 3:16. It’s the first treasured verse we learn, believe in and cling to. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) The word “whosoever” is in it. And that “whosoever” is me. It’s you. And it’s every person who was born, is born and will be born. Why did Jesus come? We have the very words of Jesus Who said, “But go and learn what this is, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Matthew 9:13) He came to sinners who would repent. We must first recognize that we are sinners. There are people who don’t think they are sinners. But everyone who has disobeyed even one of the ten commandments has sinned. For example: The fourth commandment says, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Riding your horses, seeing a movie or visiting relatives is not keeping it holy. Another which I’m sure none of us can say we never broke is the nineth commandment. “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” In other words, don’t tell a lie about someone.  How many of us have used God’s Name in vain or in a useless manner? Have you ever said, “Oh my God!” That was a useless use of God’s Name. The Truth of the matter is that no matter how “good” you think you have been, you’re still tarnished with the sin nature. So, unless you have repented and that means have denounced the sin and turned from it and have accepted the mercy of God through Jesus the Savior, you are a sinner who needs to repent, accept Jesus as Savior and yield your life to Him by making Him Lord, which means we will obey Him in all things.

Now a little side note here because there is great discussion of whether we sin after making Jesus Lord. The answer is that yes, we sin. John writes in his epistle (letter), “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1John 1:8-9) It may sound like a contradiction since we believe Jesus died and forgave all of our sins past, present and future. But it’s not. Yes sin is forgiven. But after we have repented and received forgiveness of all sin we have committed, sin begins to arise like selfishness, impatience or anger. This is sin in the flesh. Our new spirit that we have received is free and pure of all sin. But in our flesh this sin arises. We need to recognize it as sin and repent. It is sin that hasn’t been repented of because we were not aware of it. We might have thought it was just a character flaw. John tells us to confess that sin. We do that by repenting of it and asking the Lord to forgive us. The Holy Spirit then works in us to rid us of that sin. And like the former sins we repented of that we don’t do anymore, this sin that we are newly aware of will also go away as the other did.

Returning to the original topic. Salvation from death and destruction because of our sins is for “whosoever.” Another lie that needs to be dispelled is that we must reform ourselves before coming to a great and holy God. But the Truth is that we cannot. If we were able to do that, we could boast that we are like God, able to do a spiritual miracle in ourselves. Our spiritual condition needs a holy and spiritual work which only God can do. The Lord is ready to receive us just as we are. Paul said it best. “For we ourselves also were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, slaving for various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:3-7) It’s God grace or abundant favor that pours out mercy on us and saves us from our sin through the sufferings, death and resurrection of Jesus. When we accept that free gift, the Holy Spirit comes and dwells in us. Jesus calls Him the Comforter. He is God in us and teaches us, leads us in the right way, corrects us and keeps us in righteousness. He is able to dwell in us because the moment we repented and received Jesus as our Savior and Lord, we were set free from sin and death. Sin and the kingdom of sin and death no longer have a hold on us and we are able to do what God wants us to do. Peter wrote, “He Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that dying to sins, we might live to righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed.” (1Peter 2:24) We’re able to live in righteousness. It’s God Who does the work in us. He gives us a new heart. Ezekiel prophesied about these days. “And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26)

In our Scripture of study, Jesus promises the Holy Spirit Who He calls the Comforter. The word that was translated Comforter was the Greek word paraklētos. It means an intercessor, a consoler, an advocate and a comforter. Notice that Jesus said “another.” That means that the Holy Spirit will be another just like Him. He is God the third person of the Trinity. He doesn’t look like Jesus. He is not flesh and blood. But He is a spirit like the Father. And He indwells. He intercedes for us. He speaks up for us when we are unable. He consoles us. And He is always with us to help us. He is our constant companion in the good times and in the difficult times. And because He is God and one with the Father and Jesus, He will speak what the Father and Jesus want us to know. We can also speak with Him. In closing Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians, ends his letter encouraging them to have fellowship with the Holy Spirit. “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.” (2Corinthians 13:14)

In closing, we’ve covered so much ground. But these are the essential treasures of salvation. God loves everyone. But each one of us has the opportunity to believe and choose God by believing and accepting the Father’s free gift of salvation from the death and destruction caused by our sin. Jesus saves us by His suffering, death and resurrection. And when we do, we are not left floundering without knowing what to do. We are given the Holy Spirit to walk with us. And the last word of our Scripture says “forever.” He will be with us as we walk into eternity.

Let us pray:

Holy Father, thank You for Your plan of salvation. Thank You for Your love, Your mercy and Your grace. Thank You for sending Jesus, the Bread of Life, the Living Bread and my Lord and Savior. And thank You for the Holy Spirit Who ever lives in me, Who leads me and teaches me Your way. Thank You Lord that I am no longer a slave to sin. I thank You that I can decide not to follow the world, the flesh or sin and You do the work in me through the Holy Spirit. I am so grateful that salvation doesn’t depend on my “goodness” which I would never be able to obtain. I thank You that it’s based on the righteousness of Jesus my Lord. Your love and mercy are so undeserved, yet You pour it on Your sons and daughters because of Your love. My heart is flooded and overflowing with the marvelous Truth of Goodness. Father help me to show my gratitude in obedience, in diligence of spiritual things and in character to those who don’t know You. Let Your love flow out of me so that they can be drawn to You and seek Your free gift of Love. In the Name of Jesus I pray, amen.