One of the delusions of these last days is the varied sects that claim to have the Holy Spirit, but who deny the need for, and even the inspiration of, the Holy Scriptures. They take to themselves names which stand for some teaching or practice which they promote, emphasizing the possession of the Spirit, but denying the need of the word of God. Nearly all these people claim to have the Holy Spirit, though they clearly teach that when possessed by the Spirit, they are beyond the obligation of obedience to the law of God. They deny the need of the written word, the Holy Scriptures.
Of course there are many shades of teaching among these people. Some are more moderate and consistent; others go much farther in repudiating the Scriptures. But it matters not what zeal may possess the individual, such teaching is harmful and damaging to the Lord's work; for unless the Christian accepts the word of God as his teacher and guide in morality, he is on questionable ground when he claims to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
We have no controversy with any man concerning the fact that the Christian has been promised the Holy Spirit as a gift from God. This is a New Testament doctrine and provision, and was taught by Christ and the apostles. So also is the inspiration and authenticity and need of the Holy Scriptures taught throughout the New Testament. The latter doctrine is as fully and firmly taught as the former. Of course, we can accept the letter of the written word without possessing the Spirit; but no man can possess the fullness of the Holy Spirit while living in known disobedience to the written word of God.
Great importance was attached to the Scriptures by all the early church teachers, especially by the apostles who were with Christ, and others who wrote in the New Testament. The Scriptures that Christ used in His ministry and that the church used in the first half and more of the first century consisted of the Old Testament; for the New Testament books had not yet been written and received as Scripture.
Peter tells how the prophecy came in olden time: "Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 2 Peter 1:21. Paul wrote concerning the Scriptures: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 2 Tim. 3:16, 17. In speaking of the Scriptures to the people of His day, Christ commanded: "Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me." John 5:39. James wrote, "Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." Christ prayed, "Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth." John 17:17.
No teacher ever made freer quotations from the Scriptures than did our Saviour. He magnified the name of His Father as it had not been magnified before His day. The Spirit in Christ led Him to perfect obedience to His Father's law. He said, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Matt. 5:17, 18.
Christ was loyal to all that was written in the Scriptures concerning Him, and He interpreted the prophecies that applied to Himself as being fulfilled before the eyes of those who heard Him. Never was there a prophecy by any prophet that had to do with His teachings and times that Christ did not explain, and show its literal fulfillment. Never did He refer to His anointing by the Holy Spirit as giving Him liberty to disobey the law of His God. When the rich young ruler asked Him what he must do to enter into life, Christ replied: "Keep the commandments." When the young man asked which commandments, Christ instantly referred him to the moral law. When the enemy came to Christ in the wilderness immediately following His anointing with the Holy Spirit, Christ did not rely wholly upon His sonship with the Father nor His anointing with the Holy Spirit to foil the tempter's power; but He met Satan's specious temptations every time with a "Thus smith the Lord."
The Bible stands alone as the revealed word of God to mankind. Its claims are more exalted than those of any other book on earth. Nor has He left us in ignorance as to how He regards His word. Almost at the close of the Revelation is given this solemn exhortation: "I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the Holy City, and from the things which are written in this book." Rev. 22:18, 19. Thus unmistakably God shows how He regards meddling with this portion of His word, either in adding to or taking from it.
How can the Holy Spirit dwell within a heart when that professed Christian professes not to believe in the divine inspiration of God's word, or in only a limited portion of it? Men who believe that they have liberty to break the law of God because they have within their hearts the very presence of the Holy Spirit, are in dire need of spiritual enlightenment. Those who claim to be filled with the Holy Spirit, but who lawlessly break the law of God, are deluded, and have little conception of the unity in the Godhead. Christ set forth the principle of weakness in a household or a kingdom when divided against itself; nor need any professed Christian think that he is filled with the Holy Ghost while he deliberately dispenses with the written word of God. The Godhead is one. God does not teach that which the Holy Ghost may disannul and set aside as soon as He enters the human heart. What the word of God teaches, the Godhead endorses, and it cannot be set aside.
The professed Christian who believes that the Holy Spirit dwelling within him grants him liberty to disobey the plain teaching of the word, is self-deceived. The Holy Spirit dwelling within the heart does exactly contrary to granting the soul the privilege of disobedience; while He controls the life of the Christian, He encourages him conscientiously to obey the law of God. To allow him to disobey, and still be an accepted child of God, is like a church or a priest that for money sells indulgences to sin. It would be contrary to all that we know of the Holy Spirit for Him to make His abode in the heart of the Christian without reproving for sin, if that soul disobeyed the Lord and acted contrary to His written commands, especially if the professed Christian knew that he was disobeying.
Even the new covenant, under which many profess to be living who boast of being filled with the Spirit while rejecting obedience to the word, brings the law of God prominently before us. It is the new covenant that reveals to us the Holy Spirit and the law of God working in the same heart.
"This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people. And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest." Heb. 8:10, 11.
There could not be conceived a closer relationship between the new heart and the law of God and the Holy Spirit than is here described. Under the old covenant the law was engraved on tables of stone; under the new covenant the law of God is put into the Christian's mind and written on his heart. Instead of being abolished, so that the believer living under the new covenant may transgress it with impunity, it is so written upon his mind and heart that he cannot escape the responsibility of obedience.
I. H. E.
