Of all the blessings that God has bestowed upon those who are members of the church of Christ, there is that privilege to have in our hearts the highest intellectual and moral enjoyments ever bestowed. This is called the gift of the Holy Spirit!! Shall we not, then, fellows soldiers, appreciate the use, as we ought, of our present purity and happiness, to gain eternal honor and glory? The light which the sun of righteousness has shed so richly and abundantly on us, far outshines the pale light of Judaism, built upon Moses and the Prophets. Remember, that we stand up on apostles and prophets who guided by that eternal light, and sustained by Jesus, the light of the world, and the interpreter and vindicator of all of God’s ways to man in creation, Providence, and redemption. But to think that God would bestow upon we who are members of the body of Christ the presence of a fellow deity to live and reside in our hearts; is beyond “what could not see and ear could not hear; and what could have never entered into the heart of those who love the Lord.” All we who are saints are stars; and He that is now given us in this life by the Sun of righteousness, will cause us to only look forward to our glorious future with the Bright and Morning Star and the Ancient of Days!! Until the day of eternity and the day star of immortality arise in our hearts, we can always look to Jesus with an appreciation that is far beyond expression, for not he only did He buy with His blood, but He prayed the Father to give us the Spirit.
Superior heavenly light could not come from any other source. The personal, real and primary remission of all sin, which we enjoy through the blood of the Lamb of God, that which is bestowed on us through the demands of baptism, and the continual confession of sin; distinguish us from anything a sacrifice under the law could, and did. Ceremonial offerings; could not go so far as to dissolved the guilt of the transgression under that law, as to give them a right to the continued enjoyment of the temporal promises of their national compact. Further Jewish sacrifices and ablutions could not reach that far. The comparison with the sacrifices of the Old Testament Law stop with one point: they could not reach the mind of the Father nor the conscience of the giver. The apostle Paul writes those sacrifices could not make him who did that service, perfect. Hebrews 10:1 The Jewish sacrifices could never answer the conscience, for they never could reach that high. Their goal was to sustainand, never reach the possibility of re-entering fellowship with God!! Show me, fellow traveler, where riding the road to eternity with the 10 Commandments as his law and guide, where any of the 10 Commandments would ever allow a person to have a free, clear, anticipation of total forgiveness of sin. But again, that is still not enough; in the Christian dispensation, not only do we have the absolute forgiveness of sin, we have as a bonus what is beyond reality and consideration, we have been blessed by God to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Superior light and knowledge and in larger conception of God, which puts us beyond being called “a friend of God,” stop short if we do not understand, that we have formally been adopted into the family of God by adoption. The proof of our adoption is its guarantor, the gift of the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 1:13. No higher honor could ever be vouchsafed the inhabitants of this earth.” Because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Galatians 4:6 And if sons, it follows we are heirs of God through Christ– the heir of all things. ThIs is not some romantic vision, but sober and solemn truth, that we are children of God, possessing the spirit of Christ, and constituted heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ of eternal inheritance!! Romans 8:17
