The Spirit is our teacher, counselor, advocate, and before you begin to think he isn’t active in your life, remember that if you have begun to believe in God at all, it is only because the Spirit did something so powerful in you that you were willing to follow a man that was executed on a cross 2,000 years ago, but also that through that same Spirit, he was raised from the dead.
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” 1 Cor. 1:19
It’s not often that people will use an execution instrument as their religious symbol of choice. Many have wondered what we would think if we saw guillotines or electric chairs on people’s jewelry, and we often miss the grotesque nature of the cross because of how familiar it has become. Yet the cross has become a powerful symbol throughout the world that points back to a man that was brutalized on one 2,000 years ago. Paul states that, “the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” Foolishness because it is insane to think a guy who let himself be killed on a cross would actually be the God of the universe. Why wouldn’t he come down and have his way with those mocking him? Why wouldn’t he just eradicate evil with the snap of his fingers instead of undergoing such a painful death? This seems like no God at all. But Paul is emphatic on this point – this death was because justice must be done, wrath must be carried out, and instead of this falling upon the world, God took it upon himself. Who would believe this?
Paul answers that those who believe are not those who discovered this salvation on their own, but those who the Spirit enabled to receive it. He states,
“What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.” 1 Cor. 2:12-14
The Spirit is our teacher, counselor, advocate, and before you begin to think he isn’t active in your life, remember that if you have begun to believe in God at all, it is only because the Spirit did something so powerful in you that you were willing to follow a man that was executed on a cross 2,000 years ago, but also that through that same Spirit, he was raised from the dead. Before you begin to wonder if the Spirit will move again, remember that the belief you hold today is sustained by a powerful God who has taken up residence in you. This same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead will surely do the same for you. This is, “foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
If Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if theSpirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raisedChrist from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
Romans 8:10-11
