Food for Friday
But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, Whom the Father will send in My Name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. John 14:26
When someone is newly saved, the best advice we give them as they prepare to study their Bibles is to read the Gospels. Important as the epistles are, the most nourishing food for new believers will always be the words of the Lord Jesus. They will read of His virgin birth, His miracles and messages, of His suffering and death, His glorious resurrection, and His great commission. These truths will establish them and help them to understand many of the things that are most surely believed among us. Actually, a study of the Gospels is good for any Christian regardless of maturity, because they bring the life and person of the Lord Jesus close to us. The Gospels were written many years after the Lord Jesus returned to Heaven. So how can we be certain that the chroniclers are accurate in their description? Our text tells us how: we depend on the instructions that the Holy Spirit provided.
The Gospel writers wrote what they saw and heard as they followed the Lord Jesus, with the possible exception of Mark, who wrote what Peter dictated to him. Given the time frame between the events and the writing, it is amazing that these men could recall so precisely the dialogue and the details. The Holy Spirit did not reveal to these men anything new; He simply refreshed their minds to recall the events they had witnessed themselves. These men must have been amazed at their recall, which was miraculous. That their four accounts blend so perfectly is proof of the Spirit’s guidance. Our confidence in the accuracy of Scripture can be total.
Just as the Gospels are reliable, so too are the epistles, and for the same reason. The Holy Ghost not only guided the apostles to write their letters, but He also preserved for us those epistles that are necessary for our learning and edification. Many other letters were written during the same time period, and many of them were good instruction from good men. For that matter, many of Paul’s letters did not make it into the canon of Scripture. But the Holy Spirit illuminated some of the epistles by guiding the holy men who wrote them, and saw to it that the Word that we receive today is all that we need to teach us all things necessary.
As interesting as the lives are of the great men who wrote our New Testament, the greatest interest should be in the manner in which the Holy Spirit oversaw the provision of Scripture to us. – Jim MacIntosh