16. The Experience of the New Life

Messiah came that His followers might have life, and have it more abundantly day by day. The New Covenant promises a wonderful experience of new life through the Spirit, we can know the living God, not merely by mental reasoning, but through spiritual communion. On the other hand, some prefer to limit the inner aspects of the glorious experience of new life, mental reasoning without feeling is the order of the day, acceptance of Scriptural facts is vigorously taught as the only assurance of a relationship with God. One should not base a relationship with God on inner “feelings,” they are too fickle, subtle or vague to trust or understand correctly. But while there is a grave error of exclusively relying on inner feelings for one’s knowledge of God, this does not invalidate true inner experiences with Him, for how could Paul ever write to disciples who were not in possession of a “New Testament” that their relationship with God was based on a memorable experience of receiving the Spirit whereby they cried out, “Abba! Papa!”? At this point let us consider Yeshua’s rebuke of skeptical Sadducees,

“You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.” Matthew 22:29.

Here two aspects of knowing God’s truth are taught, the Scriptures and an experiential knowledge of God. We might remember that the Lord Himself certainly knew the Scriptures, Luke 4:17, yet He was not prepared for His service until He had been anointed with the Holy Spirit, Luke 4:14, 18-19,⁴ supernaturally empowered by the Spirit to be able to announce the Good News. Then and only then was the sinless Son of God prepared for service. Messiah knew both the Scriptures and the power of God, through His Spirit. His rebuke of Sadducees reveals our need to know both as well. If the heavenly Son of God was not fit for His service until He was anointed with the Spirit, can anyone deny that modern disciples need a similar anointing before attempting any work prepared for them, Ephesians 2:10, even teaching about Him, Ephesians 4:11? All disciples require such an anointing. This was not a subtle or vague hunch, it was a powerful turning point in Messiah’s life. Now He exercised spiritual power. It was also a one time event, we do not read of repetitious “anointings.” The Spirit never left Messiah and the New Covenant promise to His disciples is identical. At the same time, disciples can be filled and filled again in their walk with God, even as Paul commanded the Ephesians.

In 1 John readers were reminded that Gnostics were teaching high-sounding spiritual things about the human Yeshua and a different super-human Messiah, but neither were true. How would disciples know their teachings were false? First, John exhorted them to let the words they had heard abide in them, 1 John 2:24. On doing so they would abide in the Father and the Son. This corresponds to “knowing the Scriptures” in Messiah’s rebuke of Sadducees. But John also reminded them that they had received an anointing from the Holy One, Messiah, and that this anointing would teach them concerning all things, 1 John 2:20. The disciples were not absolutely dependent on a human teacher to continuously tell them the truth about the nature of God, the anointing would teach them, 1 John 2:27. And who is this “teaching anointing?” It is none else than the Holy Spirit Himself, the same anointing Messiah received. Moreover, John did not say they would be continually re-anointed, a common idea among many charismatic folk, he said they had received an anointing which abides with them and would teach them. This corresponds to “knowing the power of God” in Messiah’s rebuke of Sadducees. Disciples in Corinth were told that they too had been anointed by God, sealed with the earnest of the Holy Spirit, 2 Corinthians 1:21-22. It is possible to be sealed only one time with the Spirit. Thus in like manner they are once for all anointed by God.

This anointing was not a program to systematically learn Scripture, no, this anointing was an out-pouring of Holy Ointment who would give an inner witness, an inner testimony, a discernment of what was of God and what was not of God. It is impossible to come to know the inner Teacher, the Holy Spirit, by logical deduction, for the Spirit, though logical and reasonable, is beyond human reason. The following is the essence of knowing where you stand with God,

“And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we might know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, in His Son, Yeshua the Messiah. This is the true God and eternal life.” 1 John 5:20.

 Throughout 1 John there is a balance of inward spiritual knowledge by the Holy Spirit, and outward, objective circumstantial experience equivalent to knowledge of the Scripture, together letting us know we are children of God.

In contrast, today there are cults who proclaim the words, “Jesus is the Son of God.” Does this mean God abides in them? 1 John 4:15. No. Because the Spirit gives us inner discernment we look beyond a naked proclamation to find out if it means what it sounds like on the surface. So John also wrote that all who believe Yeshua is Messiah have been begotten of God, 1 John 5:2, yet Islam says Yeshua is Messiah and certain cults say Yeshua is the Messiah but by no stretch of the imagination are they born of God. Various Scriptural “tests” to know if a person has been born of God cannot be divorced from the other “tests” John mentioned in this letter, thus we read in 1 John 4:13,

“By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.”

Here disciples are to know that they abide in Messiah because of the Holy Spirit, not a doctrine. Plainly John is not saying, “I am teaching you that you ‘have’ the Spirit and since you ‘have’ the Spirit you abide in Him,” rather, he says “if we know we have received His Spirit then we know we abide in Him.” You cannot put the cart before the horse by saying “every Christian ‘has’ the Holy Spirit.” If a person has received the Holy Spirit then he is truly a “Christian,” an anointed follower of Messiah, the Anointed One.

It is heartbreaking that many in Christendom lack this reality of the Spirit, to the great grief of God the Father, Son and Spirit. 1 John 4:13 must be included in anyone’s determination of who is born of God. Faith in Yeshua as Messiah, the Son of God, is one crucial part of the determination, but it does not eliminate the knowledge of having received the anointing of the Spirit from Messiah as well. Disciples must rely on both a vital relationship with Holy Spirit and knowledge of Scripture to grow in grace and to walk in discernment. The New Covenant is of quickening Spirit, not of dead letter, 2 Corinthians 3:6, and we cannot bypass the glorious, intimate relationship God wants to have with His children. At the same time we must never devaluate the importance of Scripture for a stable, growing walk with the Lord. The question of new life in Messiah is not either “written facts” nor “inner feeling,” but a true combination of both. Let us be transformed from glory to glory by the Holy Spirit, who is the Lord Himself, 2 Corinthians 3:17-18, the author of Scripture, 2 Peter 1:21.

Endnote

Consider also that though Messiah was filled with the Spirit, Luke 3:22, 4:1, He was never said to have been baptized with the Spirit. He was anointed, just as His disciples ought to be, but we do not read that He was ever “baptized with the Spirit.” For Israel being baptized meant being raised to a new state of ritual purity, so we realize Messiah was never in need of being “baptized” with the Spirit since He was sinless. On the other hand, the sinless Messiah still needed the empowering of the Holy Spirit.

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