Suppose we take a blind man into a large gallery, filled with fine paintings and beautiful statuary. It is a clear day. The sun is shining through the windows, and there is plenty of light there. But that is no help to our blind friend. We point to one after another of the beautiful paintings before us, and describe them to him. But still he cannot see one of them. And then, suppose that we had the power to open the blind man’s eyes, so that he could see them all for himself; what a wonderful change that would make to him! And this is what the Holy Spirit does for us. The Bible is like a great gallery. It is full of beautiful pictures, such as none but God can make. But our eyes are blinded, and we cannot see them. The Spirit’s work is to open these blind eyes so that we may see.
And the great end of all the Spirit’s teaching is to help us to see Jesus, as our Saviour, and the one in whom we must trust for everything necessary to our salvation. Here is an illustration of what I mean. We may call it:
“Jesus Only.” A lady had been trying for some time to be a Christian, but she could find no comfort. The minister of the church which she attended called to see her. Finding that though she went regularly to church, and read her Bible at home, and prayed every day, she yet found no peace; he said to her, “My friend, do you expect to be saved because you are doing these things?”
“Certainly I do,” was the answer.
“Well this is your mistake. You are putting these in the place of Jesus. There is no peace, or comfort, or salvation anywhere but in Jesus only. Now let me give you one verse to think about, and act upon. Jesus said—‘Come unto me—and I will give you rest.’ Have you gone to Jesus only for rest and peace and salvation?”
She looked amazed. She thought awhile of what had been said to her, and then burst into tears. New light shone in upon her. It was like opening the eyes that had been blind. She saw that it was Jesus, and Jesus only, that she needed. She came to him; that is she trusted or believed in him, and here she found rest and peace and salvation.
When Jesus was speaking to his disciples about the coming of the Holy Spirit, he said—“he shall testify to me.” This was what the Spirit did in the case just mentioned. And this is what he is doing all the time. The end of all his teaching is to show us that “Jesus only” can give rest and peace and salvation to poor lost sinners.
Another part of the Spirit’s work is to—sanctify—or make holy—all the people of Christ.
He is called—the Holy Spirit—not only because he is holy himself, but because his work is to make his people holy. And this is what we all need to make us fit for heaven. The great law of that blessed world, the law that is written, as it were, over the gate of heaven, is this—“without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” And Jesus pointed out the way in which this holiness or sanctification is to be secured when he was praying for his disciples, and said, “Sanctify them through thy truth.” The truth here spoken of, means “the truth as it is in Jesus”; or the things that the Bible tells us about him. This truth is the instrument, or means, which the Spirit employs in making us holy. The best definition of holiness is to say that it means being made like Jesus. He is the example, or model, we have set before us, which we must try to imitate. We must ask ourselves what would Jesus think, or feel, or say, or do, if he were in our position? and then we must try to think, and feel, and speak, and act as much like him as possible. And so you see how important it is for us to know “the truth,” or what the Bible teaches us about him, because it is only in this way that we can ever hope to become like him, or to be made holy.
There was a famous artist in Italy many years ago, whose name was Michael Angelo. He was a great painter and a great sculptor. And when he was occupied on any work he always took the greatest pains to finish it as finely as possible. He was once engaged in making the statue of an angel out of a block of white marble. At last it was nearly done; but still, he lingered over it, trying to improve it in every possible way. He was a firm believer in the old proverb, that “whatever is worth doing, is worth doing well.” A person who had been in his studio and had seen him at work upon this statue came back, several days after, and found him busy with it still. “Why,” said he, “I don’t see that you have done anything since I was here before.”