No one comes to the Father except
through Me.” (John 14:6, NKJV)
When Jesus declared to His disciples that He was “the way, the truth, and the life,” He realized they could not grasp all that this meant. So, He went on to promise in verses 16 and 17 that He would pray the Father and He would give them another Comforter (Helper), called “The Spirit of Truth.” Please consider that the term for “comforter” in Greek is “parakletos,” meaning an advocate or one who is assigned to explain on another’s behalf. So Jesus is here telling His disciples—and us—that He is sending the Paraclete (the Holy Spirit) to become His and the Heavenly Father’s agent here on earth to convict us of our sins and to help us repent and trust Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord.
The Holy Spirit is “the Spirit of Truth,” who helps unbelievers hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ and feel convicted of sin to the extent that they feel the need to repent and believe in Jesus. We read in I Corinthians 2, verse 12, (NKJV): “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.”
Unfortunately, many will miss Heaven and be lost throughout eternity because they grieved the Holy Spirit while He was calling them to repentance for sin and trying to help them place their faith in Jesus for saving grace! As a 16-year-old boy, I remember the night, when upon hearing the Gospel, I felt my need to repent for my sins. For several minutes, I almost ignored His urging. But how thankful I am that I finally felt the urge to believe in Jesus. I got out of my seat, walked down that aisle, and knelt at the altar where I confessed my sins and invited the Spirit of Jesus to come into and transform my heart, and change my life. And, I thank God that many others have also allowed the Holy Spirit to convict them of their sins and help them place their faith in Jesus.
Since the Holy Spirit is the “Spirit of Truth,” we will not be prepared to repent of sin and experience the faith essential to receiving Jesus Christ as our Savior without Him as our Helper. In I Corinthians chapter 2, verses 10-13, we learn that “God has revealed them (how to receive Christ as our salvation) to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.…. These things we also speak, not the words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” We learn here that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a spiritual subject that requires “The Spirit of Truth” to convict us of sin, condition us in faith, and impart to our believing hearts our forgiveness of sin and our resurrection from our grave of sin!
But we are free moral agents, and we must choose to either believe or reject what the Spirit of Truth is revealing—our sins and our need to believe and choose Christ as Savior. How desperately we all need to heed the Spirit of Truth’s call to believe and to receive this love, this forgiveness of sin, this peace with God, and this empowerment for living the Christian life!
Jesus promised His disciples that after He had died to pay the debt of sin for anyone who would believe and after He had been resurrected and had returned to the Father in Heaven, He would send the Holy Spirit. “And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of the judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me: of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more: of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” (John 16:8-11, NKJV)
What every sinner and saint must realize and remember is that it is out of love that God is “. . . not willing that any should perish (live their life and die and go to Hell), but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9, NKJV) Jesus warned that there would be more who would not give heed to the Spirit of Truth’s call to repentance and faith than those who would believe. Can anyone grasp the grief, disappoint, and hurt in the hearts of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit when the “Spirit of Truth” is ignored, quenched, and rejected. The triune Godhead suffered the cost of sending Jesus to earth to partake of the human nature and suffer death on an old rugged cross—suffering the pain while despising the shame—as He sought to warn of what it would mean to die and face the wrath of a Holy God on Judgment Day. We may not enjoy doing it, but everyone should read Revelation 20:15, NKJV: “And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.” Those whose names are not found in the Book of Life are those who violated the loving appeals of the Spirit of Truth by rejecting and ignoring the call to repentance and faith in Jesus.
Thank God, as of now—at least at the time of writing this warning—it is not too late! I am praying that the Holy Spirit of Truth is calling someone who reads this to wisely delay no longer your forgiveness of sin, your transformed heart, your name recorded in Heaven’s Book of Life, and your adoption into God’s redeemed family! Out of His love for you Jesus died to pay your debt of sin, and now His Holy Spirit is trying to get you to change your mind and decide to trust Jesus so that your paid debt is valid, claimed, and experienced.
And please don’t forget this: When we respond by believing the Gospel and confessing our sins, we are resurrected from our grave of sin. The Holy Spirit comes to live within us and helps us get acquainted with Jesus. We can pray to Jesus, for He is in Heaven sitting at the Throne of Grace as our Great High Priest, ready to hear our needs, requests, and thanksgiving.
Remember we are saved by grace through faith! And take it seriously! We are lost by unbelief and ingratitude for God’s great love in sending His Son to die so that we might be forgiven for our sins. Dear unbeliever, please do not delay praying the sinner’s prayer so that you are not lost but are ready for death or for Christ’s Second Coming.
An Example of the Sinner’s Prayer
Oh God, as a sinner, I confess my sins and ask for your forgiveness. Lord Jesus, I thank You for dying on the cross to pay for my sins. I put my faith in You for my salvation. I am grateful, and I ask for the help of the Holy Spirit to grow in grace and become a strong believer. Help me to live a life in this world that is pleasing to you and prepares me to be ready for death or the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Amen!
What every sinner and saint must realize and remember is that it is out of love that God is “. . . not willing that any should perish (live their life and die and go to Hell), but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9, NKJV) Jesus warned that there would be more who would not give heed to the Spirit of Truth’s call to repentance and faith than those who would believe. Can anyone grasp the grief, disappoint, and hurt in the hearts of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit when the “Spirit of Truth” is ignored, quenched, and rejected. The triune Godhead suffered the cost of sending Jesus to earth to partake of the human nature and suffer death on an old rugged cross—suffering the pain while despising the shame—as He sought to warn of what it would mean to die and face the wrath of a Holy God on Judgment Day. We may not enjoy doing it, but everyone should read Revelation 20:15, NKJV: “And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.” Those whose names are not found in the Book of Life are those who violated the loving appeals of the Spirit of Truth by rejecting and ignoring the call to repentance and faith in Jesus.
Thank God, as of now—at least at the time of writing this warning—it is not too late! I am praying that the Holy Spirit of Truth is calling someone who reads this to wisely delay no longer your forgiveness of sin, your transformed heart, your name recorded in Heaven’s Book of Life, and your adoption into God’s redeemed family! Out of His love for you Jesus died to pay your debt of sin, and now His Holy Spirit is trying to get you to change your mind and decide to trust Jesus so that your paid debt is valid, claimed, and experienced.
And please don’t forget this: When we respond by believing the Gospel and confessing our sins, we are resurrected from our grave of sin. The Holy Spirit comes to live within us and helps us get acquainted with Jesus. We can pray to Jesus, for He is in Heaven sitting at the Throne of Grace as our Great High Priest, ready to hear our needs, requests, and thanksgiving.
Remember we are saved by grace through faith! And take it seriously! We are lost by unbelief and ingratitude for God’s great love in sending His Son to die so that we might be forgiven for our sins. Dear unbeliever, please do not delay praying the sinner’s prayer so that you are not lost but are ready for death or for Christ’s Second Coming.
An Example of the Sinner’s Prayer
Oh God, as a sinner, I confess my sins and ask for your forgiveness. Lord Jesus, I thank You for dying on the cross to pay for my sins. I put my faith in You for my salvation. I am grateful, and I ask for the help of the Holy Spirit to grow in grace and become a strong believer. Help me to live a life in this world that is pleasing to you and prepares me to be ready for death or the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Amen!
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