Understanding the Good News

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12We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.

The Spirit of God is our Counselor and Teacher who is with us always. The Spirit empowers us and equips us to love others, leads us into truth and testifies of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The work of the Spirit that Paul speaks about here is essential to our fellowship with God. We need the Spirit to understand what God has freely given us. In Christ, He has given us His very Self. And in giving of Himself, He has given us all things--freely. In his death, we are given complete forgiveness; in his death he has made us acceptable; in his death we are made righteous with the same righteousness of Christ. In his resurrection, we are made alive to God; in his resurrection, we have a spiritual life that is perfect, holy, and blameless. In his resurrection and ascension, we are joined to Christ inseparately--we have been joined to him....and all of this is a gift from God. It is free. Paul goes on to say that 14The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. The man that does not have the Spirit of God naturally thinks that you have to work for God's love and favor, that you are on your own, and it is foolishness to think otherwise. Believers have the mind of Christ, the indwelling Spirit, and God's unmerited favor. However, we can often fall into the same natural thinking of the man without the Spirit thinking that somehow we are on our own and God is there and we are here, and if we do enough, make enough noise and say the right things, God just might give us something. Nothing could be further from the truth. He lives in us, we live in Him and He has freely given us all things. We are not separated, and we will never be separated from God. He has freely given us Himself.

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