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"For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will." (John 5:21)

The Lord Jesus Christ is now the source of life everlasting for all who truly believe in him. He is "the firstborn among many brethren" (Romans 8:29), the One who is to bring "many sons to glory", and is "the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him" (Hebrews 2:10 and 5:9). It is impossible to over-estimate the significance of the present standing and office of the Lord Jesus Christ as Son of God. God has bestowed immortality upon him and given him the power to grant immortality to others.

This is the glorious message of the New Testament. In Christ there is not only the promise of eternal salvation; he is the actual Forerunner, the one who has arrived, and has himself attained to immortality. This is the unshakable assurance for all who come to God by him. Christ is truly the Saviour granted to us by God. This is the pinnacle of the work of the Lord God by His Holy Spirit: prophesied in old time by the holy prophets and brought to perfection in the birth, life, death, resurrection and exaltation of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Apostles Empowered by the Spirit
Therefore, the Gospel is now proclaimed "in his name", and the progress of the message of salvation on earth is now under his care. The apostles were sent to proclaim this good news. And they were directly empowered by the Spirit of God in Christ so that the words they were to speak and the wonders they were to perform would be integral parts of the one message of God made known in Jesus:

"Having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear . . And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles." (Acts 2:33,43)

"By the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth . . . Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." (Acts 4:10,12)

To resist the mission of Christ by the apostles was to resist Christ: any who resisted were resisting the Holy Spirit as did their Old Testament counterparts (Isaiah 63:10 and Acts 7:51). The Jewish authorities who opposed the development of the Gospel were "against the Lord, and against his Christ" (Acts 4:26). Saul of Tarsus, who later became the beloved apostle Paul, bitterly persecuted the early believers but, when challenged by Jesus on the way to Damascus, was asked by Christ:

"Why persecutest thou me?" (Acts 9:4).

The Word and the Spirit
Those, on the other hand, who believed were submissive to the Spirit's message and thereby to the Lord Jesus Christ and his Father. The word of the Spirit convicted their hearts, bringing repentance and the hope of everlasting life. In the New Testament particularly, this message, the glad tidings of "the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ" (Acts 8:12), is plainly related to the Word and the Spirit:

"The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,' that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming. Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ." (Romans 10:8,17, N.I.V)

"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God . . Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." (John 3:3,5)

"Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever . . . And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you." (1 Peter 1:23-25)

"It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I (Jesus) speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." (John 6:63)

"Receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." (James 1:18-22)

"Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh . . . God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." (Galatians 5:16-17; 6:7-8)

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." (Galatians 5:22)

The Message of the Spirit
From these Scriptures it is evident that the way of salvation in Christ is the way of the Spirit. It is God's way. Salvation comes from God. The whole purpose and plan of salvation and its execution are of God. Man was altogether impotent and sterile. There was no goodness in him. God has made compassionate and gracious provision in Christ. God's will was brought into action by His Spirit. None of this is known other than by the Word of God which is the message of the Spirit:

"Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. "(Matthew 13:43)

"He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." (Revelation 2:7)

The message of salvation is the power of God (Romans 1:16) which brings man into contact with the mind of God, the Spirit of God. An entirely new force enters into his life when he willingly receives the Word of God. Meekness in receiving the Word leads to faith. The Word illumines the mind and understanding, and commences a process of change which leads to repentance and conversion.

God's Word written on the heart of man in this way by believing the written message in the Bible is said to be: "written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart." (2 Corinthians 3:3)

This is a marvelous happening. It is truly the work of the Spirit of God engendered by a faithful acceptance of the glad tidings of the Gospel. At the beginning of human history Eve's mind had been polluted by the words of the serpent. They were words which spelt sin and death. The way of God is to teach man anew. The mind has to be redeemed from mere human, fleshly thinking. The thinking of God has to replace it.

"Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." (Romans 12:2)

The Word of the Gospel is designed for this process. It is a seed which will bear spiritual fruit. The man who receives it into his heart will be caught up in the floodtide of God's saving love in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

A part of this on-sweeping work of God is to assure us of the care of God and of Christ for those who believe and seek to obey. This is what the Gospel is all about; it is designed to bring us to God through Christ:

"Come unto God by him (Jesus)." (Hebrews 7:19,25)

"Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you." (James 4:8)

We are assured of God's care and the shelter of Christ during our life of pilgrimage as we wait for the day of the Kingdom of God.

God's Care through Angels
One of the ways in which God cares for His children is by means of the angels:

"Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?" (Hebrews 1:14)

"The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them." (Psalm 34:7)

We can therefore, when we become disciples of Christ, be assured that those who are for us are more effective than anything ranged against us in this life.

Perhaps the greatest blessing afforded by the Gospel in this life is communion with God through the Lord Jesus by means of prayer. This is the lifeline. God hears prayer. Through the mediation of Christ in heaven our petitions and praises are taken to God and they are answered according to what is best for us in the will of God:

"It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" (Romans 8:34-35)

"We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." (1 John 2:1-2, R.V.)

"Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." (Hebrews 7:25)

The unspeakable privilege of prayer is granted to us through the goodness of God by His Spirit. Our faintest whisper, or our unspoken petitions, reach Him through Jesus, when we truly belong; and He inclines His gracious ear to our cry. It is a means of unfailing access and help in our spiritual warfare.

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The Power of Prayer
Do we really obtain help by prayer? But, of course. God responds to our need. Prayer is not a substitute for the strength to be drawn from the Word of God. Prayer works with that Word of faith. Indeed, it is when we know the will and way of God from His Word that we discover the need for prayer in order that we might not enter into temptation. Prayer in its upward life counteracts the downward drag of our sinful natures. We need every source of help and sometimes we need it urgently. The reservoir of the Word of God in the mind, the mind of Christ dwelling in us richly, will always afford counsel and strength, because it is designed for that very purpose. Nothing could illustrate this more clearly than the manner in which Christ dispelled the temptations of the wilderness. Holy Spirit Gifts
Shortly before he ascended to heaven the Lord Jesus Christ made this promise to his apostles: Special Powers
But how was the time-gap between the spoken message of the apostles and the divinely given account in writing to be bridged? The Holy Spirit was the means used by the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition to the apostles, certain other persons were given special powers which were designed to support the believers in the various congregations. These persons were prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers (Ephesians 4:11), and the widespread gifts were those described as follows:

The records of the temptation of Christ are to be found in Matthew 4 and Luke 4 where the three-fold assault on his Son ship was made in the form of three questions, each of which appealed to self-will and would have denied the will of God had they been successful. The Lord Jesus found his replies, and the strength to make them, in his understanding of and reliance on the written Word of his Father in the Old Testament. Each temptation was rebutted with the words: "it is written", followed by the appropriate words of Scripture. "The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (Ephesians 6:17) pierced the temptation at its heart and ensured the victory of Christ.

Even so, we must have the armor of prayer. Prayer was the Lord's refuge and comfort. It was a source of great blessing for him. If we faithfully ask God for help in our battle against sin, it will always be forthcoming:

"Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:16)

"So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and l will not fear what man shall do unto me." (Hebrews 13:6)

The believer who passes into the family of God by faith and baptism becomes a son to be cared for in every way: to be chastised from time to time, to be led in paths of righteousness for His name's sake, and to be blessed with strength from God in the life to be lived as he submits to the yoke of the Lord Jesus Christ. From morn to night, from day to day, a whole life long he hears the word of the Father:

"I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."(Hebrews 13:5)

"Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me."(Acts 1:8)

This promise was fulfilled in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit was poured down from heaven and forthwith the apostles witnessed openly in the city. A huge assembly of Jews from Palestine, Mediterranean lands and the Middle East flocked to hear, "every man in his own language" (Acts 2:6), the wonderful works of God proclaimed as never before. Everyone was amazed.

Peter explained that he and his fellow apostles were proclaiming the message given to them by the power of the Holy Spirit, and that their ability to do so in tongues intelligible to their hearers had also been bestowed by the same Spirit:

"Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he (Christ) hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear" (Acts 2:33)

Peter repeated this same explanation when he later wrote a letter to believers concerning "the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven." (1 Peter 1:1 2)

We are therefore assured that the message of the apostles (called the "apostle's doctrine", Acts 2:42) was precisely and only that which the Father and the Son wished to declare. Furthermore, their message was attested by speaking in a variety of languages, and by many signs and wonders-miracles of healing and of raising the dead in the name of Christ (see Acts 2:43; 3:4-7).

The spoken word and the signs provided a firm foundation for faith. Thousands believed and because the visitors to Jerusalem carried the message away with them, the Gospel spread outwards to distant lands.

Groups of believers in widely separated places needed constant help in order to preserve the faith they had espoused, and to "grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18). It was physically impossible for the apostles to spend long periods in each place, although they clearly traveled ceaselessly in their labors for Christ. There was as yet no New Testament from which the whole of the apostle's message might be read and related to the Old Testament which was already in very wide circulation. The inspired written accounts of the Gospel writers and the special letters to individual congregations and individuals came into existence in the first century, for the most part before AD 70, and these--or copies of them--would quickly be known over a wide area. Moreover these writings were themselves a part of Scripture given by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 3:15,16).

"For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues . . . (1 Corinthians 12:8-10)

By this means members of each congregation or ecclesia were equipped with gifts to help them exercise functions for the instruction, correction, exhortation and public witness of the group. No one had all of the gifts and the gifted members were therefore made dependent on one another for the total work. None of the gifts provided for one member to pass on gifts to other members. Only the apostles were able to do this (see Acts 8:14-18).

We do not know precisely when the bestowal and operation of the gifts ceased to happen, but it was probably some time after the death of the last surviving apostle. That they would so cease is provided for in the words of the Spirit by Paul: "Whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away" (1 Corinthians 13:8). Moreover, the cessation of these gifts is coupled with the survival of three principal virtues: "But now abide th faith, hope, love, these three" (1 Corinthians 13:13, R.V.). Faith and hope will give place to reality and fulfillment at the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

By the end of the first century the New Testament had been completed and became available for all to read as the circulation and collation of the twenty-seven individual books gradually took place. In this way all of the Ecclesiastes would have available to them the full accounts of the life of Christ together with the ministry and letters of the apostles. It is significant that God did not inspire any writings after the end of the first century. By this time, therefore, the gifts may have commenced to fade. From non-Biblical sources we learn that during the second century men arose who merely simulated possession of the gifts, evidence in itself that the true gifts were no longer widespread.