In meditation 33 we saw that God’s Holy Spirit is the hallmark of the new Messianic Covenant [the New Testament]. This is why we have already seen in meditations 29-32 the many ways in which God the Holy Spirit works in and through the individual followers of Jesus, as well as in and through the entire Body of Christ [Body of the Messiah].
It is because of this that the apostle Paul calls himself a ‘servant of a new covenant of the Spirit’: “He [God] has made us competent as ministers [servants] of a new covenant ... of the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:6).
However, in the Bible the Good News [the Gospel] is never called "the Good News of the Spirit", but always "the Good News of (Jesus) Christ" !
When Paul talks of his ministry, he points out that he has been empowered for it by God’s Spirit. Yet, the content of his message was always and only about the person and work of Jesus Christ, God’s Messiah:
“I have won them over by the miracles done through me as signs from God -- all by the power of God's Spirit. In this way, I have fully presented the Good News of Christ all the way from Jerusalem clear over into Illyricum [a mountainous region on the east of the Adriatic]” (Romans 15:19).
To the Christians in Corinth, Paul says: “I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”
(1 Corinthians 2:2)
The apostle could even write to the followers of Jesus in Galatia (modern Turkey): “I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”
(Galatians 2:20)
From all we have seen before, it is clear that the special ministry of God the Holy Spirit, within the framework of the new covenant, is: (a) to put Jesus’ life and work in the spotlight; (b) to reproduce Jesus’ life in his followers.
On the evening before his death, Jesus himself speaks about the fact that God’s Spirit will focus on him: “I will send you the Counselor -- the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will tell you all about me” (John 15:26).
The apostle Paul shows that the Holy Spirit wants to reproduce Jesus’ life in us: “As the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him [Jesus] and reflect his glory even more” (2 Corinthians 3:18).
All other manifestations of God’s Spirit within the individual followers of Jesus and within the Messianic community/communities (see meditations 29-32) have only one objective: to highlight Jesus’ life, death and resurrection and to reproduce Jesus’ life in his followers.
In the next meditations, we will not focus so much on what the Bible says concerning the manifold manifestations of God’s Spirit within the Body of Christ, but will discover what the Bible tells us about Christlike maturity and how to get there...
The Bible verse 2 Corinthians 3:6 is quoted from the ‘New International Version’. 1 Corinthians 2:2 is a quote from the New King James Version. All other texts are quotes of the ‘New Living Translation’.
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