For today's study, I wish to depart the usual routine and speak topically – which is how I started. Instead of following through with the next reference in the book of Luke, allow me to broach the concept of connections.
It is a level of understanding that many of us avoid. People fail to realize this level as they race through the reading of scripture like galloping wild horses. It is common to drink in large drafts of scripture in as singular a gulp as humanly possible.
Here, however, what we need to do, unlike the gulping drunk, is to step back and sip, as a wine taster sips wine, savoring each distinct nuance that completes the whole.
I wish to deal with three names and their connections. Those three names belong to God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost. See them listed here.
The Truth.
Psalm 111:9 (KJV) “He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever: Holy and Reverend is his name.” Also, John 4:24 (KJV) “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”
John 16:13 (NIV) “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth.” Also, Acts 2:4 “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” Also, Luke 4:18 (KJV) “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me . . .” Also, Matthew 28:19 (KJV) “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”
John 14:6 (KJV) “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” Also, John 10:30 (KJV) “I and my Father are one.”
Finally, 1 John 5:6-8 (KJV) “This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.”
Those are the names; these are the connections:
First, both God and the Holy Ghost are a 'spirit' – their first name is even the same, 'Holy'. God is a spirit named Holy and the Holy Spirit is a spirit named Holy.
Second, the Holy Spirit of Truth has his last name in common with the Son of God. Jesus Christ is the Truth and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth.
Third, all three persons of the Trinity are one and the same – this according to 1 John 5:6-8. It is also according to Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” True also according to Zechariah 14:9 “And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.” They are “One.”
What does that Mean? God is a spirit, the Holy Ghost is a spirit, and Jesus (even in the flesh) is a spirit. If Jesus is the Truth, so also is the Holy Ghost and God. God, after all, is the Father of the Truth. Not only is Jesus the 'Word', but so is the Father of the Word and the Spirit of the Word. All three are the one way, but the pivotal component of the Trinity is the spirit that connects a spiritual Father to a flesh and blood person born of the Holy Spirit. That is according to Matthew 1:18. John 3:6 (KJV) confirms with these words, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
The careful consideration of such connections should put a higher spin on the prayer of Jesus found in John 17:20-23 (KJV) “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.”
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