Testimony of the Holy Spirit

Where do we stand? How do we know we are children of God? How do I know what the future will bring for me? If our soul is in fear because of these questions we´re still missing clarity, peace and confidence. Fear is a bad advisor and who wonders every day wether he should look upwards with trembling knees or in cheerful expectation should work on the matter of what the gospel has effectuated or what Jesus Christ means to him personally. On these things depends everything – to recognize HIM! It is written in 1 John 4:18: „There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear: because fear has torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love“. So if we don`t anticipate punishment because we believe in justification in front of God by the blood of Jesus, we are free and can see God as our father and not as our judje. So we can happily look forward to the parousia of Jesus Christ and put up with life here. Jesus replied to the question when he asked Peter who he thought he was, that such a perception can´t come from the person itself but is revealed by the heavenly Father. As well that we recognize with the help of the Holy Spirit that Jesus is the son of God who became flesh like us from within ourselves, we can secure we are chosen and accept this in believe. This is written in Matthew 16: 15-17. „He says unto them, but whom say you that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed are you, Simon Bar–jona: for flesh and blood has not revealed it unto you, but my Father which is in heaven.“ So this was not the intelligence of Peter or the result of logical enquiries that he could give such a clear definition of Jesus Christ. Looking at him he was no more than an ordinary man in his midlife. It has been revealed to him, who was stood in front of him.

Even if Peter didn`t know at the time, what was still going to happen, it was a statement of his given belief spoken from his mouth. The first thoughts coming to my mind here are the death and the ressurection of Jesus at Golgatha, as well as the denial of Peter three times to know Jesus at all.This did not alter the fact, that he had recognized Jesus as the Messiah of Isreal and the son of God. This was burnt into his soul even deeper after these happenings that were nessecary. With time coming, Peter understood that we don´t become children of God by human birth (some Isrealites still believe this nowadays) but we are reborn by the Spirit. Referring to that, Peter has written in Romans 9:8: “That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. So it is God`s decision and his sovereijn will (the promise) whom he reveals this eternal truth of human incarnation of God in Jesus Christ. In Romans 10: 9-11 is written: „That if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believe unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture says, whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed.“
To recognize Jesus means to be a child of God. Many people speak out the name of God but if it is more than a lip service or a religous phrase will have to show in how you practise your believe (James 2:26). In 1 John 3:1 it says that recognizing Jesus is synonymous to recognizing the love of God: „Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God: therefore the world knows us not, because it knew him not.“

Jörg Bauer