“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” (John 14:26)

A further, similar promise is contained in John 16:13-15. Notice that in these words Christ made provision both for past and for future; that is, both for the accurate recording of those things which the disciples had already seen and heard and also for the accurate imparting of the new truths which the Holy Spirit would thereafter reveal to them. The past is provided for in the phrase “He will... bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” (John 14:26). The future is provided for in the phrase “He will teach you all things” (v. 26) and again, in John 16:13, “He will guide you into all truth.”

We see, therefore, that the accuracy and authority of the New Testament, like that of the Old Testament, depend not upon human observation, memory or understanding, but upon the teaching, guidance and control of the Holy Spirit. For this reason, the apostle Paul says, “All scripture [Old Testament and New Testament alike] is given by inspiration of God” (2 Tim. 3:16).

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The effect of God’s Word upon the mind, no less than its effect upon the body, has been made real for me in personal experience. I was privileged to receive the highest form of education that Britain had to offer in my generation. This climaxed with seven years at Cambridge University, studying philosophy, both ancient and modern. Always I was seeking something that would give real meaning and purpose to life. Academically I was successful, but inwardly I was still frustrated and unfulfilled.

Finally, as a last resort, I started to study the Bible simply as a work of philosophy. I studied it sceptically, as one who had rejected all forms of religion. Yet before many months, and before I had even reached the New Testament, the entrance of God’s Word had imparted to me the light of salvation, the assurance of sins forgiven, the consciousness of inward peace and eternal life. I had found what I had been seeking: the real meaning and purpose of life.

I want to close this section about Victory through the Word of God with Hebrews 4:12.

“For the word of God is living and powerful [or energetic], and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

This confirms and sums up the conclusions we have reached concerning God’s Word. There is no area of the human personality which God’s Word does not penetrate. It reaches right down into the spirit and soul, the heart and the mind, and even into the innermost core of our physical body, the joints and the marrow.

In perfect accord with this, we have seen in this and in the previous days that God’s Word, implanted as a seed in the heart, brings forth eternal life. Thereafter it provides spiritual nourishment for the new life thus brought forth. Received into our bodies it produces perfect health, and received into our minds it produces mental illumination and understanding.

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There is significance in the two different phrases which Luke uses in this account of Satan’s temptation of Christ, which we looked at yesterday, and its consequences. In Luke 4:1 he says:

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