This article was first published at Seventeen82
[Photo: Emmet E. Hakim]
Last month, we
considered from Psalm 78 the duty and necessity of each generation’s
remembering God’s Word both unto itself and unto the next generation. Christ
promised that the Spirit would complete the things that He had to say to His
apostles, and through them to us:
12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you. (Jn 16:12–15, NKJV)
Declaring what is Christ’s
It was the apostles to whom He had already spoken. It was the apostles to whom
the completion of that was promised. And, through the apostles, we have received
in Scripture everything that Jesus intended to say to His church.
Since Psalm 78 has shown us how important it is, both for ourselves and for our children, to remember God’s Word and works, this raises an important question. What is the apostolic method for preserving and transmitting the faith? What is the method that the Spirit taught them? What is the method that is from the Father, and from the Son, and from the Holy Spirit (cf. v14–15 above)?
