"I will not leave you bereft; I am coming back to you. In a little while the world will see me no longer, but you will see me; because I live, you too will live; then you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me and I in you." John 14:18-20, N.E.B.

Today people want to get involved. They no longer wish to sit as spectators, particularly in religion and in relation to God. This is a day of encounter with the supernatural. Millions claim to experience the supernatural. Flushed with emotion and excitement, people seek involvement with the spirit world.

Naturally, people would prefer to meet God personally and directly rather than receive letters such as Paul's Epistles to the churches. But the visible Christ no longer lives among us. How do we experience oneness with Him? Christ affirmed that the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Godhead, was to be this living connection between Himself now in heaven and the Christian on earth. He becomes a living reality and power for the present. The Holy Spirit makes Christ as real to us as when He lived on earth. No Christian experience is possible without Him.

Regeneration and sanctification are the work of the Holy Spirit. He alone lives Christ's life within us, produces the fruit of the Spirit. The Word of God without the Holy Spirit is just information in the area of religion. God promises us far more than that.

"It was through one man that sin entered the world, and through sin death, and thus death pervaded the whole human race" (Rom. 5:12, N.E.B.). This is a statement about the mortality of all men. We all die because of sin. Man is not immortal. That is part of our creed. You can discuss the subject, write an essay on the subject, without getting involved. But one day the doctor tells you that you have a terminal cancer. This is different. You are no longer discussing man's mortality. You are involved in death itself. You cannot dismiss this with a shrug.

But this is true about the whole of the Word of God. Salvation, regeneration, obedience, sanctification, the writing of God's law on our hearts, must equally involve our whole lives. This is what the Holy Spirit came to do—to make all truth a dynamic power, and Christ personally real.