Course Content
Correctly understanding the scriptural truth that the Holy Spirit is God's power that can transform our lives helps us better understand His purpose and will for us.
It is also a key to understanding the whole purpose and intent of the New Covenant. God did not establish the New Covenant to abolish His laws, which are holy, just and good (Romans 7:12). He established it to remedy the flaw that was in the people (Hebrews 8:8)—the weakness, disobedience and lack of faith inherent in all of us that leads us to sin (Romans 3:10-18). Through His Spirit, God empowers us to develop holy, righteous character and resist temptation and the pulls to sin.
With God's Spirit at work within us, God's wonderful promise of the New Covenant in Jeremiah 31:33-34 can be fulfilled: "I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."
Receiving the Holy Spirit gives a Christian the spiritual power needed to live a godly life. It helps provide the motivation and strength that make it possible for us to be able to obey God's commandments, make right choices, overcome and persevere (Romans 5:5; Romans 8:26; Romans 12:2; Philippians 2:5; 2 Peter 1:3-4).
How great is our loving God and Father who has made all things possible through His Son Jesus Christ! (Matthew 19:26). His work within us is accomplished through the greatest gift that could ever be made available for human beings: the power, love and mind of Christ through the Spirit of God at work in our lives.
