Turning On The Floodlight

He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me.   John 16:14

Another work of the Holy Spirit is to shine a floodlight on Jesus Christ. He illuminates the truth that was once obscure to us; he opens our understanding so that we can see the glory of Jesus. Like a floodlight, the Holy Spirit does not draw attention to himself; he directs our focus to Jesus Christ.

Have you ever been to our nation’s capital, Washington, DC? If you were to go there, one of the things you would definitely want to see is the White House. Imagine going there at night, when the White House is floodlit. The building looks magnificent, but if it weren’t for the floodlights, its beauty would be hidden in the darkness. I’m sure that millions of people have driven past the White House at night, but they don’t comment on the floodlights; they talk about the building!

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are equally God. There is no order or rank or precedence among them. But for the purposes of our salvation, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit have different roles. The Father chose to be the giver, the Son chose to be the gift, and the Spirit chose to deliver the gift. The Son placed himself in the service of the Father, and the Spirit placed himself in the service of the Son.

The Holy Spirit disturbs us so that we see our sin and grasp our need of the Savior, and as he disturbs, he also illuminates so we can see that Jesus is precisely the Savior we need. Then he brings the two together.

The Holy Spirit is heaven’s matchmaker. He brings us to Christ and forms a bond between the believer and Christ as faith and repentance are formed in our hearts so that everything Jesus accomplished on the cross becomes ours. The promises that are signed by God the Father and sealed by the death and resurrection of God the Son are delivered and made effective in our lives by God the Holy Spirit.

For further reading, see Ephesians 5