Witness of Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit bears witness to Jesus Christ

The Spirit’s testimony

1 John 4:2–3 NASB 2020

By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and now it is already in the world.

See also Ac 5:32; 1 Co 12:3

At Jesus Christ’s baptism

Matthew 3:16–17 NASB 2020

After He was baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and settling on Him, and behold, a voice from the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

John 1:32–34 NASB 2020

And John testified, saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him. And I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’ And I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.”

See also Mt 3:16

After Jesus Christ’s ascension

John 16:13–14 NASB 2020

But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take from Mine and will disclose it to you.

Jn 14:26; Jn 16:13–14; 1 Jn 5:6

The Holy Spirit’s witness enables believers to be effective

He brings assurance to believers

1 John 3:24 NASB 2020

The one who keeps His commandments remains in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He remains in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.

See also 1 Jn 4:13; 1 Jn 5:7–10

He gives assurance of the finality of Jesus Christ’s saving work

Hebrews 10:14–17 NASB 2020

For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying, “This is the covenant which I will make with them After those days, declares the Lord: I will put My laws upon their hearts, And write them on their mind,” He then says, “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will no longer remember.”

He gives believers confidence in their status as children of God

Romans 8:15–16 NASB 2020

For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons and daughters by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,

Galatians 4:6 NASB 2020

Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba! Father!”

Our failure now is that preachers ignore the cross and veil Christ with sapless sermons and superfine language. They don’t just present Him to the people plainly … What we need is to preach Christ and present Him to a perishing world. The world can get on very well without you and me, but the world cannot get on without Christ. Dwight L. Moody