Man after man might tell me of all that Christ did for the world, but without the Holy Ghost it wouldn’t mean a thing to me personally. The Holy Ghost makes me want to be free of everything that is hindering me from having fullness of life in the Lord. The Holy Ghost enables me to take God’s side against everything in me that holds me back from my true destiny in Christ. The Holy Ghost gave me the gift of faith, so that I could really commit myself to Jesus Christ as my Savior and my Lord. The Holy Ghost has been steadily working in my life, striving to bring out the image of Christ’s love and truth in me. The Holy Ghost is my Christian conscience, giving me a sense of responsibility for the total welfare of other people.
He imparts to me a love that reaches out toward the unloved and unlovely, creating new Christian fellowship. He makes prayer seem real and meaningful to me. He causes new light to flash out from the life and words of Jesus, leading me ever deeper into the truth of Christ, putting me up to doing the kinds of things that Jesus did. As the Holy Ghost prompted the first Christians to write out what they had to say about Christ in the New Testament, so he impels me today to write out what Jesus Christ means to me. I believe that the Holy Ghost moved in the men who worked out the Apostles’ Creed, and that it is he who makes their words live for me today.
By the Holy Ghost the church has become the earthly future of Jesus Christ until the end of the age. The Holy Ghost draws men together to form this new body of Christ. He develops their several abilities for the benefit of all, and convinces them that they must use what they have in continuing the Lord’s work among men. Christ is depending on us to bring what he began to its successful conclusion. He has no other plans. If present-day churches refuse to move satisfactorily toward the unity and well-being of mankind, then he will have to leave us to one side and, by his Spirit, raise up another and more obedient people. But no matter what becomes of us, the Lord will see that his dream comes true. I believe in the Holy Ghost! It is because I believe in the Holy Ghost that I believe in the church. His specific aim is to develop the church to its most glorious fullness. He seeks to bring mankind into a Godlike unity of holy love, when men will bear the image of God, not only one by one, but all together. One solitary human being is not enough to reflect the whole image of God, for God is three as well as one. It takes at least two or three gathered together, at one with each other in a special way. God has never been content to develop individual men, however excellent. Throughout history he has always been working toward his kind of society. He set up his universe to produce nothing less than a great family and its eternal home—hence the church.
Books by Dr. John A. Ross
