It's For Your Own Good: Day 5

It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you…I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when He, the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth.

John 16:7, 13

The most important word in this passage, the word on which everything hangs is “good.” If God asked us to make a list of good things He could do for us, we couldn’t write fast enough.

However, from this passage we learn that God’s idea of what is good for us is much different from ours. His list might look something like this:

1. Jesus’ going away, His suffering, and cruel death will pay for the sins of all mankind and restore fellowship with God.

2. Jesus will destroy the power of death and sin, rise victorious on the third day, and return to the Father in Heaven, validating His claim as the unique Son of God. From there He will intercede for believers until He returns to set up his eternal kingdom.

3. In His place the Invisible Holy Spirit will come to guide believers - in all times and places -  to the truth of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. The Counselor will not teach with words only, but in the power that raised Jesus from the dead, the power that can overcome sin, change hearts and transform the lives of believers who will yield to His truth.

4. All those who have believed in the Son of God and have life in His name will never experience death, but will spend eternity in heaven.

God is good; more importantly, good is God… for all eternity.

Nancy Shirah