Incomplete Christianity

Acts 19:2  

"He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost 

since ye believed? And they said unto him, We 

have not so much as heard whether 

there be any Holy Ghost." 

   In Ephesus Paul met some men who were incomplete Christians. They had received the baptism of John but they did not even know of the Holy Spirit in the Christian sense of the term. What was the difference between the baptism of John and baptism in the name of Jesus? The accounts of the preaching of John Matt. 3:7-12; Luke 3:3-11 reveal one radical difference between it and the preaching of Jesus. The preaching of John was a threat; the preaching of Jesus was good news, John's preaching was a stage on the way. He himself knew that he only pointed to one still to come, (Luke 3:16). 
   John's preaching was a necessary stage because there are two stages in the religious life. First, there is the stage in which we awaken to our own inadequacy and our deserving of condemnation at the hand of God. That stage is closely allied to an endeavor to do better that inevitably fails because we try in our own strength. Second, there is the stage when we come to see that through the grace of Jesus Christ our condemnation may be taken away. Closely allied with that stage is the time when we find that all our efforts to do better are strengthened by the work of the Holy Spirit, through whom we can do what we could never do ourselves.
   These incomplete Christians knew the condemnation and the moral duty of being better; but the grace of Christ and the help of the Holy Spirit they did not know. Their religion was inevitably a thing of struggle and had not reached the stage of being a thing of peace. 
   My Friends, This incident shows us one great truth; that without the Holy Spirit there can be no such thing as complete Christianity. Even when we see the error of our ways and repent and determine to change them we can never make the change without the help which the Spirit alone can give. 
Amen!

Reading: Acts: 19:1-7
Ref: HG SB, BDSB

May God Bless You

And Your Family

Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.

The Cross Life Ministry