The Gospels are New Covenant and Apply To Us Today — Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to lead the disciples into all truth and to REMIND them of what He taught them to do. Then they did it and we can too — unstoppable!

I just wrote and posted this as a comment on a friend’s Facebook page to demonstrate that Jesus’ teachings really are new covenant and do apply to us. Jesus taught new covenant principles while they were still under the law, which the Holy Spirit would remind the disciples of and help them understand. “You have heard that it was said, but I say…” applies to us!

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Unstoppable! Jesus sent the Holy Spirit in part to remind His disciples of what He said to do. They did it and we can too!

I’d like to share a concept regarding what Jesus said about being led by the Holy Spirit that I have never mentioned online, including on my ONEcanhappen blog. And this directly relates to this post on the reliability of the Bible, and whether we should do what the Bible says.

What Jesus says in John 14 also proves that He was speaking timeless, new covenant truths in the gospels, including the sermon on the mount, before the new covenant actually began: when Jesus died and the veil was rent, and the believers received the Holy Spirit during Pentecost.

I’ll capitalize some key points from this John 14 text:

16 I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever,— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world can’t receive; for it doesn’t see him, neither knows him. You know him, for HE LIVES WITH YOU, AND WILL BE IN YOU.

18 I WILL NOT LEAVE YOU ORPHANS. I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more; but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 One who has my commandments, and keeps them, that person is one who loves me. ONE WHO LOVES ME WILL BE LOVED BY MY FATHER, AND I WILL LOVE HIM, AND WILL REVEAL MYSELF TO HIM” [similar to what Jesus says in the next chapter, verse 11: “I have spoken these things to you, THAT MY JOY MAY REMAIN IN YOU, AND THAT YOUR JOY MAY BE MADE FULL”]. 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, what has happened that you are about to reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered him, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him. 24 He who doesn’t love me doesn’t keep my words. The word which you hear isn’t mine, but the Father’s who sent me.

25 I have said these things to you, while still living with you. 26 But THE COUNSELOR, THE HOLY SPIRIT, whom the Father will send in my name, HE WILL TEACH YOU ALL THINGS, AND WILL *REMIND YOU OF ALL THAT I SAID* TO YOU.

Lots of cool stuff in here, including being loved by our Father if we keep His commandments, which are the greatest two.

My main point here, though, is: “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and will REMIND YOU OF ALL I SAID to you.”

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[Added 3/28/23]

The disciples couldn’t understand Jesus’ teachings while on earth, because they didn’t have the Holy Spirit in them yet to help them understand. In the John 14 text above, Jesus said the Holy Spirit will be our “counselor” who “will teach you (us) all things,” which He further explains in John 16 that it’s better for the disciples that Jesus would go away, because the Holy Spirit will guide them (and us) into all truth.

⁶ But because I have told you these things, sorrow has filled your heart. ⁷ Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I don’t go away, the Counselor won’t come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. ⁸ When he has come, he will convict the world about sin, about righteousness, and about judgment….

¹² “I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t bear them now. ¹³ However when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak from himself; but whatever he hears, he will speak. He will declare to you things that are coming.

John then experientially says  in 1 John 2:

²⁷ As for you, the anointing which you received from him remains in you, and you don’t need for anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is no lie, and even as it taught you, you will remain in him.

In Matthew 18, the great commission, after the crucifixion, Jesus told the disciples to teach people in all nations in the NEW COVENANT “all things that I commanded you” in the OLD COVENANT, because He Jesus taught new covenant principles that they would remember and more thoroughly understand in the new covenant, after they had the Holy Spirit in them to help them understand:

¹⁶ But the eleven disciples went into Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had sent them. ¹⁷ When they saw him, they bowed down to him; but some doubted. ¹⁸ Jesus came to them and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹ Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

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So Jesus was teaching new covenant principles to the children of Israel and the disciples before they had the Holy Spirit in them to even be able to understand the concepts, which he said elsewhere too. But when the Holy Spirit would come, part of His leading them into all truth was to help them remember what Jesus taught while on Earth.

And much of this is what God made sure was carefully preserved, so we could read what was said by Jesus too.

And the Counselor, the Holy Spirit wants to help us understand what Jesus said too, so we can live it out too.

And then the rest of the New Testament, after the gospels, except for perhaps Revelation, is the disciples being led by the Holy Spirit to do the things Jesus taught them to do and more. Because Jesus didn’t teach them everything while on Earth. The Holy Spirit reminded them of what Jesus taught and then gave them further specific revelation of what to do and how to live, much of what also applies to us today.

Pretty cool, huh?

So this is a flat out endorsement of the Gospels being what Jesus wants us to do to, as the Holy Spirit will help us understand them to do even greater works than what Jesus did, what Jesus said followers of Him will do.

Will we be “Oh ye of little faith,” or we will gladly get into our yokes and do what Jesus did — together?!!!

ONE can happen — and we’ll be free — unstoppable!!!!!!!

We can do it together, by His grace : )

Related:

Does the Bible Claim to Be God’s Inerrant Word? — Jesus’ Statements

Does the Bible Claim to Be God’s Inerrant Word? — Peter considered Paul’s writings Scripture; Paul considered his own writings to be the Word of God

Jesus’ statements in ‘Revelation’ support the apostles’ NT church life teaching and also present a balance to the trendy, lovey-dovey view of God. Jesus also added a strict warning to not be altered :: The Bible can be trusted!

The Early Church Fathers and Biblical Authority 100-400 A.D.:“All writers accepted the inspiration and authority of Holy Scripture as self-evident. … There was no temptation to restrict its range to favored passages of the Bible.”

Who-Goes-To-Heaven Scriptures — Narrow is the Way | Who are the Children of God? — “There is therefore now *no condemnation* to those who are IN CHRIST Jesus, who don’t WALK according to the flesh, but ACCORDING TO THE SPIRIT.”