through himself, when He himself does not prepare the heart as a place
to dwell in. He is, and remains a mere idea that can impart no strength
in the struggle against sin which is a real power, and no comfort in
affliction. Now, such a condition was very frequent under the Old
Testament dispensation. The mass of the people possessed only a
knowledge of God, which was chiefly, although not exclusively, obtained
through human instrumentality. By the New Covenant, richer gifts of the
Spirit were to be bestowed, and along with them, the number of those
was to be increased who were to partake in them, just as Isaiah, in
chap. vii. 16, represents believers under the Old Testament as being
taught by the Lord, while in chap. liv. 13, in reference to the
Messianic time, he announces: "And all thy children shall be taught of
the Lord." Under the New Covenant, the antithesis of teaching by God,
and teaching by man, is to cease. The teachers do not teach in their
own strength, but as servants and instruments of the Lord. It is not
they who speak, Init the Holy Spirit in them. Those who are taught by
them hear the word that comes to them through men, not as man's word,
but as God's word; and they receive it, not because it satisfies their
limited human reason, but because the Spirit testifies that the Spirit
is truth. How this antithesis is done away with, and reconciled in a
higher unity, is, among other passages, [Pg 443] shown by 2 Cor. iii.
3: "You are an epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with
ink, but with the Spirit of the living God." They are [Greek:
theodidaktoi], but through the ministry of the Apostle who, in so far
as he performs this service, is not different from God, but only a
conductor of His power, a channel through which the oil of the Holy
Spirit flows to the Church of God; compare remarks on Zech. iv. The
same is taught in 1 John ii. 20: [Greek: Kai humeis chrisma echete apo
tou hagiou, kai oidate panta. Ouk egrapsa humin, hoti ouk oidate ten
aletheian, all'hoti oidate auten.] Ver. 27: [Greek: Kai humeis to
chrisma, ho elabete ap'autou, en humin, menei kai ou chreian echete,
hina tis didaske humas, all'hos to auto chrisma didaskei humas peri
panton k. t. l.] The [Greek: didaskein] here signifies the human
teaching in contrast to that which is divine, such an one as undertakes
by its own power to work knowledge in him who is taught. Such a
teaching cannot take place under the new covenant. A fundame