1 Thessalonians 1:5 Commentary and Bible Study

Here is the fifth mark of grace. ‘For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power.’ Did the gospel come to you in power? May be there is somebody here and you went to one of those evangelistic rallies where the preacher says suddenly to the people, ‘If you want to go to Heaven, profess Christ, profess Christ’, and he called you to walk forward, and you went forward just to profess Christ. But you did not really repent. There was not much about repentance. You did an act; you walked forward; you responded to a public invitation, and you were told ‘Well now you are a Christian. You must be because you have done what we have asked of you.’ The gospel came into you in word only. You did not come under conviction of sin; you did not feel like a desperately lost sinner; you did not feel Christ only and his death on Calvary. You did not repent of your sin and weep before Christ and ask for salvation. Ah, but here is the mark of grace. The gospel comes in power; it changes your life. You are never the same again. You may sin; you may fall back; you may dishonour the Lord, but it changed you. You cannot stand yourself on account of your sin. You are different. It really touched you and broke through and convicted you. Then the sixth evidence: ‘and in the Holy Ghost.’ Is it not much the same? No, it points to a different thing. You were not only changed by the power of God, but you were changed by the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit. You saw it, you grasped it. You realised it was true. Sometimes when you first hear the gospel and you come to Christ, somebody may say to you – but how do you know it is true? And has it been proved to you? Have you had solid evidence? And when you are first a Christian, you often find yourself saying: No, I just know it is true. What I doubted one minute because so obvious the next. About sin, and about the Saviour, and the authority and the Word of God and the specialness of this divine Word. It is different, it is from God. You know it. That is the illumination of the Holy Spirit. As time goes on, you see other evidences that go alongside that, things that make you more and more certain. But right from the beginning the illumination of the Holy Spirit means instinctively you realise, you know, you receive it as God’s Word towering above all human knowledge, and you see its wonders and its depths and its challenge.And the seventh mark is here – ‘In much assurance.’ There is a sudden outflow of certainty, of love and gratitude, a realisation that there is new life in you and that God has heard your cries, a sense that when you pray, that your prayers are heard.