The Doctrine of The Holy Spirit: EFCA Ordination (Part 6 of 11)
Last week I passed my ordination exam in the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA). I’ve been writing about it on the blog for the last month or so. If you’d like to read about what the process looks like, you can read the first post (here). Throughout the autumn, I’ll occasionally share the remaining sections of my ordination paper, which engages with our denomination’s 10-point statement of faith.
Thank you for the prayers and encouragement along the way,
Benjamin
{Previous posts in this series: God, The Bible, The Human Condition, Jesus, The Work of Christ}
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The Holy Spirit
6. We believe that the Holy Spirit, in all that He does, glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ. He convicts the world of its guilt. He regenerates sinners, and in Him they are baptized into union with Christ and adopted as heirs in the family of God. He also indwells, illuminates, guides, equips and empowers believers for Christ-like living and service.
Though previously stated in my discussion of Article 1, it bears repeating that the Holy Spirit is the divine, third person of the Trinity, not a force or thing (Acts 5:3–4; cf. the way Paul interchanges “God’s temple” and “God’s spirit” in 1 Cor 3:16 and then “temple of the Holy Spirit” in 6:19). The Holy Spirit is alluded to, of course, in all the places the Trinity is alluded to in the OT (e.g., “us” in Gen 1:26; 11:7), but the OT explicitly mentions many variations of the phrase “Spirit of God.” For example, in the second verse of the Bible we read of the Spirit “hovering over the face of the waters.” Additionally, the specific phrasing of the “Holy Spirit” is mentioned rather famously in Psalm 51:11, while the NT mentions the title more frequently. The Spirit is also called by the epithet Paraklēton, variously translated as helper, advocate, counselor, and comforter (Jn 14:16; also said of Christ in 1 Jn 2:1).
In the OT the Spirit of God seems to function intermittently in the lives of various people, most of whom were believers. Cases like Saul make me hesitant to say only in believers. I’ve preached slowly and expositionally through 1 and 2 Samuel, and I’m not so sure even Saul’s good start, upon close examination, is actually all that good. His decline, I suspect, reveals the true Saul. Regardless, in the OT the Holy Spirit functions intermittently when he comes upon a leader during a crisis (e.g., Jdg 6:34), a craftsman building (Ex 31:3), or a prophet prophesying (e.g., Is 61:1; Ez 8:3; 11:24). Perhaps God’s Spirit worked in and among Old Testament believers in a more abiding way, but we don’t have many indications from the Scriptures that this was the case, though possibly a passage such as Isaiah 63:10–11 hints at this. Consider, as well, a passage such as Deuteronomy 10:16 where OT saints are told to circumcise the foreskins of their hearts or Deuteronomy 30:6 where Moses tells people about to cross the dry Jordan River that the Lord will circumcise their hearts (cf. Jer 4:4; Ez 44:7–9). Is not “circumcision of the heart” akin to regeneration language? If so, this makes one wonder to what extent the average OT believer had the Spirit. Speaking of OT Jews, Paul certainly links the work of the Spirit and circumcision in Romans 2:28–29. All this to say, I’m unsatisfied with the common statement “Today, we have the Spirit and back then they did not.” It’s more complex than that.
However, in the OT we clearly see new covenant promises speaking of a future, internal, and abiding work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers, most famously promised in Jeremiah 31:31 (Heb 8:8ff; cf. Ez 36:27), which speaks of God writing his law upon the hearts of his people in an intimate way. This “internal writing” promised in the Old Testament is the work of the Spirit. When we come to the NT, we read that the new covenant time is now. Jesus speaks of his blood as the pouring out of the new covenant for the forgiveness of sins (Lk 22:20; cf. 1 Cor 11:25), and Paul states that believers serve Jesus in the new covenant era empowered by the Spirit (1 Cor 3:3–18, esp. v. 6). What is “new” about the new covenant is not that OT believers didn’t have the Spirit but that the people of God are now rightly to be considered a regenerate people. In the OT, there was a way of speaking about the people of God that often included the regenerate and the unregenerate; both participated in feasts, festivals, and worship gatherings. In the NT era—although any given church gathering has both regenerate and unregenerate people present—church membership, baptism, and communion are for the regenerate.
We should also note that some mystery remains about when we will experience the fullness of these new covenant promises. In some ways, they belong to the already-and-not-yet paradigm of so many other aspects of salvation and God’s kingdom. We are saved, being saved, and will be saved; God’s kingdom is come, is coming, and will come. So, with respect to the specific new covenant promises, yes, God writes his law upon our hearts by the Spirit so that obedience flows from the inside; but no, we are not in a time when we no longer need to say “Know the Lord” because we all know him (Jer 31:34; Heb 8:11)—not yet anyway. The best is yet to come.
Sometimes Christians are puzzled as to why it is advantageous for us, as Jesus said, that he go away and send the Holy Spirit (Jn 16:7). The ascension of Jesus and the sending of the Holy Spirit benefit us because God now dwells in every believer at once. The Son of God, by taking on flesh, is henceforth in a single location. The Holy Spirit freely moves among us for our good—as he did to help Christ during his earthly ministry. We can’t know definitively if Christ performed every miracle through the power of the Spirit as opposed to his own divinity, but Scripture often connects the two (Is 11:2; Mt 12:28; Lk 3:22; 4:1; 4:18–19; Rm 8:11; Heb 9:14).
The Holy Spirit is active in many things, but in “all that He does,” he brings glory to Christ. One way he glorifies Christ is by convicting sinners of their sin and need for Jesus (Jn 16:8–11). Another way is by converting sinners, or regenerating their hearts as it is often called, so that sinners can put their faith in Jesus (Ez 36:25–27; Jn 3:3; Titus 3:5). Those whom the Spirit regenerates are graciously adopted into God’s family (Rm 8:14–17). As in all the other aspects of redemption, each person of the Trinity is at work, but in adoption, there is a particular emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit (Rm 8:15; Gal 4:6). Once adopted into the body of Christ, the Holy Spirit remains active in sanctification (Gal 5:22–23; 2 Thes 2:13), the process whereby believers become more and more like Jesus. Becoming more like Jesus, or walking in step with the Spirit (Gal 5:25), is one indication that someone who claims Christ is truly a believer. There are different aspects to the Spirit’s role in sanctification, including the Spirit’s indwelling, illuminating, guiding, equipping, and empowering. Indwelling is the Spirit’s ever-present residence in the believer (Jn 14:17; Rm 8:11). Illuminating is the Spirit’s enabling of the believer to understand God’s Word (2 Cor 4:4–15; Eph 1:17–19). Guiding is the Spirit’s directing of the believer’s walk to glorify Christ (Rm 8:4; Gal 5:16). Equipping is the Spirit’s supplying and cultivating gifts that the believer needs to follow Jesus (Rm 12:6–8; 1 Cor 7:7; 12:8–10, 28; Eph 4:11). And empowering is the Spirit’s supplying of moment by moment power required to live for Christ (Acts 6:8; Eph 3:16).
This point in the paper is probably as good of a place as any to state explicitly what has already been alluded to: my understanding of the order of salvation begins with the love of God, which leads to predestination and election, then internal, effectual calling and regeneration upon the hearing of the gospel (i.e., external call), which produces repentance and faith and our justification and adoption, which then begins sanctification, perseverance and preservation, and culminates in our glorification. Related to the order of salvation is the short but prevalent phrase “in Christ.” Nearly one hundred times in the NT we read of believers being in Christ (e.g., 2 Cor 5:17; 1 Pet 5:14). Even more occurrences surface when we include variations of the phrase. In fact, sometimes the biblical authors even speak of Christ being in believers, not just believers being in Christ (Jn 15:4; Col 1:27). Union with/in Christ covers a range of aspects related to a believer’s salvation. Simply put, to be in union with Christ is to have your life (now and into eternity) bound together with Christ in such a way that you receive all the saving benefits of the gospel (Col 3:3–4). To put it even more simply, union in Christ is like placing everything good about the gospel into a sack, labeling the sack “in Christ,” and handing it to a believer.
It is important to understand the proper meaning of “baptism in/of the Holy Spirit” and “filling of the Holy Spirit.” With only slight variation, the phrase baptism in/with the Holy Spirit occurs seven times in the NT (Mt 3:11; Mk 1:8; Lk 3:16; Jn 1:33; Acts 1:5; 11:16; 1 Cor 12:13). In the passages from the Gospels and Acts, baptism in the Holy Spirit indicates what Jesus commissions the Spirit to do in conversion, over and against the baptism performed by John: John baptized with water; Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit. That covers the first six occurrences, which leaves only 1 Corinthians 12:13. The meaning in 1 Corinthians is not immediately clear but is best understood as part of the initial process of conversion whereby believers are “baptized” into the body of Christ and drink down the benefits of being united to him. In this way, the passage speaks to the reality of adoption into God’s family but does so using the immersion language of baptism—every Christian, whether ethnically Jewish or Gentile, gets fully dunked into the one body of God’s family.
Variations of the phrase “filled with the Spirit” frequently occur (Acts 2:4; 4:8, 31; 6:3; 7:55; Eph 5:18) and carry the meaning of being under the Spirit’s control or influence; being filled with the Spirit is a special empowering for ministry, which can include tongues but is certainly not limited to them (Lk 1:15ff, 41ff, 67; Acts 7:55). Being filled with the Spirit in increasing measure should be the healthy desire of all Christians. Lord, fill me with your Spirit to forgive an enemy . . . forsake my sin . . . fully trust your promises . . . and so on.
While the sign gifts of speaking in tongues, prophecy, and healing receive special spotlight in charismatic churches, this has not been my experience, and I am cautious about encouraging such expressions. However, I am not a cessationist, that is, one who understands all genuine expressions of sign gifts to have ceased with the closing of the NT canon and the death of the first generation of the early Christian church. I’m not convinced any verse clearly indicates the cessation of these gifts, and the plain reading of Scripture seems to suggest they haven’t.
Another helpful distinction to parse is between the fruit of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit. It is clear from Galatians 5:22–23 that the Spirit produces fruit in all Christians (“love, joy, peace . . .”). As preachers often do, I’ll note the fruit is singular but concatenated or linked. However, we should not expect all of the spiritual gifts to be present in every believer. There are five main passages in the NT where spiritual gifts, in the technical sense, are non-exhaustively listed (Rm 12:6–8; 1 Cor 12:8–10, 28; Eph 4:11; 1 Pet 4:10–11). A composite of these passages yields about a dozen spiritual gifts, including, but not limited to, leadership, healing, administration, teaching, mercy, and faith. I say “not limited to” not only because I didn’t mention every gift listed in the classic spiritual gift passages, but also because we tend to leave off the other spiritual gifts mentioned in the Bible, such as the spiritual gift of craftsmanship mentioned in Exodus 31 and the gifts of singleness and marriage in 1 Corinthians 7:7. But however we round out the details of the list, the result should be thanksgiving among God’s people because he so graciously blesses and gifts his church.
Discussion Questions
Person
1. Who is the Holy Spirit?
Purpose (in both the Old and New Testaments)
2. How is the ministry of the Holy Spirit similar and dissimilar between the old and new covenants?
3. Why did the Holy Spirit come, viz. why did Jesus send “another?” What does it mean that the Holy Spirit “glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ?”
Convicting the World
4. Why is the ministry of the Holy Spirit essential in the “world?” What is the guilt of which He convicts?
Regenerating Sinners
5. What is “regeneration?” Where in the order of salvation does regeneration occur?
6. How do you understand the teaching about the baptism of the Holy Spirit from 1 Cor 12:13? Regarding the Holy Spirit’s ministry, what are the differences between baptism, indwelling, filling and walking?
7. What does it mean that you are in “union with Christ?”
8. What is the meaning and significance of “adoption?”
Indwelling Believers
9. What are biblical evidences of the work of the Holy Spirit?
10. What role do the gifts of the Spirit play in the body of Christ? Is that role different today than during apostolic times?
11. How are the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit similar? How are they different? How do they function in your life?
* Photo by Warren Coetzer on Unsplash