THOUGHTS ON THE HOLY SPIRIT
This meditation on the Holy Spirit brings together the New Testament teaching about the Holy Spirit’s on-going relationship with the church corporately and with the individual believer.
The New Testament is consistent in its teaching that the Spirit of God lives within the individual believer and within groups of believers gathered together as the church:
‘The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you’ – John 14:17.
‘...the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ’ – Romans 8:9.
‘...he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you’ – Romans 8:11.
‘...you yourselves are God’s temple ... God’s Spirit lives in you’ – 1Corinthians 3:16.
‘Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you’ – 1Corinthians 6:19.
‘...in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit’ – Ephesians 2:21-22.
As noted in a previous meditation, it is also the clear and consistent teaching of the New Testament that the presence of the Spirit within the believer and the church is also the presence of the Father and the Son:
In John 14:16 & 17, 15:26 and 16:7 & 13 Jesus promised the presence of the Spirit in the believer; in John 14:18 and 20 he promises his presence; in John 14:23 he promised the presence of both himself and the Father.
In 1John 3:24 and 4:13 John speaks of the presence of himself and the Holy Spirit.
These verses should teach us two important truths:
[1] That we must never minimize the significance of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God. Just as to see and know the Son is to see and know the Father, even so to have the Spirit dwelling within us is to have the Father and the Son dwelling within us. This is an awesome thing: that God comes to us and makes us his dwelling place, a thing we should never treat with blasphemous contempt thinking it is ‘just the Spirit’. To be indwelt by the Spirit is to be indwelt by God.
[2] That to seek an experience of God beyond this indwelling is an ungrateful rejection and inferred reduction of the complete salvation he graciously gives us in his Son.
This indwelling is the age-long promise of God (Ezekiel 36:27 – ‘I will put my Spirit in you’).
This indwelling is the promise of the Son (John 14 – 16).
This indwelling is the culmination of the saving action of the Father and the Son.
This indwelling is the restoration of the human relationship with God for which we were created, but which we rejected and therefore forfeited in Genesis 3.
This indwelling is the life of union with God which was always his intention for us.
This indwelling is the end result of the Gospel that Paul summarizes with his words: Christ in you, the hope of glory [Colossians 1:27].
This presence of God, by his Spirit, is foundational to the relationship with God (Father, Son and Spirit) that Jesus both taught and prayed for. Jesus mentioned it when teaching his disciples to ‘abide’ in him – ‘Remain in me and I will remain in you ... if a man remains in me and I in him ...’ – John 15:4, 5. Jesus referred to it again in his prayer for all believers – ‘I in them’ – John 17:23.
From Jesus’ teaching and prayer in John 15 and 17 we learn that this divine, trinitarian God living in us, which has as its flipside us living in God, is critical for our existence as Christians, for our survival as Christians, and for our fruitfulness as Christians.
© Rosemary Bardsley 2024