God's Word For You is a free Bible Study site committed to bringing you studies firmly grounded in the Bible – the Word of God. Holding a reformed, conservative, evangelical perspective this site affirms that God has provided in Jesus Christ his eternal Son, a way of salvation in which we can live in his presence guilt free, acquitted and at peace.

 
 

THOUGHTS ON THE HOLY SPIRIT

THE DIFFERENCE THE SPIRIT MAKES

Almost every New Testament letter contains some teaching about the Spirit of God who since Pentecost lives within all who believe in Christ. We have already seen the confirmation and assurance of salvation given by the Spirit as part of our salvation. This confirmation and assurance is an on-going action of the Spirit throughout the life of the believer. Part of that confirmation is the profound difference Holy Spirit makes in the way those who believe in Jesus Christ relate to God: that we no longer relate to God on the basis of our own merit or demerit, but on the basis of the work of the Holy Spirit in regenerating us and uniting us to Jesus Christ and his sin-bearing death.

Perhaps the first inkling we get that a radical change takes place as a result of the action of the Spirit is in John 3 where Jesus spoke to Nicodemus about the flesh/Spirit contrast, making it quite clear that if a person views life and reality from a flesh-only perspective or paradigm he/she will never see nor enter the kingdom of God, indeed, it is an impossibility. Flesh gives birth only to flesh. Spirit gives birth to spirit. There are two competing and distinct ways of thinking and living here.

It is when we come to Paul’s letters that we see this flesh/Spirit contrast more fully expressed. The person who is flesh-only, and who strives to relate to God on a flesh-only basis, is in an impossible position spiritually. But the Christian, the person enlightened and regenerated by the Spirit of God, and indwelt by the Spirit of God, has by the Spirit been placed in an entirely different relationship with God. The mindsets or paradigms of these two positions, these two ways of relating to God, are diametrically opposed.

Prior to the saving work of the Spirit, when we related to God on the basis of our own actions (our ‘flesh’):

The Law bound us, and we served on the basis of Law – Romans 7:6.

We were condemned by the law of sin and death – Romans 8:1.

We could never be declared righteous – Romans 8:3.

Our mindset was the mindset of death – Romans 8:5, 6.

We could not and did not submit to God’s law and could not please God – Romans 8:7, 8.

We were controlled by the flesh, that is, we believed that our actions (either good or bad) determined our standing/relationship with God – Romans 8:9.

Having been regenerated by the Spirit and indwelt by him:

We are released from the Law to serve in the new way of the Spirit – Romans 7:6.

We have been set free forever from the law of sin and death and the condemnation that inevitably bound us – Romans 8:1, 2.

The acquittal, the legal innocence, that we, left to ourselves could never attain, God has accomplished for us through the sin-bearing death of his Son – Romans 8:3, 4.

Having thus, by the Spirit, been united to Christ and his atoning death, our mindset in the presence of God is the mindset of life and peace – Romans 8:6.

We are controlled by the Spirit, that is, what the Spirit has done in regenerating us and uniting us to Christ determines our standing/relationship with God. We have put our actions ‘to death’, deeming them useless to secure our acceptance with God – Romans 8:9, 10.

This flesh versus Spirit contrast is also evident in the following:

In Jesus’ story in Luke 18:9 – 14, where the Pharisee, who trusted in his own righteousness (his ‘flesh’) was not accepted by God, but the tax-collector who trusted in the mercy of God, was.

Paul’s personal story in Philippians 3:1 – 9, where he tells us how he now classifies as excreta his flesh-based list of religious merit that he used to trust, and now places his confidence solely in the righteousness of Christ credited to him through faith.

In Paul’s statement in 2Corinthians 5:14 – 19, that the flesh-based way of assessing people has been outlawed by the death of Christ – that those who are ‘in Christ’ relate to God (and to each other) in a totally new way, and live with God not on the basis of law and sin, but in a relationship of reconciliation, in which our sin is no longer taken into account, and the righteousness of God is counted ours.

Before our conversion we stood alone and exposed in the presence of God – simply ‘flesh’, trying, if we were religious, to gain and maintain a relationship with God by our own ability to keep his Law. This was an impossible quest that kept us enslaved and condemned. After our conversion we live in a relationship of acceptance with God in which we consider our own perceived law-keeping to be worthless and in which we depend not on ourselves but on Christ through the revelation, regeneration and indwelling of the Spirit. Paul puts it this way: that we no longer relate to God kata sarka – according to flesh, but kata pneuma – according to Spirit.

[Caution: the 1984 quite consistently translates ‘sarka’ and ‘sinful nature’ or something similar, but this has been corrected to ‘flesh’ in the 2011 edition.]

© Rosemary Bardsley 2024