Reclaiming the Spirit
Jesus stated the following concerning the Holy Spirit: “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever… [T]he Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you” (Jn. 14:16, 26).
Jesus’ words notwithstanding, many of us know little about the Holy Spirit. If Baptists talk about Him at all, it is often in association with “revival” and “worship.” Other than this, however, what do we really know about Him? Many Baptists may even subconsciously deemphasize the Holy Spirit and His work as a kneejerk reaction against the Pentecostals’ treatment of Him. Yet, as biblical and Trinitarian Christians, we should know what the Bible teaches about Him and how He works in our daily lives.
In this essay, I will briefly consider the Bible’s robust testimony concerning the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Then, I will focus on what this looks like in practice for Christians. In so doing, I will interact with the writings of two eighteenth-century theologians whose writings on the Spirit are especially important—Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) and John Wesley (1703-1791).
The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit
Before exploring what the Holy Spirit does in our lives as believers, we will briefly explore Who He is. So, Who is the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. As such, He is a person, and He is God.
First, the Holy Spirit is a person [1]. Like a person, He has names, characteristics, abilities, and even a personality. For example, the Bible refers to Him as Comforter, Guide, and Intercessor. Characteristically, He has a will, a mind, and great knowledge. He can be blasphemed, grieved, insulted, lied to, quenched, and resisted. He has the abilities to command, commission, guide, intercede, love, restrain, speak, and teach—among others. Second, He is God. The Bible gives Him divine names and attributes. For example, it refers to Him as God and Lord. It also testifies that He is eternal, holy, life, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, sovereign, truth, and wise.
These doctrines are crucial. Without them, Christianity is devoid of its content. However, we can’t stop here. As John Wesley (1703-91) put it, we “degenerate [Christianity] into mere formality” if we merely cite dogmatic statements [2]. Christianity is much more than this!
Consider this: If the Holy Spirit is God, why is it that we know so little about Him? A spirituality that fails to recognize the Spirit’s centrality is not a Christian one. Perhaps the best way for us to see this is to consider the Spirit’s work and what this means for us as Christians in our daily lives.
Being the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit works. He’s active in the past, He’s active in the present, and He’ll be active in the future. His past work is seen, for example, in creation and in the Bible’s inspiration [3]. However, and significantly for us, His present (and future) work is seen in our justification and sanctification—in a word, our salvation. This being the case, if we neglect Christianity’s pneumatology, we neglect its soteriology.
The Holy Spirit’s Work in Justification and Sanctification: The Fruit of the Spirit
The Holy Spirit works to complete our salvation, both in an immediate and ultimate sense. One the one hand, He has saved us, here and now (1 Cor. 15:2). On the other hand, He is still saving us, for our salvation is not yet complete (1 Jn. 3:2). In this sense, therefore, justification and sanctification are not separate doctrines, but two aspects of the same movement of redemption in which there is essential continuity (cf. Jn. 2:24; Rom. 6:22; 1 Cor. 6:11; Jas. 2:24). Paul makes this point when he uses phrases such as “in order that” (Rom. 7:4) and “therefore” (2 Cor. 5:20).
So, salvation is not only something that has happened; it is something that is happening. Wesley describes it as a “present thing” in which the Holy Spirit affects “real and relative” change in believers’ lives [4]. Hence, the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus refers to as “the Helper” (Jn. 14:16), works daily in our lives to complete our salvation. Remember Jesus’ words: “[T]he Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you” (Jn. 14:26).
Wesley proceeds, explaining that the Spirit witnesses to and with believers concerning their salvation [5]. Accordingly, believers respond to the Spirit’s witness with “fruit of the Spirit.” Paul writes, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, [and] self-control” (Gal. 5:22-23). As the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit works in believers’ lives to produce His fruit. So, what does the Holy Spirit do? In our day-to-day lives, He works out our salvation! As we keep the kids, shop for groceries, go to work, serve the church, read books and watch films, and so on, the Holy Spirit is there working out our salvation, achieving in us His fruit.
However, the mere existence of fruit in persons’ lives does not necessitate their salvation in Christ. For example, just because someone exhibits love or patience does not mean that he is a believer. Wesley’s contemporary Jonathan Edwards (1703-58) emphatically makes this point. To do so, he distinguishes between the Holy Spirit’s “shining to” and “communicating with” believers. The Holy Spirit may “shine” even upon unbelievers, Edwards writes. He explains that the Holy Spirit often “moves, impresses, assists, improves, or some way acts upon [unbelievers’] natural principles; but gives no new spiritual principle” [6]. Wesley similarly describes this, referring to it as “foretastes” [7]. But with believers, He “communicates.”
The Holy Spirit’s “Communication With” and “Exertion Upon” Christians
How then do we distinguish between unbelievers and believers, if both may produce “fruit of the Spirit”? What does it mean for the Holy Spirit to “communicate with” someone, as opposed to merely “shining upon” them? Edwards continues: In addition to “shining upon” believers, the Holy Spirit actually “communicates to” and even “exerts Himself upon” them so that they might “participate in” God’s holiness [8]. According to Edwards, this will produce two characteristics among true believers: (a) perseverance in the faith and (b) growth in holiness [9].
First, true believers will persevere in the faith. To be certain, Wesley gives more emphasis to the question of human responsibility than Edwards. As to whether all true believers will persevere to the end, or whether some might otherwise forfeit their faith, these authors and their traditions disagree. However, each agree that true believers will have persevered in the end; or to state it another way, those who persevere will have been true believers. And the primary point here is that Christians should remember the reason for their perseverance, which is the Spirit of God, Who Himself dwells in our spirits as a “proper lasting abode” by which Christ Himself also dwells [10].
Second, and consequent to this, true believers will grow in holiness because they participate in God’s holiness through the Spirit’s indwelling [11]. Edwards also refers to this as “religious affections” [12]. Edwards describes religious affection as including first “perception” and second “inclination.” Perception is the believer’s mental appropriation of the Spirit’s movement, and inclination is the believer’s action that follows such appropriation. Put simply, true, religious affection is holy or moral living. Properly, it is not raw emotion in worship. Rather it is our genuine, heartfelt, lived-out response to God’s grace throughout our lives in which the Holy Spirit communicates with and exerts Himself upon us.
The bottom line: A direct contrast is evident in believers’ pre-salvation and post-salvation lives. That difference is sanctification, the work of Holy Spirit. In our pre-salvation lives, we walked according to the flesh (Gal. 5:19-21; Col. 3:5-11; Rom. 13:13), following the “course of this world” and the “prince of the power of air” (Eph. 2:2). However, in our post-salvation lives, we walk according to the Spirit (Rom. 8:5), and our daily sanctification is evidence of the Spirit’s work. This is certainly what Edwards and Wesley taught. Previously the “scum of the world [and] the refuse of all things” (1 Cor. 4:13), God calls us in Christ through the Spirit’s strength to be “holy and blameless” (Ephesians 1:4; 5:27; Colossians 1:22), a “new man” (Eph. 2:15), and the “aroma of Christ” (2 Cor. 2:15).
Conclusion
So, Who is the Holy Spirit, and what does He do? He’s the third person of the Trinity, and therefore God. Against modern Baptist trends, we should emphasize Him more in our teaching and lives. After all, it is He Who works out our salvation on a daily basis—in our celebrating, crying, drinking, eating, hurting, laughing, loving, mourning, praising, remembering, and shouting. We mustn’t forfeit this oft-neglected, yet important, truth. With Saint Patrick (c. 387-460), may we say that God has “poured out his Holy Spirit on us in abundance, which makes [us] into sons of God and co-heirs of Christ” [13].
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[1] What follows are the biblical prooftexts for the positions set forth in this paragraph:
“First, the Holy Spirit is a person. Like a person, he has names, characteristics, abilities, and even a personality. For example, the Bible refers to him as Comforter (Jn. 14:26; 15:26), Guide (Jn. 16:13), and Intercessor (Rom. 8:26-28). Characteristically, he has a will (1 Cor. 12:11), a mind (Rom. 8:27), and great knowledge (Jn. 14:26; 15:26; 1 Cor. 2:10-13). He can be blasphemed (Mt. 12:31), grieved (Eph. 4:30), insulted (Heb. 10:29), lied to (Acts 5:3), quenched (1 Thess. 5:19), and resisted (Acts 7:51). He has the abilities to command (Acts 8:29), commission (Acts 13:4), guide (Rom. 8:14), intercede (Rom. 8:26), love (Rom. 15:30), restrain (Gen. 6:3), speak (Acts 28:25), teach (Jn. 14:26), and others. Second, he is God. The Bible gives him divine names and attributes. For example, it refers to him as God (Acts 5:3-4) and Lord (2 Cor. 3:18). It also testifies that he is eternal (Heb. 9:14), holy (Acts 5:3), life (Rom. 8:2), omnipotent (Job 26:13; Lk. 1:35-37), omnipresent (Ps. 139:7-10), omniscient (Jn. 14:26), sovereign (1 Cor. 12:11), truth (1 Jn. 5:6), and wisdom (Isa. 40:13).”
[2] Albert C. Outler (ed.), John Wesley (New York: Oxford University Press, 1964), 210.
[3] What follows are the biblical prooftexts for the positions set forth in this paragraph:
“His past work is seen, for example, in creation (Gen. 1:2; 26-28; Job. 26:13; 33:4; Ps. 104:30) and in the Bible’s inspiration (Mk. 12:36; Acts 1:16-20; 28:25-27; 2 Pet. 1:21). And his present and future work is seen in the doctrines of justification and sanctification (Jn. 7:37-39; 20:22; 1 Cor. 3:11-17; 6:19; 12:13; Eph. 4:30; 5:18; Col. 2:9-10), and the fruits of the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:4-11; Gal. 5:22-23).”
[4] Outler, 274.
See also John E. Smith, A Jonathan Edwards Reader (Yale University Press, 1995), 211, 212. Gerhard suggests similarly that the Holy Spirit applies Christ’s benefits and merits to believers, thereby making them children of God (Johann Gerhard, Handbook of Consolations [trans. Carl Beckwith] [Eugene: Wipf Publishers, 2009], 15, 27).
[5] Outler, 212. Indirectly is generally undisputed, directly is disputed; so Wesley suggests a plain reading of Romans 8:15-16 and Galatians 4:6 as evidence for his position
[6] Smith, 161.
[7] Outler, 220.
[8] Smith, 158.
[9] Ibid., 157, 158.
[10] Ibid., 157.
[11] Ibid., 158.
[12] Ibid., 143, 147, 149.
[13] Saint Patrick, The Confession of Saint Patrick of Ireland, c. 460.
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