Covenant Presbyterian Church

Almost two thousand years have passed since Jesus Christ rose from the dead and ascended to the Father. Since then believers have ardently longed for his return, for the consummation of all things, when the living God will be "all in all." As you grow in sanctification, the frailty of your flesh coupled with a deepening love for the Savior will have the effect of intensifying your desire for communion with the Father through the Son. You will feel firsthand in your soul that to "depart and be with Christ is better by far" than anything we experience in this life. Until our Savior returns or you depart to be with him, however, he has given us a Gift, who binds us to himself in a communion of life, seals his work in our lives, and provides steady streams of grace. Through this gift, he comes to us each day, each moment, bringing power, light, and understanding into our individual lives and the collective experience of his body. This most precious gift is the Holy Spirit.

The close connection between Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit was vividly demonstrated at Pentecost. Peter’s sermon indicates the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was the public and dramatic sign that the Son of God had returned in power and glory to heaven, there receiving from his Father the promised kingdom over which he reigns as Mediator (Acts 2:30-36). And like a king returning from the conquest, the primary "spoil" our ascended Savior shared with his Bride was the gift of the Spirit. Pentecost, therefore, is not a repeatable experience. Its significance is not to be understood in terms of ongoing personal giftedness and tongues-speaking. These are secondary issues. The central significance of Pentecost is that the King now reigns at the right hand of the Father. A new epoch in history arrived that day. Joel, whose prophecy was definitively and uniquely fulfilled at Pentecost (Acts 2:16), described the outpouring of the Spirit as the divine sign that the "day of the Lord" had arrived, the long-promised era of Messiah’s kingdom of grace and salvation. We must not miss this connection. The Holy Spirit was given in personal, redemptive fullness to mark the arrival of the kingdom, the millennial reign, of the exalted Son of Man (Dan. 7:13,14). He reigns, and the extension of his reign in the hearts and lives of believers and in the world will be carried forward through the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit.

The first thing to observe about his ongoing work is that he is the personal seal of our inheritance (Eph. 1:13,14; 4:30). The Holy Spirit applies to our hearts and lives the salvation obtained for us by Jesus Christ. He is the personal, quickening bond between history and faith, the believer and Jesus Christ. This is why the passage of years has not diminished the glory and power of Calvary, the empty tomb, the Ascension, and Pentecost. These are applied to every believer, thus bringing us into vital connection with the person and work of our Savior. The possession of the Spirit is the seal that we belong to Christ, that we are partakers of his salvation, and that we shall surely enjoy their full fruition in heaven. This is also why we are secure in Jesus Christ and in salvation. No one can pluck us from the hand of the Father because we are sealed by the Spirit of holiness. In this regard it is important to understand that the Spirit is God; we are kept by his power, his indwelling power, and his sanctifying power until the day of redemption consummated.

Then we must also see that the gift of the Spirit is not a multi-level impartation enjoyed only by the super-spiritual. We see this error especially in charismatic circles, but it is also creeping into a much-weakened evangelical community. Much of this confusion is the result of low piety and neglect of the Spirit’s chief instruments of power and sanctification, biblical prayer and saturation with Scripture. To fill the void of immaturity created by unbelief and disobedience, many are seeking a renewal of the so-called charismatic gifts. Apart from the fact that private prayer languages and other spiritualistic gobbledygook have no warrant from Scripture, the extraordinary gifts that marked the arrival of the kingdom of our Savior are no longer necessary. They were the "signs of the apostles" (2 Cor. 12:12), who were the foundation- layers and uniquely inspired heralds of the newly enthroned King. Gifts such as tongues-speaking, prophecy, and healing were their vindicatory marks, as well as means through which God communicated his inspired word prior to the completion of the written word. The foundation has now been laid in the life and work of the apostles, Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone. The Scriptures have been completed. We have passed the inaugural, foundation laying period of the kingdom of Jesus Christ and have entered the expansion period. In this period, the chief marks of the Holy Spirit are the gifts and graces he bestows upon the church, especially the gifts of church leadership and teaching (Eph. 4:11f.) and the preeminent gift of love (1 Cor. 13), which is the only infallible evidence of the Spirit’s presence in the body of Christ.

Thus, we should not view the work of the Spirit in the continuing church in terms of the extraordinary gifts that were operative in the inaugural period of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Instead, we should recognize that every child of God has the Holy Spirit. "By one Spirit we have all been baptized into Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 12:13). And because every believer enjoys the powerful presence of the Spirit in his life, every believer has gifts, fruits of his life-giving, quickening presence. These gifts are not the "signs of an apostle," for the office of apostle was historically limited, non-repeatable, and uniquely authoritative. The sign of an apostle, if we would continue to call it thus, is now submission to the canon of truth they left behind in their writings and sanctioned for the continued use of the church throughout all ages. This, however, does not diminish the significance or importance of his other gifts: love, mercy, giving, leadership, hospitality. It is through these that the kingdom grows, that the superstructure is erected upon the historically completed foundation.

When the Bible commands us, therefore, to walk by the Spirit, this is a call for us to appreciate his presence in the church, giving life to spiritually dead men and gifting them to live for God’s glory in the world and the increase and edification of the body of Christ. It is not a call to seek higher forms of spirituality or pray in tongues (whatever that means: God understands English as well as French, German, or Spanish). Rather, we are to recognize that we have life in Christ through the Spirit, have been baptized into his power and fullness, and are sealed unto redemption through his work. Now, we must continue in him. We must place ourselves under his gracious, powerful influence through prayer and the word. With respect to prayer, the Spirit helps us pray and intercedes for us, which, of course, can only occur as we seek God daily, humbly, and believingly through prayer. The word of God is not a dead letter; it is the "mind of Christ" that has been revealed to the church by the Spirit and permanently recorded in Scripture (1 Cor. 2:10-14). Therefore, we are not walking with the Spirit if we are not living in the word of God, or if we are listening to voices, or if we are living by dreams, "insights," and "feelings." The Spirit is the Spirit of truth (John 16:13), not a personal revelatory genie or our spiritual guru.

After clearing away some of the most popular errors with respect to the Spirit, we are left with the richness of Scripture’s testimony concerning his work in our lives. He intercedes for us (Rom. 8:14); we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit helps us. What a comfort! He intercedes for us according to the will of God because he is God, knows the mind of God, and is working to make our desires and lives conformable to the will of God. He sanctifies us (1 Pet. 1:2). He is actively working in us to transform our lives, to make the life, character, and will of our Savior true of our experience as his disciples. This means we have the privilege and responsibility to place ourselves under the means the Holy Spirit uses to sanctify: the preached word, prayer, faithful participation in the local congregation, the sacraments, and fellowship. Think: the Holy Spirit is working to remove from our lives the very things that bring such misery to us and to produce within us the very things that make for joy and peace. He encourages us (John 14:16,26). His work as the Paraclete means he "blows in our sails," motivating, convicting, and encouraging us to faithfulness. At every step of our lives, the Spirit is there, vivifying, sanctifying, and stimulating.

These are just the tip of the iceberg, but they are sufficient to remind us of the great privilege of being the very temple of God, the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. Tying this together, while we long for the final coming of our Savior in glory and power, we must not in the meantime forget that he is fulfilling his promise to come to us through the Spirit. The Spirit is the bond of the union between Christ and us. He brings Jesus Christ and his saving fullness to us. He brings our King to us - in his life-giving presence, saving power, and motivating fullness. To enjoy this, you need no second, third, or fortieth blessing, no magic prayer formulas, and no anointed guru. You need to believe the promise of God and walk with the Spirit by placing yourself under his influence, especially the word, prayer, worship, and Christian fellowship. Ironically, the almost universal lack of consistent practice of basic Christian discipleship is the ultimate explanation for the weakness of the church and the success of secularism. We can try to "pump up the volume" in the church all we want, but it will prove to be of no avail. Life comes from Jesus Christ through the Spirit through God’s approved means of grace. Seek this life, and the King of glory will bring his fullness into your life, with plenty of trials and testing to show you the perfection of his power and the glory of his Spirit.