Part 2, Chapter 06

CHAPTER VI. THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT UNITING US TO CHRIST. The regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, producing faith and repentance, effects a union of believers to Christ and to one another in Christ, a union which, though inward and unseen, is) et most real in itself and powerful in its results. Our very faith in Christ of itself implies the union of a covenant of love and friendship: for it is a mutual interchange of promises and assurances of fidelity. There is on the part of Christ the offer of His grace and help in the gospel; and our faith responds to that by a trusting acceptance of the offer. Then there is on our part the giving of ourselves to Christ to be led and saved by Him, and His acceptance of us as His people, and assurance that He will save us. These reciprocal offers and acceptances constitute a covenant, and effect a union of alliance and affection between Christ and believers. So it is often represented in Scripture; as when He says, “ My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life” (John 10:27-28). By their mutual recognition and acceptance of each other as Leader and followers, the union between the Shepherd and His sheep is formed. So too when the relation between Christ and His Church is compared to the marriage union of husband and wife, one point of the comparison is, that it is formed by mutual consent and the interchange of vows of faithful love (2 Corinthians 11:2-3; Ephesians 5:1-33; John 3:29). But since Christian faith and repentance are the result of the working of the Spirit of God in our hearts, and the same Spirit also wrought in Christ as the incarnate Son of God in His work on earth, the union of believers to Christ is something more and deeper than a mere covenant union of mutual trust, love, and sympathy. Beneath the agreement in these feelings, there is the one Spirit of God that is the source of them, working alike in Christ and in His people, and making them spiritually one body, because all animated by one Spirit. This is the other favourite illustration of Paul. The Church, he says, is the body of Christ; He is the Head and every believer is a member of the body, each having its own proper function, but all united to each other and to their common Head (Romans 12:4-5; 1 Corinthians 12:12-31; Ephesians 1:22-23;Ephesians 4:4-16). That which makes them thus one is the one Spirit dwelling in them all; and the indwelling of the Spirit is the same thing as the indwelling of Christ, whose Spirit He is (Ephesians 3:16-17). The one life which animates all believers is the life of Christ; and so it is truly said Christ lives in them, and is their life (Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:3-4). Those in whom Christ is by His Spirit are also described as being in Christ (Romans 8:1, Romans 8:9-10). The same twofold and seemingly opposite way of speaking is used by Jesus, when He illustrates His disciples’ relation to Him by the parable of the vine and its branches (John 15:1-8). They are in Him, but also He is in them: and both statements are needed fully to express the union from different points of view. Looked at extensively, as it were, believers are in Christ, as the branches are in the vine, being parts of the one ’ whole, making up the full complement of the plant as an extended organism, consisting of root, stem, and branches. But looked at intensively, so to say, it is equally true, that the vine is in the branches: the life of the vine is in them, the sap of the vine flows through them and nourishes them; the fruit of the vine is borne by them. So believers are in Christ, because belonging to Him as His covenant people, and they abide in Him by faith; while He is in them by His Holy Spirit dwelling and working in them. The reality of this is shown by the life and character of Christ appearing in them, especially in the emotions of godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity, that animated Him, and also animate them. This threefold form of love, to God our Father in heaven, to the children of God as our brethren in Christ, and to all men as those whom God loves and for whom He gave His Son, is the characteristic mark of Christians, and the common sentiment of the Christian Church. It necessarily flows from faith in Jesus Christ and conversion to God, wherever these are genuine; and it constitutes the actual and working unity of the Church of Christ. This is what is meant by the unity of the Spirit, which Paul exhorts Christians to give diligence to keep (Ephesians 4:3); and probably also by “ the love of the Spirit,” l to which he appeals as a motive for united prayer (Romans 15:30). In virtue of this unity, earnest Christians, however unlike and even opposed they may be in’ nationality, character, customs, and opinions on many points, find themselves at one in their common faith and love of their Saviour and interest in His cause: they have an affection and concern for one another for the sake of their common Lord, and have similar sentiments and desires for the wellbeing of their fellow-men. This unity of the Spirit requires indeed to be cultivated; for it may be hindered or interrupted by the selfish feelings, or narrow prejudices, or worldly sentiments that are apt to linger in the hearts even of those who ought to be brethren. If any one is unwilling to humble or deny himself for the sake of his Master and his brethren; or is making the interests of his nation, or his order, or his party, of more importance than those of the cause of Christ and the world’s salvation; or has too narrow ideas of the kingdom and work of Christ, and considers the opinions, or customs, or forms of his own section of the Church essential to Christianity; such an one will not find himself drawn in sympathy and love to

1 This phrase might also mean the love that the Holy Spirit has to us, and as Paul elsewhere speaks of the mind and the will of the Spirit, he might quite well have ascribed love also to Him. But as he never uses any expression exactly similar, it is perhaps more likely that it means the love of Christians which is wrought in them by the agency of the Holy Spirit. all who love the Lord Jesus, but repelled and shut out from some of them: and in so far as any of these tendencies prevail, the unity of the Spirit is marred and weakened. Hence we need to give diligence to keep it. We do so just by following the leading and yielding to the movements of the Holy Spirit, or, to express the same thing in other words, by living the life of faith and love that is implanted in us by the Spirit’s work of regeneration.

It is not an adequate expression of what the New Testament teaches to say, as Schleiermacher did, that the Holy Spirit is just the common life that animates the body of Christians. That is the result of the Spirit’s work; but we must go beyond the effect to the cause that produces it, to find the Holy Spirit Himself.

Yet undoubtedly the Christian spirit or frame of mind, as a humble, devout, unselfish, holy, and loving disposition, which unites those who have it in common devotion to God and Christ, and a common longing and effort for the deliverance of man from sin and misery, is the chief manifestation of the existence and activity of a divine Agent in the hearts of men. This aspect of the work of the Holy Spirit affords the basis of the doctrine of the Catholic Church of Christ, as unfolded in Paul’s later epistles, in its ideal as invisible, and in its approximate realizations by means of the various gifts, offices, and functions of its members, according to the order and directions given by Christ and His apostles. The consideration of what that order and these directions arc, belongs to the department of Church government: x the work of the Spirit, which secures the real inward growth and perfection of the Church, is wrought in its members individually, each for himself, by the process of sanctification, edification, and comfort.

1 On these subjects the reader is referred to previous handbooks in this series: The Church, by William Binnie, D.D., Professor of Church History, Aberdeen; and Prcsbylcrianism, by the Rev. John M’Pherson, M.A.

Findhorn,