01.18. Chapter 4 God within his people
Chapter 4 God within his people More than an impersonal power
After Jesus’ resurrection and return to the Father, the early Christians experienced a number of significant changes. One of these was that God’s Spirit now indwelt them in a way they had not known previously.
Jesus had promised that his physical departure from the world would not disadvantage God’s work. Quite the opposite. Through the Holy Spirit, the same Jesus would now live within his people – not just those who had lived with him in Palestine, but every person in every era and every place who turned to him in faith and repentance. Jesus’ presence in the world had previously been limited to first century Palestine, but through the Holy Spirit that presence would now become timeless and worldwide.
Through Jesus, people began to have a new understanding of the Spirit of God. In former times, when people spoke of the Spirit of God they were probably thinking of God’s living and active power, not of a specific person within a triune Godhead. They probably had no understanding of the Spirit of God as a person within the Trinity, just as they had no understanding of the Son of God as a person within the Trinity. But when on occasions they saw God’s power working through selected people for certain tasks, they rightly saw this as God’s Spirit, not as some merely human ability. With the coming of Jesus Christ, things became clearer. Jesus talked about the Spirit and demonstrated the Spirit’s power. He lived his daily life by the unceasing work of the Spirit through him. People began to see that the Spirit was more than apower; he was a person. He could teach, hear, comfort and help. Jesus explained that the unique relation between the Father and the Son extended to include the Spirit. There was a unity between Father, Son and Spirit, but at the same time a distinction.
Jesus’ provision for his people
Although the New Testament era may have brought a change in people’s understanding of the Spirit, the Spirit himself did not change. He had always been fully God and fully personal. But when God physically entered the world in the person of Jesus Christ, the relation between God and the people of the world could never be the same again.
Those who lived with Jesus could receive God’s help and teaching easily: they only had to ask Jesus. Soon, however, Jesus was to leave them. Therefore, to ensure that they continued to receive God’s help, Jesus promised them ‘another Helper, who will stay with you for ever, namely, the Spirit’ (John 14:16-17). A sentence or two later he said, ‘You will not be left all alone; I will come back to you’ (John 14:18). Jesus would come to his people in the person of the Holy Spirit; or, to put it another way, the Holy Spirit would represent the presence of Jesus to his people. The Spirit would give them the same help as Jesus had given them when he was physically present with them.
Again we see the mystery of the relationships within the Trinity. Although there is a distinction, there is an inseparable unity. On a previous occasion Jesus had said that when people know the Son they know the Father; now he says that when people have the Spirit they have the Son. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus. He bears the stamp of Jesus’ character just as Jesus bore the stamp of the Father’s character. The disciples who had lived with Jesus Christ in Palestine received the Spirit in unique circumstances. They knew that the gift of the Spirit would come only after Jesus had returned to theFather, and therefore they had to wait till he had physically left the world. But for others there are no such special circumstances. They receive the Spirit when by faith they receive Christ. It is impossible for a person to have one without the other. Life ‘in Christ’ is life ‘in the Spirit’. The Spirit of Jesus at work The early Christians had no doubt that Jesus lived in them and worked through them by the Holy Spirit whom he had given them. This did not make them superhuman, but it did make them more like Jesus in their attitudes and behaviour.
Examples from the New Testament show that the Holy Spirit worked through the early Christians in both spectacular and unspectacular ways. He gave them extraordinary boldness in the face of opposition, yet the quiet ability to organize church affairs smoothly. On some occasions he directed them through inner promptings and visions, on others through reasoned discussion. He taught them through the spontaneous comments of some, and through the carefully prepared arguments of others.
Christians today naturally do not have the same sense of personal acquaintance with Jesus as had those who talked, ate, worked and travelled with him in Palestine. But they are equally certain of Jesus’ presence with them through the Spirit. This does not give them a sort of magical power that enables them to do successfully whatever they want to do. Nor does it guarantee them freedom from sorrow, disappointment and hardship. Jesus suffered, and his followers can expect to suffer also, but the Spirit of Jesus within them gives them strength, calmness and even joy through their sufferings. The character the Spirit produces At times the Holy Spirit’s presence within Christians seems to make life more difficult for them. This is because of the natural tendency to sin which they, like others, are born with. That tendency is not removed when they become Christians, and will, in fact, create problems when they resist it.
Whether Jesus’ followers realize it or not, the Holy Spirit was the one who awakened them to their sin, led them to Jesus and gave them new life. The same Spirit comes to live within them permanently, and this is what causes the conflict. The old sinful human nature (sometimes called ‘the flesh’) fights against the Spirit, and the Spirit fights against the sinful nature.
Although Jesus’ human nature was not infected by sin, he still experienced the normal temptations of human life. Even for him, victory over those temptations required self-discipline and effort. Christians, indwelt by the Spirit, can face the temptations of life with confidence, but they must not expect victory to come easily. The conflict strengthens character. That is not to say that Christians will become stern and grim. On the contrary they will find life more enjoyable than ever, for it will now have more meaning. If the Spirit of Jesus Christ is directing their efforts, the result will be a quality of character that reflects the character of Jesus Christ. When they allow God’s Spirit to do this work in their lives, Christians are said to be filled with the Spirit. That is, they allow the Spirit to have full control. This is not a once-for-all experience, nor necessarily a highly emotional experience. Certainly, they will on occasions be more strongly aware of the Spirit’s presence or help, but in general the Spirit’s work will be the quiet and steady work of making them more like Jesus. Being like Jesus does not mean that Christians become religious fanatics or submit to laws that make life dull and boring. Jesus did not live like that. He came to free people not only from bondage to sin, but also from bondage to those rules and regulations that people mistakenly think will make them ‘holy’. The Spirit of Christ likewise brings life and freedom. He wants people to enjoy life through enjoying those right relationships that God intended from the beginning, whether relationships with other people or with God himself. Not merely private The Spirit’s work in the lives of Christ’s people is concerned with more than their own personal development. It is concerned also with their responsibility to take the good news of Jesus to an unbelieving world.
Before Jesus died, his followers learnt that part of the Spirit’s work was to convince people that Jesus is Lord. When their faith in Jesus’ lordship was confirmed through the resurrection, Jesus promised that the Spirit would empower them to witness to this fact everywhere. In a sense people in any era who know Jesus as Lord are his witnesses. Through their witness, the Spirit makes known the truth of Jesus Christ to others. As people believe in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit introduces them into that vast international community known as the church. The Spirit, besides living in Christians as individuals, lives in the church as a whole. As he helps individual believers in their private prayers, so he helps the church in its public worship. Whether privately or publicly, individually or collectively, Christians are helped by the Spirit when they want to speak to God. Likewise they are helped by the Spirit when they want to hear God speaking to them; for the Spirit enables them to understand the Scriptures. He helps in their individual reading of the Bible and he helps in the teaching given in the church.
People differ from each other in their personalities and abilities, and when the Holy Spirit comes into their lives he does not remove the differences. He may change the character and behaviour of people so that they are more the sorts of people they should be, but he does not remove the variety that exists among them. The church is likened to the human body, where different parts have different purposes, yet there is unity. The Holy Spirit has given abilities to all God’s people, and the church functions properly when all the people work together by using their Spirit-given abilities for the common good.
However, the abilities that people display in their church work are not in themselves an indication of the Spirit’s control in their lives. A better indication is the development of Christian character. Abilities depend on the particular functions that the Spirit has fitted people for in the church, but character depends on the control that people allow the Spirit in their lives. The Spirit ‘transforms us into Christ’s likeness’. He produces ‘love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self-control’ (2 Corinthians 3:18; Galatians 5:22-23).