Life is a Journey - Lesson 9

Monotheists and Trinitarians

In the past, we've talked about the fact that Christians are monotheists; we believe in one God. This is why Jesus can say, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.” Or, “I and the Father are one.” There is only one God.

We also are Trinitarians. We believe, as theologians say, that there are three “persons” in the “Godhead.” We believe that God the Father is fully God and yet distinct from God the Son. Likewise, we believe that God the Son, Jesus, is fully God and yet distinct from the Father.

We also believe in God the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit is fully God and yet distinct from God the Father and distinct from God the Son. We’re monotheists and we’re Trinitarians. This is why Jesus can tell us, “Go make disciples, baptizing them in the name” (singular) “of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). We admit that this doctrine is a mystery, but we believe it because the Bible teaches it, and we’re not surprised because we know we cannot fully understand the person of God.

What I would like to do in this lesson, though, is focus our attention on the activity of the third member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, or who we used to call the “Holy Ghost.” I want to look specifically at two of his primary tasks: (1) the regenerates; (2) and he indwells.  

Regeneration

First, the Holy Spirit is the agent of regeneration. Regeneration is defined as the process by which God gives us new life, he gives us new birth, he makes us into a new creation. This is regeneration, and it happens at our conversion; we are made alive. The process of regeneration is the work of the Holy Spirit; he’s the “agent” of regeneration.

However, the process that leads to regeneration begins, for many of us, years before we actually became Christians. The process begins when we are convicted of our sin. In John 16, we read that Jesus is preparing the disciples for his death and ascension into heaven, and he says, “It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment” (vv. 7-8). This Advocate is the Holy Spirit.

“World” in this verse means non-believers, and part of the Holy Spirit’s function is to show the world their sin, and then he shows them God’s righteousness, and then he proclaims God’s coming judgment because they are sinful and God is righteous. All of this is part of the work of the Holy Spirit.

Do you remember when you first became aware that something was wrong, that something was missing, that there was an emptiness in your life? That awareness was the work of the Holy Spirit who was convicting you of your sin and preparing you for regeneration.

Then the Holy Spirit started to draw us to God. Jesus says “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them” (John 6:44). The Father draws people to himself through the work of the Holy Spirit.

Do you remember the first time you found yourself believing, “Maybe there is something to this Jesus stuff”? That was the Holy Spirit in the midst of his conviction of your sin, drawing you to the person of Jesus Christ — drawing us to God.

And then eventually, in conversion, the Holy Spirit does the actual work of regeneration and gives us new birth and new life. In John 3:5, Jesus was talking with a Jewish leader named Nicodemus and he says, “No one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit” — capital “S”. The Holy Spirit’s job is to cleanse us of our sin, draw us to God, and then to regenerate and give us new life. The Holy Spirit is the agent of regeneration.

Paul teaches this in his letter to his friend Titus. “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.” Then Paul continues to explain how God the Father went about saving us: “He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior” (3:4-6).

This is one of the really important Trinitarian passages in the Bible. God the Father saved us through what God the Son did on the cross, which enabled God the Spirit to come and to wash us clean and to regenerate us.

But the Holy Spirit doesn’t stop at just being the agent of regeneration. He is also the seal of our regeneration. In olden times, what happened when someone sealed a document? They let a little wax drop on the document and then they would stick their ring into the wax. This does two things. (1) It marks ownership because it’s our ring, our seal. (2) It protects the document; the seal will keep the scroll rolled up or the book shut. The Holy Spirit is doing the same thing. He is the seal of our inheritance. He is God’s mark of ownership on us, and he is our protector.

This is what Paul is talking about in his letter to the Ephesian church. “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance” (1:13-14).

When you and I became Christians, the Holy Spirit put God’s stamp of ownership on us, which also protects us. The Holy Spirit keeps us safe — guaranteeing our inheritance. The apostle Peter tells us that our inheritance can “never perish, spoil or fade.” Why? Because “this inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation.” by God (1 Peter 1:4–5).

In Modern Greek, the word “seal” is now used for a wedding ring. In order for this illustration to have its force, we’re going to have to go back to older customs where the engagement was the legally binding ceremony. In Jesus’ day, if you were going to break an engagement, you would have to get a divorce. The Holy Spirit seals us; he is our engagement ring that guarantees we will be kept safe until we arrive in heaven.

The Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin, draws us to God, regenerates us, and then he seals us. Where would we be without the Holy Spirit? I’ll tell you where we’d be. We would be dead in our sin, unable to respond to God, and be guaranteed only of hell. Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift of the Holy Spirit to us.

Indwelling

Second, the Holy Spirit not only regenerates us but he also also “indwells” us. In John 14, Jesus is getting his disciples ready because he knows he’s going to die and leave them. He says in verses 16-17, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate — ‘helper’ — to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth (capital “S”). The world cannot accept him” (the Holy Spirit), “because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”

Jesus is the disciples’ helper, but Jesus has to leave, and so God the Father is going to send another helper, another advocate, for us, someone who is going to be like Jesus except that this helper will never leave us.

You may have heard of the word “Paraclete,” which is the Greek word that is translated here as “advocate” or “ helper.” “Paraclete” literally means “someone who comes alongside.” The idea is that the Paraclete comes alongside us to help us. We don’t really have an English word that matches up with the Greek, so sometimes we translate it as “helper” or “comforter” or “advocate.” Sometimes we just give up and call him “the Paraclete.”

The Holy Spirit came to indwell all believers at Pentecost in Acts 2. The same Holy Spirit comes upon you in your conversion. The Holy Spirit doesn’t just come and regenerate us and leave; rather, he comes and regenerates us and stays with us and in us. He is within each one of us as our paraclete.

Jesus isn’t talking about some kind of divine, impersonal force. The Holy Spirit is God just as much as the Father is God and just as much as the Son is God. The Holy Spirit is as personal as God the Father is personal. We relate to him as a person in the same way that we relate to God the Son. God the Spirit is fully God and he is personally involved in every aspect of our daily lives. The Holy Spirit is involved with each one of us because he is there to come alongside and help us.

1. Guides

The Holy Spirit helps us in many ways. As we read through the Bible, we’ll see, among other things, that the Holy Spirit assures us that we are the children of God. He whispers to us, from the inside, that we belong to God. He helps us in our prayers when we don’t know exactly how to pray. He searches the depths of our hearts, deeper than words can go, and expresses the deep longings of our hearts to God (Romans 8).

The list goes on and on, but his primary work, or at least his daily work, is guiding and empowering us. The Bible talks about our being led by the Spirit, and sometimes it talks about walking in the Spirit or walking by the Spirit. Paul writes, “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). Paul says to walk in accordance with the Spirit; that is how the Holy Spirit is guiding us.

The Holy Spirit guides us in different ways. The main way in which he guides us is through the Bible. As we read the Bible, he helps us to understand what it means, and he helps us apply its teaching to our lives. In writing the second letter to his friend Timothy, Paul teaches him some pretty difficult things to understand, but then he adds, “Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this” (2 Timothy 2:7). As we read our Bibles, part of the Holy Spirit’s function is to help us understand and apply what God is saying. That is the main way in which he guides us.

The Holy Spirit also guides us by speaking to us. We have to be careful here because anything that we think the Holy Spirit is saying to us must parallel what the Bible says. Unfortunately, I’ve heard people say, “The Lord is leading me to do this....” I respond, “No he’s not, because the Lord never leads in a way that is contrary to Scripture.” Yet with that caveat, we believe that the Holy Spirit is guiding us by helping us understand the Bible and sometimes leading us by our thoughts, which are his thoughts.

About a year ago, I started asking God if he would give his Spirit an accent! “God, there are a lot of voices floating in my head: there’s me, there’s my sinful nature, and there’s my baggage from my past. I know that the Holy Spirit is in there somewhere and he’s trying to get my attention, but I can struggle to know which voice is his. Father, could you give him an accent, like a nice North Carolinian drawl? That would be nice!”

2. Empowers

The Holy Spirit is working in our hearts and minds from the inside out, guiding us daily. It’s how we walk by the Spirit. But he not only enables us to hear his voice, but he also gives us the power to obey what he is saying.

One of my favorite passages is Philippians 2:12-13, where Paul tells the Philippian church, “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”

J.B. Phillips’ translation helps us understand what Paul means. He writes, “Be keener than ever to work out the salvation that God has given you with a proper sense of awe and responsibility, for it is God who is at work within you, giving you the will and the power to achieve His purpose.”

God the Holy Spirit is at work in you and me, planting desires in our hearts, and then giving us the power to actually accomplish what he has said.

1. Spiritual gifts

One of the ways in which God empowers us is through the gifts that he’s given us. I’m talking about the issue of what is called “spiritual gifts.” The Bible teaches that every one of us was given at least one supernatural gift when we became Christians. If you’re a new Christian, you may not be aware that you now have a supernatural gift through the power of the Spirit residing in you. Sometimes God’s gifts parallel our natural gifts making them more effective, and sometimes our spiritual gift is different than what we naturally are able to do. But every one of us, as Christians, has at least one supernatural gift.

There are places in the Bible that list some of the gifts, such as teaching, preaching, evangelizing, serving, encouraging, or being a pastor or administrator. The Bible also lists the gift of giving, which is a supernatural ability to make unusual amounts of money paralleled by a deep conviction that we are God’s stewards and must use his wealth for his purposes — it’s a gift to make money and equally a gift to give it away. Other gifts listed in the Bible are gifts of leading the church, mercy, wisdom, healing, and doing miracles.

There are probably more gifts than those listed in the Bible, but the Spirit has a wide variety of gifts that he gives to his church because there are a wide variety of needs in the church. To meet the needs of the church, he gives gifts to everyone in the church, so that all of us can use our gifts for the benefit of our fellow Christians.

Paul explicitly says in 1 Corinthians 12:7, “To each person the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the benefit of all.” The gifts are the manifestation of the Spirit’s work in our lives. Peter says, “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace” (1 Peter 4:10). The gifts we have are to be used for the common good of other believers.

One way in which the Holy Spirit empowers us is to give us a wide variety of gifts to meet the wide variety of needs in the church.

2. Fruits of the Spirit

There are also fruits of the Spirit. Part of the work of the Holy Spirit is to help us change, and those changes are called the “fruit of the Spirit.”

Paul tells the Roman church that God is going to work in their lives so that they will be “conformed to the image of his Son,” that they will look more and more like Jesus (Romans 8:29). Paul tells the Corinthians that we “are being transformed into his [the Lord’s] image with ever-increasing glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18). John writes, “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).

This is why the Spirit is guiding us and empowering us — because he wants our lives to change, to “be conformed to the image of his Son,” to be “like him.” Jesus told his disciples, “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples” (John 15:8). “Fruit” refers to the visible results of our lives being changed — those changes are the “fruit” of his work.

The main passage on fruits is in Galatians 5. Paul starts in verse 16 where he writes, “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” In other words, walk by the guidance of the Spirit. Walk by the power that the Spirit gives us. If we do that, then we’re not going to do the desires of the flesh.

Paul then sets up a contrast between the desires of the flesh and the fruits of the Spirit. He writes, “For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh…. The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

In contrast, Paul then points out the fruits of the Spirit, what the Holy Spirit wants to accomplish in our lives. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance (“patience”), kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control…. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”

If the Spirit has regenerated us, then the lives that follow must be lived by the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, listening to his guidance and allowing his power to help us accomplish the work that he’s given us.

The purpose of the Holy Spirit’s guidance, and the purpose of the Holy Spirit’s empowerment, is so our lives will change and start to show love and joy where there was neither love nor joy.

3. Co-operation

The interesting thing is that the Holy Spirit will not empower us or produce fruit in us without our cooperation. We don’t cooperate in our salvation, but we do cooperate in our sanctification, in our spiritual growth. Growth into holiness is not an automatic thing where we can sit back and say, “Whatever!” In fact, we can actually fight against the Spirit; the Bible calls this “quenching the Spirit” or “grieving the Spirit.”

In the book of Hebrews, the author talks about a person outraging the Holy Spirit. This happens when we hear the Spirit but we do not obey, when we are prompted to obey and yet we disobey. We can fight the work of God’s Spirit, and when we do, what happens? The Holy Spirit starts to withdraw the blessings of God in our lives, and he will start to exert corrective discipline.

Paul tells the Corinthians that many of them have become sick and some have even died because they defiled the Lord’s Supper — in the case of this church, they had ridiculed the poor and ridiculed the cross. The Holy Spirit became angry with them and so some were made to be sick and some even died. How much better it is to hear and listen to the Holy Spirit! How much better it is to be prompted and to obey the Holy Spirit!

4. Practical level

Finally, at a very practical level, what does it look like to be empowered? This is a difficult question. Paul tells the Philippians that God is at work in us, giving us desires, and then giving us the power to accomplish those desires. We might ask, “What’s the difference between us working hard at something and the Spirit empowering us? What does it look like to allow God’s Spirit to enable us to accomplish the work that he has given us to do?

To be honest, I don’t really know; it’s a mystical concept. But when it happens, we know it. We will look at our lives and realize, “I don’t hate him anymore. How did that happen? I couldn’t do that on my own.” It’s because the Holy Spirit was at work. There’s much I don’t understand about this, but there is one thing I do understand.

Allowing the Spirit’s power to flow through us begins with our confession of saying, “I can’t.” When we look at someone we hate, or someone with whom we’re angry, spiritual growth starts by saying, “God, I can’t do that; I can’t love that person.” “God, I can’t stop gossiping on my own; I’ve done it all my life! I open my mouth, and out it flows; I can’t stop it.” Confession is the first step toward allowing the Spirit’s empowerment to help us.

I can’t do anything with this lesson to change your heart or to make you more like Jesus. There’s certainly nothing that programs or church leaders can do to change hearts. The prophet Zechariah says, “It’s not by might, it’s not by power, but it’s by my Spirit,’ says the Lord.” It’s not because of my power, but it’s because of the Spirit of God who is at work in the midst of his children, guiding them and empowering them — that’s how lives are changed .

Don’t ever think we can just sit back and let God do it all; this is not an excuse for laziness. In Romans 12:1-2, Paul says, “I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.” J.B. Philipps translates, “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within.”

There’s no place for us to say, “Whatever! God’s going to do his work. I can just sit back and coast.” That’s not the way it works. Empowerment and growth begin by saying, “God, I can’t do it, but I believe through the power of your Spirit, you can make me look more like Jesus. So by your guidance and by your strength, I will present my whole body, everything that I am, to you as a living sacrifice. I will, as your Spirit enables me, not let the world squeeze me into its mold.”

Conclusion

Where would we be without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit? Where would we be without his empowerment? We’d be unable to fight sin and grow spiritually.

I’ll close with John 7:37-38. Jesus is in Jerusalem and he says, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”

Then Jesus goes on to explain that it is the Spirit who is the river of living water; the Spirit who wants to gush out of our souls, and flood our lives and flood our families and flood our churches.

Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift of the Holy Spirit!