3. Life Together In The Holy Spirit
3 LIFE TOGETHER IN THE HOLY SPIRIT
It is at the very heart of our gospel that in the public life of this world God has acted. This, as I have said, contrasts with both the dominant assumptions of Asian religion and of much religion in the West, where religion is seen essentially as a private and inward matter and therefore a matter of the individual relationship between the human soul and God. That is certainly the typically Asian, and classical form, of religion.
The view is taken that God is not to be found in actual events of history but to some extent by the exercise of our reason and partly by opening ourselves to spiritual experiences of various kinds. It is in contrast to this that in the gospel we proclaim historical facts, which are part of the public history of the world, to be evidence of God taking his decisive action in the world.
But of course if we stop there, then Jesus would simply be a figure of the past whom we might admire and might seek to follow – but he would still be someone in the past. Let us now consider the work of the Holy Spirit through whom we are made contemporaries with Christ, or Christ is made our contemporary. The faith that we proclaim, and this life that we live, is anchored in a historic deed under Pontius Pilate. That phrase in the creed always reminds us that we are talking about something in the public history of the world by naming the Roman governor of that time. We are anchoring our confession of faith in actual events of history. But in so doing we are not simply revering something in the past. It is an acknowledgment that God’s Holy Spirit has made Christ our living contemporary and made us his contemporaries, being participants in his continuing life.
It is the Trinitarian understanding of God which alone enables us to make sense of these realities. So when we speak of God we refer to the Father, the Creator and Sustainer of all things, whose providence rules over all the events of history, though often it is hidden from us. And when we speak of God, we speak of the Son, who became incarnate at a particular time and place in the public history of the world, and of the Holy Spirit, uniting us to Christ. The Holy Spirit unites us to the Son and to the Father, so that our faith, while it is anchored in a real event in history, at the same time it is a continuing, living, inward communion between our spirits and God himself.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus. The New Testament constantly reminds us that this is the test. There are many spirits in the world. ‘Spirituality’ is now a vogue word. A friend of mine says that whenever he hears that term he wants to reach for his gun, and I understand why! There are many weird things going around under the name of ‘spirituality’. St Paul tells us that the test, the mark of the Holy Spirit, is the confession that Jesus is Lord (Romans 10:9). In the first letter of John, it is put even more sharply: ‘Jesus Christ has come in the flesh’ (1 John 4:2). That is the test of the Spirit, not some Jesus that we invent or picture in our minds, but Jesus come in the flesh: this actual human being, Jesus. That is the test that this is truly the Holy Spirit.
Let us look at some of the great biblical teachings about the Holy Spirit. We start, of course, at the very beginning where the Holy Spirit is active in creation, brooding over the chaos. Throughout the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit is at work in the prophets and great heroes of the faith, inspiring their words. Then we come to the one who is, in a sense, the last link in the chain of prophets, John the Baptist. He came like one of the old prophets to call Israel back to her Lord. He offered a baptism of repentance, bringing Israel, as it were, back to the starting point to begin again, to repent and to be blessed by God. And John, as we know, promised, ‘I baptise you with water, but one more powerful than I will come … he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire’ (Luke 3:16).
So Jesus came seeking that repentance, that conversion of Israel for which John the Baptist was calling. Jesus humbly accepted that baptism in water followed with an anointing by the Holy Spirit, and was declared to be the Son of God, the beloved. So at that point the baptism in water and the baptism in the Holy Spirit came together. Jesus accepted the baptism in water, and immediately afterwards he is anointed in the power of the Holy Spirit.
We read then that the Spirit drove him into the wilderness for those days of struggle and temptation when Jesus had to face these questions: ‘If you are the Son of God, what will you do? How will you show your power? How will you exercise God’s power?’ In that mighty struggle, of which Jesus spoke in some of his parables, he tamed the power of the enemy and came forth from the desert in the power of the Holy Spirit to proclaim the reign, the kingdom and the sovereignty of God and went through the villages and towns of Galilee and Judea performing those miraculous acts which the Holy Spirit made possible.
Time and again he reminded them that it was the Holy Spirit who was active in his great works. But as St John tells us quite plainly (John 7:38f), the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. Jesus was anointed with the power of the Holy Spirit and in that power he spoke those words and did those deeds. But the Spirit was not yet given to others. It was not given to the disciples because Jesus was not yet glorified. He had not as yet accomplished that final atonement, that final act of reconciliation through which it would be possible for the Holy Spirit to be poured upon the believers.
We remember in the fourth Gospel the farewell addresses to the disciples at the Last Supper. Jesus promised in different ways that the Holy Spirit would come, though he himself would be leaving them. In John 14 he speaks of the paraclete, one who is called to stand beside you. It can mean an attorney or advocate. In a lawsuit an advocate stands beside you to plead your case. In that sense the Holy Spirit was the one who would be the presence of Jesus for them when his visible fleshly presence was no longer with them.
Then at the end of that chapter it is written that he ‘will teach you all things [so that you may understand the fullness of the truth] and will remind you of everything I have said to you’ (John 14:26). Towards the end of chapter 15, after speaking of the rejection and persecution the church must face, we have these words: ‘When the Counsellor [Comforter] comes … he will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning’ (John 15:26–27). But it was the Holy Spirit who was the primary witness and that must never be forgotten. The Holy Spirit is the primary witness, the Counsellor, the Paraclete and the Comforter. When we use the term Comforter we have to be careful because the modern meaning implies something soft and cuddly. But the original meaning of the word ‘comfort’ is reminiscent of steel. Comfort was the strength and power that the Holy Spirit would grant the disciples.
In chapter 16 Jesus says the Holy Spirit will convict the world in respect of sin, righteousness and judgment. In other words, the Holy Spirit would prove the world wrong in its fundamental ideas. In that sense the Holy Spirit could carry forward the work of Jesus. Above all, the death of Jesus revealed that the wisdom and power of God were manifest in the weakness and foolishness of the cross.
God had judged all human wisdom, righteousness and power, and that judging, convicting work of Christ would be continued by the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit was present, people would be forced to realise that even their fundamental ideas of sin, righteousness and judgment were wrong. They had to be completely rethought. That is the meaning of repentance. It means a radical change of mind. So the Holy Spirit would convict the world in respect of sin, righteousness and judgment.
Secondly, the Holy Spirit would bear witness to Jesus. He would remind the disciples of all that Jesus had said and done. ‘He will guide you into all truth … he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you’ (John 16:13, 15). That promise was at the very heart of the mission of the church. Jesus had said to them, ‘I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear’ (John 16:12). That little group of first-century Palestinian fishermen could not grasp the fullness of God’s truth. How would it, or could it, be grasped? As they went out in the power of the Spirit to take the gospel to all the nations, the Spirit would show them the fullness of what it meant that Jesus was, and is, Lord.
This, I believe, is fundamental to our apologetic. It is as we bring the light of the gospel to bear on every human situation that we find that this light, so to speak, comes back and we discover more fully the meaning, glory and power of Jesus. As the church goes out into all the nations on its missionary task, the Spirit will show that all the Father has belongs to Jesus. The whole range of human knowledge will not take us beyond the reality of Jesus. ‘All that the Father has is mine, therefore, I say, he will take what is mine and show it to you.’ This is a marvellous ‘authorisation’ for what might be called the cultural mission of the church.
As the gospel is brought into every culture, the Spirit shows how everything belongs to Christ. And as the church goes on this pilgrimage it shows how the light of Christ illuminates and enables us truly to understand the whole of cosmic reality: ‘All that the Father has is mine, therefore, I say, he will take what is mine and show it to you’ (John 16:15).
So far I have been following St John’s account. This of course leads up to the moment in the upper room when Jesus, after showing them his hands and side, said, ‘As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit”’ (John 20:21–22). This would empower them for their message.
In Luke the story is told differently. Remember that at the beginning of Acts, the disciples went to Jesus, saying, ‘Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’ (Acts 1:6) And Jesus replied, ‘It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth’ (Acts 1:7–8).
The question the disciples asked was about the kingdom: ‘Will you restore the kingdom?’ After all, this was the message of Jesus: ‘The kingdom of God has come.’ It had looked as if the devil had won on the cross. But now, in the light of the resurrection, they knew that the cross was indeed victory, not defeat. So when do we see the kingdom? Do we not see it now? Is now not the time? It is a question we constantly ask: ‘Lord, when will you show us your power?’ It is a natural question. And the answer of Jesus came in the form of both warning and promise. There is this warning: ‘It is not for you to know the times and seasons which the Father has set in his own authority.’
It is sometimes annoying when people ask me whether I am optimistic or pessimistic about the future of the church. The only reply is that I believe Jesus rose from the dead and therefore the question does not arise. It is not a human programme. It is bearing witness to God’s kingdom. It is not whether one is an optimist or pessimist but rather whether or not one believes. That is the question. So Jesus warned them, ‘It is not for you to know the times and seasons.’ It was the Father’s kingdom. It was not their programme. ‘But, when the Holy Spirit comes whom the Father will send, he will bear witness and you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth.’
What is the connection between the question (‘Will you restore the kingdom?’) and the promise of the Holy Spirit? The answer, as the whole of the New Testament shows, is that the Holy Spirit is the foretaste of the kingdom. There is a beautiful Greek word arrabon, which is translated in our different versions as ‘pledge’ or ‘guarantee’ or ‘promise’. It puzzled scholars for a long time because it is not a word of classical Greek. Then early in the twentieth century many sheets of papyrus were discovered under the sands of Egypt upon which this word arrabon was frequently written. It was discovered that these were the accounts of shopkeepers and that arrabon meant a sum deposited in promise of payment.
An Egyptian student told me the word is still used. If you want to buy a shirt in a Cairo shop you decide on the style of the cloth and the tailor then asks you to make a deposit as a pledge to pay when he has finished. That is called an arrabon, and this is the word used for the Holy Spirit. It is the foretaste, the pledge or down payment. It is not just an IOU, but real cash for the thing itself. But it is not just that real thing, it is the fact that this ‘cash’ carries with it the assurance of the full amount to come. This is the wonderful word the New Testament uses in many places for the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the pledge of the kingdom, not just a verbal promise or an IOU. It is a prelude to, a real foretaste of the power and love of God, given to us now. But it is such that it holds out a promise for the future.
It is rather like going to one of those posh dinner parties – to which, incidentally, I seldom get invited! – where one is kept standing around talking and wondering if there is ever going to be anything to eat. You then hear a tinkling sound and a drinks trolley is brought in. You are jolly glad to have the drinks, and it is very refreshing, but more important is the suggestion that something is cooking, and at last you are going to get a meal! The Holy Spirit, you see, by association, is the aperitif for the kingdom! It is a real gift of the love, power and glory of God. But it is such an extraordinary gift that there is more. It is the promise, the assurance that there is the full glory, complete power and infinite wisdom of God to be revealed, and that is what makes us witnesses in the true sense of that word. It is the Holy Spirit who is the witness because that presence assures us, and can be the assurance for others, that the glory of God is a reality to which we can look forward.
On the day of Pentecost that promise was fulfilled. The disciples, together in one place, received this blessing and the flame descended on their individual heads so that it was both a corporate gift to the whole body, binding them together into one, but also a deeply personal gift to each, bringing the very power and presence of Christ into their personal lives. And then, as the book of Acts continues, we see how the Spirit empowers the apostles for their mission to the nations.
If we go on to Paul we see in 1 Corinthians that he encountered difficulties with a church that prided itself on its spiritual gifts. Factions resulted and disputes arose as to which gifts of the Spirit were most important. In those wonderful passages in chapters 12, 13 and 14, Paul used the body to explain, by analogy, how the Spirit worked. ‘For we were all baptised by one Spirit into one body’ (1 Corinthians 12:13). So the baptism of water and the baptism of the Holy Spirit were one. The baptism by which we are made one is baptism in the Spirit. It is the one Spirit who enables the body to become a body.
But a body is only corporate if its members are different from one another. The difference is what makes the body corporate. Neither noses nor pairs of eyes constitute a body, so if one asserts that noses are best then that is an expression of absurdity. And that was Paul’s complaint against the Corinthians, that their particular spiritual gifts were supposedly the best. Paul went through a great list. There were different lists in different letters, in Romans and Ephesians, in Colossians and Corinthians, because the gifts of the Spirit could not be catalogued completely. But the point Paul made was that all those gifts were given for the sake of the body, so that each part might minister to its whole.
Then comes that incredibly beautiful language celebrated in chapter 13: ‘If I speak in human or angelic tongues, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing’ (1 Corinthians 13:1–2). There follows that wonderful description of what love is, that lifeblood which enables the different limbs and organs of the body to work in harmony, as part of the whole. If that blood should cease to flow then both limb and organ would die. And so love was the supreme gift of the Spirit because it ensured and made possible this harmony.
In chapter 14 Paul gives much sound practical advice on the different gifts found in the life of any congregation. One could speak of other passages of Paul, especially that superb piece in Galatians 5, when he spoke of those wonderful fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Perhaps the greatest chapter in the Bible on the Holy Spirit occurs in Romans 8, and I could speak and write interminably upon its beauty. It begins by telling us we have been put under a new jurisdiction, a new regime: ‘You were under the law of sin and death, but now, by what Christ has done by dying for us, Christ coming in the likeness of sinful flesh, we have been brought under the rule of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.’ There has been a change of regime, of jurisdiction. We have been transferred from one jurisdiction to another and are now under the rule of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Again, in verses 8–17 we see that the Spirit is a pledge. If the Spirit of God is given to us, then the Spirit will also pour life into our mortal bodies. The Spirit is the pledge of resurrection. Though we are now all part and parcel of this sinful world, there is the pledge of the total redemption of the body, of resurrection from the dead.
The Spirit then enables us to call God, ‘Father’. When we say, Abba, Father, it is that Spirit which makes this possible. When we also, like Jesus, use that word and call Jesus ‘Father’, in the way that Jesus called God ‘Father’, it is again the work of the Spirit who enables us to do that. This is the mark of the Spirit because it is the Spirit of Jesus and the Holy Spirit uniting us with him so that in, and through, and with Jesus, we speak of God as Father, Abba, Father.
And if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs with Christ. In other words, children may not look very important, as they are. They may be small and weak, but if they are the heirs of a great estate then there is something more than just weakness and smallness. The Christian may seem a weak, small and insignificant thing in the life of the world but the Spirit convinces us that we are heirs. If we are the children of God then we are the heirs of his kingdom and we can look forward to its full riches. Once again, the Spirit is the pledge that assures us of the fullness to come.
But then Paul immediately states that this is authentic on one condition, that we suffer with him. If we suffer with him, then we shall be glorified with him. That would be the mark. Jesus had breathed upon them, saying, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’ He showed them his hands and his side, the scars of the Passion. So the mark of the authenticity of our confession, Abba, Father, the mark of our true union with Jesus, would be that we suffer with him, so that we may be glorified with him. We are with Jesus always at that frontier which divides the kingdom of the rule of God from the rule of the devil, that place where hourly and daily the war is waged between two kingdoms, two regimes. If we suffer with him we may be also glorified with him.
From verses 18–27 Paul picks up that theme of suffering, saying that it is not just we who suffer but the whole of creation. All creation is groaning and travailing in pain. We do not need to be told that. Creation is full of pain, suffering and frustration, but Paul says, ‘These are the birth pangs of a new creation.’ That is the meaning of this suffering and the Holy Spirit assures us of that. The Holy Spirit is the foretaste, pledge, the arrabon of a new creation.
We who have already received the first fruit of the new creation, the Spirit, groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption. And the Spirit himself helps us with groanings that cannot be uttered. So the Spirit who is the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of the crucified and risen One, the Spirit of the One whose body was marked with the scars of the nails, this Spirit is with us as we groan in travail. And we do so with the assurance that these pains are the pains of childbirth, because a new creation is being born. As Paul said, ‘For in this hope we were saved’ (Romans 8:24).
And therein lies this nice concatenation whereby hope looks to the future. Our salvation is in the past: something already done. But we are saved in hope. It is never that we are saved and that is that – everything is fine and there are no problems. No, our past salvation moves ever forward, and is the hope with which we approach the present and the future. We are saved so that by the presence of the Spirit, we may also participate in this great struggle for the new creation, following Jesus on the way of the cross and having the Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus with us, who unites his groanings with ours and assures us that we are indeed the children of God. It is absurd to discuss this briefly because one could spend hours on it. So I commend to you the study of Romans 8, the richest chapter in the whole Bible about our life together in the Spirit.
Finally, I return to where I began. It is by the presence of the Spirit and his work in our lives that Jesus, crucified under Pontius Pilate, the Jesus of history, is for us the Christ of faith. It is the Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Jesus, who makes Jesus our contemporary, so that we have this intensely inward and personal reality of communion with our Lord Jesus Christ in the power of the Spirit. So in this sense the historical factuality, the public factuality of the gospel – incarnate, crucified under Pontius Pilate, risen – is united with the immediacy, the inwardness of our life with Christ in the power of the Spirit. It seems to me tremendously important to hold this together – the historical, given factuality of the gospel and the inward, personal and continuing life of the soul.
In a sense all that I am saying is summed up in the acclamation we offer at a certain point in the Eucharist: ‘Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.’ Christ has died, that is a fact. It is the great basic historic fact: we are not just talking about an inward and personal experience which has no way of being publicly verified but about the fact that Christ died. But then Christ has risen. The risen Lord Jesus Christ, in the power of the Spirit, is our eternal contemporary and we are now able to converse with him, to listen to him and follow him, to have a life of personal communion with him until he comes again. And Christ will come again, and the more we go on in our inward devotion to Jesus in our personal interior lives, the more we long for the day when we shall see him face to face.
And it is the Holy Spirit who gives us this assurance because we have already received the pledge, the arrabon, the foretaste of the Spirit. That is what makes us witnesses and what fills us with hope in the midst of our pain and struggling. That is what enables us to know that the Jesus whom we know now through the Spirit, we shall, at the end of the day, see face to face. Thanks be to God.