Friday: How Do We Receive the Holy Spirit?
WEEK 5
FRIDAY
HOW DO WE RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT?
1 Timothy 2:3-6
We have been thinking about how the Holy Spirit is given. The most important question in religion is just here, in the words of Paul, “Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?” (Gal 3:2 NASB). That penetrates to the very heart of our religious problem. Humanity’s mediatorial religion says you get the Spirit by undergoing this rite, going through that ceremony, accepting this creed, undertaking that discipline, joining this group, believing that book, obeying this law, offering that sacrifice, worshiping this idol. All this is gently but decisively swept away in the coming of the Spirit upon that group of one hundred twenty believers. None of these things was present; hence none was necessary.
But every one of these things, now no longer necessary, came back again cleansed, related, and useful. They were redeemed. Since they were no longer looked on as redemptive, they themselves were redeemed. The rite of baptism, no longer a necessity, became beautifully useful in proclaiming outwardly an already inward fact (see Acts 10:47-48). Holy Communion, instead of mediating the Lord’s death, proclaimed it: “for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death” (1 Cor 11:26 RSV). The joining of a group, the fellowship, was the outward manifestation of an inner fact; they were one in Spirit and became outwardly one in the fellowship. They produced the books of the New Testament out of their experience of the Holy Spirit. That experience produced this expression. The Law of the Old Testament became an inner law, written not on tablets of stone but in the fleshly tablets of the heart. The sacrifices of animals and grain to propitiate and buy favor with God now became the sacrifice of God in Christ, offering himself upon the cross for our redemption. Jesus took the place of idols, since he was the express image of God’s person. The idol misrepresented God; Jesus represented him.
Only God could wipe out all this paraphernalia of religion with one hand and then bring it all back with the other, now no longer necessary, but useful in pointing us to the reality in Jesus. Mediatorial religion was replaced by the one Mediator.
O Lord, I thank you that I have direct access to you through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: He takes away all my second bests to replace them with his best.