Power from on High
The following is one of six position papers written for the ordination standards. The prompt for this paper was: “What does it mean to be continuationist in pneumatology? Explain your beliefs about the ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer and the church.
Introduction
To write on the person and work of the Holy Spirit is to engage with mystery. One of the first hurdles in engaging with pneumatology (the doctrine of the Holy Spirit) is the reality that the Scriptures do not speak about the ontology of the Spirit as explicitly as with the Father and Son. So it seems that mystery is a categorical prerequisite.
That said, to thus deduce that, due to the lack of explicit biblical teaching on the person and work of the Holy Spirit, he is unimportant to the work of redemption or less equal to the Father and Son would be a grave theological mistake. It is the nature of the Spirit to be behind the scenes. Like his name implies, he is much like the wind; unseen yet powerful. So whatever we say about the Spirit from Scripture is likely to be inductive rather than deductive. I will start with looking at the work of the Spirit in the OT and then move to his role in the NT and to the church today. The aim will be to show that the third person of the trinity, the Holy Spirit, has been active in the plan of redemption from the beginning and continues today in the lives of believers.
The Work of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament
The Spirit is present at the beginning and in creation (Gen 1:1–2). He is seen as God’s agent in creation, bringing order to the chaos and animating life in Adam (Gen 2:7). Here he is “the impartation of the energizing principle, or spark of life, that actualizes the material reality of Adam (of the dust of the ground) so that he becomes a living being.” This creating and life-giving nature of the Spirit continues throughout history and is correlative to the life-giving nature in NT Christians who are called “new creations” (1 Cor 5:17).
Importantly, the Spirit of God represents the presence of God among his people. In the OT (all of Scripture), the presence of God is equated with the Spirit of God (Ps 139:7–12). The Israelites understand that God’s presence among them was what made them distinct from all the peoples of the earth (Ex 33:14–16), and this culminated in the formation of the tabernacle and ultimately the temple itself (Ezek 43).
Finally, what moves to the forefront in the OT is the Spirit’s eschatological role in redemptive history: the prophetic hope of salvation. It is the Spirit of the Lord that is the distinguishing feature of Isaiah’s servant of the Lord, marking and empowering him for the work of salvation (Isa 42:1). This shows the unbreakable bond between God’s agent of salvation (the servant—Christ) and the Spirit. And it is the Spirit that will mark and distinguish the new covenant people of God (Ezek 36:22–28) when it is poured out on all people (Joel 2:25–32).
The Work of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament
Moving to the NT, the Spirit is present with Christ from beginning to the end. It is the Spirit that is active in his miraculous conception (Luke 1:30–35), his constant companion from his baptism (Matt 3:13–17), in the wilderness (Matt 4:1–11), throughout his ministry and his death (Heb 9:13–14), and in his resurrection (Rom 8:11).
At Pentecost, the risen Christ promised “power from on high” that would be the means by which the Great Commission is brought about (Acts 1:8). This outpouring of the Spirit ushers in the New Covenant Age—the “Day of the Lord” (Joel 2). And with this inauguration, the scope of God’s saving work is broadened not just to the people who share the blood of Abraham, but the faith of Abraham (Gal 3:7–9). This is a historical shift from a racial locus (Israel) to an inter-racial locus where all the nations will be blessed (Gen 12:1–3). Another new covenant reality is the intensification of the work in the lives of the people of God. What was external now is internal as the Spirit now produces God-honoring obedience (Ezek 36:26–27). And the Spirit continued its revelatory role in the NT by inspiring and carrying along the NT authors in order to write the very words of God (2 Tim 3:16–17; 2 Pet 1:16–21).
So now, the Spirit is present in the life of the believer in a way OT saints could only hope for. The Spirit is the one regenerating and illuminating believers to see the glory of Christ (1 Cor 12:1–3; 2 Cor 4:5–6), producing in us discernable fruits (Gal 6:8–10) that are to edify and build up the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:7). The Spirit also gives gifts to various members of the body, some ordinary and others miraculous (1 Cor 12:27–30). These would include gifts such as prophecy and speaking in tongues. In prophecy, a believer uses Spirit-inspired speech for upbuilding, encouragement, consolation, and building up the church (1 Cor 14:3–4). For speaking in tongues to have the same effect, there must be an interpretation, or else it is useless for building up the church (1 Cor 14:1–25).
We are commanded not just to tolerate these gifts, but to earnestly desire them (1 Cor 12:31, 14:1). This not only implies, but is explicit that these gifts are continuing today, all for the edification and strengthening of the church (1 Cor 14:3–4, 12, 26). These are to be done orderly and under the authority of the word of God (1 Cor 14:26–40). Thus, it is the Spirit which unites us as the body of Christ, and it is the Spirit of God that empowers us, and so we eagerly pursue these gifts and for more of the outpouring of the Spirit of Christ among us (Eph 5:18). In short, the Spirit is at work now, in the Church Age, until the final Parousia (1 Cor 13:10).