THEOLOGICALLY THINKING
Doctrinal pointers by Gerald B. Stanton, Th.D.
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The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit
Although there is a large measure of doctrinal agreement among evan gelical C h r i s t i a n s , there remain, nevertheless, two major theological battle grounds. These are: 1) proph ecy: the essential nature of God’s prophetic program, and the order of predicted events; 2) pneumatology, the person and work of the Holy Spirit, including His important rela tionships to the believer. Of the two, this latter is the more significant, dealing as it does with one of the persons of the Godhead. One of the central problems of pneumatology is indicated by the question: “ How do you receive the Holy Spirit?” This may be variously stated: “ Are all Christians indwelt by the Spirit of God?” “ Is the experi ence of receiving the Spirit at the moment of salvation or subsequent to it?” It is the firm conviction of the author that every true believer in Christ in this age is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and that from the very moment of salvation. Let us look at the testimony of Scripture. John 7:37-39 makes it clear that the sole condition for receiving the Holy Spirit is to believe in Christ. Acts 11:17 and Romans 5:5 clarify the fact that the presence of the Spirit is a gift from God, and a gift by its very nature is bestowed with out reference to personal merit. Pas sages such as 1 Corinthians 2:12, 3:16, and 6:19 reveal that indwelling is not based upon spirituality, for the Corinthian Christians were “ yet car nal” (1 Cor. 3 :3 ,4 ). Nevertheless they were indwelt. Galatians 3:2 indicates that the Spirit is received by “ the hearing of faith.” Acts 11:17 records that the Gentiles received the Spirit when they believed. Galatians 4:6 clarifies the fact that the Spirit indwells be lievers because of their sonship, not because of any other endowment. 1 John 3:24 and 4:13 imply that the whole family of God is indwelt with the Spirit, and not some select part of that family. Romans 8:9 testifies that absence of the Spirit is not caused by lack of spirituality, but is evi dence of lack of salvation. From these verses we may conclude that all Christians are indwelt by the Spirit, and that this indwelling stems from the moment of saving faith. The presence of the Spirit, like salva tion, is a gift of God and is not con tingent upon human effort, sanctifi cation or growth in grace.
Several passages have been thought to indicate that the indwelling of the Spirit follows the conversion experi ence. Acts 5:32 speaks of the Holy Spirit being given to them that obey God. Evidently this is not moral obedience, but the obedience of faith (1 Thess. 1:8). Acts 19:1,2 in the King James version sounds as though the Spirit might be received subse quent to saving faith. The transla tion is an unfortunate one, for Paul was making the presence of the Spirit a test of true conversion to Christ by asking, “Did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye believed?” In Psalm 51:11 David prayed that the Holy Spirit might not be taken away from him in consequence of his sin. In view of the New Testament teaching concerning the Spirit, it must be con cluded that such a removal of the' Spirit was possible in David’s day, but not in the present dispensation. No doubt the most difficult passage to reconcile with a doctrine of uni versal indwelling is Acts 8:14-17. Some have suggested that the ac count refers to a filling of the Spirit rather than an indwelling. A better solution may be that the normal min istry of the Spirit for this age was administered gradually. The indwell ing of the Spirit was withheld from the Samaritan converts of Philip until representatives of the church in Jeru salem were sent unto them. Thus, at least among Christians, the serious breach between Jews and Samaritans was closed. Religious unity would have been impossible unless the grace of God intervened to reconcile the two. It should be noted that this devi ation from the more normal opera tion of the Spirit was never repeated. The coldness of our churches today reflects the spiritual poverty in the hearts of many of God’s people. There is much talk about revival, but there can be no revival until there is a re turn to the power of the Spirit. Men are trying to do by organization, ad vertising, diplomacy, plans and pro grams that which can be accom plished only by the power of the Spirit of God (Zech. 4:6). While full ness of power comes only with the filling of the Spirit (Eph. 5:18), even this is dependent upon a prior recog nition of the presence of the Spirit within. God’s order is, first to recog nize that the body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and then to glorify the Lord in that temple (1 Cor. 6:19, 20). END.
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The King's Business/January 1958
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