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The Baptism of the Holy Spirit: Difference between revisions
→What the Bible teaches
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To be sure, a condition is placed on this being “in the Spirit”: having the Spirit of God dwelling in the person. But, as 1 Cor. 3:16 shows—addressed to the “carnal” (1 Cor. 3:1–3) Corinthian Christians, no less!—Paul believes that every Christian is indwelt by the Spirit of God. Indeed, this is just what Paul affirms in the last part of the verse, where he denies that the person who does not have the “Spirit of Christ” can make any claim to being a Christian at all. In other words, for Paul, possession of the Spirit goes hand-in-hand with being a Christian. However much we may need to grow in our relationship to the Spirit; however much we may be graciously given fresh and invigorating experiences of God’s Spirit, from the moment of conversion on, the Holy Spirit is a settled resident within. That Paul in the same verse can speak of the believer as “in the Spirit” and the Spirit as being “in” the believer reveals the metaphorical nature of his language. In the one case, the Spirit is pictured as entering into and taking control of the person’s life; in the other, the believer is pictured as living in that realm in which the Spirit rules, guides, and determines one’s destiny.<ref>Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1996), 489–490.</ref> | To be sure, a condition is placed on this being “in the Spirit”: having the Spirit of God dwelling in the person. But, as 1 Cor. 3:16 shows—addressed to the “carnal” (1 Cor. 3:1–3) Corinthian Christians, no less!—Paul believes that every Christian is indwelt by the Spirit of God. Indeed, this is just what Paul affirms in the last part of the verse, where he denies that the person who does not have the “Spirit of Christ” can make any claim to being a Christian at all. In other words, for Paul, possession of the Spirit goes hand-in-hand with being a Christian. However much we may need to grow in our relationship to the Spirit; however much we may be graciously given fresh and invigorating experiences of God’s Spirit, from the moment of conversion on, the Holy Spirit is a settled resident within. That Paul in the same verse can speak of the believer as “in the Spirit” and the Spirit as being “in” the believer reveals the metaphorical nature of his language. In the one case, the Spirit is pictured as entering into and taking control of the person’s life; in the other, the believer is pictured as living in that realm in which the Spirit rules, guides, and determines one’s destiny.<ref>Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1996), 489–490.</ref> | ||
This is reiterated by Paul in Ephesians 1:13-14: | |||
:''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, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.<ref>The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Eph 1:13–14.</ref> | |||
F.F. Bruce comments on this passage thusly: | |||
:The seal of the Spirit was received by the Gentiles here addressed as it had been received earlier by Jewish Christians—'''when they believed'''. The verbal form used here is identical with that found in Acts 19:2, where Paul at Ephesus asks a group of “disciples” if they received the Holy Spirit when they believed; it is a participial form meaning “having believed” or “on believing.<ref>F. F. Bruce, The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1984), 265.<ref> | |||
And Peter O'Brien is clearly in agreement with this interpretation: | |||
:'''When the Gentiles believed the gospel, they were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.''' The aorist participle ‘believed’ is best interpreted in this context as being coincident with the main verb ‘you were sealed’. The participle does not here express antecedent action,125 as though the Gentiles believed and then subsequently were sealed with the Holy Spirit. Rather, the believing and being sealed were two sides of the one event. A similar conjunction with the same verb form is found in Acts 19:2, where Paul asks a group of ‘disciples’ at Ephesus if they received the Holy Spirit when they believed.<ref>Peter Thomas O’Brien, The Letter to the Ephesians, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1999), 119.</ref> | |||
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