Chapter 62 _ the Spirit Indwelling
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Chapter 62
The Spirit Indwelling
As we noted in the preceding chapter in discussing , the Spirit does certain new and special things since His “coming” on the Day of Pentecost. At the heart of these distinctive ministries lies the ministry of dwelling in believers, for it is foundational to all His ministries to Christians in this age.
17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
I. The People Indwelt
To express indwelling Paul not only used the preposition en but also the verb oikeō, to dwell (; ; though, of course, sometimes he used only the preposition as in 6:19). He related this ministry of the Spirit to all believers.
A. The Indwelling Spirit is a Gift from God to All Believers
A number of passages clearly teach that the Spirit is given to all believers rather than selectively to some (; ; ; ; ). One would expect this to be so since a gift is not a reward and no merit is involved in receiving this gift.
37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.
38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”
39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
16 Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’
17 So if God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could stand in God’s way?”
5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.
5 Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
B. Not to Possess the Indwelling Spirit Indicates an Unsaved Condition
Not to have the Spirit is the same as not belonging to Christ, Paul declared (). Jude also described apostates as those who did not have the Spirit () and who were “natural” (niv). This is the same word used in , another verse that describes an unsaved individual. To be natural is to be unsaved and not to have the Spirit. Therefore having the Spirit characterizes all born again people.
9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.
19 These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.
14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.
C. Sinning Believers are Indwelt by the Spirit
The acid test of whether or not the Spirit indwells all believers is whether or not He lives in sinning Christians. Clearly He does. was written to a very spiritually mixed group, some fine, spiritual believers, but many who were carnal and worldly; yet Paul did not say that only the spiritual group were indwelt by the Spirit. One brother, who in Paul’s judgment was a believer (5:5) was living in gross sin. Others were at legal swords’ points with each other (chap. 6). Still Paul said that the Spirit was “in” all of them (). Not only did he make no exceptions to his statement, but he made the indwelling of the Spirit the ground for his exhortation to holy living. Clearly then, all believers, but only believers, have the Spirit living in them.
19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
II. The Permanence of Indwelling
Some who agree that the Spirit is given to all believers feel that He may withdraw from those who commit certain sins. Thus they acknowledge His indwelling but deny its permanence.
Whatever sins could cause His departure would have to be more grievous than the fornication of chapter 5 or the legal disputes of chapter 6, for Paul did not exclude these believers from his statement that the Spirit dwelt in them (v. 19).
Furthermore, if the Spirit leaves sinning Christians, then they are no longer Christians according to . The Spirit cannot leave a believer without throwing that believer back into a lost, unsaved condition. Disindwelling has to mean loss of salvation, and loss of salvation must include disindwelling. The security of the believer and the permanent indwelling of the Spirit are inseparable doctrines.
9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.
But we also have the positive promise of the Savior that He would pray to the Father who would give another Helper in order “that He may be with you forever” (). To be sure, sin affects the effectiveness of the Spirit in the believer’s life, but it does not remove His presence from believers.
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—
III. Some Problems Concerning the Indwelling of the Spirit
A. Is Not Obedience a Condition for Indwelling?
Peter spoke of the Holy Spirit “whom God has given to those who obey Him” (). Does this mean that obedience is a condition for the giving of the Spirit and thus only certain (i.e., obedient) believers have the Spirit? Yes, if obedience is understood in the way Peter used it. He was addressing the unbelieving Sanhedrin and concluded by pressing the matter of their obedience. Obedience to what? Certainly the obedience of the Sanhedrin had nothing to do with obedience to matters in the Christian life, for they were not Christians. The obedience Peter called them to was to obey (believe) the truth that Jesus was their Messiah. Shortly after, some of the priests in Jerusalem did believe and Luke said “a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith” ().
32 We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”
7 So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.
Two other references use obedience as a synonym for receiving Christ’s salvation. Paul described the purpose of his mission as “for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name” ( kjv). The writer to the Hebrews said that Christ became the Source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him (). Therefore, if obedience is understood correctly (as obeying the Gospel), it is a condition for receiving the gift of the Spirit.
5 Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake.
9 and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him
B. Are There Not Illustrations of the Temporariness of Indwelling?
Yes, there are, but they are all before the Day of Pentecost (; perhaps ; ; ). But there are no such examples after the coming of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. Since those before Pentecost relate to a different economy of the Spirit, they cannot be used to prove that the same thing happens after Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came to indwell believers permanently.
14 Now the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him.
11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
C. Does Not the Delay in Giving the Spirit to the Samaritans Show that It is Subsequent to Salvation and Thus Selective?
That there was a delay in giving the Spirit to the Samaritans is clear; the question is, Why? Some say it shows that indwelling comes subsequent to salvation and not necessarily to all believers. Others equate this giving of the Spirit with the filling of the Spirit. Still others say the procedure was different in this instance because the Samaritans were the first non-Jewish group to be taken into the church. The latter is partly true: Samaritans were part Jewish and part Gentile. The purely Gentile pattern for the giving of the Spirit is found in , where the Spirit was given to the Gentiles in Cornelius’s house at the moment they believed.
44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message.
The best explanation of this delay in the case of the Samaritans lies in the schismatic nature of Samaritan religion. Their worship rivaled Jewish worship in Jerusalem; therefore, God needed to prove to them that their new Christian faith was not also to rival the Christian church in Jerusalem. The best way to show beyond doubt that the Samaritan Christians belonged to the same group as the Jerusalem Christians (and vice versa, to show the Jerusalem leaders that Samaritans were genuinely saved) was to delay the giving of the Spirit until Peter and John came from Jerusalem to Samaria. This delay and God’s use of Peter and John in conveying the gift of the Spirit saved the early church from having two rival mother churches.
D. Does Not Show that Indwelling is Subsequent to
1 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples
2 and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
3 So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?” “John’s baptism,” they replied.
4 Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.”
5 On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
6 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.
Salvation?
To answer yes to this question requires understanding that the twelve disciples of John the Baptist were already Christian believers before they met Paul at Ephesus. But this is not the correct understanding. They did not become believers in Jesus by believing John’s message and receiving his baptism; they became Christian believers only after Paul explained to them the difference between John and Jesus. In fact, it does not appear from the text that they even understood much about John’s message. But when they understood and believed what Paul explained to them, they immediately received the Spirit through Paul’s laying on of hands. There was no delay.
The normal Gentile pattern for receiving the Spirit was established in the house of Cornelius, where the Spirit was given when the people believed, which was while Peter was preaching and before they were baptized in water (10:44, 47).
E. What is the Relation of Indwelling to Anointing?
Anointing in the Old Testament, a very solemn matter, made a person or thing holy and sacrosanct (). It was associated with the Holy Spirit and with equipping for service (, ; ). In the New Testament Christ was anointed (; ; ; ) and all believers are anointed (; , ). As far as the anointing of believers is concerned, these passages teach that it is not something repeated but something that abides. Although Old Testament anointing was related more to service (as also was Christ’s anointing), New Testament believers’ anointing concerns a relationship that enables us to understand truth. Old Testament anointing seems closer to the idea of the filling of the Spirit, whereas believers’ anointing is akin to the indwelling of the Spirit. Not every believer experienced it in the Old Testament; all do today. It may have been repeated in the Old Testament; it abides on all believers today.
9 “Take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and everything in it; consecrate it and all its furnishings, and it will be holy.
10 Then anoint the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils; consecrate the altar, and it will be most holy.
11 Anoint the basin and its stand and consecrate them.
12 “Bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance to the tent of meeting and wash them with water.
13 Then dress Aaron in the sacred garments, anoint him and consecrate him so he may serve me as priest.
14 Bring his sons and dress them in tunics.
15 Anoint them just as you anointed their father, so they may serve me as priests. Their anointing will be to a priesthood that will continue throughout their generations.”
1 Then Samuel took a flask of olive oil and poured it on Saul’s head and kissed him, saying, “Has not the Lord anointed you ruler over his inheritance?
9 As Saul turned to leave Samuel, God changed Saul’s heart, and all these signs were fulfilled that day.
1 Then the angel who talked with me returned and woke me up, like someone awakened from sleep.
2 He asked me, “What do you see?” I answered, “I see a solid gold lampstand with a bowl at the top and seven lamps on it, with seven channels to the lamps.
3 Also there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.”
4 I asked the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?”
5 He answered, “Do you not know what these are?” “No, my lord,” I replied.
6 So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.
7 “What are you, mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of ‘God bless it! God bless it!’ ”
8 Then the word of the Lord came to me:
9 “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple; his hands will also complete it. Then you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you.
10 “Who dares despise the day of small things, since the seven eyes of the Lord that range throughout the earth will rejoice when they see the chosen capstone in the hand of Zerubbabel?”
11 Then I asked the angel, “What are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the lampstand?”
12 Again I asked him, “What are these two olive branches beside the two gold pipes that pour out golden oil?”
13 He replied, “Do you not know what these are?” “No, my lord,” I said.
14 So he said, “These are the two who are anointed to serve the Lord of all the earth.”
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,
27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.
38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.
9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.”
21 Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us,
20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.
27 As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.
The New Testament clearly teaches that all believers are permanently indwelt. Let not our familiarity with this blunt the significance of it. This universal and permanent ministry to believers stands in sharp contrast with the indwelling ministry of the Spirit in the Old Testament (). It means that whether or not we feel it, God the Holy Spirit lives within our beings constantly. This ought to give us (a) a sense of security in our relationship with God, (b) a motivation to practice that presence of God, and (c) a sensitivity to sins against God.
17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
niv Holy Bible: New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
kjv King James Version
@book{Ryrie_1999,
place={Chicago, IL},
title={Basic Theology: A Popular Systematic Guide to Understanding Biblical Truth},
publisher={Moody Press},
author={Ryrie, Charles Caldwell},
year={1999},
pages={409–413}}