Sermon Tone Analysis

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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” ().

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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},