Paul’s letters clearly portray a passionate Jewish man, transformed by Jesus and commissioned—as his Apostle to the Gentiles—to take a Hebraic Gospel to a Hellenized world. His life was characterized by what I call being Christ-centered and Father-focused. But we must not stop there. Paul’s faith was also Spirit-saturated. That is principle number nine.
My earlier observation about the Atonement of Jesus holds true here, too. The early church experienced the Holy Spirit—the “Promise of God” (Acts 1:4)—first, then reflected on their experience in light of Scripture.
Because the subject of God’s Spirit is, for Paul, so vast and so dense, let me give you three key observations followed by ten declarations.
But first, it will help to address a fundamental difference between the Western and biblical mindset. The Graeco-Roman (Western) way of thinking is formulaic. If we want to know how to pray to prosper, give us the prayer of Jabez, and millions of books will be sold because we want and love formulas.
The great Jewish philosopher Abraham Joshua Heschel noted that while Hebrews study to revere, the Greeks study to comprehend, and, by extension, Americans study to utilize. As an American, I can see he is right. We are pragmatists through and through. We want a theological formula about the Holy Spirit.
One reason many of us struggle with the subject is that the Holy Spirit is like the wind. He comes, he goes, he blows, he anoints, he prospers, he leads, but you cannot put the wind in a box. If you put the wind in a box, it is no longer wind. Even within the New Testament, we find, for example in the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit coming in a diverse manner. This can be frustrating for us because we want, and are often sold, a sequence, a clearly defined and tidy formula.
In contrast, a Hebraic perspective trains you to think relationally.
The biblical mind consistently links to covenant. And covenant is intrinsically relational. Salvation is all about being reconciled with the Father so that you come into the restoration after the image of His Son. The New Covenant promises this kind of relationship: For they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest (Hebrews 8:11).
Now, here is an important text from which we will draw three key observations:
Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven (1 Corinthians 15: 45-49).
- Paul identifies Jesus the Messiah, now exalted and enthroned, with the Holy Spirit.
- At his resurrection, Jesus became the last Adam.
- The historical Jesus is now present to us and experienced in us as the Holy Spirit.
We are seeing the fullness of the revelation that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, being worked out by the earliest Jewish followers of Jesus—in light of the cross, instructed by the Spirit (John 14:25-26). It is worth noting that all of this was shocking to Jewish ears then. My prayer is that these things shock your ears now.
The cross of Christ deals with the old man in order that the new man can come forth.
But make no mistake about it: the old man must be put to death. It is more than an issue of the will. It is more than an issue of the mind. It is more than an issue of desire. Sin has to be dealt with by death. You must die.
The holy God, creator of heaven and earth, cannot set aside sin. You have to die because you are in Adam, and like him, you have sinned. Here is the question: Will you die in your sins, or die in your substitute? God takes your sins seriously. So seriously, he gives up his only Son so you could die in him rather than on your own. In the process, the new creation can come forth in you, in the power of the Spirit. Thank you, Lord!
Whose image shall we bear? The man of heaven. Who is that heavenly man? It is the resurrected Lord, Messiah Jesus.
Jesus only becomes the last Adam in the resurrection. That is an important point. Until the resurrection, he fully identified as and represented the first Adam. He bore the full consequences of the judgment of sin against humanity (Adam) and died on our behalf.
But when he rose from the dead, he rose as the last Adam—the very image and likeness of God in the newness of life. That is why the resurrection is as vital as the cross. Jesus identified fully with us, decisively dealing with our sin and death. We must now decide daily to identify fully with him and receive his Spirit.
The experience of the Spirit is the experience of the risen Jesus.
It is not just the Spirit in some abstract, anomalous, impersonal way. It is the Jesus Spirit. It is the Spirit of the Lord, and he gives evidence of himself by crying out within us, “Abba, Father!” He becomes present without limit in his personal reality to indwell, to lead, to anoint, to empower so that we may bear witness that there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist (1 Cor 8:6).
Let me develop this further for you with ten declarations from Paul’s writings, attested to in all the New Testament.
The Holy Spirit is the:
- Inspirational source of Scriptures [2 Tim 3.16-17]
- Means by which our souls are regenerated and renewed unto God [Titus 3.4-7]
- Means by which the love of God is poured out into our hearts [Ro 5.3-5]
- Power of God for holy living by His indwelling presence [Rom 8.9-11; 1 Cor 3.16; 2 Tim 1.13-14]
- One who leads us as children of God [Rom 8.14-17]
- Source of liberty and transformation [2 Cor 3.17-18]
- Power for witnessing to the nations [Rom 15.18-19; 1 Cor 2.2-4]
- Source of unity in the Body of Christ [1 Cor 12.12-13; Eph 4.1-4a]
- Giver of wisdom who guides us in ways of holiness [Gal 5.16-18, 22-23; 6.7-8; Eph 3.14-19]
- Source of our joy, peace, and hope [Rom 14.13]
Each of these essential truths deserves more time and more study. For now, I simply wish to stimulate your thinking and stir your faith so you will move forward in greater faithfulness.
To that end I pray for you, in the words of St. Paul, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:17-20).
