Christ In You / You in Christ, Part 3: The Holy Spirit

The last two weeks I’ve reminded us both what God says is true about us as his beloved and included children, and that we participate (or not, sometimes) in that reality by our perspective of how we understand that we are ‘in union with Christ’ or ‘in Christ’ and Christ is in us. Today I want to turn further toward a critical portion of this topic: the constant presence of the Holy Spirit in us. The Bible doesn’t tell us as much about the Spirit as about Jesus, who is the living center of the Father’s plan, so we can’t assume and extrapolate about the Spirit where the Bible isn’t clear. Yet, there is plenty for us to grow in understanding of and surrender to, the Holy Spirit’s work in us.

Theologian Todd Hunter writes (via Facebook): "Today, we live in the age of the Spirit. This didn’t start on Azusa Street at the turn of the last century, or in other renewal movements. For those who need a safe and sane take on this, listen to the words of J.I. Packer: 'The essence of the ministry of the Holy Spirit is that as Jesus’ deputy and representative agent in the minds and hearts of Christians, the Spirit mediates to us the personal presence and ministry of the Lord Jesus.' What is to be afraid of about that? The Spirit is who keeps us in step with the ministry of the ascended Jesus!"
Many of us may be uncertain about “too much Holy Spirit stuff” due to stories we’ve heard of crazy-sounding activities attributed to the Spirit’s work. But as the above quote shows, the Spirit is intimately connected with Jesus Christ, and connects Jesus to us. Since the mind of the Spirit is the mind of God (Rom. 8:27), there is no conflict or difference; and who wouldn’t want more of the mind of God, active in us? 

Ezekiel wrote that God had determined to put his Spirit in his people (36:27) and that his breath would come again into the ‘old dry bones’ in 37:1-14. Remember, the same Hebrew word is used for breath, spirit and wind, so this is like a description of new life, if we remember Gen. 2:7, “he breathed the breath of life in to the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.” Our physical life requires breath, and just the same, our spiritual life requires the movement of the Holy Spirit in us, giving us, in essence, a new birth (John 3:5-7). Paul writes flatly and emphatically in Rom. 8:11, "The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you” and that Spirit is equated with Christ himself in v. 10. 

Some people wish they could have been with the disciples, to follow Jesus around and hear him teach. Others want to hear a message from God about what to do today. But the Holy Spirit, promised to us by Jesus, makes the first happen in us as we commune with God in his written word and in prayer; and the second happens when we pay attention to the nudges of the Spirit, who is constantly speaking to us. We have no lack of direction from God: “the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth…he will teach you all things” (John 14:17, 26). But, is the Spirit here only to teach us an intellectual grasp of correct doctrine? By no means! We’ll look at more next week, and in sermons to come.