The Giving Spirit
The Nicene Creed reminds us that the Holy Spirit is “the Lord and Giver of Life.” How does the Spirit give us life?
While the Holy Spirit can be mysterious for Christians, God seals us in the Spirit to show we belong to Him. The gracious event of Pentecost teaches us so much about the Holy Spirit. Christians should never grieve the Spirit, nor quench His power. In fact, learning about the sealing work of the Spirit can help us answer questions about “baptism of the Holy Spirit.” It helps us to know what the filling of the Spirit is, and what we must do.
Sometimes we have questions or doubts about the Spirit, but God’s Word shows us how we can know if we the Holy Spirit or not.
For those who wish to go to the Black Belt level of this subject, learn how the Spirit applies what Christ has accomplished, and what the doctrine of cessationism teaches.
The Spirit In Trials
Some Christians think that if we have the Holy Spirit, our troubles will be taken away. However, “the really foundational and fundamental tensions and trials in the Christian life are not those that will be removed by the Spirit, but those that are actually caused because the Spirit is present with us. Its because the Spirit dwells in us that the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit wars against the flesh. But just because, as the earnest of our inheritance, He dwells in us and therefore sets up the tension that is characteristic exclusively of the Christian believer, He is also thew Comforter, because He is the earnest of the inheritance. And the very struggles and trials through which the Christian goes as a Christian believer therefore for Owen are paradoxically also his comforts because they are the fruit of One who is in him, to assure him of the fullness of the inheritance that is to be his in the last day.”
How The Spirit Seals Us
That official seal shows the authenticity and legality of the adoption. In Biblical times, kings and their officials would use the king’s signet ring, a ring that had a special engraving upon it, to stamp laws or documents as official, carrying the authority of the king’s approval. Similarly, Paul is teaching the Ephesians that they have been adopted by God through the blood of Christ. How do they know it is true and official? They were marked in Christ with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit. When a person truly professes Jesus Christ, God places His authoritative stamp on that person through His Spirit at that moment, causing the new child of God to cry out by the Spirit of adoption, “Abba! Father!” (Rom 8:15).
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