Word of Salvation – Vol. 40 No.32 – August 1995

 

The Holy Spirit And The Christian

 

Sermon by Rev. W. Wiersma on Lord’s Day 20

Scripture Readings: John 14:15-18, 16:5-16

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ.

Did you know that you can’t be a Christian without the Holy Spirit?  That without the Holy Spirit you couldn’t believe in Jesus – you wouldn’t know who Jesus is or what He has done?  Without the Holy Spirit you are not able to believe in or abide in Christ.  What I am saying is this, the Holy Spirit is absolutely necessary for faith in Jesus Christ and for life in Him.  You can’t be saved without the Holy Spirit.  In other words the Holy Spirit is not an optional extra to the Christian faith and experience.

The Heidelberg Catechism reminds us that the Christian church has always taught the existence and necessity of the Holy Spirit.  The Christian Church has always expressed her belief in the Holy Spirit.  In the Apostles’ Creed, the church simply says: “I believe in the Holy Spirit.”  The Nicene Creed expresses this faith more fully: “And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets.”  The Athanasian Creed is even more elaborate.  The point I am making is the same point which the Athanasian Creed makes very strongly – that belief in the Holy Spirit is essential to the Christian faith and salvation.  The Heidelberg Catechism makes that clear when it groups the last five Articles of the Apostles’ Creed under the heading “The Holy Spirit and our Sanctification”.

Now Lord’s Day 20 makes two points:

1.  Who the Holy Spirit is; and

2.  What the Holy Spirit does for those whom Jesus is saving.

First, the Holy Spirit is God.  The Holy Spirit, like the Father and the Son is eternal, without beginning or end; beyond the confines of space and time.  The Holy Spirit is also a person.  He is not just a power.  Scripture says that the Holy Spirit comforts.  He can be grieved.  He is the Spirit of truth.  In theological terms, the Holy Spirit is the third person of the divine Trinity.  He is an essential part of God.  Without the Holy Spirit, God would not be God.  So, just as we believe in the Father and the Son, we should also believe in the Holy Spirit.  And believing in the Holy Spirit means not only that you believe in His existence, but it also means being convinced that without the Spirit of God you cannot live.  In fact, without the Holy Spirit nothing could live.  For as the Nicene Creed has it: “He is the Lord and Giver of life.”  This is true of all of life.  Genesis 1 teaches us that the Spirit of God brought life and beauty to God’s creation.

That the Holy Spirit is the Lord and Giver of life is also true of the new and eternal life which God is bringing into his creation by Jesus Christ.  The Holy Spirit brings that new life of Christ to expression in the hearts and lives of the people whom the Father has given to Jesus and for whom Jesus has done all His saving work.

I would like to emphasise this truth, that what the Holy Spirit does is part of the ongoing work of God and His Christ for the salvation of His people and through them the salvation of His whole creation.  You see, sometimes the person, work and gifts of the Spirit are talked about as if they are the result of human efforts, as if we humans have the Holy Spirit in our control.  As if what the Holy Spirit does depends on our activities and techniques.  There is a lot of confusion about the person and work of the Holy Spirit because it is forgotten that His work is part of the sovereign and gracious work of God.  The Holy Spirit is God, one with the Father and the Son.  One in their plan and outworking of the salvation of sinners and the restoration of the creation.  If we keep that in mind we shall see that the Holy Spirit is involved in all of the various stages and parts of our Christian faith, understanding and experience.

Look how the Catechism presents it.  It says that the Holy Spirit is given to us personally so that by true faith He will make us share in Christ and all His blessings.  I think that is a wonderful summary of what the Holy Spirit is all about for the believer, or should I say, for the elect of God.  The Holy Spirit brings the sinners for whom Christ has died – whom Christ has bought with His precious blood – into contact with this Christ who is their new and true life.

We can put it this way; the Lord Jesus has done His saving work on our behalf nearly 2000 years ago.  How do we get to personally experience the benefits of that work?  Or think of it like this.  Jesus Christ, and all that God has given sinners in Him, is in heaven.  How does Christ communicate Himself and all His benefits to the people the Father has given Him?  The answer is, by the Holy Spirit.

First, the Spirit helps us to hear and understand the Gospel, which is Christ presenting Himself and His teaching to us.  By the working of the Holy Spirit, the sheep hear the Good Shepherd’s voice and they follow Him.  Jesus said that without the Spirit we can’t see the kingdom of God; we can’t see what God and His Messiah are doing for the salvation of mankind and the creation,

The Catechism puts this whole idea positively in the answer to the question “what is true faith?”  True faith is not only a sure knowledge but also a deep-rooted assurance created in me by the Holy Spirit through the Gospel, that not only others but I also have had my sins forgiven and have been made right with God and have been granted full salvation, all of this only on the basis of what Christ has done for me.

It is by faith that we have fellowship with Christ and all His riches.  It is by faith that we accept the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  It is by faith that we experience the benefits of Christ’s saving work on our behalf.  And faith is the gift of God the Holy Spirit, it is the result of the Holy Spirit enabling us to hear the Word and respond to Him.  You might say that is the first stage of Christian experience; getting to know Jesus and all that God has given us in Him.  As Jesus said before He left his disciples: “When the Spirit, the other Comforter comes, He will take of what is mine and make it known to you.”  The Holy Spirit communicates Christ to us.

A next stage, or aspect, is that the believer begins to rely on Jesus for peace with God and for a real future.  Faith begins to express itself in dependence on Jesus.  That is called living by the Spirit, that is, living by what the Spirit shows you of Christ.  When you live by the Spirit you no longer depend on your own efforts.  You expect nothing good from yourself.  You no longer try to defend yourself.  Rather you begin to gratefully accept the obedience and death of Jesus as your righteousness and peace with God.

Christ and all that He is and has done, is your right to a place in God’s kingdom.  By faith in Christ you share in His death and resurrection.  You are dead to self and alive to God, in Christ.

That’s what it means to be a new creation.  It is a new identity.  The new identity of the believer is what the believer is, what you are, in your relationship with Jesus Christ.  In Christ you are forgiven.  In Christ you are clean and holy.  In Christ you are righteous.  In Christ you are accepted.  In Christ you are a child of God.  It is by the Spirit that you believe and accept these things.  It is by the Holy Spirit that believers cry, Abba, Father! 

Then comes the next stage – the practical outworking of your dependence on Christ and His benefits.  Jesus said, “If you abide in me you will bear much fruit.”  James wrote, “Faith will show itself in works of obedience.”  “If you love me,” said Jesus, “you will keep my commandments.”  In other words, by the Holy Spirit’s activity in your heart, Christ will change your life.

The apostle Paul talks about producing the fruit of the Spirit.  He also writes about God the Holy Spirit being at work in the believers to will and to do what is pleasing to Him.  In other words, the Holy Spirit produces the desire and the ability to love and serve God.  This is called “walking by the Spirit”.  The Holy Spirit motivates and enables us to walk as we should walk; in obedience to Christ.  It is in this connection that the Catechism, in its teaching on prayer, urges us to pray for the Holy Spirit.  We need the Holy Spirit for holy living.  We need the Holy Spirit to have Christ living in our hearts by faith.  We need the Holy Spirit to so experience the love of God, that we can say with the apostle Paul, “the love of Christ compels me to behave as I do.”

This is all part of an ongoing process of growth.  It is part of an increasingly closer walk with God.  The better we see the love of God in Christ, the more we are inclined to trust an obey.  And the more we trust and obey, the more we see and experience the love and faithfulness and power of God.  It is like Jesus said, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him.”  That promise is fulfilled through the Holy Spirit who so reveals Christ and all His benefits to the believers that they cry out in surprised joy, Abba, Father!

So, essentially, the Holy Spirit puts us in touch with the living God.  He does that through giving us faith in Jesus.  Our knowledge and experience of God is basically our knowledge and experience of Jesus.

It is Jesus who shows and convinces us that God our Creator is also our Saviour.  It is Jesus who teaches us that God (the Word) has become flesh and dwelt among us in order to seek and find the lost.  The Son of God was sent so that through His suffering and death we might be reconciled to God and be His sons and daughters for ever.  It is Jesus who tells us that after His ascension to God’s throne in heaven, God would come to us in the Spirit, and Jesus would be present with His people even till the end of the age.

It is by enabling us to know Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, that the Holy Spirit introduces us into a living relationship with God in all His glory and greatness.  And for us the greatest of God’s glory is the love and mercy by which He gave us a Saviour who has perfectly accomplished everything that is necessary for our salvation.  We praise God for Jesus Christ who has purchased us with His blood and is our door into the presence of God Himself.

Amen.