- The Believer’s Fellowship with the Holy Spirit
Rev J R Tallach^1
The basis for our fellowship with the Holy Ghost is His mission as comforter. At the time of the discourse recorded in John 16, the immediate and longer-term outlook for Christ’s disciples was bleak. Christ their friend, master and rabbi was going to leave them in circumstances which could not but produce sorrow and perplexity. The Lord also said they would meet similar hatred from the world as He had met. Indeed the magistrates of the land would consider that they were doing God’s service in putting the disciples to death. They would do this with vigour and in ignorance because, Christ said, “they have not known the Father, nor Me” (Jn 16:3).
It was not necessary that these doleful predictions be made prior to the time when the Saviour was about to depart since He Himself had been with them. He had been there, for instance, to comfort them when John the Baptist was beheaded and the disciples “went and told Jesus” (Mt 14:12). He had been there to instruct them personally in the spiritual meaning of the parables (Lk 8:10). “Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God”. Now He was speaking of leaving them: “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you” (Jn 16:7). Christ here revealed to His disciples in the most emphatic terms the foundation for the revelation concerning the Spirit.
The Greek word translated Comforter here might also be translated Advocate but the word Comforter seems more appropriate in the context of the sorrow of the disciples. “Sorrow hath filled your heart”, He said, but He would send them “the Comforter” – that is, “the Spirit of truth” (Jn 16:6,7). The mystery of the sending of the Spirit was revealed in the Lord’s promises concerning His coming. John 14:16 speaks of Jesus praying to the Father, and the Spirit is the One whom the Father would send in Jesus’ name (14:26). Again Jesus says of Him: “Whom I will send unto you from the Father” (15:26) and again absolutely, “I will send Him” (16:7). The Spirit is promised (1) for the conversion and sanctification of the elect; and (2) for the consolation of believers.
The Spirit proceeds from the Father as the fountain. The Spirit also proceeds from the Son and this proceeding forms the first and primary basis for our fellowship with the Spirit. Jesus says, “When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me” (Jn 15:26).
The fact of the proceeding forth by the Spirit from Father and Son, in the external work of God, demonstrates and illustrates the Spirit’s relationships within the Godhead. The Spirit is a willing free agent. He came forth and of His own accord proceeds. As the Son does the work of a Redeemer, so the Spirit willingly proceeds from the Father and the Son.
First there is the purpose of the Father’s love as the fountain of all, then the Son asking (Jn 14:16) which embraces His purchase and His merit, and there follows the willing proceeding of the Spirit. This bestowal from this fountain is first a free gift as in John 14:16: “He shall give you another Comforter”. The Spirit, who is received through the gospel, not the law, is of mere grace and all His works are “free gifts”. He is also to be received as a free gift, and this is what faith does.
The Spirit comes with authority as One sent by the Father and the Son. This does not argue any inferiority in the Spirit, but only that the Spirit graciously accepts the work of a “delegate” in the salvation of the sinner. This view of the authority by which the Spirit comes to us casts light on some areas of gospel teaching.
(1) The Sin against the Holy Ghost. If the Spirit comes with the authority of the Father and Son, then refusing Him is a refusal of the authority of the Trinity. We are then to pray to the Father and the Son for the Spirit. “How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?” (Lk 11:13). We are also not to grieve the Spirit (Eph 4:30), because He comes with the name, with the love and with the grace of the whole Trinity – He is sent with authority.
The Spirit is said to be poured or shed on us (Tts 3:6). This was the main term used in the Old Testament. “Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest” (Is 32:15). The figure is of water poured out on dry land. “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplications” (Zec 12:10). Thus the covenant of grace is free; the Spirit is given. When we grieve the Spirit, we turn our back on the covenant of grace.
(2) The covenant is ordered and sure as it comes from the love of the Father and the procurement of the Son – the purchase of His blood. The receiving of the Spirit as the Spirit of sanctification is a passive act like a vessel receiving the water poured into it. Like the wind blowing over the dry bones in Ezekiel’s vision, He makes them live. As the Spirit of consolation, however, it is different. In this sense the world cannot receive the Spirit, “because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him: for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” (Jn 14:17). The world cannot receive the Spirit of consolation, but the believer has that power. This is the power of faith. “But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive” (Jn 7:39).
Owen describes three special acts of faith in receiving the Spirit: (1) The Spirit is described as the “Spirit of promise”: “Ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise” (Eph 1:13). Faith receives the Spirit as the One promised in the Word. (2) By prayer, faith receives the Spirit as the Spirit of supplication. Owen sees this as the chiefest work of faith in this world. “How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?” (Lk 11:13). (3) Faith attends to the actings of the Spirit and improves on them according to His mind and will.^2
The manner of working in us by the Spirit is variously described. He works effectually, dividing to every man “after the counsel of His own will” (Eph 1:11). The same Spirit distributes to everyone “as He will”, giving one degree to one, and another degree to another (1 Cor 12:11). Thus the saints are kept constantly dependent on Him. He gives when and what He desires. This action of the Spirit does not inhibit the liberty and actions of the Father and the Son. This is because the will of each Person of the Godhead is the same – the one counsel of all, and each acting freely.
The work of the Spirit is to glorify Christ. “He shall glorify Me, for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you” (Jn 16:14). What the Spirit will take is the “all things” given to the Father by Christ; that is, all the fruits of election provided in the blood of the Son. These are committed to the Spirit for Him to dispose of for the good of His people. He shows them the mercy, grace and forgiveness which the Father has provided and the Son purchased.
Again the Spirit sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts (Rom 5:5). He gives a comforting persuasion that God loves the sinner and has kind thoughts towards him. Owen says, “What we have of heaven in the world lies herein”.
The Spirit affirms that believers belong to the family of God. “The Spirit Itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God” (Rom 8:16). Though they are by nature the children of wrath, they receive the Spirit of the Father and become the children of the Father. The setting is a courtroom where the Judge hears the claim from the litigant that he is one of God’s children. Those opposed bring many evidences that he is not what he claims to be, but at last one of proven righteousness gives evidence on the side of the person before the court and establishes the claim. So Satan and the world oppose the very standing of the child of God, just as Satan and those at the crucifixion of Christ raised this calumny against Christ’s sonship: “If Thou be the Son of God” (Mt 4:3,27:43). But the Spirit enters and persuades the heart by a word of promise that the plea is well based.
Owen refers to the sealing of the Spirit in Eph 1:13: “Ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise”. While he confesses, “I am not very clear in the peculiar intendment of this matter”, he does say that there is an effectual communication of the image of God to the soul so as to be an evidence to the soul that it is accepted of God.
The Spirit is given into believers’ hearts as an earnest: God has “given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts”, says Paul (2 Cor 1:22). The Spirit Himself, personally considered, is the earnest. An earnest is a part of the whole given by God and is a confirmation of the promise made at the time of the transaction. The delivery of the remainder is thus guaranteed. The Spirit has several ways of operating in us and by us. Stirring up grace and giving new supplies of grace from Christ Jesus both tend to greater obedience and closer walking with God. All such blessings are to be seen as coming from Him in an especial manner.
The Spirit’s work is to be seen in and by the Word of God. Stephen charges the Jews with “always resisting the Holy Ghost” (Acts 7:51,52). How did they do this? They slew the Lord’s prophets – that is, they resisted God’s Word. The Jews “were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake” (Acts 6:10). Our submission to the Word is a submitting to the Holy Ghost, and our resistance to the Word is a resisting of the Holy Ghost.
The chief end of the gospel is to restore man to holiness, and thus to make him happy.
Archibald Alexander