04.47. LESSON 47

LESSON 47 In Romans 15:1-33, Paul states his lifetime purpose as follows: "Making it my aim so to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, that I might not build on another man’s foundation." His journey to Jerusalem, as we have seen, was tributary to this purpose. Christ’s words to Ananias, "He is a chosen vessel to me, to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings," kept him loyally waging a broad, uncompromising war against the usurping "God of this world... Satan, the deceiver of the whole world," Christ’s inveterate enemy.

Alongside this great, Godlike purpose, Paul, knowing the inadequacy of human power for this superhuman task, names the divine power that came to strengthen him: "Christ wrought through me... for the obedience of the Gentiles, by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:18 with its context ascribes the miracles that attended and confirmed Christianity in its beginning to the power of the "Holy Trinity." All that God and Christ had previously contributed to the making of Christianity united in the Spirit on Pentecost with a burst of power, so that, since then, "The power of the Holy Spirit" is the power of Father, Son, and Spirit. Instead of coming in place of God and Christ, the Spirit brings them to men. This accords with Christ’s instructions to his apostles: "When he, the Spirit of truth, is come... he shall glorify me... All things whatsoever the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, he taketh of mine, and shall declare it unto you" (John 16:13-15). In the divine economy, both in nature (Genesis 1:1-3) and in religion, the power of the Godhead comes to a perfected focus in the Holy Spirit.

Inasmuch as Paul has already prayed (Romans 15:13) that "The God of hope" might fill the Christians in Rome with "All joy and peace... (and) hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit," the power that sustains, as well as the power that makes, Christians is "The power of the Holy Spirit." The one God, who gives men justification through His Son, dwells in justified men through his re-creating, sanctifying Spirit (Romans 15:16). "For through him (Christ) we both (Jew and Gentile) have our access in one Spirit unto the Father... builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit" (Ephesians 2:18-22). There is but one line of approach for men to God, always through Christ, the Spirit, and the word—the word for instruction, Christ for justification, and the Spirit for sanctifying power. The Holy Spirit did not exhaust himself in his incidental, inaugural miracles, for he is eternal, unwasting God, Christ, and Spirit integrated, and at work saving the lost, through the instrumentality of the word. God is no more limited to miracles in religion than he is in nature. The Spirit and the Church

Christ told his disciples that God would "give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him" (Luke 11:13). He also taught: "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, from within him shall flow rivers of living water" (John 7:37-38). When John wrote his book many years later, he explains: "This spake he of the Spirit, which they that believeth on him were to receive: for the Spirit was not yet given; because Christ was not glorified." Christ promised the Spirit to every believer.

After his resurrection, a few days before his ascension and glorification, Christ in preparation for the fulfillment of this promise, charged his apostles not to leave Jerusalem until God’s promise, through him that they should be "baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days hence," thus becoming "clothed with power from on high" (Luke 24:49), was fulfilled. He concluded the charge: "Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you" (Acts 1:4-8).

How "the eternal Spirit," "the Holy Spirit of promise," was "poured forth" by the glorified Christ, and how the apostles "were all filled with the Holy Spirit" and "clothed with power from on high," is recorded in Acts 2:1-47. The corn-Ilion idea that the resurrection of Christ supplied the new power found in the apostles and the church after Pentecost does not satisfy readers of the inspired records. Weeks after his resurrection, but days before his glorification, Christ told his waiting, expectant apostles that they could receive the prerequisite, promised power when the Spirit came. It is scriptural to associate enabling power with the Spirit, prevenient grace with God, and vicarious suffering with Christ. That the church of God and of Christ began as a church with the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost is no more certain than that, when the church began, the Holy Spirit took up his residence in it, as "the house of God." The two supreme gifts, age-lasting gifts, to the church were forgiveness of sins and the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). Peter is soon speaking of "The Holy Spirit, whom God hath given to them that obey him" (Acts 5:32), as his permanent co-witness.

Since only men "full of the Holy Spirit" could "serve tables," Stephen, "A man full of faith and the Holy Spirit" was chosen for this work (Acts 6:2-5). Barnabas, "A good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith" (Acts 11:24), was soon prominent in the church. Later, Gentile Christians in distant Pisidia were "filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 13:52). Faith, joy, and the Holy Spirit dwelt together in these early Christians. As men believed and obeyed the gospel, joy and the Spirit entered into them, as inevitable workings of the gospel; the gospel was made to work this way. Consequently, to be filled with the Spirit and to go on their "way rejoicing" were the normal experiences of all Christians. In view of this fact, and the additional fact that Christ promised the Spirit to every believer, why are many Christians today joyless and doubtful of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling presence? Really, do you know why?

Paul Lived in the Power of the Spirit

Romans 15:1-133 is full of the Holy Spirit. Twice, the express-:ion, "In the power of the Holy Spirit," occurs; once, the Spirit is named as the Sanctifier of converts, and once, as the Inspirer of love among brethren (Romans 15:30). Paul teaches in this chapter that his rich, dynamic life was lived in the power of the Holy Spirit; that the Spirit permeated and energized him, "spirit and soul and body," for God’s work.

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