The Holy Spirit is mentioned only once in the first 7 chapters of Romans, but is referred to nearly 20 times in chapter 8. The Spirit is to a Christian what God the Creator is to the physical world. Without God, the physical world would not exist. It has been created and is continually sustained by the omnipotent power of God.
So the Holy Spirit—who also, of course, participated in the creation of the world—is to the Christian. The Holy Spirit is the divine agent who creates, sustains, and preserves spiritual life in those who place their trust in Jesus Christ through their baptism in order to have sins forgiven.
It is the Holy Spirit who ultimately will bring every Christian into the full consummation of his salvation by granting him eternal glory in the presence of God.
It should be made clear that the Holy Spirit is not merely an influence or an impersonal power emanating from God. He is a person, the third member of the Trinity, equal in every way to God the Father and God the Son.
The doctrine of God’s being one essence, yet existing in three persons, is one of the most certain truths in Scripture.
Among the many characteristics of personhood that the Holy Spirit possesses and manifests are: He functions with mind, emotion, and will; He loves the saints, He communicates with them, teaches, guides, comforts, and chastises them; He can be grieved, quenched, lied to, tested, resisted, and blasphemed.
The Bible speaks of His omniscience, His omnipotence, His omnipresence, and His divine glory and holiness.
Scripture reveals that the Holy Spirit was fully active with the Father and Son in the creation and that He has been with Christians and enabled and empowered them since Pentecost, which we read about in Acts 2 at the birth of the church.
The Holy Spirit has been the divine agent who uniquely came upon God’s servants and inspired God’s sovereignly-chosen men to pen God’s Word.
Since Pentecost, the Holy Spirit has dwelt in all Christians, illuminating their understanding and application of God’s Word as well as empowering them for sanctification in a greater way than had every occurred before.
He fills them, seals them, communes with them, fellowships with them, intercedes for them, comforts them, admonishes them, sanctifies them, and enables them to resist sin and to serve God.
As we saw last week, in verses 5-6, Paul divides people into two categories—those who let themselves be controlled by their sinful flesh and those who follow after the Holy Spirit. We would all be in the first category if Jesus hadn’t offered us a way out.
| How do we cooperate with the Holy Spirit?
· Ask for greater openness and responsiveness to the Holy Spirit’s guidance. · Consciously humble ourselves before God, so we are not too · proud to change. · Look to God’s Word for guidance. · Obey where we have clear direction, so that our forward movement will enhance the Holy Spirit’s leading. · We pray as Jesus did, “Nevertheless, not my will but your will be done.” |
Do You Belong to Christ? Romans 8:9-11
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact
the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have
the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is
in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit
is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised
Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your
mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
The most important question that you ever need to answer is, “Do I belong to Christ?”
If you belong to Christ, all of God’s promises are “yes” for you in Him: 2 Corinthians 1:20 (ESV) For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.
If you belong to Christ, you are reconciled to God, your sins are all forgiven, you can enjoy fellowship with Him every day, and you know that if you were to die today, you would be with the Lord in the glory of heaven forever.
“Yes, the worker told me that if I prayed that prayer, I could be assured that I’m going to heaven.” Really?
Where does the Bible say that praying a prayer will get you into heaven? You need to make sure that you belong to Christ based on what the Bible says.
Acts 2:38 (ESV) And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
(We have made available a House-to-House article “I want to be saved like they were in the book of Acts).
If you have been immersed in water in order to have sins forgiven, God’s Spirit dwells in you…you belong to Christ; and though your physical body will die, God will raise your body from the dead.
It is absolutely vital to have the Spirit of God dwelling in you, because if you do not, you do not belong to Christ.
As we have seen, Paul divides all people into just two categories: Those who are “in the flesh” and those “in the Spirit.” There is no category for so-called “carnal” Christians, who claim that Jesus is their Savior, but not their Lord.
There are distinguishing marks by which you can tell if the Spirit dwells in you.
In Romans 8, Paul shows a number of things that the Spirit does.
- He sets you free from the law of sin and of death (8:2).
- He gives new life and peace with God (8:6).
- The Spirit will raise our mortal bodies (8:11);
- He enables us to kill our sin (8:13);
- testifies to us that we are God’s children (8:16);
- helps us to pray (8:26).
- And, by way of implied contrast (8:7-8), the Spirit reconciles us to God and enables us to submit to His Word and to please Him.
This list is not comprehensive, but here is one negative and nine positive marks by which you can tell if the Spirit dwells in you:
(1). Speaking in tongues is not a sign that the Spirit dwells in you.
I must point this out because some Pentecostal denominations claim that speaking in tongues is the sign that you have the Holy Spirit. But this is contrary to Paul’s statement that all do not have the gift of tongues (1 Cor. 12:30).
We do not need the gift of tongues today. But if it was valid, it must be translatable language, not babble. You cannot interpret or translate babble.
Language has definable structure and vocabulary. The biblical gift of tongues is the miraculous ability to speak in a language that you have not learned so that a speaker of that language could understand you.
Positively,
(2). If the Spirit dwells in you, you have experienced the new birth. You know that the Spirit of God has changed your heart from being a God-hater to being a God-lover. He changed you from trusting in your own good works to trusting in Christ alone.
(3). If the Spirit dwells in you, you are drawn to Jesus Christ and you desire to know and honor Him (John 16:14-15; Eph. 3:16-17).
(4). If the Spirit dwells in you, you have been flooded with God’s love so that you have hope in Him (Rom. 5:5; 15:13).
(5). If the Spirit dwells in you, you regard Scripture as His Word of truth and you are growing to understand it.
Jesus calls Him “the Spirit of truth” (John 14:17; 15:26). He inspired the writers of Scripture (2 Pet. 1:21; 2 Tim. 3:16).
(6). If the Spirit dwells in you, His fruit is growing in your life and the deeds of the flesh are diminishing. Fruit takes time, but it should be evident that you are growing in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23).
(7). If the Spirit dwells in you, you will have a growing hatred of sin and love of holiness.
He works to make us holy (set apart from this evil world), beginning on the thought level (1 Cor. 6:11, 19; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 14:17; 1 Thess. 4:7-8).
(8). If the Spirit dwells in you, you will be growing in praise, joy, and thankfulness toward God (Luke 1:67ff; 2:26-32; 10:21; Acts 13:52; Eph. 5:18-20; Phil. 3:3).
(9). If the Spirit dwells in you, you will be growing in prayer (Rom. 8:26; Eph. 6:18; Jude 20).
(10). If the Spirit dwells in you, you will tell others about Christ.
Acts 1:8: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses….”
The Book of Acts is the story of the early church bearing witness of Jesus and the resurrection through the Spirit’s power.
We who are in the Spirit are still subject to physical death, even though the Spirit has given us life (8:10).
Romans 8:10: “And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.”
We who are in the Spirit have the promise that He who raised Jesus from the dead will also resurrect our mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in us (8:11).
Without Christ, life is grim and futile. As the bumper sticker says, “Life is tough and then you die.”
Proud to be TJ's man 