A Concise Biblical Theology of the Spirit’s Mission
A Important Power of God’s Mission
The Holy Spirit is the important pressure of God’s mission within the New Testomony. He’s the divine apologist who convinces the world of sin, righteousness, and coming judgment, and the divine evangelist who bears witness to Christ on this damaged world. He’s the divine pastor-teacher who reminds God’s individuals about Christ and guides them into his reality. He’s the divine church planter who gathers, grows, and guards the church till Christ’s ultimate return. All these and way more are the continuing ministries of the Holy Spirit, essential for the success of the mission of the triune God.
The mission of the Spirit proceeds immediately from Christ’s mission. His mission is the result of Christ’s resurrection, ascension, and session; it’s the overflow of Christ’s blessings on this current age. Moreover, God’s redemptive plan and common function for all nations, are being fulfilled globally via the mission of God’s Spirit. The Spirit’s mission, subsequently, comes third within the biblical story of God’s mission.
The Spirit Inside God’s Mission
The Spirit’s important work in mission typically doesn’t get sufficient consideration.1 Scripture normally doesn’t focus immediately on the third triune individual since he, because the divine creator, needs to talk of Christ reasonably than draw consideration to himself. His position in God’s mission, nevertheless, is clearly evidenced throughout the pages of Scripture, from his life-giving presence first at creation (Gen. 1:2) to his gospel witness with the church till the top of mission (Rev. 22:17).
You Will Be My Witnesses examines the witness of God’s individuals throughout the story of God’s mission, attracts insights from the church’s witness since Pentecost, and displays on sensible features of up to date Christian witness.
The important position of the Holy Spirit has all the time been confessed by the church. Although nonetheless obscure within the Outdated Testomony, the Spirit’s work was extra absolutely revealed within the New Testomony, and faithfully summarized by the early church in AD 381: We consider “within the Holy Spirt, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son collectively is worshiped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets.”2 We echo this confession, and others, as we define beneath seven details in a concise biblical theology of the Spirit’s mission.
First, we confess that the Spirit is the “Giver of life” in each creation and redemption. From the start, the Spirit is revealed as God’s breath of life. Bodily life is given and sustained by God’s Spirit (Gen. 2:7; Job 34:14‒15). The Spirit can also be, inside God’s redemptive mission, the giver of everlasting life to God’s individuals, along with the bodily life given to all (John 6:63; 2 Cor. 3:6). The Spirit works savingly, giving religious life to all those that are by religion in union with Christ and elevating them into everlasting life (Rom. 8:11). There’s one Spirit of God with two distinct life-giving works:3 giving bodily life to Adam and all his youngsters, and regenerating religious life in all the youngsters of the final Adam (1 Cor. 15:45).
Second, the Spirit “spoke by the prophets” within the Outdated Testomony. This phrase of the creed summarizes the Spirit’s ministry earlier than Christ’s baptism. For the reason that identical Spirit of God was at work in each Outdated and New Testaments, his ministry earlier than Pentecost was not completely different in nature however solely in diploma, together with his work of regenerating (Deut. 30:6), indwelling (Ex. 29:45‒46; Hag. 2:5), restraining (Isa. 63:10‒11; Micah 3:8), and empowering particular individuals for particular duties (Ex. 31:2‒5). His Outdated Testomony mission additionally gave hope to God’s individuals by asserting beforehand the gospel of Christ (Gal. 3:8; 1 Pet. 1:10‒12).
The Spirit works savingly, giving religious life to all those that are by religion in union with Christ and elevating them into everlasting life.
Third, the Spirit was lively at each level in Jesus’s life and ministry. Scripture offers ample proof of this particular work: conception (Matt. 1:20), baptism (John 1:32‒34), ministry (Luke 4:18; Acts 10:38; cf. Isa. 11:2), miracles (Matt. 12:28), atonement (Heb. 9:14), resurrection (Rom. 1:4; 8:11), and so forth.4 Concisely said, the Spirit enabled and empowered Christ to perform his mission of redemption, after which the Spirit was despatched on mission by Christ to allow and empower the church to obey the Nice Fee.
Fourth, Pentecost is the defining second of the Spirit’s mission. After Christ’s ascension and session, the Holy Spirit takes a extra distinguished position within the story of God’s mission. The New Testomony offers way more consideration to the Spirit who bears witness to Christ in all of the world, empowers the launch of the Gentile mission, and applies Christ’s redemption in all God’s individuals.
Fifth, the Spirit was despatched on mission by the Father and the Son to bear witness to Christ. Scripture clearly describes the Spirit’s double fee by each the Father and the Son (John 14:26; 15:26; Acts 2:33).5 Thus the Spirit’s mission completes the triune mission.
Moreover, the Spirit’s mission isn’t one way or the other separate from God’s mission in Christ,6 since all three triune individuals work collectively to perform and apply redemption.
Sixth, the Spirit’s work within the New Testomony is described each personally and corporately. In lots of locations, Paul’s letters clarify how the Spirit works private redemption within the hearts and lives of God’s individuals. Conversely, Luke’s second guide, typically known as “the Acts of the Spirit,” tells the historical past of gospel witness by the company church neighborhood within the energy of the Holy Spirit.
Seventh, the Spirit’s work continues on this planet at the moment. In some methods, this states the apparent. But this commentary is critical to fence the dialogue that follows. All Christians confess the individuality of the apostolic age, the interval of church historical past immediately following Pentecost. It was a beautiful time of particular revelation when the apostles led the church, as Christ’s eyewitnesses, and when the Spirit impressed the authors of New Testomony books. However the apostles all died earlier than the top of the primary century, and the canon of Scripture is now full (Rev. 22:18‒19), which essentially implies that some features of the Spirit’s ministry have ceased.7 But the Spirit’s witness continues, regardless of the cessation of the Scriptural inspiration and the distinctive eyewitness of the apostles. The Spirit of Christ nonetheless indwells the church and he continues to talk via the Scriptures, in and by the church, till the return of Christ (Matt. 28:20; Eph. 1:14; Rev. 22:17).
Notes:
- My dissertation addresses this lack of consideration: Brian A. DeVries, “Witnessing with the Holy Spirit: Pneumatology and Missiology in Evangelistic Principle” (PhD diss., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2007), particularly 18‒94. See additionally Roland Allen, Pentecost and the World: The Revelation of the Holy Spirit within the “Acts of the Apostles” (London: Oxford College Press, 1917); and Harry R. Boer, Pentecost and Mission (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1961).
- Nicene Creed (381) (CCC 18). See the Belgic Confession of Religion, artwork. 11; Heidelberg Catechism, q. 53; and Westminster Bigger Confession, q. 11. The traditional Reformed confessions give much less direct consideration to the individual of the Holy Spirit, as an alternative giving appreciable consideration to the ministry of the Spirit, particularly within the space of particular person salvation.
- We should spotlight this distinction since in any other case the specialness of redemptive grace within the new and higher covenant is obscured by an excessive amount of continuity, and basic and particular revelation could then be confused in apply.
- John Owen explains eleven works of the Spirit in relation to Christ’s human nature. See his The Holy Spirit: His Presents and Energy (Fearn, UK: Christian Focus, 2004), 115‒131. See additionally Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Holy Spirit (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1996), 35‒56.
- Notice additionally the order of sending: the Father sends the Son (John 20:21), after which the Father and the Son ship the Holy Spirit. Affirming the filioque clause (“and from the Son”) is critical for trustworthy mission. Those that deny this clause (e.g., the Japanese Orthodox Church) are likely to restrict the church’s mission—a minimum of in apply—to merely a horny witness just like the Outdated Testomony showcase neighborhood.
- So we affirm the unity of God’s saving work in each Christ and the Spirit, whereas we preserve the character/grace distinction of the “one Spirit with two works.” Some inclusivists say that God’s two arms (Christ and the Spirit) work, at instances, on this planet and in salvation independently from one another. For refutations, see Daniel Unusual, The Risk of Salvation among the many Unevangelized: An Evaluation of Inclusivism in Current Evangelical Theology (Waynesboro, GA: Paternoster Press, 2001), 197, 263; and Stephen J. Wellum, “An Analysis of the Son-Spirit Relation in Clark Pinnock’s Inclusivism,” Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 10 (Spring 2006): 4‒23.
- This isn’t the place for a cessation versus continuation dialogue. For numerous voices on this difficulty, see Richard B. Gaffin, Jr., Views on Pentecost: New Testomony Instructing on the Presents of the Holy Spirit (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1979); D. A. Carson, Displaying the Spirit: A Theological Exposition of 1 Corinthians 12‒14 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1987); Vern S. Poythress, “Trendy Non secular Presents as Analogous to Apostolic Presents: Affirming Extraordinary Works of the Spirit inside Cessationist Theology,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 39, no. 1 (March 1996), 71‒101; Iain H. Murray, Pentecost—In the present day?: The Biblical Foundation for Understanding Revival.
This text is tailored from You Will Be My Witnesses: Theology for God’s Church Serving in God’s Mission by Brian A. DeVries.
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