The Role of the Spirit in our Future Glory
And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
(Romans 8:23 ESV)
I have always loved bookstores because I love books. (That doesn’t mean that I would like to read or purchase all of the books in a bookstore!) A bookstore is a reflection of humanity. You can learn a lot about human nature from perusing a bookstore. The books that are written, published, and purchased tell us about the various desires, hopes, and dreams of people. I know that many of these desires are depraved. But you don’t have to expose yourself to all of the junk in order to learn something. Just look at the names of the sections.
For example, one of the biggest sections in a bookstore is devoted to Psychology, Self-help, and Self-improvement. This section is all about knowing yourself and improving your life in various ways. This section is important, not for what is there, but for why it is there. Why would people gladly spend their hard-earned money for the latest best-selling book on how to be a better person? Clearly there are millions of people who sense that they need to improve themselves and they are looking for help. Generally speaking, people feel bad about themselves, or at least incomplete in some way, and they are trying to find help to fix the problems in their lives. The fact that these books keep growing in number might also indicate that these feelings are not going away and that a final or complete solution to the problem has not been found.
There are many professed Christians who believe, much like the self-help authors from the bookstore aisle, that we can reform our lives. With perhaps a little help, a little knowledge, or a good technique, we can change and become better people. In fact, many Christians believe that the Bible itself is sort of like the ultimate self-help book. The Bible is believed to be a kind of moral reform textbook. All we have to do is read the commandments in the Bible and understand the moral requirements that God has revealed and by doing these things we will improve our character, our relationships, and our world. Many people feel this way about the Law of Moses, or the 10 commandments, as well as the teaching of Jesus. If we could just apply these teachings we would revolutionize the human race. Unfortunately, no one actually does what Moses, Jesus, or any other great religious or moral teacher has said we should do! Whatever it is the human race needs it must be something more than just moral instruction or a law.
It seems to me that if all we needed to do was apply the moral teachings of the Bible there would be huge sections of Scripture that would be completely unnecessary. We would not need the book of Romans, for instance. In fact, the book of Romans would be dead wrong! That’s because the Apostle Paul spends the first subsection of this epistle arguing that the entire human race is a sinful mess and that the Law of God has not been able to reform humanity (1.18-3.20). And if Paul had stopped writing Romans there the human race looks to be hopeless. Everyone is a guilty sinner before God. The Law of God does not change this situation, but actually serves to make sure that everyone is declared guilty! What is the solution?
The solution is not the Law or a moral reformation. The solution has nothing to do with human effort at all. God Himself had to intervene and do something about the human condition. The human race does not just need reformation, it needs transformation. What did God do to make this radical transformation possible?
The Gospel Promises the Indwelling Presence of the Spirit
In the next subsection of the book of Romans Paul expounds the gospel of justification by faith (3.21-4.25). The good news is that God has taken sin away through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus. So anyone who places his faith in Christ can be forgiven of his sin and receive the gift of imputed righteousness. That is justification by faith.
Before anything can be done with humanity, or with an individual, something has to be done about the guilt of sin. Contrary to what many people think today, God cannot simply ignore sin and pretend that it doesn’t exist. Sin is like a great debt that someone has to pay. The problem was that we could not pay the debt ourselves. The person who is guilty cannot remove his guilt. The sentence of death was upon humanity. We were all under the righteous wrath or condemnation of a just and holy God. We could do nothing to remedy this situation. If salvation was to come it would have to be provided by God Himself. The Gospel declares that God has provided a way for guilty sinners to be made righteous before God.
Justification is just the Beginning
But Paul is not done. There is more to God’s solution for sin. There is more to the Gospel than justification. Justification is really just the first stage. Unfortunately, many Christians stop with justification and are satisfied that they understand the Gospel. The Protestant Reformation helped the Church to recover from centuries of false teaching and reintroduced this particular doctrine of justification by faith. Unfortunately the Reformation, and the Churches it produced, often failed to keep reading Romans!
An incomplete Gospel cannot produce complete Christians. I fear that most Christians today have only heard the first part of the Gospel. They have only heard about the forgiveness of sins, and justification, but not the rest of the plan. This has produced believers who are both ignorant and also weak. Christians are told that they can be forgiven and then go to heaven when they die. But what about the time in between salvation and going to heaven? Does our time here on earth in the body mean anything in God’s plan of salvation or are we just waiting for death and then heaven? The Gospel actually promises more than just the forgiveness of sins. And there is more to being justified by faith than just escaping Hell and the wrath of God.
From one perspective being justified is the necessary preparation for the really important work of salvation. Our sins have to be taken away so that we can be ready for the next stage or phase in the plan of salvation. In Romans chapters 5-8 Paul turns to this next phase.
Regeneration through the Spirit
In the next subsection of Romans Paul unpacks the effects of justification (Rom. 5-8). Now that we are justified by faith we can begin to move into the next phase of God’s plan of salvation. What God is really doing in salvation is creating a whole new kind of person. Jesus is the model for this new race of men. Those who are in Christ, or joined to Him spiritually, are being made like Him. This change goes far beyond a moral reformation. This is a total transformation. It is so radical a change that it is like a death and a resurrection. Being justified by faith is really just the beginning of a whole new kind of life. We are not talking about adopting a new way of life. We are talking about becoming a new kind of person in Christ. This radical transformation happens when the Spirit of God does His work in the believer. It is a kind of spiritual surgery. It is like a new birth.
The Gospel promises that when our sins are taken away and we are justified through faith in Christ we become new people through the presence of the Holy Spirit who comes to live in us. Through the presence and power of the Spirit we then begin to live a new kind of life that would not be possible if we were going at it alone. The Gospel is not simply about moral reformation but about total, spiritual regeneration through the life of the Spirit.
Now let us be very clear here that the presence of the Holy Spirit will result in righteous living. But this new, sanctified kind of life is through the Spirit’s power and presence. It is made possible by the Spirit’s power working in the believer, who is living in submission to the Spirit’s guidance. That is something very different than moralism, or trying to live according to an ethical principle.
However, a person who is under the control of the Spirit will be obedient to God. In fact, the righteous requirements of the Law will be fulfilled in a person who is living under the control of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8.4). A person who is being controlled by the Spirit will not be under the dominion of sin. That is the great promise in this subsection of Romans. The believer in Christ who is controlled by the Spirit does not have to be dominated by sin. The believer still has to struggle with the Flesh and with temptation as long as he is in the body.
But the believer can win that struggle through the Spirit. The Holy Spirit empowers the believer to be sanctified, or separated from sin, and able to serve God while still in this mortal body. This mortal body is the source of the believer’s struggle. The principle of sin is still at work in our mortal bodies. But the Holy Spirit is also at work in us. And the Spirit is more powerful than the Flesh! This is a struggle we can win IF we submit ourselves to the Spirit and obey Him. However, there is still the possibility of continuing to be enslaved to the sinful nature, or the Flesh, if we do not walk according to the guidance of the Spirit. But it is normal for believers to walk in the Spirit or to be filled with the Spirit, just like the wind fills the sail and propels a boat through the water (see Eph. 5.18). It is abnormal for a believer to be under the control of the Flesh. That is a contradiction and a serious problem that must be immediately addressed!
Glorification is the Goal
The reality is that the believer has been made new. However, his body and his environment has not been made new. Not yet. But it will be. And so Paul then turns to the future of the children of God. This is the focus of this series of messages (Rom. 8.18-25).
The believer has a glorious future. We will not always have to live in an unredeemed body and an unredeemed world. The plan of salvation has a future aspect to it. This future salvation is the hope of glory. God is eventually going to give us new bodies which will no longer be subject to sin or death. We have been saved to inhabit these new, eternal bodies. Not only will we have new bodies but all of the rest of Creation will also be changed. The Creation was also subjected to death, or to the bondage of corruption, because of sin. So Creation will also be redeemed. The future glory of the saints is to be fully redeemed: a redeemed spirit, in a redeemed body, in a redeemed earth. That all adds up to glory! Glory means that something is revealed. Someday the true identity of the children of God will be revealed. That revelation of the work that God has already begun in us, through the Spirit, is what the apostle Paul calls “glory.”
If you were getting ready to move to a new country as an immigrant, there would probably be a lot of preparations you would make. You would want to be able to “fit in” to your new home. What if you could bring someone from that country to live with you and help you make those preparations? That person is familiar with your new country and could teach you its customs and language. And he or she might even know some people in your new country and could help you make some new friends ahead of time. This is exactly what the Holy Spirit is doing for us while we are in this world waiting to move into our new home in the world to come. Someone from heaven is living in us getting us ready for heaven. The Holy Spirit is our Helper from Jesus who was sent to get us ready for glory.
From one perspective we are not saved yet. At least there is a part of us that is not saved yet. When we were baptized we are not instantly taken up to heaven and glorified. We are still in the world and in the body. During this time the Spirit has a work to do in us.
The Father sent the Son. The Son then sent the Spirit to dwell in His people. The entire Godhead is involved in salvation! Unfortunately, many professed Christians are woefully ignorant of the work of the Spirit. Some are afraid of being called “Pentecostal” or “Charismatic.” I fear that for many Christians the Trinity consists of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Bible! But we need to be aware of what the Holy Spirit wants to do in us so that we can cooperate with Him and recognize His work. This is not merely the intellectual knowledge of a doctrine but is also a personal experience.
Every child of God is born of the Spirit (John 3.3-5). If the Holy Spirit is not at work in our lives then we do not belong to God. We should make sure that we see the evidence of the Spirit working in our lives. Without the Spirit we are dead and powerless, like the dry bones in Ezekiel’s vision (See Ezek. 37).
The solution to the problem of sin is not only justification, but also the regeneration of the Holy Spirit. This spiritual regeneration leads to a life of sanctification, which is in preparation for glorification.
The Indwelling Spirit a Taste of Future Glory
For most people in the Church the idea of salvation is making sure you go to heaven when you die. Salvation is like a life-insurance policy. When you die you get out your salvation and punch your ticket for heaven! Getting saved, as it is called, involves a one-time act when a decision is made and some kind of formal ceremony is performed. Some believe this involves going forward during an invitation hymn in Church and saying the Sinner’s Prayer to ask Jesus into your heart, or perhaps being baptized. Whatever the initiation happens to be, the time you really need your salvation is when you die. In-between this initial experience of getting saved and then dying and going to heaven, there is really very little emphasis on salvation in the Church today and from the pulpit. The Christian life, as some call it, is usually not associated with salvation at all.
But this is not a Biblical understanding of salvation. While there is an initial salvation experience where we are justified and united with Christ, being saved also involves the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The indwelling of the Spirit is what Paul calls the first-fruit of the final stage of salvation, which is glorification.
The First-fruit of Redemption
The first-fruit is the beginning of the harvest with the hope and anticipation of much more to come in the future. Likewise, the believer has received something in advance of the glory of the New Creation. The indwelling Spirit is the first-fruit of the New Creation. The Holy Spirit is a Divine person, a member of the Godhead. He is not a Force but a Person who shares in the Divine Nature along with the Father and the Son.
So beware of teaching that excludes members of the Godhead. Some of these teachings acknowledge the Father, but not the Son or the Spirit. Other doctrines acknowledge the Son, but ignore the Father and the Spirit. And there are also groups that seem to emphasize only the Spirit to the exclusion of the Father and the Son. It is not our goal simply to maintain some dry, lifeless orthodoxy. Rather, it is our goal to have a full experience of God in our lives. How can we actually experience salvation without having some kind of intimate knowledge of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit?
The Spirit actually dwells in the mortal body of the believer and is joined to our spirits. He is the agent of the new birth or regeneration (See John 3.3-5). The Spirit is involved in our initial conversion and faith but He then comes to dwell in us when we are united with Christ. Jesus is the Sender of the Spirit (See John 15-17). We have to be in Christ to have the Spirit living in us. Nothing comes to us apart from Jesus. Jesus cleans us up so that He can then send the Spirit to dwell in us. The forgiveness of sins is really the means to an end, which is the indwelling presence of the Spirit, rather than an end in itself. When the Spirit moves in and takes up residence in us the real work can begin!
Jesus said the Spirit is like the wind (John 3.8). We cannot see the Spirit but we can see the work or the effects of the Spirit. To know that the Spirit is at work in your life or in others we must look for the evidence. There should be some sort of change in the life of a person who has the Spirit. Why do we need to know about the Spirit? So we can have assurance that we are children of God and recognize who the children of God are. Also so we can cooperate with Him and not frustrate His work. We must remember that the People of God are a work in progress. Even though the Holy Spirit is at work in us this does not imply that we have arrived at our final state of glorified perfection. We are not yet glorified. The people of God still have to deal with character flaws. Sanctification is a process. We must be patient with ourselves and each other.
The Holy Spirit’s presence and work in us is the first-fruit of future glory. This is Biblical imagery developed under the Law of Moses in the Old Testament Scriptures. When Israel came into Canaan the tribes brought back some of the fruit of the Land of Canaan (See Num. 13.23-24). The Holy Spirit is like that fruit from the true eternal home of the saints. Israel was commanded to celebrate the Feast of Weeks which was the celebration of the first-fruit (See Exodus 34.22). This was also Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples. So the coming of the Spirit was prefigured in that feast. The first-fruit would always be associated with the coming of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is also called a down-payment or a pledge of our future inheritance (See Eph. 1.13-14). It is like the earnest money on a new house or an engagement ring. The best stuff is still up ahead for the children of God! But it all started with receiving the indwelling Spirit.
Being a Christian means learning to wait. It is something many of us are not very good at during our weaker moments! But we have to wait on the Lord to bring to pass all of His promises. We don’t have the whole thing yet and we are waiting on the Lord. The whole purpose of salvation is to get us into the World to Come, not to make us happy or successful here. God saved us from this world so we can inhabit the New Creation. But the believer is not instantly translated to heaven the moment he is saved. And the New Creation is not here yet in fullness. We are in a period of waiting and hoping. We have been made new, yet the old is still with us and all around us. This is a period of transition, preparing, and also tension for the believer. But while we are still in the mortal body and still in this world there is some preparation that must be done in us.
The Personal Experience of the Spirit
There is no such thing as an impersonal salvation. Salvation is not just a doctrine to be embraced intellectually. Salvation is a personal experience. It is the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit that personalizes salvation. We know we are saved because we have received the Spirit of God. Every Christian should look for the confirmation of the Holy Spirit in his or her life. Seeing evidence of His presence and His work is what gives us assurance that we are the children of God. If there were no personal experience of salvation how would we ever have assurance that we are children of God? While the complete work of salvation will not be revealed until we are glorified in the New Creation, the work has already begun in us when the Holy Spirit came to dwell in us.
How can we recognize the work of the Spirit in us? There is a common work and ministry of the Holy Spirit that all of God’s children experience. The Holy Spirit also gives us certain gifts to use in our ministry in the Body of Christ. We do not all have the same gifts of the Spirit, but we do all have the same experience of the Spirit which shows that we are God’s children. The Spirit is preparing the believer for the New Creation, which includes the redemption of all Creation as well as the redemption of our mortal bodies. Preparing us for this eternal glory is the main work of the Spirit in our lives. Making it into the New Creation is the first priority! So how do you know you are going to be a part of the World to Come? There should be evidence of the work of the Spirit in your life. The People of God are like a home that is under construction. When a home is being built there are certain parts that must be in place if the structure is to be sound and inhabitable. We are God’s building, even His Temple. If we are going to dwell forever with the Lord then we have to be ready for such a relationship. If we are not ready we will be excluded.
The experience of the Spirit creates holy desires. The Flesh generates sinful desires. These are desires for things that are not lawful or natural. But all desire is not evil. Some desires are God-given. Where there is a God-given desire there is always a God-given fulfillment for that desire. The indwelling Spirit produces certain godly desires in us and God means to fulfill these desires. It should be noted, however, that the ultimate satisfaction of the Saints will only be found in the World to come and never in this world. This is why we are groaning, along with the Creation. We are longing for this New Creation to come. If we find no satisfaction in this world it is simply because we were made for another world. The New Man belongs in the New Creation. The Spirit makes us long for our true Home.
Christianity does not teach the cessation of all desires. Instead of emptying ourselves of all desires we are to be filled with holy desires. These desires are produced by the Spirit. And where there is a God-given desire there is hope that these desires will be fulfilled. Holy desires are those desires that are turned toward God and that can be fulfilled by Him, in His time, and in His way. Any desire that is turned away from God and pursued for its own sake becomes bent and defiled. So we should always look to God to fulfill our desires, not to other people or to the things of this world. Looking to people or things to fulfill our desires is like building a bridge that cannot support the weight of the traffic upon it. Eventually it will collapse and be destroyed.
We should awaken and cultivate those holy desires that come from the Spirit and deny those desires that come from the World, the Flesh, and the Devil. Everyone is feeding their desires. Which desires are you feeding? What kinds of appetites are growing in you? Are these appetites that you can take with you and that will be fulfilled in the New Creation? Some desires are for things we cannot take with us into the World to come. These desires must be put to death. This means that the believer should never feel at home in this world, as if this world can offer fulfillment. It can’t! We are strangers and aliens here as we wait for the World to Come. Our affections should not become attached to what is passing away. Don’t love this present world (1 John 2.15-17). The Holy Spirit is preparing you for another World.
I have always loved bookstores because I love books. (That doesn’t mean that I would like to read or purchase all of the books in a bookstore!) A bookstore is a reflection of humanity. You can learn a lot about human nature from perusing a bookstore. The books that are written, published, and purchased tell us about the various desires, hopes, and dreams of people. I know that many of these desires are depraved. But you don’t have to expose yourself to all of the junk in order to learn something. Just look at the names of the sections.
For example, one of the biggest sections in a bookstore is devoted to Psychology, Self-help, and Self-improvement. This section is all about knowing yourself and improving your life in various ways. This section is important, not for what is there, but for why it is there. Why would people gladly spend their hard-earned money for the latest best-selling book on how to be a better person? Clearly there are millions of people who sense that they need to improve themselves and they are looking for help. Generally speaking, people feel bad about themselves, or at least incomplete in some way, and they are trying to find help to fix the problems in their lives. The fact that these books keep growing in number might also indicate that these feelings are not going away and that a final or complete solution to the problem has not been found.
There are many professed Christians who believe, much like the self-help authors from the bookstore aisle, that we can reform our lives. With perhaps a little help, a little knowledge, or a good technique, we can change and become better people. In fact, many Christians believe that the Bible itself is sort of like the ultimate self-help book. The Bible is believed to be a kind of moral reform textbook. All we have to do is read the commandments in the Bible and understand the moral requirements that God has revealed and by doing these things we will improve our character, our relationships, and our world. Many people feel this way about the Law of Moses, or the 10 commandments, as well as the teaching of Jesus. If we could just apply these teachings we would revolutionize the human race. Unfortunately, no one actually does what Moses, Jesus, or any other great religious or moral teacher has said we should do! Whatever it is the human race needs it must be something more than just moral instruction or a law.
It seems to me that if all we needed to do was apply the moral teachings of the Bible there would be huge sections of Scripture that would be completely unnecessary. We would not need the book of Romans, for instance. In fact, the book of Romans would be dead wrong! That’s because the Apostle Paul spends the first subsection of this epistle arguing that the entire human race is a sinful mess and that the Law of God has not been able to reform humanity (1.18-3.20). And if Paul had stopped writing Romans there the human race looks to be hopeless. Everyone is a guilty sinner before God. The Law of God does not change this situation, but actually serves to make sure that everyone is declared guilty! What is the solution?
The solution is not the Law or a moral reformation. The solution has nothing to do with human effort at all. God Himself had to intervene and do something about the human condition. The human race does not just need reformation, it needs transformation. What did God do to make this radical transformation possible?
The Gospel Promises the Indwelling Presence of the Spirit
In the next subsection of the book of Romans Paul expounds the gospel of justification by faith (3.21-4.25). The good news is that God has taken sin away through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus. So anyone who places his faith in Christ can be forgiven of his sin and receive the gift of imputed righteousness. That is justification by faith.
Before anything can be done with humanity, or with an individual, something has to be done about the guilt of sin. Contrary to what many people think today, God cannot simply ignore sin and pretend that it doesn’t exist. Sin is like a great debt that someone has to pay. The problem was that we could not pay the debt ourselves. The person who is guilty cannot remove his guilt. The sentence of death was upon humanity. We were all under the righteous wrath or condemnation of a just and holy God. We could do nothing to remedy this situation. If salvation was to come it would have to be provided by God Himself. The Gospel declares that God has provided a way for guilty sinners to be made righteous before God.
Justification is just the Beginning
But Paul is not done. There is more to God’s solution for sin. There is more to the Gospel than justification. Justification is really just the first stage. Unfortunately, many Christians stop with justification and are satisfied that they understand the Gospel. The Protestant Reformation helped the Church to recover from centuries of false teaching and reintroduced this particular doctrine of justification by faith. Unfortunately the Reformation, and the Churches it produced, often failed to keep reading Romans!
An incomplete Gospel cannot produce complete Christians. I fear that most Christians today have only heard the first part of the Gospel. They have only heard about the forgiveness of sins, and justification, but not the rest of the plan. This has produced believers who are both ignorant and also weak. Christians are told that they can be forgiven and then go to heaven when they die. But what about the time in between salvation and going to heaven? Does our time here on earth in the body mean anything in God’s plan of salvation or are we just waiting for death and then heaven? The Gospel actually promises more than just the forgiveness of sins. And there is more to being justified by faith than just escaping Hell and the wrath of God.
From one perspective being justified is the necessary preparation for the really important work of salvation. Our sins have to be taken away so that we can be ready for the next stage or phase in the plan of salvation. In Romans chapters 5-8 Paul turns to this next phase.
Regeneration through the Spirit
In the next subsection of Romans Paul unpacks the effects of justification (Rom. 5-8). Now that we are justified by faith we can begin to move into the next phase of God’s plan of salvation. What God is really doing in salvation is creating a whole new kind of person. Jesus is the model for this new race of men. Those who are in Christ, or joined to Him spiritually, are being made like Him. This change goes far beyond a moral reformation. This is a total transformation. It is so radical a change that it is like a death and a resurrection. Being justified by faith is really just the beginning of a whole new kind of life. We are not talking about adopting a new way of life. We are talking about becoming a new kind of person in Christ. This radical transformation happens when the Spirit of God does His work in the believer. It is a kind of spiritual surgery. It is like a new birth.
The Gospel promises that when our sins are taken away and we are justified through faith in Christ we become new people through the presence of the Holy Spirit who comes to live in us. Through the presence and power of the Spirit we then begin to live a new kind of life that would not be possible if we were going at it alone. The Gospel is not simply about moral reformation but about total, spiritual regeneration through the life of the Spirit.
Now let us be very clear here that the presence of the Holy Spirit will result in righteous living. But this new, sanctified kind of life is through the Spirit’s power and presence. It is made possible by the Spirit’s power working in the believer, who is living in submission to the Spirit’s guidance. That is something very different than moralism, or trying to live according to an ethical principle.
However, a person who is under the control of the Spirit will be obedient to God. In fact, the righteous requirements of the Law will be fulfilled in a person who is living under the control of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8.4). A person who is being controlled by the Spirit will not be under the dominion of sin. That is the great promise in this subsection of Romans. The believer in Christ who is controlled by the Spirit does not have to be dominated by sin. The believer still has to struggle with the Flesh and with temptation as long as he is in the body.
But the believer can win that struggle through the Spirit. The Holy Spirit empowers the believer to be sanctified, or separated from sin, and able to serve God while still in this mortal body. This mortal body is the source of the believer’s struggle. The principle of sin is still at work in our mortal bodies. But the Holy Spirit is also at work in us. And the Spirit is more powerful than the Flesh! This is a struggle we can win IF we submit ourselves to the Spirit and obey Him. However, there is still the possibility of continuing to be enslaved to the sinful nature, or the Flesh, if we do not walk according to the guidance of the Spirit. But it is normal for believers to walk in the Spirit or to be filled with the Spirit, just like the wind fills the sail and propels a boat through the water (see Eph. 5.18). It is abnormal for a believer to be under the control of the Flesh. That is a contradiction and a serious problem that must be immediately addressed!
Glorification is the Goal
The reality is that the believer has been made new. However, his body and his environment has not been made new. Not yet. But it will be. And so Paul then turns to the future of the children of God. This is the focus of this series of messages (Rom. 8.18-25).
The believer has a glorious future. We will not always have to live in an unredeemed body and an unredeemed world. The plan of salvation has a future aspect to it. This future salvation is the hope of glory. God is eventually going to give us new bodies which will no longer be subject to sin or death. We have been saved to inhabit these new, eternal bodies. Not only will we have new bodies but all of the rest of Creation will also be changed. The Creation was also subjected to death, or to the bondage of corruption, because of sin. So Creation will also be redeemed. The future glory of the saints is to be fully redeemed: a redeemed spirit, in a redeemed body, in a redeemed earth. That all adds up to glory! Glory means that something is revealed. Someday the true identity of the children of God will be revealed. That revelation of the work that God has already begun in us, through the Spirit, is what the apostle Paul calls “glory.”
If you were getting ready to move to a new country as an immigrant, there would probably be a lot of preparations you would make. You would want to be able to “fit in” to your new home. What if you could bring someone from that country to live with you and help you make those preparations? That person is familiar with your new country and could teach you its customs and language. And he or she might even know some people in your new country and could help you make some new friends ahead of time. This is exactly what the Holy Spirit is doing for us while we are in this world waiting to move into our new home in the world to come. Someone from heaven is living in us getting us ready for heaven. The Holy Spirit is our Helper from Jesus who was sent to get us ready for glory.
From one perspective we are not saved yet. At least there is a part of us that is not saved yet. When we were baptized we are not instantly taken up to heaven and glorified. We are still in the world and in the body. During this time the Spirit has a work to do in us.
The Father sent the Son. The Son then sent the Spirit to dwell in His people. The entire Godhead is involved in salvation! Unfortunately, many professed Christians are woefully ignorant of the work of the Spirit. Some are afraid of being called “Pentecostal” or “Charismatic.” I fear that for many Christians the Trinity consists of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Bible! But we need to be aware of what the Holy Spirit wants to do in us so that we can cooperate with Him and recognize His work. This is not merely the intellectual knowledge of a doctrine but is also a personal experience.
Every child of God is born of the Spirit (John 3.3-5). If the Holy Spirit is not at work in our lives then we do not belong to God. We should make sure that we see the evidence of the Spirit working in our lives. Without the Spirit we are dead and powerless, like the dry bones in Ezekiel’s vision (See Ezek. 37).
The solution to the problem of sin is not only justification, but also the regeneration of the Holy Spirit. This spiritual regeneration leads to a life of sanctification, which is in preparation for glorification.
The Indwelling Spirit a Taste of Future Glory
For most people in the Church the idea of salvation is making sure you go to heaven when you die. Salvation is like a life-insurance policy. When you die you get out your salvation and punch your ticket for heaven! Getting saved, as it is called, involves a one-time act when a decision is made and some kind of formal ceremony is performed. Some believe this involves going forward during an invitation hymn in Church and saying the Sinner’s Prayer to ask Jesus into your heart, or perhaps being baptized. Whatever the initiation happens to be, the time you really need your salvation is when you die. In-between this initial experience of getting saved and then dying and going to heaven, there is really very little emphasis on salvation in the Church today and from the pulpit. The Christian life, as some call it, is usually not associated with salvation at all.
But this is not a Biblical understanding of salvation. While there is an initial salvation experience where we are justified and united with Christ, being saved also involves the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The indwelling of the Spirit is what Paul calls the first-fruit of the final stage of salvation, which is glorification.
The First-fruit of Redemption
The first-fruit is the beginning of the harvest with the hope and anticipation of much more to come in the future. Likewise, the believer has received something in advance of the glory of the New Creation. The indwelling Spirit is the first-fruit of the New Creation. The Holy Spirit is a Divine person, a member of the Godhead. He is not a Force but a Person who shares in the Divine Nature along with the Father and the Son.
So beware of teaching that excludes members of the Godhead. Some of these teachings acknowledge the Father, but not the Son or the Spirit. Other doctrines acknowledge the Son, but ignore the Father and the Spirit. And there are also groups that seem to emphasize only the Spirit to the exclusion of the Father and the Son. It is not our goal simply to maintain some dry, lifeless orthodoxy. Rather, it is our goal to have a full experience of God in our lives. How can we actually experience salvation without having some kind of intimate knowledge of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit?
The Spirit actually dwells in the mortal body of the believer and is joined to our spirits. He is the agent of the new birth or regeneration (See John 3.3-5). The Spirit is involved in our initial conversion and faith but He then comes to dwell in us when we are united with Christ. Jesus is the Sender of the Spirit (See John 15-17). We have to be in Christ to have the Spirit living in us. Nothing comes to us apart from Jesus. Jesus cleans us up so that He can then send the Spirit to dwell in us. The forgiveness of sins is really the means to an end, which is the indwelling presence of the Spirit, rather than an end in itself. When the Spirit moves in and takes up residence in us the real work can begin!
Jesus said the Spirit is like the wind (John 3.8). We cannot see the Spirit but we can see the work or the effects of the Spirit. To know that the Spirit is at work in your life or in others we must look for the evidence. There should be some sort of change in the life of a person who has the Spirit. Why do we need to know about the Spirit? So we can have assurance that we are children of God and recognize who the children of God are. Also so we can cooperate with Him and not frustrate His work. We must remember that the People of God are a work in progress. Even though the Holy Spirit is at work in us this does not imply that we have arrived at our final state of glorified perfection. We are not yet glorified. The people of God still have to deal with character flaws. Sanctification is a process. We must be patient with ourselves and each other.
The Holy Spirit’s presence and work in us is the first-fruit of future glory. This is Biblical imagery developed under the Law of Moses in the Old Testament Scriptures. When Israel came into Canaan the tribes brought back some of the fruit of the Land of Canaan (See Num. 13.23-24). The Holy Spirit is like that fruit from the true eternal home of the saints. Israel was commanded to celebrate the Feast of Weeks which was the celebration of the first-fruit (See Exodus 34.22). This was also Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples. So the coming of the Spirit was prefigured in that feast. The first-fruit would always be associated with the coming of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is also called a down-payment or a pledge of our future inheritance (See Eph. 1.13-14). It is like the earnest money on a new house or an engagement ring. The best stuff is still up ahead for the children of God! But it all started with receiving the indwelling Spirit.
Being a Christian means learning to wait. It is something many of us are not very good at during our weaker moments! But we have to wait on the Lord to bring to pass all of His promises. We don’t have the whole thing yet and we are waiting on the Lord. The whole purpose of salvation is to get us into the World to Come, not to make us happy or successful here. God saved us from this world so we can inhabit the New Creation. But the believer is not instantly translated to heaven the moment he is saved. And the New Creation is not here yet in fullness. We are in a period of waiting and hoping. We have been made new, yet the old is still with us and all around us. This is a period of transition, preparing, and also tension for the believer. But while we are still in the mortal body and still in this world there is some preparation that must be done in us.
The Personal Experience of the Spirit
How can we recognize the work of the Spirit in us? There is a common work and ministry of the Holy Spirit that all of God’s children experience. The Holy Spirit also gives us certain gifts to use in our ministry in the Body of Christ. We do not all have the same gifts of the Spirit, but we do all have the same experience of the Spirit which shows that we are God’s children. The Spirit is preparing the believer for the New Creation, which includes the redemption of all Creation as well as the redemption of our mortal bodies. Preparing us for this eternal glory is the main work of the Spirit in our lives. Making it into the New Creation is the first priority! So how do you know you are going to be a part of the World to Come? There should be evidence of the work of the Spirit in your life. The People of God are like a home that is under construction. When a home is being built there are certain parts that must be in place if the structure is to be sound and inhabitable. We are God’s building, even His Temple. If we are going to dwell forever with the Lord then we have to be ready for such a relationship. If we are not ready we will be excluded.
The experience of the Spirit creates holy desires. The Flesh generates sinful desires. These are desires for things that are not lawful or natural. But all desire is not evil. Some desires are God-given. Where there is a God-given desire there is always a God-given fulfillment for that desire. The indwelling Spirit produces certain godly desires in us and God means to fulfill these desires. It should be noted, however, that the ultimate satisfaction of the Saints will only be found in the World to come and never in this world. This is why we are groaning, along with the Creation. We are longing for this New Creation to come. If we find no satisfaction in this world it is simply because we were made for another world. The New Man belongs in the New Creation. The Spirit makes us long for our true Home.
Christianity does not teach the cessation of all desires. Instead of emptying ourselves of all desires we are to be filled with holy desires. These desires are produced by the Spirit. And where there is a God-given desire there is hope that these desires will be fulfilled. Holy desires are those desires that are turned toward God and that can be fulfilled by Him, in His time, and in His way. Any desire that is turned away from God and pursued for its own sake becomes bent and defiled. So we should always look to God to fulfill our desires, not to other people or to the things of this world. Looking to people or things to fulfill our desires is like building a bridge that cannot support the weight of the traffic upon it. Eventually it will collapse and be destroyed.
We should awaken and cultivate those holy desires that come from the Spirit and deny those desires that come from the World, the Flesh, and the Devil. Everyone is feeding their desires. Which desires are you feeding? What kinds of appetites are growing in you? Are these appetites that you can take with you and that will be fulfilled in the New Creation? Some desires are for things we cannot take with us into the World to come. These desires must be put to death. This means that the believer should never feel at home in this world, as if this world can offer fulfillment. It can’t! We are strangers and aliens here as we wait for the World to Come. Our affections should not become attached to what is passing away. Don’t love this present world (1 John 2.15-17). The Holy Spirit is preparing you for another World.
