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by GLENN PEASE
01/27/18
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THE INDWELLING SPIRIT

Based on I Cor. 3:10-16

      In the Old Testament the emphasis is on Jehovah, the God who is above us. In the Gospels the emphasis is on Jesus, the God who is with us. In the book of Acts and the Epistles the emphasis is on the Holy Spirit, the God within us. There can be doubt that this is the age of God’s indwelling. Pentecost began a new relationship between God and man. Jesus pointed to it when He taught His disciples in the upper room that the Holy Spirit, the Father and Himself would all abide in them. No
longer would God be one afar off, and one to whom you had to go. He will be nearer than your hands and feet, for He will be within.

        In the Old Testament this relationship was a promise, but at Pentecost it became a possession. In Ezek. 36:26-27 we read, “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you...” The promise is of a two fold change. A man’s own spirit is to be renewed, and then God’s own spirit will dwell within. Man’s old spirit in incompatible with the spirit of God, and so there has to be a radical renewal of it before God’s Spirit can dwell within it. The disciples of Jesus were prepared, and their spirit was renewed, and they waited then for the promise of the Father. Pentecost fulfilled that promise.

        There was fire and a demonstration of power at Sinai also, but it was a fire that stirred up fear rather than joy. Men were compelled by external power to bow and obey God. At Pentecost the picture is radically different, for God no longer stands above and apart from man. He comes within and demonstrates His power, and He gives His message through man. Keble wrote,

The fires that rushed from Sinai down,
In trembling torrents dread,
Now gently light, a golden crown
On every sainted head.

        Men became the temple of God. This was a basic fact and essential truth of Christianity, but it was one that was difficult to grasp, and it still is today one of the most difficult concepts for Christians to make real in their lives. The Corinthians had an especially hard time understanding this truth of the indwelling Spirit. Paul tries hard to get it across to them. They were very poor Christians, and they were ignorant and immature, and some of them were even immoral, they were still Christians. Paul begins this chapter by writing, “But I, brethren, could not address you as spiritual men, but as men of the flesh...” He goes on to tell them how they are just like ordinary men yet. They are jealous, envious, and they fight over which man to follow. They are like children arguing over whose father is the strongest, and how many people their big brother can beat up. Then he comes to verse 16 and asks this question: “Do you not know you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?”

        It is obvious they did not know, or at least never gave it much consideration. If they had, they would not have been such miserable specimens of the Christian life. In chapter 6 Paul repeats this question again after pointing out that if they realized the Holy Spirit dwelt within them, they would not continue to be immoral, and they would stop visiting prostitutes. Our bodies are to be used for the glory of God, for they are temples of the Holy Spirit, says Paul. Only very ignorant and immature Christians could be doing the things the Corinthians were doing with their bodies. Paul knew that the key to their being lifted to a higher level was in the truth of the indwelling Spirit. The more Christians are aware that they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, the more they will become like Christ.

        The tragedy is not just that the Corinthians did not emphasize this truth, but that it is still not emphasized today. It is a revolutionary truth, and yet it is seldom heard or practiced. Christians do not deny the doctrine of the indwelling Spirit, but they do ignore it. One of the reasons for this is the fact that it is such a radical truth that even Christians fear to take it literally. It seems almost presumptuous to claim that you are a temple of God. It would be construed as pride for me to say that the trinity abides in me. People would either laugh or be disgusted. Can we take this truth seriously? Can the infinite indwell the finite? It may be hard to believe it, but it is basic to New Testament Christianity.

        W. T. Davison in his studies on the Holy Spirit writes, “The religion of the New Testament is a religion of the Holy Spirit, and the Christianity of subsequent times that would realize the New Testament type under new conditions must also be a religion of the Spirit. Most of the declensions which have marked the religious life of Christendom have been due to forgetfulness of this fundamental fact, and all striking revivals of Christian life and power have sprung from its recollection and reinforcement.”

        It is a fact of history that revivals are always accompanied with a consciousness on the part of Christians of the work of the Holy Spirit. When Christians neglect this aspect of God’s relation to them, there is cooling off. This means Christians more often than not are ignorant of this truth. Sophir wrote, “For how long a period, even after the Reformation, were the doctrines of the Holy Spirit, His work in conversion, and His indwelling in the believer, almost unknown.” This is the hardest truth to get across to believers, but one of the most important, for it is a truth distinctive to Christianity, and it is the source of the power to live the Christian life. Sir Monier Williams, a great oriental scholar, asserts that the consciousness of a personal union and fellowship with God is a unique feature of Christianity. He fails to find it in any of the religions of the East. Dr. W. L. Walker in The Spirit And The Incarnation says, “The Spirit is the great thing in Christianity. It is the distinctive doctrine, vital, fundamental and permanent”

         The power of Pentecost and of the early church was not in creed or ritual, but in the indwelling Spirit. A whole new relationship between God and man had come into the world. Peter said to the 3 thousand converts on the day of Pentecost, “You shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Then he says in Acts 2:39, “For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all that are afar off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Him.” No longer was the Holy Spirit to be confined to the favored few. He would indwell every believer. Paul says He was even indwelling the Corinthians, who such poor Christians. Of course, they were grieving and resisting the Spirit, but they were still temples of the Spirit. Power for a victorious life of holiness was available to them, but they were not aware of it.

         James M. Campbell in his book After Pentecost, what? Compares the Christian who is ignorant of the doctrine of the indwelling Spirit to a fish who lies gasping in the sunshine only an inch away from the water. One flip would take him over into his native element, but there he lies in a sad plight as if the water were miles away. Christians are always near to abundant life, for God with all His resources dwells within, but we are so seldom conscious of this reality, and we do not know how to take advantage of it, even when we become conscious of it.

        Our whole way of life, and the total pattern of our culture make it hard for us to develop a consciousness of the inner life. We seldom meditate and develop an awareness of the world within. We do not think of preparation on the inside before we read the Bible, and yet men of the Spirit tell us it is the key to Bible study. George Fox wrote, “A man can understand inspired Scriptures only as he is in the same spirit in which they are given.” The unique New Testament perspective is to see
life from within. It is to see with the eyes and mind of Christ who dwells within. We depend almost totally upon externals, but the poet reminds us,

The outward word is good and true,
But inward power alone makes new;
Not even Christ can save from sin
Until He comes and works within.

        The inner life is the greatest reality, and yet it is the most ignored aspect of life. Even Christians feel it is impractical and a waste of time to focus on what seems like self-centered introspection. There is to much to do, and so we give ourselves to doing rather than to becoming, even though the New Testament makes it clear that God cares more about what we are than what we do. Paul says in Col. 3:3, “Your life is hide with Christ in God.” God hides within us, and we are hidden within God. There is a mysterious hidden life that is the key to effective Christian living, and we must give this truth its rightful place in our lives. Flowers spring from hidden seed, and the fruits of the Spirit likewise spring from the hidden life of the believer. Only as we cultivate this deeply personal and private relationship to the indwelling Spirit can we be outwardly productive.

        If Paul expected the Corinthians to develop the inner life, how much more should we be expected to do so? The beginning point is simply in awareness and desire. Do you not know you are a temple of the Holy Spirit? To know it, and to keep it in mind will develop in us a new perspective with new desires. A steady and consistent consciousness of the indwelling Spirit cannot help but make a radical difference in our lives. It calls for concentration, for the very fact it is a truth so much ignored shows it is a truth hard to grasp. It is like nerve action in the body. Muscle action we can understand, but the nerves are so mysterious and hard to figure out. So the hidden life of the indwelling Spirit is hard to be conscious of. To deny it or ignore it is as harmful to the spiritual life as a ignoring nerves is to the physical. Whether you feel it or not, your nerves are in operation for good or ill, and so it is with the Holy Spirit. We need to ask ourselves constantly this question of Paul: Do you know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells within?

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