Weekly Devotional 6-9-14 God’s Gift of His Spirit
In a recent discussion with a Roman Catholic friend concerning a person having a relationship with God and what is expected of him, the person of the Holy Spirit came up. Specifically, the discussion was about God’s role in the life of the believer. I suggested that God gives us His Spirit at the time of our salvation to indwell and aid us in our walk. To which he replied, “I have always had the Holy Spirit.” Silently, I wondered about this. My friend went on, “I have always had thoughts about God and have tried to conduct myself according those thoughts.” I commended him and suggested that perhaps this was and is truly the work of the Holy Spirit. However, I reminded him that according to Jesus one must be born again to see (understand) and enter into the kingdom of God (John 3:1-8). His belief is that he was born again when he was baptized.
During the 24 hours that followed I prayerfully pondered his claim and wondered why he believes as he does. This pondering led me to the website of Catholic Faith and Reason, an association of lay Catholics and I found the following:
“The Holy Spirit is the sanctifier, who was sent by the Father and Son to complete the work of the Son. He makes ‘holy.’ As Pope John Paul II has written, ‘Having accomplished the work that the Father had entrusted to the Son on earth (John 17:4), on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was sent to sanctify the Church for ever, so that believers might have access to the Father through Christ in one Spirit’ (Ephesians 2: 18). The Church has always taught that we receive the Holy Spirit through the sacrament (a sharing in the life of God; an outward sign that produces grace in us) of Baptism. The waters of Baptism signify the cleansing of our soul of original sin [which all humans inherit from Adam and Eve, our first parents]. St. Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, tells us that we are sealed with the Holy Spirit in our baptism. This reality is signified by the holy oil which is traced on the forehead of the person being baptized in the form of a cross. The sacrament imparts an indelible character. God’s life comes to us and makes us ‘children of God’ and ‘heirs with Christ.’ St. Peter makes the comparison to the waters which saved Noah from physical death, proclaiming that in the spiritual realm of our soul, ‘baptism now saves you’ (1 Peter 3:21). The Spirit also imparts the gifts of faith, hope and charity, enabling us to grow in our relationship with God and with one another.”
Is this a correct understanding of what the Bible teaches, i.e. First Peter 3:21? This is an important question because to be wrong about being a child of God and having always had the Holy Spirit may lead to an eternal separation from God. The Bible, after all, specifically teaches that there is none righteous, there is none that understands or seeks after God (see Romans 3:10-11); that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (see Romans 3:23); and that the wages of sin is death (see Romans 6:23). Please note, the phrases “that there is none righteous, there is none that understands or seeks after God” are in the present tense. How can this be possible if the baptism referred to has imparted the indelible character of God? This is not to say that any of us is without sin, for we all sin, but such sinning would be and is against that imparted character. If in fact that character is imparted by the sacrament. Yet, many of those who supposedly have been imparted with the character of God (presumably implied in water baptism) live according to the dictates of their flesh not by the leading of the Holy Spirit, whom they supposedly received when they were baptized.
Isn’t the world riddled with “adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like” as seen in Galatians 5:19-21(NKJK)? Who is it that does these things? Are not much of these things done by those who have been baptized and have been given the character of God and the Holy Spirit, according to the profession? It can’t be so. Water baptism may clean the body, but it cannot clean the inward man. The inward man is cleansed by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5). Jesus said of the Eleven, “Now you are clean, through the Word which I have spoken unto you” (John 15:3). It is the Word of God, delivered by the power of the Holy Spirit that convinces convicts and regenerates man to new spiritual life.
Water baptism is simply a testimony of the inward cleansing by the Holy Spirit. The inward cleansing comes when a person understands that he is a sinner and in need of God’s mercy and turns to Jesus for his or her salvation. Such an understanding can only come when a person has reached an age of rationality. Paul wrote, “1Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. 2For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. 4For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. 5For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, ‘The man who does those things shall live by them.’ 6But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, ‘Do not say in your heart,’ ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down from above) 7or, ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith which we preach): 9that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.’ 12For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. 13For ‘whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.’ 14How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? 15And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!’ 16But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, ‘LORD, who has believed our report?’ 17So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:1-17).
And in another letter, Paul wrote, “1And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. 4But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:1-10 NKJV).
My friend and his fellows may have the Holy Spirit, but according to the Apostle Paul, if they do, they did not receive Him when baptized as an infant, but when God in His mercy moved upon and in their hearts regenerating them to newness of Spiritual life. The timing of this according to Paul was at a point in time when they were able to hear and understand the message of salvation.
May God be praised!
stevelampman@comcast.net stevelampman.com
Transforming Power, The Work of God on Behalf of Man