The work of baptism, however, is just as much a work of the Holy Spirit as regeneration or conviction, and while there is an indissoluble unity in the operations of the Trinity, care must be taken in attributing to each Person the proper agency in the undertakings of God, if we are to avoid the errors of Unitarianism. Indwelling is the abiding presence of the Spirit, while the filling of the Spirit indicates the ministry and extent of control of the Spirit over the individual. On the day of Pentecost a number of ministries of the Holy Spirit began simultaneously. From this reality spring many wonderful truths. The spiritual gifts that believers possess are given by the Holy Spirit as He determines in His wisdom (verse 11) The Holy Spirit also does work among unbelievers. On the contrary, the Scriptures make it plain that every Christian is baptized by the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation. Every believer is essential to the harmony and perfection of the whole. His association with the Trinity is infinitely wonderful, to be realized in full in future ages, but forming an important aspect of his present experience if filled with the Spirit. The distinctive purpose of God for the Church is often not given its proper place. The work of the Holy Spirit implants fruit into our lives and then grows it into a harvest. (Saint Paul writes of "manifestations of the Spirit" in 1 Corinthians 12:7-11, and some Protestants use that list to come up with nine gifts of the Holy Spirit, but these are not the same as the ones recognized by the Catholic Church.)   |   From the fact that all Christians are sealed by the Spirit, it is apparent that sealing is not an experience either at the moment of salvation or later. Second, regeneration is the work of the Holy Spirit. The second passage in Acts (11:16) confirms the testimony of Acts 1:5. While their teaching may be most helpful as in the case of Pastor Dolman, the terminology is confusing and in the case of some writers results in the end in unscriptural teaching. In the fact that they had not received the Holy Spirit, Paul found proof of the lack of regeneration. The Corinthians, in spite of their many failings, are said to be sealed (2 Cor 1:22). Understanding how the Holy Spirit works will help us appreciate the love of God and His plan of salvation. As Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer has well written: “A sphere is that which surrounds an object on every side and may even penetrate that object. A total of seven passages have been subject to serious misinterpretation (1 Sam 16:14; Ps 51:11; Luke 11:13; Acts 5:32; 8:14-20; 19:1-6; 1 John 2:20, 27). The work of the Holy Spirit in a Christian’s life is an on-going process of becoming holy through sanctification. The much disputed passage of Romans 6:1-4, if approached with these doctrines in mind, becomes a plain declaration of the identification of the believer with Christ in His supreme work of death and resurrection: “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Various experiences have been related to this ministry as constituting evidence that the individual has been sealed. It was the spectacle of sin yet reigning in the church which inflamed the zeal of the young Methodists at Oxford, and which found its corrective in the offices of the Holy Spirit.-Bibliotheca Sacra, July, 1892. Upon their baptism and confession of faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit came on them. Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. No subsequent ministry is traced to this operation. The trials of Life 3. News for over 61 years! Having been joined to Christ by the baptism of the Spirit, the believer is identified with the work of Christ on the cross and His triumph in resurrection. First He makes us so to accept God's mercy that we rest in … The flow of blessing and enablement comes from within the Christian rather than from an external influence. The problem of Acts 19:1-6 yields to a careful study of the context and an accurate translation of the text. Because of the new union and new position of the Christian, through the baptism of the Spirit, he is brought into many new associations. All the passages make clear that the act of sealing is accomplished entirely by God. While filled with the Spirit, Old Testament saints could in one sense be considered also indwelt, but not in the permanent unchanging way revealed in the New Testament. Baptism is improperly linked with other ministries of the Spirit such as the indwelling of the Spirit or regeneration. Through regeneration the believer partakes of eternal life. Of the various works of the Holy Spirit related to the salvation of the believer, the work of baptism is most difficult to present. The matter is not left in human hands, but is dependent entirely on the power of God. The work of baptism by the Spirit is also to be distinguished from indwelling. (Luke 11:9-13; Acts 5:32.) The believer is identified with Christ in His righteousness, His death, His resurrection, and His glorification. As an act of God, it is clearly instantaneous. The Holy Spirit inspires Christians to praise and worship God (Ephesians 5:18–20). In reciting the incident of the conversion of Cornelius, Peter said, “And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning. Because of the new association of the Christian baptized by the Spirit, a new standard of conduct based on his position in grace is called for, in keeping with the rich provision of God. It is not a question of spiritual maturity, yieldedness, or indoctrination. A study of the various passages speaking of baptism by the Spirit reveals that the customary Greek preposition used is ἐν. The point of greatest significance in the sealing of the Holy Spirit is the eternal security of the believer. A second solution is found in the explanation that prior to Acts 10, the indwelling of the Spirit may have been limited to Gentiles ministered to by the apostles themselves, only Jews receiving the Spirit immediately. Seven Wonders of the Holy Spirit —His work in us. The Holy Spirit is a beautiful and powerful part of who God is. A careful study of the seven passages with reference to the anointing of the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:18; Acts 4:27; 10:38; 2 Cor 1:21; 1 John 2:20, 27) will reveal that every use of anoint in relation to the Spirit may be safely interpreted as the initial act of indwelling.   |   His contribution to the development of Christian doctrine was as timely as Luther’s, and left as much for further inquiry within the very range of truth which he took in hand to expound. Christ is regarded as the actor, inasmuch as He is said to be the one baptizing, and the Holy Spirit is merely the sphere into which we come. If the baptism of the Holy Spirit is properly seen in its character as an instantaneous act of God, it removes the doctrine from all its erroneous expositors who anticipate an unusual or phenomenal experience in connection with it. While our position in Christ is the ground of our experience when we are yielded to the Spirit, our position in itself does not produce experience. The Team The context of the passages points to judgment, the character of which could be fulfilled only at the second coming of Christ and the establishment of the kingdom. This has been misunderstood by many who have inferred from this fact that there is a direct relation between the baptism of the Holy Spirit and speaking with tongues. How important and how precious is the truth that the believer is in Christ Himself with all that this position entails. According to Ephesians 1:13 and 4:30, the believer is sealed by or in the Holy Spirit. Whatever may have been felt after the baptism of the Holy Spirit was complete, the act itself did not produce any experimental phenomena. It becomes the distinguishing mark of the saints of the present age, the secret of the peculiar intimacy and relationship of Christians to the Lord Jesus Christ. No reference to baptism by fire is ever found in the epistles, and the use of fire typically is in reference to future judgment in most instances. It becomes instead a sovereign act of God in which the soul is taken to Himself. This springs from many causes. The Search OF the Savior: Why Jesus Came, Part 2 (Gal. A number of considerations point to the doctrine that every Christian is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. No reference to this is ever found in the Old Testament. It resolves itself into another statement that God gives the Holy Spirit to them who believe in Christ. (Continued from the July-September Number, 1941), [Author’s Note: This article presents the second half of the discussion of the work of the Holy Spirit in salvation. The believer is in Christ, and Christ is in the believer. The Catholic Church recognizes seven gifts of the Holy Spirit; a listing of these gifts is found in Isaiah 11:2-3. Many theologians regard the Church as a universal group of saints of all ages, some extending even these boundaries to include in the conception all who outwardly belong to it, even if not saved. It is made plain to Peter that working of the Spirit from this time on was not conditioned upon any special act on his part, but only on faith in Christ. Other ministries are duplicated in either past or future ages. 7 He does works only God can do, such as creating, regenerating and sanctifying. “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them” (1 Corinthians 12:4). The Holy Spirit is a gift from God that we receive after repentance, baptism, and laying on of hands (Acts 2:38; 8:17). It is rather a sovereign assignment of God, in which every believer is given his distinct place in the body of Christ. It is a patent fact that most Christians know little concerning the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Baptism is not experimental because it is positional truth. Christ intimated that apostolic teaching would be based upon it, and that the work of the Spirit would be within the Christian. Other sources of confusion in this doctrine are manifold. 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