ch.9. Conversion Staying in Part I

The Spirit and Pauline Ethics.

The Holy Spirit, in constituting a New people for God's Name, fulfills the Purpose of the Law and stands over against the "flesh"  by enabling Righteous Living.

The questions of "eternal security" and "once saved always saved"   as applies to people who could have believed in Christ for salvation, but often they didn't show it in their lives.  

For Paul, getting in meant always Staying in.

To be saved meant to be joined to the People of God by the Spirit and also living the life of a saved person.    The Spirit-born person also walks by the Spirit, being led by the Spirit, and thus we sow to the Spirit.

The Spirit who implants faith in the heart by which we believe is the same Spirit who fruit in our lives includes faith. i.e. faithful walking in God's ways. 

2Co 4:13  We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak; 

Gal 5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,         faith: pistis. Thayer's Lexicon 2) fidelity, faithfulness 2a) the character of one who can be relied on                                

What does it mean to live in a Christian Community, and in the world as the People of God?

The Spirit and Ethical Life Continued

Many live the Christian Life under various imperatives:- love your neighbour, wearing of head coverings, forgiveness, also women keeping silent in the church, sexual purity, what we eat or drink - all carry the same weight. Even after being saved by Grace, God expects us to live according to His commands in every aspect of our lives.

This is purely INVIDUALISTIC CHRISTIANITY - living in isolation instead of living with other imperfect people who make up God's Church. It is too easy to live by a code of conduct but not caring for one another. It is legalism which finds forgiving wrong-doing and loving the unlovely impossible. This misses the glorious freedom of the Children of God. living the life of the future together now, empowered by the Spirit.

This is too individualistic and a one on one brand of personal holiness.

Paul accents living community (the people of God in the City). He uses the 2nd person plural you in his instructions for example:

Eph 5:18  And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 

Ch.8.Cont. The Spirit and Paul's Images of Salvation

Sanctification.

Paul's primary use of the word "Sanctification" is also a figure of Speech for conversion, not an extra work of Grace following conversion.

2Th 2:13  But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first-fruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. 

{Sanctification  G38 S̔γιασμός hagiasmos hag-ee-as-mos'
From G37; properly purification, that is, (the state) purity; concretely (by Hebraism) a purifier: - holiness, sanctification. Strongs}

So the Experience of Salvation is by "the Sanctification (purification) by the Spirit, and belief in the Truth." e.g. Jewish Sacred rites and utensils were set-apart solely for God's Holy Purposes. 

Compare.  Rom 15:16  to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.  ESV. The Jewish Christians in Rome may not  call "common or unclean" the gentile believers, (because of failure of Gentiles  to be circumcised) because they are those whom God has Sanctified by His Spirit. The Gentiles' reception of the Spirit was God's ultimate act of creating for Himself a sanctified offering composed of both Jews and Gentiles.

Compare 1Co 6:11  And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 

 Conversion always includes the Sanctifying Work of the Spirit of God.

Conclusions:

1. The wide variety of Images and figures of speech "anointing"; "sealed"; "down payment"; "first-fruits" - show that no single image is sufficient. The Work of Christ , as applied by the Spirit in conversion has so many facets. It depends on the Human Condition addressed in each context.

e.g. Propitiation responds to our being under the wrath of God.

Redemption responds to our being enslaved by sin.

Justification responds to our guilt before the Law of God.

Reconciliation to our being God's Enemies.

Sanctification to our being unholy.

Washing to our being unclean.

2. Images were used in keeping with the issue at the moment.

3. There is no such thing as conversion that does not have the coming of the Spirit into the Life of the believer as an essential ingredient.

Ch.8. (cont.) Paul's Images for Salvation and the Holy Spirit

Washing, New Birth and Giving Life.
a) Washing as a work of the Spirit of God.
1Co 6:11  And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 
The prepositions "in" and "by" modify all three verbes above; (washed, sanctified, and justified.)
Tit 3:5  he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 
This is not a reference to two separate experiences washing(baptism), and renewal of the Holy Spirit, as (Spirit baptism). This is but one experience which involves Rebirth and renewal put into effect by the Holy Spirit. Salvation is not received by baptism but is the Work of the Holy Spirit. 
Joh 3:3  Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one Joh 3:5  Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
Joh 3:6  That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 

Joh 3:7  Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

Thus it is not about our standing with God - redeemed, forgiven, justified, cleansed but also "washing by the Spirit of God". Rebirth and Renewal.

The Complete Reorientation of our Lives is tied to the Work of the Spirit - rebirth. Paul shows this involves "death" and "Resurrection" 

2Co 5:14  For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;
2Co 5:15  and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. 

Gal 5:24  And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 

have crucified the flesh — They nailed it to the cross once for all when they became Christ’s, on believing and being baptized (Rom_6:3, Rom_6:4): they keep it now in a state of crucifixion (Rom_6:6): so that the Spirit can produce in them, comparatively uninterrupted by it, “the fruit of the Spirit” (Gal_5:22). “Man, by faith, is dead to the former standing point of a sinful life, and rises to a new life (Gal_5:25) of communion with Christ (Col_3:3). The act by which they have crucified the flesh with its lust, is already accomplished ideally in principle. JFB's Commentary

Se also Romans ^:1-6 Col. 2:20-3:4

Yahweh is the Living - Life-giving Spirit.

In the New testament the Holy Spirit is the Life-giving Spirit.

Rom 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 

Rom 8:6  For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 

2Co 3:6  who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 

In Gal 5:24 the flesh - sin; Torah observance etc, has been crucified, and we have been raised in newness of the Spirit

Rom 7:6  But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. 

Paul's understanding of Christian Conversion as the Work of the Spirit therefore, has no place in it for the whitewashed-sinner, the person who is still sinful, though justified before God anyway. The only coming to Christ known to Paul is one in which the life of the Believer is invaded by the Life-giving Spirit - who applies Redemption and the Work of Christ by transforming us within. 

Rom 12:2  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. 

ch.8. cont. The Spirit and Pauls Images of Salvation.

Justification. The action of being declared Righteous.

1Co 6:11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Rom 14:17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Redemption, propitiation, and reconciliation are not at all linked with the Holy Spirit – these are the objective aspects of Salvation. i.e. the New believers relation to God by faith. But the new believer's experience of the reality of Salvation is associated with the Work of the Holy Spirit in the heart.

Adoption.

Gal 4:5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

Gal 4:6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"

Verse 5 deals with the Objective aspects of Salvation and verse the subjective aspect of conversion.

Sonship :- provided by redemption

Sonship :- made a reality by the Spirit in the life of a New Believer.

Gal 3:2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

Gal 3:3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

Gal 3:4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?

Gal 3:5 Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith?

Rom 8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!"

Rom 8:16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

Rom 8:17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him

Abba.

This is the Cry of infancy along with “Imma” mother, these are the first words in Aramiac a child would lean. It is also a very endearing term a child of any age would use – expressing intimacy and special relatedness. We are the Beloved children of the Eternal God. This is a spiritual knowledge shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Rom 5:5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Crying “ABBA”, in our lifelong relationship of utter dependence on God, has been restored by the Spirit of His dear Son. So we are justified ( accepted in the Beloved) and leads to our awareness of all the privileges of Sonship with our heavenly Father. Being “in the presence of God” is through Christ and by the Spirit.

2Co 2:17 For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.

Eph 2:18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

Ch 8 (cont) The Spirit as the Identity Maker of the Converted.

Ch..(cont.) The Spirit as the Identity Maker of the Converted.

Three times Paul identifies believers in terms of “having the Spirit”, while unbelievers do not.

1Co 2:6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away.

1Co 2:7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.

1Co 2:8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

1Co 2:9 But, as it is written, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him"—

1Co 2:10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

1Co 2:11 For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

1Co 2:12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

1Co 2:13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

1Co 2:14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

1Co 2:15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.

1Co 2:16 "For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.

The natural person is contrasted with the Spiritual Person. The natural Person does not have the Spirit, therefore, he does not understand what God has done through the Cross. The very opposite is true for the BELIEVER. In 1 Cor 12:3the basic Christian Confession is by the Holy Spirit.

1Co 12:3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says "Jesus is accursed!" and no one can say "Jesus is Lord" except in the Holy Spirit.

Rom 8:9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

Formerly he say the world as “us” and “them”; Jews and gentiles. Now Paul see just Believers and Unbelievers. The Believers have the Spirit, but the others do not. The believers have NEW LIFE given by the Life-Giving Spirit.

Gal 5:25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 3:3 we are a letter from Christ........... written not with ink but by the Spirit of the Living God.

…........................................

ch.8.cont. The Spirit the Spirit at the Entry Point

ch.8. ( Cont.) The Spirit at the Beginning Point.

Gal 3:2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

Gal 3:3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

This was Paul's answer to Jewish agitators who wanted the Galatians to be circumcised. Paul says, “No!” He makes it very clear because of the Experiential nature of their having received the Spirit at Conversion. Gal 3:5 Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—

Gal 3:6 just as Abraham "believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness"?

Paul, therefore, whatever else happens at Conversion, it is the experience of the Spirit that is crucial; and therefore, it is the Spirit alone who identifies Gods people in this present eschatological age.

1Co 12:13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

Eph 1:13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,

Eph 1:14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

Tit 3:5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,

Tit 3:6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,

Tit 3:7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

God gave them His Spirit Romans 5:5; Anointed them with His Spirit 2 Cor 1:21; Poured out His Spirit generously on them Titus 3:6; and sealed them with His Spirit Eph 1:13;4:30.

Believers have received the Spirit 1 Cor 2:12 ;2 Cor 11:4; they have been saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit 2 Thess 2 :13; Romans 15:16, been circumcised in their hearts by the Spirit, Romans 2:29; become one with Him 1 Cor. :17, washed, sanctified and justified by the Spirit of our God 1 Cor 6:11. Cp. Gal 4:29. Therefore you are born of the flesh and Born of the Spirit.

Tit 3:4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,

Tit 3:5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,

Tit 3:6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,

Tit 3:7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

This is evidence that the Spirit alone, identifies God's People in this present Eschatological Age.

Ch .8. Conversion – Getting - in Part 2. : The Spirit at the Entry Point.

It is not just, “I feel like a new person” but “you need to trust His Word not just your feelings.”

See Galatians 3:1-5 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.

Gal 3:2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

Gal 3:3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

Gal 3:4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?

Gal 3:5 Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—

Here Paul encourages the Galatians to continue the “HEARING OF FAITH” or “BELIEVING what they have HEARD”. Not being bewitched by those who say they must just trust in Law Observance.

He first appeals not to the truth of the Gospel but to their experience of the Spirit by which they started on the path of Christian Discipleship. That is – trusting the experienced reality of their conversion to Christ through the Coming of the Spirit.

This is the OBECTIVE REALITY [ The New believers relationship with God through ( Redemption, Reconciliation, Washing, propitiation, justification, adoption and New Birth)

Now for Paul – the SUBJECTIVE REALITY, that Personally experienced Dimension

Gal 3:2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

Gal 3:3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

The Spirit and Faith

The Spirit comes as a result of Faith in Jesus Christ. See Gal. 3:25 above. Compare

I Corinthians 12:8; 13:2; 2 Cor 4:13

Faith is one of the Evidences that the Spirit is at work in the heart. This is Saving Faith not just the fruit of the Spirit in Gal 5:22-23.

2Co 4:13 Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, "I believed, and so I spoke," we also believe, and so we also speak,

So it is equally clear from the Evidence that 'Faith' is not all there is to it.

The Crucial role of the Spirit in Conversion.

That something really does happen in Conversion is not simply the presupposition of Revivalist preachers. It is the clear understanding of Paul who wrote all His letters to new first generation Christian Believers, not children of believing parents. They were converts from paganism. Even Paul's conversion on the Damascus Road had a real experiential quality to it. This is what Paul expected when he preached.

 

Ch,7, Continued The Spirit and getting in -Revelation by the Spirit

Revelation by the Spirit.

1) The Essential Content of the Gospel came to Paul by Revelation (by the Spirit).

1Co 2:10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

1Co 2:11 For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

1Co 2:12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

1Co 2:13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

1Co 2:14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

1Co 2:15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.

1Co 2:16 "For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.

Eph 3:5 which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.

Eph 3:6 This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

Eph 3:7 Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power.

Gods Secret wisdom is revealed by the Spirit who knows the thoughts of God. We have received the Spirit that we may understand what god has freely given us. This is taught not by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, because it is spiritually discerned. - The Spiritual man makes judgments about all things – we have the mind of Christ.

The Gospel stands, at its profoundest point, in utter contradiction to human wisdom. God has redeemed our fallen race by means of the ultimate contradiction in human terms, a Crucified Messiah.

Paul's argument with the Corinthians was that they were considering themselves people of the Spirit. Yet they abandoned the cross as central. God's mystery revealed by the Spirit is the content of the Gospel.

Without the Spirit who knows the Mind of God. Human wisdom cannot understand God's Redemption by a Crucified Suffering Messiah. They were caught up in a false spirituality sidestepping discipleship marked by the cross.

2. Ephesians 3:2-13, this mystery, Gods hidden wisdom is now revealed by the Spirit..v3, v.5. where Gentiles are included as fellow heirs with Israel. This is the Revelation that came by the Spirit. (1:13-14; 2:1;22)Eph 2:22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

The amazing thing about this Revelation concerning the gentiles was that they should enter 'torah-free' (free from the observance of the Jewish law). i.e. one new humanity of two peoples. Eph 2:14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility

Eph 2:15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,

cp.1 Cor 12:13; Eph 3:5 1 Cor 14:24-25

2Co 4:4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Prophetic utterances can remove

the veil that is blinding their minds by unveiling the believer's heart and lay it bare before all. 1Co 14:22 Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers.

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Conversion is the Sovereign act of God, carried out by the Holy Spirit. Romans 10:14-15 Believing is a hinge point between our 'hearing the Gospel.” What is external becomes internal by the working of the Holy Spirit. He is the INITIATOR of Faith and then is received by the same faith. -----------------

CH.7.(cont)The Spirit and Getting in

c). Spirit Inspired Ministry.

Ch . 7. Getting In

Spirit inspired Ministry. 

Timothy and Charismata. (Grace Gifts)

1Ti 1:18 This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare,

1Ti 1:19 holding faith and a good conscience.

according to — in pursuance of; in consonance with.

the prophecies which went before on thee — the intimations given by prophets respecting thee at thy ordination, 1Ti_4:14 (as, probably, by Silas, a companion of Paul, and “a prophet,” Act_15:32). Such prophetical intimation, as well as the good report given of Timothy by the brethren (Act_16:2), may have induced Paul to take him as his companion.

Prophecies prophēteia Thayer Definition: 1) prophecy 1a) a discourse emanating from divine inspiration and declaring the purposes of God,

1Ti 4:14 Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you.

He had a Spirit inspired call when he received the prophetic message from the Elders.

2Ti 1:6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands,

2Ti 1:7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

Robinson's Word Pictures “A spirit of fearfulness (pneuma deilias). Here pneuma is the charisma of 2Ti_1:6, the human spirit as endowed by the Holy Spirit (Rom_8:15). Deilia is an old word (deilos, deidō) and always in a bad sense of cowardice, only here in N.T.

Of power (dunameōs). One of Paul’s characteristic words (Rom_1:16).

Of love (agapēs). One of the gifts of the Spirit (Gal_5:22). “Which drives out fear” (Lock) as in 1Jo_4:18.

Of discipline (sōphronismou). Late Koiné[28928]š word (from sōphronizō, to control), self-control, here only in N.T. See note on 1Ti_2:9 for sōphrosunē.”

2Ti 1:14 By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you. 

Note: Here that Timothy had been called to the Ministry through God Speaking through Prophets who were inspired by the Holy Spirit who declared the Will and Purpose of God for his life.