All That You Need
This fall, we have been studying the book of Ephesians. In its pages, we’ve heard about the new life we’ve been given by Christ. A new and abundant life that is set free from our old ways of thinking and acting. This new life isn’t just about our eternities, but our here and now as well. Yes, eternity is an important part of this new life. After all, Jesus said that his kingdom was not of this age, meaning it was eternal (Jn. 18:36). But we’re not waiting for some day out in the future for this new and eternal life to begin, it begins at the moment of salvation and continues through all of eternity to come. That means we really are to begin experiencing it here and now.
And this new life is appealing to us. I mean, who doesn’t want to experience what Paul is talking about when he says, “I, therefore a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Eph. 4:1-6)
Unity, peace, kindness, and gentleness are the things our hearts long for in our relationships and for our world. This is the opportunity that is in front of all believers to live in such a way that our neighbors and friends see a more compelling vision for life because of Christ inside of us than any other vision for life that they see along the way. That’s hard, though. The good news is that we have the Holy Spirit to help us live out this new and more compelling vision for life. Paul has told us that in Ephesians and the theologian Allister McGrath offers us helpful instruction on the roles of the Holy Spirit. [1]
- The Holy Spirit imparts life – Life is about breathing! God is the one who breathes the breath of life into empty shells and makes them live. Just as God brought Adam to life, so God is able to bring individuals and his Church to life through his Spirit today. The famous vision of the valley of the dry bones (Ezekiel 37:1–14) also illustrates this point. The bones only come to life when breath enters into them (Ezekiel 37:9–10). God is the one who gives life, and the one who is able to bring the dead back to life. Dorothy L. Sayers often wrote about how she struggled with that ‘odd and difficult phrase’ that describes the Holy Spirit as the ‘Lord and giver of life’. Yet, in the end, she worked out what it was all about. Sayers was clear that a fulfilled human life was about more than mere physical existence. It was about living for a reason, with purpose and joy. That’s what she came to find in this clause of the creed. ‘The Christian affirms that the life in him proceeds from the eternal creativeness, and that therefore so far as he is moved by that creativeness, and so far only, he is truly alive.’ Christianity is about coming to life—‘the right kind of life, the creative and godlike life’.
- The Holy Spirit empowers believers – One of the most important of these is clearly the empowerment of believers. Just as the wind fills a boat’s sails, so the Holy Spirit gives direction and movement to the life of faith. Without the Spirit, we become spiritually becalmed. As we have just seen, this idea is present in the Old Testament, but now it becomes clear that, far from being an impersonal force, the Spirit is in fact an intensely personal manifestation of the power of God. (For such reasons, many Christians feel uneasy about referring to the Holy Spirit as ‘it’.) So in John’s Gospel we find the Holy Spirit described as the ‘comforter’ or ‘advocate’, the one who consoles us, encourages us and stands by us in moments of doubt and despair.
- The Holy Spirit illuminates truth – How are we to make sense of the Bible and apply it to our lives? Many of the New Testament letters emphasize that we are not left on our own to wrestle with such questions: God somehow equips, enables or guides us throughout the journey of faith. Most Christians would hold that the Spirit does not provide Christians with a new revelation of God, but rather with a deeper understanding of what has already been revealed, and a sense of how this might affect the way in which we live, or help us reach a decision about what we ought to do.
- “I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe.” (Ephesians 1:17–19)
Summing it all up, McGrath reminds us that the Holy Spirit is a gift from God for our formation into the image of his Son, Jesus. He says, “One of the points that Calvin is able to make through this definition of faith is that the Christian faith is about more than simply believing that certain things are true. Christianity is not just about understanding; it is about renewal and transformation, through the power of a God whose trustworthiness is shown in and through Jesus of Nazareth. The Holy Spirit is understood as the agent of both illumination and transformation, opening us up to the truth and presence of the living God.” [2]
Paul models for the Ephesian believers what Jesus teaches, God wants to transform our entire being. He wants us to follow him in a life-defining way. He has given us all that we need for that, including his Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to help us in that pursuit (Jn. 16:7-15).
[1] Alister McGrath, The Spirit of Grace, vol. 4, Christian Belief for Everyone (London: SPCK, 2015), 5-9.
[2] Alister McGrath, The Spirit of Grace, vol. 4, Christian Belief for Everyone (London: SPCK, 2015), 10.