THE INDWELLING SPIRIT

                                                   THE INDWELLING SPIRIT

A number of passages teach not only that the Holy Spirit dwells or abides within Christians today but that Christ and God dwells or abides within Christians today as well.
For example, 1 Corinthians 6:19, reads as follows:   "Or know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God?"  And in Romans 8:9-11, we find this:  "But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.  But if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.  And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness.   But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you."  Regarding the matter of "indwelling" there is also the apostle's words in 2 Corinthians 13:5:  "Or know ye not as to your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you?"  And again, 2 Corinthians 6:16: "...for we are a temple of the living God; even as God said, I will dwell in them" (All these passages are from the American Standard Version, 1901.)

Reading these passages one learns:  1) that God dwells in us;  2) that Christ dwells in us;  3) that the Holy Spirit dwells in us.  Furthermore, and this should be noticed too, that we (Christians) dwell in all three!

One observes in the passages above that while the fact of indwelling is made clear no reference is made to the how (the mode or means) of indwelling.  The same is true regarding the Spirit's work in the conversion of sinners to Christ.  For example, in John 16:8, Jesus taught that the Spirit would "reprove (convict, ASV) the world of sin."  While the fact of his convicting work is made clear in this passage no reference is made to the how.  If the question is how does the Spirit work in conversion; the answer is, through the word of God.  The same is true regarding the indwelling work of the Spirit--it is through the word of God.

The Bible does not teach a direction operation of the Holy Spirit upon one's heart either before or after becoming a Christian.  It is as incorrect to think the Spirit acts immediately and directly upon the heart of the Christian as it is to think the Spirit acts immediately and directly upon the heart of the sinner.

The fact of the Spirit's indwelling is often taught in the scriptures, but the how is a different question altogether.  Because the Bible clearly states the fact of the Spirit's indwelling does not warrant the conclusion that the indwelling is literal, direct, personal and apart from the word.  Both God and Christ are also said to dwell in us. But this does not mean we should understand that God and Christ have, in some mysterious fashion, in their own persons, taken up their dwelling within our bodies. 


                                                                                               Stephen D. Rook, preacher

    


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