I’ve been spending some time in Paul’s letter to the Romans and felt compelled to share a few thoughts on his understanding of the Holy Spirit. Without doubt, plucking a verse from the Bible to see you through the day can be uplifting and encouraging, but a careful study of an entire book will reveal some things you would never notice just from those one-verse wonders.
Please forgive me for any ugly ads or gaps inserted by WordPress. I’ve put my subheadings on the same lines as the text in order to try to prevent them being totally separated. This is a long article: scroll down to subheadings if you need to.
PAUL’S FOCUS. It’s pretty clear from reading larger portions of Scripture that God’s Spirit takes a “back seat” to Jesus Christ, that the Spirit works in and through all true believers and not just some, that life by the Spirit is the only option to living by the law, and that the Spirit prays for us all, not just for some.
As in all New Testament letters, Paul’s focus during his introduction is Jesus Christ – not the Holy Spirit. This is in contrast to today’s obsession with the Holy Spirit in some branches of the Church. The name of Jesus appears five times in the first ten verses of the NIV Romans translation. “The Son”, a noun representing Christ is used three times. The words “his” and “him”, are used several times to refer to both the Son and the Father – not the Spirit – and Paul calls Christ “the Son of God”.
He uses the title “God” fully six times and “God the Father” once in verse 7. David and the prophets also receive a mention. We can safely say, therefore, that while Paul does mention the Spirit once in his introduction, the focus of his attention from the outset is first and foremost Jesus Christ, and secondly Christ’s Father.
THE SPIRIT’S FOCUS. What about that one mention of the Spirit? Here it is, in its immediate context:
“… regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 1:3-4).
Paul’s reference to the Spirit here is not to draw attention to the Holy Spirit but to the Son of God. It’s all about Jesus:
“… regarding his Son”.
The Spirit is the facilitator or operator of God’s will, working to showcase Jesus Christ – not Himself. The Spirit is indeed an indispensable member of the trinity, but His work is in the background, not the foreground of God’s works. He is like the oil in the engine of your car: vital and ubiquitous, but subservient to the motor without which your car would just be a hunk of useless metal. Jesus declared this principle:
“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you” (John 16:13-14).
He “will not speak on his own”, according to the NIV, the NLT and the NASB. The ESV puts it this way: “He will not speak on his own authority”. The Holy Spirit, then, passes onto us the word of God and draws attention to the Son, and is not on a quest to promote Himself, His own ideas or His own operations. He is within every page of Scripture, in every theatre of true worship (Matthew 18:20) and in every word of praise, but He works to showcase Jesus Christ, not Himself.
THE SPIRIT IN ROMANS 2:29 The Holy Spirit is at work in our hearts to justify us, to guide us and to sanctify us. Paul refers to such works of the Spirit in the following verse:
“A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God” (Romans 2:28-29).
Some believe that the Spirit only works in the hearts of elevated Christians – those on some higher spiritual plane and who demonstrate what they claim to be miraculous gifts. As we will see in Romans chapter eight the truth is that the Spirit is quietly at work in all who commit themselves to Jesus Christ through the gospel.
THE SPIRIT IN ROMANS 5:5 “And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5).
Some are convinced that not all Christians have the Holy Spirit living in them. I will address this in my discussion on chapter eight, and just briefly note here in commentary of this one verse that if they were correct it would mean that God’s love has only been “poured out” for some believers but not for others. Here again is an invalid and un-Biblical two-or-more-tiered Christianity. At best it’s mistaken and at worst it’s a prideful stance which claims a higher level of spirituality.
FLESH OR SPIRIT – ROMANS 7:6 “For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code” (Romans 7:5-6).
In chapter seven Paul has already begun the subject of chapter 8 which is that there is “no condemnation” for those in Christ (8:1). Paul is contrasting law which brings death with “the new way of the Spirit”. There are, says Paul, only two ways of serving God – one by the law and one by the Spirit. Where would this leave those who profess faith in Jesus but don’t – according to some – have the Holy Spirit? They would have neither law nor grace! Paul clarifies for us in the first two verses of chapter eight.
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:1-2).
We are “freed from the law of sin and death” by the Spirit of God, says Paul. Who is this promise for? It’s for “those who are in Christ Jesus” (verse 1). It’s the Spirit who “gives life” says Paul, and since it’s faith in Christ which makes us alive we can’t point a finger at some Christians who’ve professed faith and accuse them of not being in the Spirit. Life isn’t for “some” who are in Christ but for all. Anyone in Christ, says Paul, has been freed from sin and death by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. If they are living in Christ they are living by the law of the Spirit. We could say this the other way around – it’s like an equation:
Anyone set free from the law of sin and death (by being in Christ) is living by the law of the Spirit.
THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT. This principle is expanded on in verses 2 to 4, in which Paul plainly ties the ministry of the Spirit in the believer to faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ alone, and not to any subsequent requirement or process, apart from living in Christ. The requirement within the law says Paul, is FULLY met for those who are in Christ and who therefore live according to the law of the Spirit:
“For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.“
FLESH OR SPIRIT: THERE IS NO THIRD OPTION!
Either a person is living in the flesh, seeking what the flesh desires, or he’s living by the Spirit of God within him, and there is no other condition or state to live in, says Paul. Therefore no-one professing faith in Christ can point a finger at another and accuse them of not having the Spirit. The qualifier (which can be another study) is that at any one time the believer can be “walking” or living in the flesh rather than submitting to and walking in the Spirit. It’s all about whether we are living out our faith day by day or not. For our study in Romans, people have either accepted the good news about Jesus and are living accordingly, or they have not. Here’s Paul laying out the options:
“Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace” (verses 5-7).
THE GOSPEL TRUTH. Faith in Jesus Christ brings salvation through the work and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. So what exactly does believing the gospel entail? Cults add to the gospel or take away from it. If they were to go by what’s recorded in the New Testament they would know how simple it really is. Paul, the man commissioned by Jesus Christ and who “turned the world upside down” according to the Jews opposing him, defined it later in his letter:
“The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved” (Romans 10:7-10).
Salvation, then, is a matter of faith in Jesus Christ, and it’s a one-step movement into the kingdom of God. It is not a halfway house to spirituality, because “You are complete in Him” (Colossians 2:10). The only further requirement is the exercise of your faith: putting it into action. That same step takes the believer into life by the Spirit. Paul here clarifies the work of the Spirit within – and not just on the outside – anyone who has taken this one step:
“You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you” (Romans 10:9-11).
EITHER OR… Remember that there is only one Spirit (Ephesians 4:4-6). If you are in Christ, says Paul, you have the Spirit of Christ – the Holy Spirit – living inside you. This is not “oneness” theology: there are three persons but one God, and if you have Christ you have the Holy Spirit. You cannot have one and not the other. If you really love Jesus you will live by the Spirit. Anyone who does not have the Spirit has not genuinely accepted the gospel of Christ and “does not belong to Christ”, says Paul.
This does not at all mean as some will insist, that if you are saved you must “speak in tongues” and display other charismatic phenomena. The evidence of your faith is how you life your life; your love for God and man; your obedience to the word of God. Paul states this “either or” condition again. Either you are in Christ and you therefore have the Holy Spirit in you, or you are still lost and in your sin:
Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live” (verses 12-13).
The last phrase is fascinating: “… if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.” We aren’t saved by our works, but if we really have the faith we possess we will show it in the way we live. There is only one way we can to that, and it’s by the Spirit living in us. God gives us His Spirit to enable us to live a Godly life.
CHILDREN OF GOD. As we saw, the gospel of Jesus Christ provides salvation to the believer. Paul now tells us that the believer has become a child of God:
“For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children” (verses 14-16).
If you point your finger at a professing believer and tell them that they don’t have the Holy Spirit yet, or worse, that they don’t have the Spirit because they don’t speak in tongues, you are attempting to deny them their rightful relationship with God. They are already children of God, but by your pride or your faulty theology you are trying to blind them to that fact. Paul goes on to say that the children of God are “heirs” with Christ (verse 17). Will you deny another child of God his or her rightful inheritance?
There’s a further lesson here for all of us. The Spirit is within us to lead us in the Way of life. If we choose to resist His leading in us through our hearts and the word of God, are we not walking in the flesh? This is a possibility in the life of any professing Christian. Our obligation, as Paul puts it, is to submit to the leading of the Spirit and not to our flesh which wars against us until the day we pass into the next world.
GROANING. The next significant passage in Romans involving the Holy Spirit is commonly used out of its context, so that the following extract is seen as confirmation of the need to “pray” in tongues:
“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God” (Romans 8:26-27).
In answer to this attitude, notice first that according to Paul’s own discussion on tongues, tongues were/are/should be uttered in “words”:
“But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue” (1 Corinthians 14:19).
Now look at the second part of verse 26 of our text, as quoted in the above NIV version:
“… the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans”.
There are no words uttered when the Spirit prays inside us. Here’s the same phrase in the KJV:
“… the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered“.
NO UTTERANCE, NO WORDS! It’s not possible to pray out loud without words and without utterance. Therefore Paul is saying in this passage that what the Spirit does when He prays for us is wordless, at least in terms of the use of our mouths. It’s devoid of tongues or any spoken expression on our part. The Spirit doesn’t pray through our mouths or in groans or any sounds at all, but in our hearts and our inner being, to the Father who is also in every true believer. No “tongues” are necessary, were it even a legitimate expression of the gift. When we’re moved, in despair or confused and unable to pray coherently, the Spirit prays to the Father on our behalf. That’s the message Paul has for us in this passage of Scripture.
The proper context of this Romans passage is that we as a part of the fallen creation are waiting for the redemption of our bodies (verses 18-22) and in this context Paul tells us in verse 23 that we “groan inwardly”. That’s why he went on to speak of the Spirit interceding for us with “wordless groans”:
“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:22-23).
ALL OF US, NOT SOME. A further implication of this is that the Holy Spirit prays for all of us, not just for those who claim to have a gift. Paul says in verse 27 that the Spirit prays for “God’s people”. He doesn’t pray only for “some of God’s people”:
“… the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God”.
FURTHER REFERENCES TO THE HOLY SPIRIT. Remaining references of Paul’s to the Holy Spirit in Romans are brief. They do, however, deserve to be part of the study. In chapter nine he speaks of the relationship between his conscience and the Spirit (verse 1). In chapter fourteen he writes that the kingdom of God is, among other things, a place of “peace and joy in the Holy Spirit”. Here again is evidence of the Spirit being the “oil” of the engine; the facilitator of all of God’s work in us.
In wrapping up his letter, Paul mentions the Spirit four times in chapter fifteen. We are to have “hope by the power of the Spirit” and we are “sanctified by the Holy Spirit”.
MIRACLES DONE BY ONE MAN – NOT BY MANY. Paul then speaks of miracles he had performed among the Gentiles through the power of the Spirit. However, it’s significant that he does not paint a picture of the Church as a whole routinely working miracles or even just its leaders. Instead, he tells us that his own ministry among the Gentiles has been accompanied by a demonstration of the Spirit’s power:
“Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done— by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit of God” (Romans 8:17-19).
The letter closes with a request of Pauls through “the love of the Holy Spirit”, to pray for him in his struggles (15:30).
NOTES
Fuel for Faith, Food for Thought 