Gospel of John [Joh 16:8]. The Doctrine of the HS, part 8. Rom 8:12-17; Eph 5:1-8.

Title: Gospel of John [JOH 16:8]. The Doctrine of the HS, part 8. ROM 8:12-17; EPH 5:1-8.

 

 

Many of the titles referred to as indicating His attributes also connote His works. We have already noted several of these. Titles are given the Holy Spirit, affirming His works.

 

The Spirit of Adoption (ROM 8:15) has reference to His revelation of our adoption as mature sons.

 

ROM 8:12 So then, brethren, we are under obligation [bound to a duty], not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh — 

 

ROM 8:13 for if you are living [present - habitual living] according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

 

"You must die" is the experience of walking death like an unbeliever and not the experience of life in Christ, which is practical sanctification.

 

It is by the power of God the Holy Spirit that we put to death the deeds of the body or the deeds of the flesh, which is sin and evil. In fact, it is only through Him that we can do it.

 

GAL 5:16-17

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another

 

This is not a feeling or an emotion but a trust in the Spirit's teaching, leading, and empowering to suppress the power of the flesh as the believer sets his mind on application of the word of God.

 

God the HS is not to glorify Himself in this dispensation of the Church, but He is executing a behind the scenes ministry where He glorifies Christ by teaching, leading, and empowering the believer to know the mind of Christ, follow the cross of Christ, and to execute the life of Christ within himself. Therefore, we trust the Spirit to fulfill His ministry as we set our eyes on Christ. Throughout our day, as often as necessary, we privately and quickly evaluate ourselves as to whether we are trusting in or yielding to the Spirit or ourselves.

 

Trusting ourselves and not Him is quenching the Spirit. Continuing in sin is grieving the Spirit.

 

Those who have passed out of death and into life are living the life of eternity within the confines of time, even though not all who have received life understand what has happened to them and what the possibilities of that life are right now.

 

So the real question becomes,

 

"How does the Spirit put to death the deeds of the body?"

 

Well, first, at salvation, He identified you with Christ, which is the baptism of the HS. You were identified with Christ in His death and resurrection. This is why your obligation or duty has changed.

 

But what about personal sinning after salvation? No believer will ever become sinless, but what about victory over sin and over a sinful lifestyle? If it were all the Spirit and had nothing to do with the volition of the believer then we'd all be sinless. If it were all the believer and the Spirit was waiting for us to conquer all sinful areas of our lives before He filled us. then all the glory would go to the creature. God will not violate the free will of man to choose for or against Him.

 

Second, your experience in time: Desire to live godly and God the HS will teach, lead, and empower you to do so. You go after it and place your faith in Him to do it in you and through you.

 

This is not an assent to want to live godly while secretly really wanting to live for the flesh. People might be fooled but God is not. "If you love Me, you will keep My commands," said Christ. This means that you have a motivation, an attitude, an assertion, or a priority in life to do the will of God. If you do, God the HS will teach, lead, and empower you and God promises that you will succeed in a way that you could never have imagined, which eye has not seen, ear has not heard, neither has it entered your mind, all that God will do for those that love Him. Naturally this includes a recognition of sin in a believer's life, which is unavoidable, and an acknowledgement, confession, etc., call it whatever you want, but it is an agreement with God that it is sin and that he, the believer, is in no obligation to it. It has been forgiven forever, yet the believer recognizes it in his life, and with the power of God the Holy Spirit continues to put his flesh to death, or rather, reckon it dead through the work of Christ. In this he would not continue in the pattern of sin, because he is looking forward to the things of the Spirit, for one cannot do both simultaneously. Dealing with personal sin is in reality the smallest part of this. The attitude of humility in the believer to desire the will of God and through the Spirit to suppress sin and evil in his life and to express divine good is the real walking. The sin is falling. Get up! But don't just stand there, get going and walk in a manner worthy of your election, worthy of who you are in Christ by walking by means of the Spirit of God. We don't describe the way we walk by how we fall and get up. When the Jews at Capernaum asked Christ how He got there so quickly from the other side of the sea, if He did answer them, He wouldn't have said, "Well first I stood up from a seated position." He would have said, "I walked across the sea on the water."

 

Certainly it is impossible for an individual to destroy the power of his old nature completely. As long as we are in the body, the flesh and its appetites are present with us. It is only by the Holy Spirit that we are able to cope with the powers that reside within us and around us.

 

It is within our power to submit to the Holy Spirit for His leading and guidance, and for His work of purging our conscience from wrong priorities.

 

ROM 8:14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

 

"sons" - ui`o,j[huios] = a mature child of God in legal standing. We are called to maturity because that's what we've been adopted as.

 

There was a time when the idea that men could be called the sons of God was foreign to human thinking. It can be proved beyond question that the idea of sonship to God was introduced by the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

In the pagan world, after the departure of men from the government of God and their dispersion from the tower of Babel, the concept of God degenerated very rapidly, and soon monotheism gave way to polytheism. Instead of the one true God men began to think in terms of many gods. Men deified their fears, and saw a god behind every storm and every stroke of lightning. They deified their desires and made a god of gluttony and a god of lust. They deified their virtues and made a goddess of wisdom and a god of power. They deified the benevolent forces of nature and made a god of the harvest and a god of wheat and a god of wine. The list is long.

 

Whenever the ancient pagans had any idea of a child of God, it was a child of lust, generally associated with some mythological escapade of a god seizing upon a beautiful mortal and leaving her with child. The stories of Hercules, child of Alcmene by Zeus, and of Narcissus, son of Leiriope by Cephissus are typical of all the foul legends of the demon gods.

 

When we come to the New Testament, however, we are confronted with one of the most wonderful doctrines of the Christian revelation. It was the plain teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ that human beings who had been the children of sin, and even children of the devil, could become children of God, in far more than a spiritual sense, through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.

The great enemy of truth has always sought to obscure this special truth because it is so humiliating to him to see human beings whom he desired to secure as his followers, taken from his kingdom and translated forever into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. Satan has attacked this doctrine with the false doctrine of the universal fatherhood of God to all mankind.

 

JOH 8:42 "If God were your Father, you would love Me; for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me.

 

God has given the believer the authority and power, the right and the permission to become His children.

 

No wonder the Devil hates this doctrine, and no wonder he wishes to destroy the supreme grandeur of it by attempting to water it down to the corrupted concept, the diluted and debased doctrine of a universal brotherhood that in­cludes in a motley and promiscuous association every monster from Cain to the final antichrist.

 

The word of God breaks such false doctrines to pieces.

 

We are not only called sons of God but are called to imitate Him as a child imitates his parents.

 

This is yet another instance of being given a tremendous grace blessing and then, and only then, after receiving such a gift, are we called upon to live in the light of its blessing.

 

It is always God's method to give us great blessing and then call upon us to live in the light of that blessing.

 

God never demands anything of us that He has not already provided for us.

 

2PE 1:4

For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

 

EPH 5:6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

 

EPH 5:7 Therefore do not be partakers with them;

 

EPH 5:8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light

 

1JO 3:2

Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is.

 

We are sons of God now, and this is one of the greatest impulsions for us to live a life of holiness [separate from commonality and unto Him], yielded unto the Father's will, the Son's life, and the Spirit's teaching, leading, and empowering.

 

Young children the world over imitate their parents. During His ministry the Lord indicated this behavior in children as something that is highly prized in the kingdom of God.

 

EPH 5:1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children;

 

EPH 5:2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

 

Because we are His children, we are to seek to imitate Him. And as such, the world should recognize that we are His because they see Him in us. You've heard the phrase, "spit an' image of his father." Originally this phrase was "spirit and image," and actually those two words should have tremendous meaning to the born again believer.

 

The position of son should bring dignity and obedience. By dignity I mean living in the virtues of God, which are our birthright, the greatest being love. By obedience I do mean keeping His commands, but with the motivation that comes from a consciousness of the divine relationship we have with God that should arouse in us every feeling of love and confidence and obedience. As adult sons we should delight to do His will and not as a burden.

 

HEB 10:7

"Then I said, 'Behold, I have come

(In the roll of the book it is written of Me)

To do Thy will, O God.'"

 

As the Spirit glorifies the Son, He enables us to execute the will of the Father as Christ did in His humanity.