Ephesians overview – 3:14-19, The indwelling of the Holy Spirit and Christ, part 2.

Thursday July 9, 2020

 

JER 10:23-24

I know, O Lord, that a man's way is not in himself;

Nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps.

24 Correct me, O Lord, but with justice;

Not with Thine anger, lest Thou bring me to nothing.

 

EPH 3:14-19: The indwelling of the Holy Spirit and Christ.

 

The indwelling Spirit and the indwelling Christ are very closely related, though they are not identical.

 

The Trinity is one and triune. There is one true God, but in the unity of the Godhead there are three coequal and coeternal persons. Each member of the Trinity is fully God, meaning, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not each one-third God. Each Person is fully God, and that truth makes all natural illustrations (clover, egg, 3 primary colors, etc.) inaccurate. There is nothing in our world like this except for God Himself. The word “Trinity” is not found in the Bible, but the deity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is clearly revealed, including the fact that they are each a Person and that all three are unified as one God.

 

The work of the Holy Spirit and the work of Christ are often equated. It is important to never forget that they are always in you to work their good pleasure.

 

Jesus said that He would give us the Holy Spirit as a Helper or Mentor, and that when He did, Jesus Himself would come to us, meaning that both of them would indwell us and both of them would help us. In several passages we find them working in conjunction to help us succeed in the plan of the Father to which each of us have been called.

 

Jesus also said that the Spirit would bear witness of all that Christ is and has done.

 

Strength comes to the believer through both the Spirit and Christ.

 

2CO 12:9

Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me [spread like a tent upon me].

 

EPH 3:16

to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man;

 

It must increase our confidence and our hope to know that both the Spirit and the Son empower us from within. They will always be there, going through what we go through, and in fact praying for us all the way. We have been truly blessed beyond what we could ever ask or think. It is up to us to come to know these truths about God’s blessing and in faith live our lives under the way of Christ in the plan of the Father knowing that all of it will be accomplished by God within me; proclaiming with Paul: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

 

Paul easily switches between the indwelling Spirit and the indwelling Christ.

 

ROM 8:9-10

However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. 10 And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

 

To have Christ indwelling in us is to have the Holy Spirit indwelling in us.

 

God has designed the believer through regeneration to be the type of man or woman who is in the Spirit (in Spirit; no definite article). “You are not in flesh but in Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.” We have been made spiritual, the type of humanity (new humanity) who walks in the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t guarantee that you’ll do it; it’s just who you are in Christ.

 

“Here the great mark of a true Christian is, that the Spirit of God dwells in him. If he is indwelt by the Spirit of God, he is not ‘in flesh,’ but instead an entirely different kind of being, - ‘in Spirit.’ The Spirit becomes now the element in which the believer lives, like water to the fish, or air to the bird, vital, supplying, protecting.” [William Newell, Romans Verse by Verse]

 

Then, if you do not have the Spirit of Christ [Holy Spirit], you do not belong to Him [Christ]. We can confidently assume that He is called the Spirit of Christ because Christ sent Him, and also that the Spirit is to manifest Christ to us.

 

It is interesting to contrast Rom 7 with Rom 8. In Rom 7 we find Paul in a mighty struggle between mind and flesh. The Spirit, he doesn’t mention. Some think that Paul is recalling himself as an unbeliever, but that position is not possible to defend. Would the believer who was not convinced of the type of new man that God has made him, not convinced that he was in Spirit and so empowered to do all things, not fully convinced of who he was in Christ (for this must take time to learn), which is the position of Rom 8, sort of act like Rom 7? Trying to do what he ought to do and not do what he ought not to do out of duty alone, and therefore in his own energy and power. Then, throwing his hands up in the air concluding “Wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from the body of this death?” The believer who is early in learning would not possess the hope and confidence of his more mature self. And what is often missed in Rom 7 is that the Paul that he describes is desiring very much to be good and is finding himself very disappointed with the results. I would venture that unbelievers are not like that.

 

1JO 3:24

And the one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And we know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.

 

1Cor 12:3

Therefore I make known to you, that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus is accursed"; and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit.

 

Rom 7 has us trying to be righteous out of duty alone, and Rom 8 has us attempting the same from faith in knowing what type of new men and women God has made us in His grace - those who walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh.

 

ROM 8:10

And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

 

Christ is in you, so your spirit is alive because of righteousness. This would be Christ’s imputed righteousness.

 

The body is dead because of sin, but that doesn’t mean we don’t use our bodies under the will of God. We are to use our members as instruments of righteousness. Yet the body as it is now is destined for death, decaying and weakening every day, but that is not its end.

 

ROM 8:11

But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.

 

The same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead will also raise the believer from the dead.

 

ROM 8:23

And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.

 

We groan in this body. We suffer in this body - in this world.

 

ROM 8:18-19

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.

 

Now, back to our spiritual life in time:

 

ROM 8:9-10

However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. 10 And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

 

Christ is in you to make your spirit alive, like Christ is alive - to righteousness in life, love, and purpose.

 

Christ is in you and you are in Him. The Spirit is in you and you are in Him. And it turns out that you are in the Father, JOH 17:21.

 

JOH 14:10-11

“Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. 11 "Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me; otherwise believe on account of the works themselves.”

 

The Father and the Son are distinct Persons, yet one in being; in essence. They are one in life, love, and purpose.

 

Jesus says, “the Father abiding in Me does His works,” which is an incredible statement, but as we know, Jesus in His humanity submitted Himself to the authority and the will of the Father though Jesus was Himself of the Trinity. The Father worked in Him. The Trinity works in us.

 

So, it is not so much that He was in this instance in the Upper Room declaring His membership in the Trinity to them, but that the Father was in Him working and He was in the Father as having the same life, love, and purpose. This unity of humanity to deity, Son to Father, subject and authority, is the same relationship that Jesus died to give to us. It doesn’t make us God, but it is none the less remarkable in its same nature as the relationship of the Father to Jesus Christ.

 

And so, by the marvelous grace of God, we are in Christ and He in us. In the same manner, as can be between human and divine, we are of the same life, love, and purpose as the Son of God. By virtue of being in Him, though the body is dead because of sin, and decaying and suffering in this world, the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

 

JOH 17:20-26

"I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; 21 that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me. 22 "And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one; 23 I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me. 24 "Father, I desire that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am, in order that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me; for Thou didst love Me before the foundation of the world. 25 "O righteous Father, although the world has not known Thee, yet I have known Thee; and these have known that Thou didst send Me; 26 and I have made Thy name known to them, and will make it known; that the love wherewith Thou didst love Me may be in them, and I in them."