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Scripture Reading: Rom. 8:2, 5b, 9, 11, 13b, 14, 16, 23, 26-27; 1 Cor. 2:4, 9-15
In chapter 7 we saw the functions of the Spirit in the book of Acts. In this chapter we want to begin to see the functions of the Spirit in the Epistles. We will start with Romans and 1 Corinthians.
Romans 1:4 reveals the Spirit as the essence of Christ’s divinity. This verse speaks of the Spirit of God in a particular way, in a way that is different from any other place in the Bible. Verse 3 says that Christ came out of the seed of David according to the flesh. According to the flesh, Christ was a descendant of David. Then verse 4 says that Christ was “designated the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness out of the resurrection of the dead.” In verses 3 and 4 according to is used twice in a contrasting way. According to the flesh in His humanity, Christ was out of the seed of David. But according to the Spirit of holiness, Christ was designated the Son of God out of the resurrection of the dead. As the flesh in verse 3 refers to the human essence of Christ, so the Spirit of holiness in verse 4 does not refer to the person of the Holy Spirit of God but to the essence of Christ’s divinity. In Romans the first function of the Spirit is to be the essence of Christ’s divinity. Christ has two essences. The essence of the nature of Christ’s humanity is flesh. Of course, in His flesh there was no sin. The essence of the nature of Christ’s divinity is the Spirit of holiness. This indicates that the nature of His divinity is something holy, and holiness belongs to the Spirit. The divine essence of Christ, being God the Spirit Himself (John 4:24), is of holiness, full of the nature and quality of being holy.
The Spirit functions as the law of the divine life. Romans 8:2 speaks of “the law of the Spirit of life.” To refer to the law of the Spirit means the Spirit is the law. Every person has a life, and based upon that life he has a law. A bird flies because of the law of its life. Actually, the bird itself is the bird life and the law of the bird life. The three are one. Concerning the law of the Spirit of life, we may say that the law, the Spirit, and the life are one. Cats chase mice according to the law of the cat’s life. The cat’s life is a mouse-chasing life. Dogs bark according to the law of the dog’s life. The dog’s life is a barking life.
Our life is our law and our person. Actually, every person is a law. We are a law in the sense that we always do things according to ourselves. To rise up late is a natural law for some people; they rise up late according to what they are. A person walks and talks in a certain way because he himself is a natural law. The Spirit Himself as the processed Triune God is the law of the Spirit of life. He is a law working within us. The Spirit works in us to free us by His law of life from the law of sin and of death.
Romans 5:5 says, “The love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” The Holy Spirit is used by God to pour His love into our hearts. From the day that we first called on the Lord Jesus, the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. This means that the Spirit confirms and assures us with the love of God. Although we may be afflicted, we cannot deny the presence of God’s love within us.
Romans 8:5 says, “Those who are according to the flesh mind the things of the flesh; but those who are according to the spirit, the things of the Spirit.” We need to ask what the things of the Spirit are. John 16:12 through 15 shows us what they are. These verses reveal that whatever the Father is, is the Son’s. The Son inherits all the riches of the Father. Then whatever the Son is, is received by the Spirit. Finally, the Spirit declares all these things to us. Based upon John 16:12 through 15, the things of the Spirit in Romans 8:5 must be the things concerning Christ. Therefore, the Spirit has the function of conveying the things concerning Christ.
The Spirit functions as the reality and reaching of God (v. 9a). The Father is embodied in the Son, and the Son is realized as the Spirit. Eventually, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are fully realized as the Spirit. The Spirit is the reality of the Triune God, and the Spirit reaches us. The reaching is the application of the Triune God. The Triune God is realized as the Spirit and applied to us as the Spirit.
The Spirit is the reality and person of Christ (v. 9b). Romans 8:9 speaks of the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. These two terms are interchangeably used. This means that the Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of God. This Spirit is Christ’s reality and Christ’s person.
Romans 8:11 reveals three functions of the Spirit: resurrecting, life-giving, and indwelling. Romans 8:11 says, “If the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.” The Spirit resurrects us by giving life to us, and the life-giving Spirit gives us life by indwelling us. His indwelling is for life-giving, and His life-giving carries out the resurrecting. We need these functions of the Spirit daily.
Romans 8:14 says, “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” The Spirit functions in the believers by leading them to live a life as sons of God. We know that we are sons of God because we are led by the Spirit. This leading is not accidental or occasional. Rather, the leading of the Spirit should be habitual, constant. Continuously in our daily living we should be led by the Spirit. If we are continually led by the Spirit, we are living as sons of God in a practical way.
The Spirit also has the function of witnessing. Romans 8:16 says that the Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God. In Romans 9:1 Paul says that his conscience bore witness with him in the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is witnessing that we are children of God. Many sisters have the experience that even while they are shopping in a department store, there is a witnessing within them reminding them that they are children of God. Sometimes while a husband is losing his temper with his wife, there is also a witnessing: “Don’t forget that you are a child of God.” Nothing stops a person’s temper as fast as saying Amen to this kind of witnessing in his spirit. The witnessing Spirit within our spirit witnesses that we are children of God.
Romans 8:23 speaks of the Spirit being the firstfruits (foretaste) of God as our portion. The firstfruits are the first taste, the foretaste. God is our eternal portion. He is enjoyable and tasteful. The Holy Spirit, the all-inclusive Spirit, is the firstfruits of all the riches of God for our enjoyment. What we have enjoyed and what we are still enjoying of God Himself are just a foretaste. The full taste is coming. We will enjoy the full taste of God at the redemption of our body.
Romans 8:26 and 27 say, “In like manner the Spirit also joins in to help us in our weakness, for we do not know for what we should pray as is fitting, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. But He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to God.” Many times we do not know how to pray because we are so weak. But the Spirit joins in, comes in, to help us in our weakness. He helps us by interceding for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. When we have a real burden to pray, yet we do not know how to utter it, spontaneously we just groan with that burden without any utterable word. This groaning apparently is our groaning, but in our groaning is the groaning of the Spirit. This becomes the best prayer within which the Spirit intercedes for us by groaning together with us.
Verse 27 speaks of the mind of the Spirit. The mind of the Spirit is His thought. The searching God knows the mind of the interceding Spirit. When we are burdened to pray but do not know how to pray, this shows our weakness. At that juncture the interceding Spirit who indwells us joins in to pray for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. This is because we do not know what to utter. The groaning of the Spirit carries His thought, His mind. Gradually, after much of this interceding, we may begin to understand the situation for which we are praying. Actually, the purpose of the Spirit’s groaning is that we may be fully molded and conformed to the image of God’s firstborn Son (v. 29).
The Spirit is the reality of the kingdom of God in righteousness, peace, and joy. God’s kingdom is a life of righteousness with ourselves, peace with others, and joy with God. To be righteous with ourselves, we must be strict in dealing with ourselves. We also must have a peaceful situation with others and remain in a rejoicing joy with God all day. This is the proper kingdom life. None of us in ourselves can live a life of righteousness, peace, and joy. This is why we need the Spirit as the reality of the kingdom of God. The Spirit of God is the reality of righteousness, peace, and joy. When we have the Spirit, we have this reality, and we are really living the life of the kingdom of God.
The Spirit empowers us so that we can abound in hope, resulting in joy and peace through faith (15:13). Our human life is not full of hope. People commit suicide because they do not have any hope. Since they have no hope, they feel that there is no need for them to live. Ephesians 2 says that before we were saved, we had no hope (v. 12). Romans 15:13 says, however, that as believers we need to abound in hope. I can testify that I am full of hope that the God-ordained way of meeting and serving for the building up of the Body of Christ will be flourishing and prevailing on earth.
Romans 15:16 speaks of the sanctification in the Holy Spirit. This is not the objective, positional sanctification but the subjective, dispositional sanctification. God has given His Spirit to us to sanctify us, to separate us unto God for His purpose. Thus, the Holy Spirit is moving, working, and acting within us constantly to sanctify us.
Romans 15:19 says that Paul fully preached the gospel of Christ in the power of the Spirit. This shows that the Spirit has the function of empowering us for the preaching of the gospel.
Romans 15:30 refers to “the love of the Spirit.” As Christians, we should love others, but not by our natural, human love. We should love by the divine love, the love of the Spirit. Our natural, human love is not universal. However, the Spirit works in us to give us a love for all the different members of the Lord’s Body (Col. 1:4, 8).
In 1 Corinthians 2:4 Paul says, “My speech and my proclamation were not in persuasive words of wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” The Spirit is the speaking Spirit. The apostle’s speech and proclamation were not from his mind with words of speculation but from his spirit with the release and exhibition of the Spirit, hence, of power.
The Spirit unveils the things God has prepared for the believers (vv. 9-10a). The Spirit unveils to us all the secret, mysterious, hidden, and concealed things that God has prepared for us. God reveals the deep and hidden things to us through the Spirit, for these things have not been seen by man’s eyes, heard by man’s ears, nor have they come up in man’s heart. This means that man has no idea concerning them, no thought of them. They are altogether mysterious, hidden in God, and beyond human understanding. But God has revealed them to us through the Spirit, who searches all things, even the depths of God.
The Spirit searches the depths of God (v. 10b). To know the depths of God is to know Christ in many aspects as our eternal portion. Christ is the depth of the universe because His dimensions are the dimensions of the universe (Eph. 3:18). Only the Spirit can search the deep things of God concerning Christ. The Spirit of God explores the depths of God concerning Christ and shows them to us in our spirit for our realization and participation.
The Spirit knows the things of God. First Corinthians 2:11b and 12 say, “In the same way, the things of God also no one has known except the Spirit of God. But we have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit which is from God, that we may know the things which have been graciously given to us by God.” Praise the Lord that we, those who have been born of God by His Spirit, have received the Spirit of God. Hence, we are well able to know the deep things of God which He has graciously given to us for our enjoyment.
In 1 Corinthians 2:13 Paul says that he spoke the things of God “not in words taught by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things with spiritual words.” This shows that the Spirit functions in teaching the things of God. Paul spoke the spiritual things, which are the deep things of God concerning Christ, by the spiritual things, which are the spiritual words taught by the Spirit. The Spirit teaches the believers spiritual words—the things of the Spirit of God—for spiritual interpretation.
First Corinthians 2:14 and 15 say that a soulish man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God and that they are spiritually discerned. This indicates that the Spirit discerns and receives the things of God.
The Spirit indwells the believers as the temple of God (3:16; 6:19). We believers are not ordinary people, because we are collectively and universally the temple of God. In our experience we are made the temple of God by the indwelling Spirit. When a king comes to dwell in a house, that house becomes his palace. The indwelling of the Spirit is to make us God’s temple.
The Spirit has the function of washing, sanctifying, and justifying. First Corinthians 6:11 says, “These things were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” This washing, sanctifying, and justifying are inward and in life. Inwardly, the Spirit works to wash, sanctify, and justify the believers in life. First, we are washed from sinful things; second, we are sanctified, separated, unto God; and third, we are justified, accepted, by God.
According to 1 Corinthians 6:17, the Spirit joins the believers to the Lord, making them one spirit with the Lord. We are one spirit with the Lord by being joined to the Lord. We were joined to the Lord, brought into an organic union with Him, through believing into Him (John 3:15-16). This union is illustrated by that of the branches with the vine (15:4-5). It is a matter not only of life but in life (the divine life). Such a union with the resurrected Lord can only be in our spirit.
In 1 Corinthians 7 Paul says that he gave his opinion (vv. 25, 40). He also says, “I charge, not I but the Lord” (v. 10), and “I say, I, not the Lord” (v. 12). He expresses his opinion in this chapter concerning marriage life. Then he says, “But I think that I also have the Spirit of God” (v. 40). Paul’s speaking was the Spirit’s speaking. Even when Paul expressed his opinion, the Spirit still spoke. This shows that the Spirit speaks together with the saints.
The Spirit confesses with the believers that Jesus is Lord. First Corinthians 12:3 says that “no one can say, Jesus is Lord! except in the Holy Spirit.” When we call “O Lord Jesus,” this is not only us calling. We are calling and confessing with the Spirit that Jesus is the Lord. Whenever a person says, “Lord Jesus,” the Spirit is there with him. This is why we have to charge people to call on the name of the Lord. The Spirit is with whoever calls on the name of the Lord, and that one is saved (Rom. 10:13).
First Corinthians 12 reveals that the Spirit distributes spiritual gifts to the believers and operates in them (vv. 4, 7-11). The Spirit distributes different gifts to each one of us. Then He operates within us.
The believers are first baptized in the Spirit into one Body. Then they drink of the one Spirit (v. 13). To baptize is to put someone into water, and to drink is to take in water. This shows that we need the Spirit without and within. The Spirit is the reality of the water in which we are baptized and of the water that we drink.
According to 1 Corinthians 15:45b, the Spirit is the person of the resurrected Christ to give life. In resurrection Christ became a life-giving Spirit. The life-giving Spirit moves, works, and lives in us to impart life into us.
The functions of the Spirit that we have seen thus far show us much concerning the Spirit’s capacity. The Spirit’s capacity is the capacity of the omnipotent divine life of the Triune God. His capacity is unlimited.
