The Holy Spirit

When I was in the seminary I did a selected textual study on the Holy Spirit which I found very interesting--primarily because the theology of it seems to appear full-blown developed clear out of the blue (esp. if one ignores oral tradition).

I just found it today and modified it for the web: http://biblestudy.iwarp.com/Holy_Spirit.html

Any constructive comments would be greatly appreciated.

David, thank you for sharing this post. I very much enjoyed reading your paper on the Holy Spirit. Just before the end notes you wrote:

"These verses lead one to the inevitable conclusion that to be a Christian, to have Christ in you, for the Holy Spirit to dwell within is to have a profound impact on one's ethical behavior. Paul is saying in these verses and indeed from verse 1 that only those who have the Spirit within them can claim to be Christ's and that they will not then live according to the flesh."

I have a question I hope you don't mind addressing. At what point does the Holy Spirit ascend the throne of our soul temple? before or after we cease from sin? before or after we are born again?

From what I have seen in Scripture (see the examples in Acts) I would say that the HS comes in as part and parcel of the new birth. Look at the example with Cornelius's family, for instance.

Is that before or after we cease from sin?

Romans 6
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.

I don't know of anyone who ceases to sin the second they are converted. See again the example in the Bible in Acts about the family of Cornelius. There are others as well.

What I mean is can we experience the miracle of rebirth before we have completely crucified our old man moral habits of sin? Which is not to imply born again believers cannot resurrect the old man and revert back to sin. But can a believer, who is walking in the Spirit and mind of the new man, possess and practice known or unknown moral defects of character?

What does it mean to be a converted Christian? Are we truly converted if we are still living a life of moral sin? Is someone considered a converted Christian, in the eyes of God, if his life is a mixture of unconquered sin and righteousness? Can we be converted on this and that moral imperfection and unconverted on others and still be called a converted Christian?

2 Corinthians 5
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away [note: not passing away]; behold, all things are become new [note: not becoming new].

Galatians 5
16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

1 John 3
9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

[ May 13, 2002: Message edited by: Mike Lowe ]