The role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church is indispensable. Without the Holy Spirit, the Church has no breath, no life, no vitality. Without the Holy Spirit, the Church fails to fulfill its mission to embody the reign of Christ to the ends of the earth (Matt. 28:20). Without the Holy Spirit, the Kingdom of God is unseen and distant. Without the Holy Spirit, the heavens and earth cannot be joined together, and God cannot dwell amongst us as He always intended. Without the Holy Spirit, Jesus is inaccessible to a world that needs Him more than ever. Most importantly, without the Holy Spirit, God’s intentions to inhabit and reign over the creation with His image-bearers is thwarted. Without the Holy Spirit, death, not Christ, reigns.
By way of the Holy Spirit, Jesus takes up residence in a broken world. He tabernacles amongst us (Jn. 1:14). With the Holy Spirit, the light of heaven chases away the darkness and tyranny of a broken and corrupt world. With the Holy Spirit, the Kingdom of God becomes not only visible, but also inhabitable, tangible, and real.
All this happens through the Church. The Holy Spirit makes the Kingdom of God visible and the presence of Christ incarnate in the world through his abiding presence in believers.
This is a high calling. It is nothing short of a call holiness for the redemption of the world.
The fulfillment of Christ’s promise of the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit with the Church (both collectively and with individual believers) is the basis of the Christian testimony. As the Holy Spirit imprints the holy, loving, and self-giving character of Christ on the hearts of believers, He activates and animates the Church’s testimony to the powerful, and very real reign of Christ. Needless to say, the Holy Spirit is essential for the fulfillment of God’s plan to redeem the world through the Church.
In light of humanity’s capacity for evil, this calling seems out of reach, a task too tall. The hope of the world, however, is not merelyhuman. The hope of the world, the hope of glory, is Christ in you (Col. 1:27). It is through the repentant, the humble, the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers, the pure of heart, and those who seek righteousness that the Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus in the world. This is why the narrow way of the Kingdom is through the desert. It is through John the Baptist’s ministry of repentance that the way is prepared for Jesus and his Kingdom to come.
But conviction—the recognition of wrong and the overwhelming sense of regret and remorse for wrong-doing—runs against the grain of the rock-hard, proud, and rebellious heart of humanity. Humans are depraved and desperately need help. More than anything else, we need help humbling ourselves. It is painful, it is terrifying, and takes no small amount of courage. It takes a miracle. It takes grace. It takes a Helper.
The command that Jesus gives Christians to be perfect (Matt. 5:48) does not attest to humanity’s potential for becoming trophies for God’s trophy room, rather, it attests to the incomprehensible power of the Holy Spirit to humble the proud and redeem the broken. Once again, the Holy Spirit is our Helper.
Knowing that Jesus sends us a Helper reminds us that we need not be dismayed, discouraged, defeated, or stranded in sin. Greater is the Holy Spirit who is in us than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4). Where He is there is freedom (2 Cor. 3:17). And this isn’t some esoteric freedom, this is a very real freedom that we can see, feel, and touch. This is a freedom from sin and sinning. This is a freedom to live as God intended humans to live. It is nothing short of new birth.
This is a real freedom that translates into Christian maturity, which means overcoming temptation regularly so as to establish a new pattern of obedience and conformity to the life that the New Testament describes, and Jesus promises here and now (Rom. 7:25a). Not just obedience in our members, but obedience in our attitudes, and even our thoughts as far as they go deep down into the unreachable subterranean human sub-conscious. This freedom is complete because we have help, and that Helper is the powerful third Person of the Holy Trinity who is full of grace and truth. The Helper is God himself. He shares in the divine nature and possesses the sovereignty and wisdom of both the Father and Son.[1] Through the Holy Spirit, the presence of Jesus—the True Image-Bearer and victor over sin and death—is with us always.
The Holy Spirit Glorifies Jesus
The Holy Spirit’s primary ministry is to make Jesus visible to the world (Jn. 16:14). Enabling spiritual gifts (e.g., teaching, preaching, Christian service, faith, charity, fortitude, knowledge, piety, etc.), illuminating the Scriptures, animating worship, inspiring spiritual disciplines (e.g., prayer, fasting, study, solitude, etc.), comforting, healing, and protecting believers—all the ministries of the Holy Spirit—ultimately serve the greater goal of testifying to the lordship of Jesus. All of this is to say, “Christ reigns!”
Jesus says in John 16:13–15,
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore, I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
The Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus by applying the redemptive work of Jesus in the lives of believers. What Jesus has done for us the Holy Spirit does in us. Because the Holy Spirit’s primary ministry is to glorify Jesus, it is inevitable that the Holy Spirit is self-effacing. He is the invisible Breath carrying the redemptive Word into the world, making all things new just like in Genesis 1 (John 3:8 and 20:22). The Holy Spirit testifies to Jesus first and foremost, not to Himself. The Holy Spirit does not wish to be seen. It shouldn’t surprise us then that the Holy Spirit is the Person of the Trinity who tends to be most neglected. Further, the Holy Spirit is spirit, meaning that He is unseen. When you see Jesus, however, you have seen the Father (John 14:9; Heb. 1:1–4). Jesus is the physical embodiment of God (John 1:14). Jesus is the incarnate, visible deity. Jesus manifests God in time and space.
[1] There are countless volumes that go into great detail on the divinity of the Holy Spirit so I will forego that exercise here. For a clear, comprehensive, yet relatively concise treatise on the divinity of the Holy Spirit, see Thomas Oden, Life in the Spirit.
