Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
As we approach the Day of Pentecost when the Christian church celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit I have been thinking about God’s purpose for his people and the role of the Spirit in fulfilling that purpose.
The Holy Spirit bears witness to Jesus, and shows him to us, but he is not content simply to reveal Jesus to us, he wants to form Jesus in us. The Spirit wants us to become like Jesus; to be Christlike is God’s purpose for all his people.
This has been God’s purpose from eternity past. Paul tells us in Romans 8:29 (NIVUK throughout) ‘For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son…’ God’s eternal predestinating purpose is that one day we will be conformed to the image of his Son, we will become like Christ.
This is also God’s present purpose. Again, it is Paul who tells us that ‘…we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory…’ (2 Corinthians 3:18). God’s present purpose is that day by day we are being changed so that we become more like Jesus.
Additionally, John shows us that this is God’s purpose for the future, ‘Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.’ (1 John 3:2). We shall become fully like Christ when we are resurrected on the last day (John 6:44).
Here we have the past, present and future purpose of God for his people and it is always the same: that we might become like Jesus. If this was purposed in God’s heart and is our destiny, how can we make it a present reality? Only by the Holy Spirit working in and through us: ‘we all…are being transformed into [Jesus’s] image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.’ (1 Corinthians 2:18). It is not that we should strive and struggle to live like Christ. It is rather that the Spirit comes to live within us and make us like Christ. William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1942 to 1944 put it this way:
‘It’s no good giving me a play like Hamlet or King Lear and telling me to write a play like that. Shakespeare could do it; I can’t. And it is no good showing me a life like the life of Jesus and telling me to live a life like that. Jesus could do it; I can’t. But if the genius of Shakespeare could come and live in me, then I could write plays like his. And if the Spirit of Jesus could come and live in me, then I could live a life like his.’[1]
God’s purpose is to make us like Christ, and God’s way is to fill us with the Holy Spirit, but how does the Spirit transform us?
He does so through a fourfold ministry:
First, he operates in our mind enabling us to discern the will of Christ. Secondly, he operates in our conscience, enabling us to distinguish right from wrong. Thirdly, he operates in our heart, or emotions, enabling us to desire to please Christ and live for him. And fourthly, he operates in our will, enabling us to determine, to follow Christ.
The Spirit then, operates in our mind, our conscience, our heart, and our will enabling us to become more Christlike as we discern his will, distinguish right from wrong, desire Christ’s way rather than our own, and determine to follow him.
As a result, it is greatly to our advantage that Jesus went away, and that in his place the Holy Spirit came (John 16:7). The Holy Spirit has made the presence of Jesus no longer local, but universal; no longer external, but internal. He both universalises and internalises Jesus Christ.
So, as we come to observe Pentecost, let’s celebrate God’s gift of the Holy Spirit to all his people. Let’s keep ourselves open to the fullness of the Holy Spirit, day to day, and allow him to exercise his ministry in us, namely, to bring about God’s purpose and form Christ in us.
My Pentecost prayer is that the Holy Spirit will minister, to and in us, individually, and corporately, so that Christ will indeed be formed in every area of our lives, for this is God’s purpose for us.
In Christian love,
Barry Robinson
Regional Pastor for Southern England
[1] Quoted in The Radical Disciple, John Stott, pp 40-41.