Special Insights No. 2
Second Quarter 2006
“The Holy Spirit”
(Produced by the Editorial Board of the 1888 Message Study Committee)
“The Holy Spirit Symbolized in Scripture”
Last week we discovered that the Holy Spirit is a member of the Divine Trio of the Godhead. He possesses a personality as real as that of Jesus Christ. He can be grieved (Eph.
Helper and Light
We often think of the Holy Spirit as a gift to those who believe. But He in effect is a gift to the world. In this capacity He is known as a Helper to convict the world of sin because they do not believe in Jesus. The work of the Holy Spirit whether for the believer or unbeliever always centers on Jesus. The Helper convicts the world of righteousness because Jesus said, “I go to My Father.” He convicts the world of judgment because Jesus said, “the ruler of this world is judged” (see John 16:7-11). In this capacity even the heathen who have never heard the name of Jesus may respond to the convicting power of the Holy Spirit and begin to exhibit the characteristics of the Light that lighteth every man that comes into the world. This is the goal of the Holy Spirit’s mission into the world.
For those who have responded to the Holy Spirit’s work upon their hearts and have come to Jesus just as they are, all polluted and corrupt, He begins His mighty work of regeneration. But this work can never reach its culmination, the restoration of the image of God in fallen flesh—the mind of Christ, unless there is a heart and mind understanding and appreciation of the truth of the gospel.
The Holy Spirit will always cast the glory of man in the dust with the realization that God chose us, predestined us, adopted us, and elected us in Christ by virtue incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of the Son of God. Upon this realization the sinner can choose to remain as part of the first Adam who condemned the human race, or choose to unite with the second Adam who brought justification of life to the fallen race of men. The question that the Holy Spirit always brings to the mind of the sinner is: “What are you going to do with the gift of God’s own Son?”
“By faith in Him as a personal Saviour the union is formed. The sinner unites his weakness to Christ’s strength, his emptiness to Christ’s fullness, his frailty to Christ’s enduring might. Then he has the mind of Christ. The humanity of Christ has touched our humanity, and our humanity has touched divinity. Thus through the agency of the Holy Spirit man becomes a partaker of the divine nature. He is accepted in the Beloved” (The Desire of Ages, p. 675).
Dove and Water
Now the work of the Holy Spirit begins in earnest upon the heart of the believer. He works as gentle as a dove to reveal unwanted character traits and begins the process of growth in the grace of Jesus Christ. This cleansing process is applied by the Holy Spirit through the washing of water by the word. The word can only accomplish its cleansing function through the agency of the Holy Spirit applied to the receptive heart and mind. Those who are thus transformed day by day become enabled to show forth and share that which they have received and from them “shall flow rivers of living water” (John
Fire
We must recognize that we are living in the time of end and specifically in the cosmic heavenly Day of Atonement. All heaven is astir and energized waiting to cooperate with the Holy Spirit’s work upon the church. Will the Bride be willing to make herself ready and go to the wedding underway in the
“We are to know the meaning of the words: ‘I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.’ The enmity that exists in the heart against evil has no natural existence, but is an enmity that has been created through the agency of the Holy Spirit. ‘As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name’” (Signs of the Times, June 11, 1894).
This enmity toward sin will manifest itself in all of life’s actions. They will be repulsed by even the thought speaking harsh, vindictive words or harboring even the trace of bitterness, retaliation, or hard feelings. Those who have gone to the wedding will recoil at the slightest entrance of temptation because of the enmity created through the agency of the Holy Spirit. This message of righteousness by faith in the context of the Day of Atonement to prepare a people for translation was a unique feature of the 1888 message brought by Jones and Waggoner and endorsed by Ellen White.
Seal and Guarantee
The answer to the question of whether one is sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise will be self evident in this cosmic heavenly Day of Atonement. Those having gone to the wedding will be repulsed and recoil at the slightest presence of sin because the Holy Spirit will have created a supernatural enmity toward sin in the heart of those who have received the guarantee of their inheritance (Eph. 1:13-14).
—John W. Peters
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