Whosoever

The Holy Spirit is a divine person of the Trinity exercising acts and possessing attributes only suitable to those in the Godhead, including omniscience (2 Cor. 2:9–11), omnipresence (Ps. 139:7–12), omnipotence (Job 33:4; Ps. 104:30), and eternality (Heb. 9:14). Furthermore, He possesses personhood as He can be grieved (Acts 4:30), lied to (Acts 5:3), blasphemed against (Matt. 12:31), and insulted (Heb. 10:29).¹

Since the Bible establishes the Holy Spirit's active personhood, it becomes pertinent to determine His active role in the believer's life. The Holy Spirit plays a tremendously important function in both the justification and sanctification of the believer. Some ministries of the Holy Spirit are permanent completed actions upon the individual coming to faith while others are ongoing and depend on their obedient response. Confusions between the Holy Spirit's role in justification and sanctification have resulted in some misguided theology and unwarranted rejections of eternal security.

This paper will attempt to outline the differing completed ministries of the Holy Spirit and to bring clarity to some misunderstandings in each category.

The Holy Spirit's Finished Work in Justification

Justification, or the declaration of right standing before God through faith alone in the promise of eternal life, is by nature a finished and irreversible status. The immediate result of justification is the person's spiritual regeneration by the Spirit, indwelling of the Spirit, baptism by the Spirit into Christ's body, and sealing for future redemption. The Scriptures describe the Holy Spirit's work here as an unconditional promise and instantaneous upon exercising faith. The acronym RIBS (regeneration, indwelling, baptism, sealing) aptly summarizes the Spirit's ministry as an immediate effect of justification.

Spiritual Regeneration

Regeneration, or the new birth, is the doctrine that believers are created new spiritually before God by the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said new birth — or otherwise translated "from above" — is by the Spirit, making it a divine work. Like the invisible wind blowing, finite humans cannot fully comprehend the Spirit's ministry of regeneration (John 3:5–8). If people cannot control or contribute to the mystery of natural air currents, they likewise have no willful impact on the Spirit. Positionally, the Christian is a new creation before God without regard to their own good works.

1 John 5:1 declares unequivocally that all who believe are presently regenerated. Thus, the Holy Spirit completes this work at the moment of faith, not over the course of any length of time. It is also irreversible. Certainly, you cannot be unborn!

However, the Reformed tradition attempts to distinguish a logical order to salvation that places regeneration before faith. Since man is dead in sins, they reason, the Spirit must enable them to believe in the first place. If regeneration precedes faith, then there must be some interval lapse of time — however brief — between the new birth and the act of believing. This would create an awkward and unthinkable situation where someone would be considered a spiritually new person while at the same time denying Christ and the promise of eternal life.²

On the other hand, the New Testament affirms the order in salvation that begins with faith. John 1:12–13 provides a sequence where one receives truth, believes it, and finally is born of God. The Holy Spirit does convict everyone of sin, righteousness, and future judgment before their conversion (John 16:8–11). Yet, no one should confuse the Holy Spirit's role in convincing the world of truth with regeneration itself. Not everyone convicted of sin will choose to respond correctly. Biblically, regeneration is an inseparable and simultaneous occurrence with faith.

Permanent Indwelling

The Holy Spirit permanently dwells with anyone who believes in the promise of eternal life. By contrast, the Holy Spirit indwelled Old Testament saints temporarily for special purposes and left when they exercised disobedience — as with King Saul (1 Sam. 16:14) and Samson (Judg. 13:25). Now believers have the guarantee of Jesus Christ that the Holy Spirit will abide with them forever (John 14:16).

The Holy Spirit begins to dwell with the Christian at the moment of faith. In John 7:37–39, Jesus compared the Spirit to living water that flows out of a man after a single drink. The apostle's commentary explains the illustration equates believing as the point of reception. In the Church Age, not possessing the Holy Spirit indicates someone does not belong to Christ (Rom. 8:9). The Spirit makes its home with the believer as a temple without distinction to their future moral imperfections (1 Cor. 6:19).³

Many in Pentecostal circles view the gift of the Holy Spirit as a subsequent experience from faith and dependent on our obedience. Essentially, the council at Jerusalem in Acts 15 settled the obedience requirement. In verses 8–9, Peter asserts God gives the Holy Spirit to everyone "just as He did" to the Jews — through faith alone. The Gentiles of Cornelius' household immediately received the Spirit after believing the Word of God (Acts 10:43–46). Their obedience to the Law, or any type of moral transformation, played no part whatsoever. The council considered the faith-alone model as the only expected method for the Spirit's indwelling.⁴

Baptism into Christ's Body

Baptism of the Holy Spirit refers to the permanent immersion of the believer's life into the body of Christ.

Students of theology should be careful not to confuse Spirit baptism with the church ordinance of water baptism. Believers come out of the physical water as a symbol of identification with Christ's resurrection (Rom. 6:3–4). However, the Holy Spirit immediately joins believers to Christ's body at the point of faith, long before they should choose water baptism in a local church body.

Many erroneously teach Spirit baptism needs repeating. On the contrary, 1 Corinthians 12:13 indicates one baptism that sufficiently covers all believers. Repeated Spirit baptisms imply the first is somehow faulty in joining the believer to Christ. Rather, Ephesians 4:5 shows a unity of all believers in one baptism. Paul does not classify believers as potentially qualifying for Spirit baptism based on their maturity, obedience, or any other conditional metric. In the same way that there is one God and one hope of salvation, there is one perfect baptism equally experienced by all believers.⁵

Another misunderstanding lies in confusing the baptism of the Spirit with the filling of the Spirit. They are distinct ministries of the Spirit since baptism is a universal experience and Scripture appears to present filling as conditional and repeated.

Paul admonished the Ephesians: "And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit" (5:18). This verse gives a present tense imperative command to the church, while both Spirit baptism and indwelling are passive receptions completed by God. Theologians ought not to describe filling as a physical entry of more quantity of Spirit. Reading it with the analogy of drunkenness, the act of being Spirit-filled involves overwhelming control and influence. The state of being filled with the Spirit results in praise and thanksgiving to God with humility to others (5:19).⁶

In Acts, believers often experienced a filling of the Spirit before a specific witnessing opportunity or ministry (4:8; 13:9–11). Allowing the Spirit's filling is closely associated with joy (Acts 13:52; Rom. 15:13).

Finally, yielding to the Spirit's control in a dependent life allows the believer to resist carrying out the desires of the flesh (Gal. 5:16). Walking in the Spirit is a daily act of obedience that also produces fruits in good works (5:22–23).⁷

Sealing for Future Glory

Ephesians 4:30 plainly says believers are sealed with God's presence until the future day of redemption. Additionally, Ephesians 1:13–14 teaches the Holy Spirit's sealing begins with faith and acts as the promise of our coming inheritance to possess glorified bodies.

The passage again affirms the consistent, biblical ordo salutis: people hear and believe at a point in time (aorist, active), then receive God's seal (aorist, passive).

If there should be any doubt about the universal nature of the Spirit's sealing on believers, Paul repeats the same language in 2 Corinthians 1:19–22. The promise of Jesus Christ that Paul taught was not maybe but an emphatic yes to all who believe!

Sealing, as with registered mail, indicates official authority and ownership of the sender and receiver to open. The post office invalidates mail opened before it reaches the proper destination. In this case, God acts as both the sender and the proper recipient who has placed the lock Himself. Anyone breaking the seal before the appointed time must hold greater authorization than God. This obvious impossibility assures the believer undoubtedly of their security in Christ.⁸

Concluding Thoughts

Additional ministries of the Holy Spirit exist in the life of the believer, including teaching, empowering with gifts, interceding in prayer, and comforting. Each of these other — though equally important — ministries fall under sanctification: the process of being made like Christ. Believers can backslide and fail in various ways and times in their sanctification.

On the other hand, at justification the Spirit perfectly and unconditionally completes the acts of regeneration, indwelling, baptism, and sealing. God's unchanging faithfulness alone provides certainty of the Spirit's work.