1.Introduction:Charisma versus
Fruit
One hears a great deal these
days in Christendom about the charismatic gifts of the Holy Spirit—particularly
speaking in tongues and the working of miracles such as healing. Even the
larger, more staid denominations of Protestantism and Roman Catholicism are
finding the charismatic movement growing within their ranks. It is being
proclaimed that the signs of having the Holy Spirit dwelling in us are the
ability to speak in tongues and/or to work miracles of healing and so forth.
Let us see what the Word of God
has to say about this. "In whom also, having believed, ye have been sealed
with the Holy Spirit of promise" (Eph. 1:13 JND); "If any man have
not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His" (Rom. 8:9). Thus, every soul
who has been truly born again, who has put his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ
as his personal Saviour, has received the gift of the Holy Spirit. Nowhere in
Scripture does it suggest that a believer must demonstrate charismatic powers
to prove he has the Holy Spirit dwelling in him.
Many of those associated with
charismatic movements allude to Acts 2:1-4 and Acts 10:44-46 as evidence that
the gift of the Holy Spirit is accompanied or should be accompanied by speaking
with tongues; and they cite Acts 8:14-17 and Acts 19:1-7 as evidence that
conversion is not always immediately accompanied by the gift of the Spirit, but
that the Spirit may come upon people some time after conversion.
These passages in Acts do not
give a description of general Christian experience. They describe what happened
to very specific groups of people during a transition period in God’s manner of
dealing with the Jews and Gentiles. The general teaching of the New Testament
regarding the reception of the Holy Spirit is given in such passages as Gal.
3:2("by the hearing of faith"), Gal. 3:14 ("through
faith"), and Eph. 1:13 ("having believed").
The 120 believers who initially
received the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost received Him quite a while
after their conversion (Acts 1:14, 15; 2:1). However, they could not have
received the Holy Spirit until after Christ’s ascension (John 7:39). The 3000
who were converted later that day evidently received the Holy Spirit when they
believed, since Peter had promised they would (Acts 2:38, 39). Also, there is
no record that they spoke with tongues.
What about the Samaritans in
Acts 8? The need for a delegation from Jerusalem to lay hands on the believers
may very well have been to avoid a perpetuation of the schism between Jews and
Samaritans which had existed for centuries. The Samaritans had to acknowledge
the authority of the Jewish apostles and the Jews had to acknowledge the
genuineness of the Samaritans conversion. Once again, there is no record that
these believers spoke with tongues when they received the Holy Spirit.
The gift of tongues given to
those of Cornelius’ household was evidently a special sign meant to impress
Peter’s Jewish companions of the reality of the Gentiles’ conversion, since no
doubt they would have been very skeptical without such a sign. The men of Ephesus whom Paul met (Acts 19) may not have been Christians at all (that is, followers of
the crucified and risen Christ) at the time of their meeting. They seemed to
have responded to the preaching of John the Baptist a few years previous, and
had received his baptism unto repentance, but apparently they did not yet know
Christ as having died for them and risen from the dead and were not aware of
the Spirit’s coming. Thus they were very atypical of believers today.
The gift of tongues, then, is
not necessary as a sign of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Of all the groups
who received the Spirit as recorded in Acts, only three are said to have spoken
in tongues (Acts 2:1-4,10:44-46 and 19:1-6).
What then is the evidence of the
Holy Spirit’s indwelling an individual today? No doubt it is the manifestation
of the fruit of the Spirit in that person’s life. It seems to be significant
that in the only passage in Paul’s epistles which speaks of being filled with
the Spirit (Eph. 5:15-21), only moral qualities are spoken of; gifts are not
mentioned.
Much rather than being concerned
about obtaining and manifesting charismatic gifts,* the growing, spiritual
Christian should be exercised as to the degree in which he is practically
walking in the Spirit and manifesting the fruit of the Spirit in his life. No
doubt many of our readers are able to quote the ninefold fruit of the Spirit as
given in Galatians 5. But how many of us know the meanings of these words and
the practical meaning which they should have in our lives?
(*The question whether the
charismatic gifts actually exist at all today—that is, as given and controlled
by the Holy Spirits—is beyond the scope of the present article.)
In coming issues, if the Lord be
not come, we will focus on each of the nine types or aspects of spiritual
fruit, and will try to discover how we can more consistently manifest this
fruit as we daily seek to live for the Lord and His glory.