Let us consider the truth of the indwelling of the Spirit, which is one of the characteristics of the Spirit’s presence and work during the present Church age. In this indwelling of the Spirit lies all the possibility for practical sanctification.
There is a passage in the Old Testament that is beautifully typical of this sanctification by the Spirit’s indwelling:"This shall be a continual burnt offering … at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord, where I will meet you, to speak there unto thee. And there I will meet with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by My glory" (Exod. 29:42,43). We know that the cloud or Shekinah, the visible emblem of the presence of God, led the children of Israel through the desert, and after the tabernacle was erected, it descended and filled the sanctuary. The tabernacle was sanctified, set apart for the service of God, by this glory. Everything that was inconsistent with that glory was put out, and the whole house was ordered according to the requirements of the holiness of God. Thus the believer, as temple of the Holy Spirit, is sanctified by that presence. He is marked out as belonging to God, and everything inconsistent with His holy will should find no place in the heart or life.
We shall look at four features that characterize the indwelling of the Spirit:(1) The permanency of it, (2) the enlightenment of it, (3) the liberty of it, and (4) the refreshment of it.
The Permanency of the Indwelling
"I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever:even the Spirit of truth" (John 14:16,17). We note in this verse the permanence of the indwelling:"He [shall] abide with you forever." All is stability and permanence in the present era, for all is based upon a finished redemption and Christ taking His place on high. The law must be set aside, for it was "weak through the flesh." Its ceremonies were but shadows of good things to come. Man in the flesh was under trial in the sense that he had not been judicially pronounced worthless.
But when Christ died, He not only provided a perfect atonement, but by His death, sentence was pronounced upon the whole human race. Sin in the flesh was condemned; our old man was crucified with Him, and its worthlessness declared. Now, "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Cor. 5:17). I do not touch the fact of the presence of the old nature, and the deeds of the body to be mortified; but there is a new man who has eternal life. Everything here is of God, and the Spirit will have no occasion to leave for there are no conditions upon which He remains, save the fact of accomplished redemption.
Did you ever think of the awful dishonor done not only to the Spirit of God but to Christ by the denial of the perpetuity of this abiding? If the Spirit could leave after having taken up His abode in us, it would involve a denial of the work of Christ. His work would have ceased to avail before God. It would drag Christ from His throne in glory if the Spirit could depart from a believer.
It cannot be too clearly stated that this indwelling is not because of anything in us, either at the beginning, or at any stage of the Christian life. From first to last, the Spirit dwells with us because of the unchanging value of the work of Christ. Cease forever to dishonor the value of that work by doubting the presence of this Holy Person.
What holy ground we are upon here! If Solomon could ask the wondering question, "But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth?" when His visible glory filled the temple (2 Chr. 5:14; 6:18), what shall we say when the living God in the person of the Holy Spirit comes to abide in us? My brethren, I am persuaded we little realize what this means. If we did, what lowliness would mark us; what abhorrence of sin, what quickness in the fear of the Lord and the detection of the most subtle forms of evil, what reverence! Who can describe the sanctifying effect of simply a deep realization of the stupendous fact. I can but speak of it, and pray that all of us may know practically what the consciousness of this abiding would bring.
The Enlightenment of the Indwelling
"When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth; for He shall not speak of [or from] Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear that shall He speak; and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify Me; for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you" (John 16:13,14). This scripture teaches us the character of this indwelling of the Spirit, how He operates. Notice particularly that He works by the truth. He guides into all truth, even as our Lord prayed, "Sanctify them through Thy truth:Thy Word is truth" (John 17:17). Spiritual intelligence is the very cornerstone of piety. The Word of God_the Scripture of the Old and New Testaments_is the vehicle of the Holy Spirit, the instrument which He uses. The spiritual condition of a person may largely be gauged by his estimation of the Word of God. If that be neglected, or thought lightly of, no matter how ecstatic the feelings, how deep apparently the piety, there is not much true work of the Spirit of God. What a fulness there is in the Word of God! Let us not be slothful in making it our own, under the guiding energy of the Spirit of truth.
The Liberty of the Indwelling
"The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8:2). Here we have the emancipating power of the indwelling Spirit. The sixth and seventh chapters of Romans develop the truth that emancipates. The cross is the end of me judicially:"Our old man is crucified with Him that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin" (Rom. 6:6). Thus we are dead to sin in the death of Christ, and are to reckon ourselves so, and alive unto God in Christ Jesus. God has put the stamp of death upon me as part of the old creation so that faith can now say, "I am crucified with Christ:nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Gal. 2:20). But this death puts me out of the reach of law, not only as that which condemns, but as a rule for man in the flesh.
In the seventh chapter we find that so long as the soul seeking holiness turns to the law, it finds the bonds of sin drawn tighter, for "the strength of sin is the law" (1 Cor. 15:56). The law cannot afford help; sin, by the commandment, becomes exceeding sinful, but there can come no help from the knowledge of this. The two natures are recognized, and two laws, but still no deliverance. Thus, "Oh, wretched man that I am!" is the bitter cry.
But in the beginning of the eighth chapter we see the way of escape, that the life in Christ Jesus is a life of liberty. Instead of the law we have the Spirit, and all through this chapter the Spirit is prominent. Thus we have deliverance by the Spirit. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Cor. 3:17).
The Refreshment of the Indwelling
"Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life" (John 4:13,14). In this interview with the woman of Samaria, our Lord used the water as a type of the Spirit, as that which ministers life and refreshing. "We have been made to drink into one Spirit" (1 Cor. 12:13). In referring to the well of Samaria the Lord stated, "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again." On every fountain of man’s digging we may write these words. No matter where man turns for refreshment, he fails to find that which can truly quench thirst. Pleasure, reputation, power, wealth_whatever the heart of man craves_can never satisfy. As in the Book of Ecclesiastes, those who have most diligently drawn water out of these wells have been constrained to confess, "Vanity of vanities." Let us as Christians take note of this and refuse that which does not satisfy even the world.
You remember that shortly after Israel’s emancipation from Egypt, when scarcely had the echoes of the song of triumph died out, they had to face the question of thirst. There was no water in the desert; so they murmured and began to learn something of the trials by the way. At Rephidim the rock was smitten and the waters flowed out (Exod 17). We are told in the New Testament that typically, "That Rock was Christ" (1 Cor. 10:4). Christ, smitten of God for our sins, sent forth the Holy Spirit for our refreshment. The Rock smitten insures safety and the abundant supply for all our needs in the wilderness through the Holy Spirit.
To the woman of Samaria, seeking satisfaction in the pleasures of sin and the world, the Lord promised not only the gift of a draught of water, but a well springing up evermore. As in new birth we have the bestowal of life by the Spirit, so here we have Him dwelling in us, maintaining and developing the life.
In Psa. 110 it is said of our Lord, "Thou hast the dew of Thy youth." His vigor and freshness are perennial, eternal. To Ephesus it was said, "Thou hast left thy first love" (Rev. 2:4). They had lost the freshness that marked the early stages of the divine life in the soul. Of how many, beloved brethren, must this be said! No outward fall has marred their testimony; they are above reproach, and in many ways commendably zealous; but there is no "dew." Truth has taken clear form, doctrines can be distinctly stated, a keen scent for error is present; but Oh, where is that freshness which ever marked our adorable Lord?
As in Isaac’s day the Philistines choked the wells which his father Abraham had dug, so now formalism chokes the upspringing of the Spirit, and we lose the refreshment the blessed Spirit of God would ever give. The Spirit is in us, just as the water is in the wells, but the stones prevent our getting at it for practical uses. There is nothing for us but to return to the first love, to dig again, to open up again the channels for the welling up of the Spirit. God does not give His Spirit by measure, and if we are straitened, it is in ourselves.
Thus we have looked at four features which characterize the indwelling of the Spirit:(1) The permanency of it_"He shall abide with you forever"; (2) the enlightenment of it_"He shall guide you into all truth"; (3) the liberty of it_"The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death"; and (4) "the refreshment of it_"A well of water springing up unto everlasting life." Surely, with such abounding fulness, our sanctification should be deep and full and complete.
(From The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit.)