The Spirit of Life and Freedom
The Spirit of Life and Freedom.
“The Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has set me free… For where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” (Romans 8:2; 2 Corinthians 3:17).
THE HOLY SPIRIT: The eternal life-giving Third Person of the Holy Trinity; the intimate bond of divine love and truth shared by God the Father and God the Son; the dynamic power of God offered to every human being on earth; the supernatural Presence in the Community of God who is personal without being material; the invisible creative force with divine intelligence who truly knows the mind of God from the inside; the Spirit of God who thus has all knowledge and is present everywhere in the universe; the sacred energy streaming forth from the Father and the Son, pouring love into our hearts (Romans 5:5), producing virtuous qualities in us (Galatians 5:22-23), and gradually transforming each believer into the image of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18).
God’s eternal Spirit was present at creation, of course, “brooding like a bird over the watery abyss.” (Gen. 1:1, MSG). No surprise there. All three Persons of God existed together eternally before creation began, and they will be intimate spiritual companions forever after the world’s recreation as well. At creation, the Spirit was like a mother bird hatching an egg, bringing beauty and order out of nothingness and chaos, waiting to take us under His wing.
Because the Triune God is united and inseparable, the Father and the Son is everywhere the Spirit us. If the Spirit dwells in us and alongside us, so does the Father and the Son. If the Father and the Son have promised to make a home in us, the Spirit is right there as well, arm-in-arm in their Trinitarian Presence, establishing a dwelling place in us. Since we are welcomed inside the relationship of the Trinity, the Spirit helps make that happen. Since we are adopted into God’s family as His children, we can be sure the Spirit was a part of that process. We can be assured the Spirit will work to sustain us in the Trinitarian circle and fellowship.
St. Paul’s Trinitarian blessing that closes his second letter to the Corinthians contains an interesting observation concerning the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14). After praying for them to be blessed in the grace of Jesus Christ and the love of God, Paul completes the blessing by praying that they would experience the “koinonia” of the Holy Spirit. Koinonia is another rich Greek biblical term, meaning communion, participation in, companionship, intimate partnership with, deep fellowship with. We are not only joined into the community of the Trinity through the Spirit, but we are plugged into a profound fellowship with other believers as well. There would be no communion with other people were it not for the source of all communion, the intimate unity of the triune God. We are one with other believers only because of our oneness with the Trinity. Believers are welcomed into the relationship of the Trinity, and through that spiritual source of oneness we have the possibility of intimate fellowship with fellow believers. The Holy Spirit dwells within us, along with the Father and the Son, and thus we are able to live inside the Trinity while the Trinity lives within us and we live within the community of believers. The Holy Spirit, our true Companion, our intimate Friend “who sticks closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:24).
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1).
Freedom: (Greek, “aleutheroo”); to liberate from captivity or bondage; to deliver from a certain fate; to set free from a hopeless addiction or dependence; to remove the shackles of confinement; to save from an internal prison of woundedness; to remove whatever it is that has us bound; to enjoy a carefree, childlike spirit after being squelched or limited in some way.
The Holy Spirit Frees Us From:
… A certain destiny of condemnation, a guilty verdict on Judgment Day;
… The automatic impulse to satisfy our sinful nature;
… Being subject to the inner decay and corruption of our fallen world;
… Moral confusion in a world with no absolutes;
… The emptiness and futility of selfish ambition;
… The tendency to deceive ourselves and others;
… A broken and unsatisfying relationship with God;
… The stain of shame and guilt from our past;
… The tyranny of the Self;
… Our vulnerability in the spiritual warfare with Satan and the forces of evil;
… Our stubborn and foolish ignorance of the truth;
… Our frustrated and powerless attempts at perfecting ourselves and others;
… A pointless life with no hopes of an ultimate purpose and meaning;
… A nagging, troubling uncertainty about life after death;
The Holy Spirit Frees Us in Order to Enjoy:
… A new spiritual DNA, while our sinful nature is disintegrating;
… The unspeakable relief of forgiveness of our sinful nature, the consequences of sin, and our past sins;
… The wonderful prospect of being able to grow in goodness and wisdom;
… The certain hope of eternal life with God in the land of Glory;
… The deeply satisfying friendship with other believers who form our new family in God;
… The transforming experience of worshipping God in all sincerity with adoration and reverence;
… The guidance of a godly moral foundation from which to make moral choices and God-honoring decisions;
… The experience of a heavenly peace that passes understanding;
… The fresh air of grace, God’s unearned and merciful favor;
… The assurance that we will become increasingly like Jesus in character and innocence;
… Our adoption by the Father into His family through the Holy Spirit, free to roam in His kingdom;
… God’s welcome to join the intimate fellowship between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit;
… The growing ability to think with the mind of Christ;
… The agape love that is being poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit;
… A fulfilling and meaningful life following Jesus into the adventure of Faith;
… The stimulating and exciting pursuit of knowledge and understanding of God’s world and His truth;
… The resurgence of the creative imagination as we are living into the inspiration of the Holy Spirit;
… The profoundly life-giving absorption in the Word of God, the holy Scriptures;
… The satisfying ability to love and forgive others at a deeply genuine level;
… The supernatural power of the Holy Spirit transforming our whole being into a new creature;
… The significant privilege of approaching the Almighty God in prayer and intercession;
… The profound encouragement of God’s intimate presence with us in life’s inevitable dark valleys;
… A renewed, hopeful and grateful appreciation of the gift of life.
“If you continue in my teachings, abiding in what I have said and done, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. And if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. (Put another way), If you make yourself at home in my Word and make yourself a student of mine, you will intimately experience the Reality of Christ, and you will be spiritually liberated into freedom. And when Jesus, the very Son of God and the Author of Truth, liberates you, you will be completely free.” (John 8:31-32, 36).
To Know. This Hebrew word “yada” is jam-packed with meaning. On the one hand it implies acquiring something factual through the intellect. It is mentally grasping some piece of knowledge and remembering it. When you know something, your mind says, “I got this.” So on the one hand, knowing is a mental exercise. But on the other hand yada is so much more. Knowledge is actually a relationship word in the Scripture. The Bible says that one can only know something through personal involvement, through an intimate experience with whatever or whoever is known. Knowing something involves a heartfelt focus, an intense investment. To know something is to care for it, to give oneself over to it. Knowledge is a personal experience with the truth, a union with whatever is known to be true. To know is to have a committed understanding of something or someone. One doesn’t know something unless it has changed the knower. Knowledge of Scripture is like this, or knowledge of someone. When Jesus talked about knowing Him and thus knowing the Father, it is this very experience He’s talking about. A knowledge of Him that is personal, intimate, committed. Knowing Him in a way that changes us. Knowledge that involves giving ourselves over to Him in a deeply personal way. Head knowledge is not sufficient, because it leaves the knowledge in the abstract. Limiting our knowledge to religious principles, doctrinal statements or theological propositions doesn’t go deep enough. Too many of us stop at talking about God, instead of talking to God. Intellectual knowledge is a dead end if disconnected from a personal relationship with God. Knowing God requires a personal investment, an intimate involvement. Otherwise it’s all just an idea. And God can tell the difference. The worst words any of us could possibly ever hear at the End is, “Depart from me, I never knew you.” (Matt. 7:33).
TRUTH: That which is merely common knowledge to God; the True Reality that has established reality; that which can never be changed or altered; that which is universally trustworthy; that which is established fact and filled with trueness; the fundamental essence of that which is indisputably real; God the Father is Truth, and God the Son is Truth, therefore the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth.
The Spirit of Life at Work: “If God Himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of Him. When the Spirit of Christ makes His home in you and empowers your life, even though your body is doomed to physical death because of sin, His life-giving Spirit imparts life to you because you are fully accepted by God. The truth is that anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ within does not in fact belong to God. If the Spirit of the One who resurrected Jesus from the dead lives inside of you, then you can be sure that God’s Spirit of Resurrection will also raise your dying body to new life! With His Spirit living inside of you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!” (a weaving together of three translations: The Message, The Passion Translation, and the Voice Bible for Readers).