Morning Moments

THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

(8:14) All those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons.
(8:16) The Spirit Himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, (17) and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and coheirs with Christ—seeing that we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

Today, I want to share some quotes with you regarding the work of God's Holy Spirit which is often misunderstood, confused, or misrepresented by some teachers.  Allow me to begin with Wuest:


"Sons" is huios, used in Galatians 4:5 of a mature child of God in a legal standing as against a child of God (teknon) in his minority (4:1-3). When receiving the Holy Spirit at the moment of believing in the Lord Jesus as Saviour, Paul says, the saints did not receive a spirit of bondage resulting in fear. The word "spirit" here refers to a disposition or attitude. We use the word in this way for instance, "The spirit of that man is wonderful."

Denney explains; "It was not the spirit proper to slaves, leading them again to shrink from God in fear as they had done when under the law of sin and death, but a Spirit of adoption, a Spirit proper to those who were being translated from the servile to the filial relation to God." "Adoption" is huiothesias, made up of "son" and "to place." Thus, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit who places children of God (teknon born ones) as adult sons in a legal standing before God and in relation to Him. Vincent quotes a Mr. Merivale, "The process of legal adoption by which the chosen heir became entitled not only to the reversion of the property but to the civil status, to the burdens as well as the rights of the adopter — became, as it were, his other self, one with him . . . this too is a Roman principle, peculiar at this time to the Romans, unknown, I believe, to the Greeks, unknown, to all appearance, to the Jews, as it certainly is not found in the legislation of Moses, nor mentioned anywhere as a usage among the children of the covenant. We have but a faint conception of the force with which such an illustration would speak to one familiar with the Roman practice; how it would serve to impress upon him the assurance that the adopted son of God becomes, in a peculiar and intimate sense, one with the heavenly Father." "Cry" is krazō, and speaks of a loud cry or vociferation, expressing deep emotion (Vincent). The word "Abba" is a Syrian term which Paul translates in Greek "The Father." Our Lord used the term "Abba" in His Gethsemane prayer (Mk. 14:36): which Mark translates into Greek. Robertson, Denney, and Alford say however, that the Greek word is not meant to be a mere translation of the Syriac, but that the name "Father" is repeated. Robertson says it is a child's privilege to repeat the name. Vincent suggests that it probably is from a liturgical formula which may have originated among the Hellenistic Jews who retained the consecrated word Abba. Alford says that it is a form of address, expressing, probably the idea, "my father." Luther translates, "dear Father." The Holy Spirit enables the child of God to call God, Father.

The A. V., translation, "the Spirit itself" is explained as follows: The Greek word "spirit" (pneuma), is neuter in gender; the personal pronoun according to the rules of Greek grammar must agree with its antecedent in gender, therefore, the translation "itself." The translators followed a slavish, idiomatic method of translation here instead of translating according to sense. The Holy Spirit is a Person. The pronoun should be rendered "Himself." "Beareth witness with" is summartureō, "to bear joint witness with" some other person, "to bear joint-testimony with" some other person. "Our spirit" refers to the saint's human spirit energized by the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit bears testimony to our human spirit that we are children of God (teknon, without article, thus, children of God by nature), and our Spirit-energized, spirit thus joins the Holy. Spirit in a joint-testimony to that fact. Alford translates, "testifies to our spirit," saying that the prefixed preposition to the verb sun, meaning "with," does not refer to the words "the Spirit," but to "agreement in that fact." Denney says; "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit.' Our own spirit tells us we are God's children, but the voice with which it speaks is, as we know, prompted and inspired by the divine Spirit itself." Robertson identifies the verb as used with the associative-instrumental case, which gives us the translation, "with our spirit."

Alford's note is helpful: "What is this witness of the Spirit itself? All have agreed, and indeed this verse is decisive for it, that it is something separate from and higher than all subjective inferences and conclusions. But on the other hand, it does not consist in mere indefinite feeling, but in a certitude of the Spirit's presence and work continually within us. It is manifested, as Olshausen beautifully says, 'in His comforting us, His stirring us up to prayer, His reproof of our sins, His drawing us to works of love, to bear testimony before the world, etc' And he adds, with equal truth, 'On this direct testimony of the Holy Ghost rests, ultimately, all the regenerate man's conviction respecting Christ and His work.' "Wuest's Word Studies - Wuest's Word Studies – Volume 1: Word Studies in the Greek New Testament.

Now from Andrew Murray's The New Life, a book I have often recommended and used for training new converts:



It is often asked: How do I know that I shall continue standing, that I shall be kept, that I shall increase?  The question dishonours the Holy Spirit -- is the token that you do not know Him or do not trust Him. The question indicates that you are seeking the secret of strength for perseverance in yourself, and not in the Holy Spirit, your heavenly Guide.

As God sees to it, that every moment there is air for me to breathe, so shall the Holy Spirit unceasingly maintain life in the hidden depths of my soul. He will not break off his own work.

From the time that we receive the Holy Spirit, we have nothing to do but to honour his work: to keep our hands off from it, and to trust Him, and to let Him work.

The beginning and the end of the work of the Spirit is to reveal Jesus to me, and to cause me to abide in Him. As soon as I would fain look after the work of the Spirit in me, I hinder Him: He cannot work when I am not willing to look upon Jesus.

The voice of the Father, the voice of the good Shepherd, the voice of the Holy Spirit is very gentle. We must learn to become deaf to other voices, to the world and its news of friends and their thoughts, to our own Ego and its desires: then shall we distinguish the voice of the Spirit. Let us often set ourselves silent in prayer, entirely silent, to offer up our will and our thoughts, and, with our eye upon Jesus, to keep ear and heart open for the voice of the Spirit.The New Life.

We will continue looking at this subject and these comments.

BLESSINGS!