FAITH AND THE HOLY SPIRIT
[p. 102] FAITH AND THE HOLY SPIRIT
It is said of Stephen that he was “full of faith and the Holy Spirit” (Acts 6: 5), and of Barnabas that he was “full of the Holy Spirit and of faith” (Acts 11: 24). This leads us to consider the relation in which faith and the Holy Spirit stand to each other as both having place in the believer. It is evident that each can occupy the same vessel — can be said to fill it — without leaving any less room for the other. Speaking naturally a vessel can only be filled with one thing at a time, but speaking spiritually a man can be full of faith and can also at the same time be full of the Holy Spirit.
Faith characterised certain individuals in Old Testament times, as we know from Hebrews 11, but it did not come as a declared principle of blessing until Christ came. Hence the apostle could say, “before faith came”, and “faith having come”, Galatians 3: 23, 25. But when faith came, the Spirit also came, because faith brought in conditions suitable for the Spirit.
It was Jesus risen, and exalted by the right hand of God, and made Lord and Christ in heaven, that Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, and he announced that those who repented and were baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. What Peter said brought them to repentance, led them to receive Jesus as Lord and Christ, and made them willing to be identified with His name in baptism. All this was a matter of faith. Faith had come as a distinct principle of blessing in the ways of God, and it had come to their hearts and had reversed everything. They knew that Jesus was made Lord and Christ, and they came publicly under cover of His name here. Their faith was in correspondence with the testimony of the Holy Spirit just come down from heaven. That testimony had been received in faith, and in consequence of this they received the gift of the Holy Spirit. He could be suitably given to those who had the faith of His own testimony. There was moral accord between their faith and the Holy Spirit. And this is how the matter stands in every instance.
The gentile company in the house of Cornelius in Acts 10 exhibit the same features. It is evident that as Peter spoke to them the faith of what he said came into their hearts, and immediately the Holy Spirit fell on all those who were hearing [p. 103] the word! The Spirit fell on them — it is presented as an energetic action — because there was perfect congruity between their faith and the Holy Spirit.
In the epistle to the Galatians Paul dwells particularly on how the Spirit was given and received. He asks, “This only I wish to learn of you, Have ye received the Spirit on the principle of works of law, or of the report of faith?” (chapter 3: 2). We read elsewhere, “So faith then is by a report, but the report by God’s word”, Romans 10: 17. Whoever believes the report has something in the faith of his heart that is purely of God. Christ is there as the One in whom he is justified apart from any works of law. Faith having come brings the wonderful light into the soul that we are “the sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus” (chapter 3: 26). We see God’s mind in regard to us set forth in Christ Jesus. God revealed His Son in Paul that he might preach Him as glad tidings among the nations. Now if Christ the Son of God is the substance of faith in the believer, there is something there which could not have been there before Christ came and died and was before God as a risen and glorified Man. A new Person has come in and is made known by the report so that men may have the faith of Him. I am different from what I was, but the change has come about by a new and divine Person being the Object of my faith, which He never was before. This faith makes way for the Spirit because it brings into the believer that which the Spirit can delight in and be identified with. We are God’s sons by faith in Christ Jesus, and “because ye are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father”, chapter 4: 6. Justification and sonship are faith blessings because they are not in ourselves but in that blessed One of whom the gospel has brought the report to us. But the faith of Him brings Him in a very real way into the believer and this is the reason why the Spirit is given. It is not that the flesh has been improved, but a Person that cannot be improved, because He is infinitely and divinely perfect, has come in as the Object of faith. So we receive the promise of the Spirit through faith; that is, through the faith that has Christ alone as its Object.
Ephesians 1: 13 is in perfect accord with this: “In whom (i.e. in Christ) ye also have trusted, having heard the word of the truth, the glad tidings of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, ye have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise”. Faith comes first, brought about by hearing the word of the truth; the glad tidings of God concerning His Son are preached so that through faith men may be sealed with the Holy Spirit. Faith does not stand alone; it has the confirmation of the Holy Spirit — a permanent divine seal attesting on God’s part the reality of what is known to faith.
But it must be understood that the Spirit does not set aside, or take the place of, faith. Indeed, I believe the Spirit always operates in the believer on the principle of faith. “For we, by the Spirit, on the principle of faith, await the hope of righteousness”, Galatians 5:5. I believe this indicates a general principle of the Spirit’s action. Prophecy is to be in the power of the Spirit according to 1 Corinthians 12, but in Romans 12 prophecy is to be “according to the proportion of faith”.