25.08 | How Freedom Happens
Acts 18:24-19:20
‘And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.”’
Acts 19:1-3
Every ‘I am unable’ of the Christian life is answered by repentance and the Spirit.
The Spirit of God is He who convicts us when our hearts are hard, who guides us into truth when we cannot understand. He is the one who creates in us hearts of love and joy and peace and hope, and who enables the Church in the gifts of the Spirit. The Spirit is the animating breath of God, perceived in the creation narrative of Eden and in the re-creation narrative of Acts. Without the Spirit, Christianity remains a religion of self-effort and religious rules. Without the Spirit, our souls remain as lumps of clay. Without the Spirit, we have not yet entered into the foretaste living of the age to come—where all will be animated by the life-breathing Spirit of the living God.1
And it is the Spirit who is the topic of our passage today. It goes something like this.
Paul has been in Corinth, building a church built on simple Gospel proclamation of repentance and the manifest power and baptism of the Holy Spirit. The baptism has been of repentance (turning away from the things of death) and of the Spirit (being re-filled with the things of life).
Apollos, a new character for us, has been in Ephesus, where he has been leading people to the truths of Jesus through Gospel proclamation, and a baptism of repentance only.
Today, they switch cities—Apollos going to Corinth, and Paul to Ephesus.
And the topic in both places is exactly this:
We need the baptism of repentance…
…and we need the baptism of the Spirit.
Why?
The baptism of repentance is essential, for it is the engagement of our will towards a new way of life. Repentance is where we name our regret for mistakes and our resolve towards a new direction. Repentance is our own choice towards God’s Way of holiness and goodness, and is a decisive turning away from anything that runs contrary to His life. The baptism of repentance symbolises washing and cleansing—going down into the waters in one state, and then rising out of them in a fresh state of pure life. What John the Baptist did in the River Jordan was this work—calling people to holiness, to change, to a new direction. It readied their hearts for the arriving presence of God in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
And yet, without the baptism of the Spirit, we remain powerless to continue this change. Without the baptism of the Spirit, our good intentions are rapidly hijacked by our wounded hearts, our wounded frameworks of thought, and our wounded desires. Without the baptism of the Spirit, we can only continue as long as our efforts allow us (usually a few minutes).
Both are essential. Something is taken out, and something must be put back in. Repentance empties, and the Spirit fills. Repentance rejects death, and the Spirit fills with life. Repentance says no to anger, greed, lust, fear and selfishness, and the Spirit fills us with patience, generosity, purity, courage and love.
Be careful. There are many who have mandated the way it looks when the Spirit fills a person—usually to do with the mandatory gift of tongues.2 Such manifestations are not unexpected, but neither are they essential to prove His arrival. He works in peace as well as power. What is essential is the laying on of hands and inviting Him into a life. For when the breath of God meets the choices of a repentant people, transformation happens.
Do you feel stuck in a sin?
The way on will always be this: repentance, and the Spirit. The turning of all of our will that we can muster, expressing this to Him in real words and prayers. And yet, by itself, this will not be enough. We must merge this with the invitation of the Spirit of God to come and empower transformation in us—helping us to think different and to want different and to act different.
Repentance and the Spirit.
For this is how freedom happens.
Reflect:
Is there an area in which you feel stuck right now?
Bring Him your repentance for what you want to reject.
Invite the Spirit to heal and fill you with the things of life.
Pray:
Spirit of God,
I repent.
I turn away—
With the strength of my will,
And the choice of my heart—
From each and every place of pain and depravity;
From every place of smallness and fear;
From every place of selfishness and egotistical ambition.
And yet, Holy Spirit,
I know that my will alone is not enough.
I cannot become new
Without your breath;
I cannot accomplish your purposes
Without your empowerment;
I cannot truly live
Without your life.
And so,
Spirit of God,
Would you breathe into me
The wisdom of Jesus’ Way;
The beautiful character of your fruit;
And the enabling power of your gifts;
That my life
May live into the realities of
Your inbreaking New Creation.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen
Old Testament:
For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:
Job 8-10 | Psalm 103:6-22
As a side note, it is becoming more popular, in some circles, to use the pronoun ‘She’ for the Spirit. There is perhaps some Scriptural support for this—with the Hebrew word for ‘Spirit’ (ruach) being a feminine noun, and the Greek word for Spirit (pneuma) being neutral. However, the gender of a metaphor, in Hebrew or Greek, do not imply a gender of the one described, and so this isn’t necessarily implied. The pronouns that Jesus uses for the Spirit in John 14-15 are masculine, and so the Scriptural leaning does point this way. However, the problem that those who use ‘She’ are looking to correct—of a masculine-dominant church—is important, however, especially when we consider the Scriptures that describe God using motherly language, or recognise that both male and female only truly represent the image of God (as described in Genesis 1). Using ‘She’, therefore, is not so much unbiblical, but maybe just has less support. As Jesus uses the masculine pronouns, that is what I have chosen to use in this devotional. And yet, I would be slow to critique the reasons—theological or pastoral—that others have, in using feminine pronouns for the Spirit.
Paul does away with this idea in 1 Corinthians 12-14, where his expectation is clearly not that all believers speak in tongues
A great piece of balanced spirituality with academic backing but written with the pen of a gifted wordsmith. I am being so blessed by these. Thanks Chris.