Part 8: The Holy Spirit

Doc: Hey everyone! Today, we’ve got a bit of a tricky question for starters.

What do you think is the most important force for good in our world today?

Iino: A “force for good”??

Yoshiya: Education, perhaps?

Gō: Philanthropy.

Iino: The United Nations. I know it’s got some problems. But they do a lot of good work.

Yoshiya: Economic incentives can motivate people to do good. I know that market economies and capitalism have their drawbacks, of course.

Doc: I agree. Thank you all very much. Now, last time we thought about the cross of Jesus.

Doc: The Son of God came into the world as a human being, but people mistreated him, didn’t they? Jesus was driven out (soto) of the holy city of Jerusalem to his death at the hands of sinful human beings. According to the Bible, it was our sin that led to Jesus’ crucifixion and death. At the same time, Jesus willingly endured his death as a sacrifice for sin, scorning the shame of the cross, in order to bring a people back into uchi fellowship with God the Father.

Doc: This was the outworking and overflowing of God’s love.

Gō: Yes, I always find this love so moving. Human beings would never have dreamed up the crucifixion like this.

Iino: That’s right: God becoming man and being put to death to forgive people’s sins…

Doc: For sure. If we had more time, I’d really like to read the text of the Bible in detail so that we could appreciate the account of the cross – and what happens afterwards. In fact, a large part of the Gospels in the Bible is devoted to the cross. But for the sake of brevity, I’ll just tell you the end of the story:

Doc: The Bible tells us that Jesus was raised bodily from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion, by the power of God! For Jesus, as the Lord of life, it was “not possible for him to be held” by death (New Testament, Acts 2:24). In fact, Jesus defeated death by his own death. Yoshiya, will you read the passage from Timothy, please?

[Jesus] abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 

New Testament, 2 Timothy 1:10

Doc: Thanks. Do you guys remember the original meaning of the word “gospel”?: the announcement of a great victory. The risen Jesus and his messengers now proclaim that our sins may all be forgiven if we believe in Jesus, so that we can be restored to the inside (uchi) fellowship with God for which we were made.

Doc: Through Jesus, we can be welcomed back home (uchi). For everyone who followed Adam and Eve into banishment outside (soto) the Garden of Eden, this is a dramatic reversal indeed!

Iino: It makes me think of Aslan the lion from The Chronicles of Narnia. I remember reading that back in elementary school. Aslan lets himself be captured and killed instead of the traitor Edmund, who had gone over to the witch’s side. But then by the power of a “deeper magic” that even the witch didn’t know, Aslan comes back to life.

Yoshiya: I’m also a big fan of Narnia! Did you know that Aslan is meant to be Jesus? The author, C.S. Lewis, was a Christian.

Iino: Really?? I didn’t know that. So I guess it’s not surprising that I would think of Aslan in connection with our Bible studies. I should read Narnia again sometime.

Why do you think it was not possible for Jesus to be held by death?

Gō: Because he’s God, right? The eternal God can’t just stay dead. 

Iino: There’s no “deeper magic” in the Bible, is there?

Doc: Haha! To answer this question, it might be helpful to think about what “death” is in the Bible’s worldview.

Yoshiya: Death is the wages of sin. If we didn’t sin we wouldn’t have to die.

Gō: Is it because Jesus never sinned that death couldn’t hold him? So it’s possible that he could die once for the sins of others, but then he didn’t have to stay dead for ever?

Doc: Yup, I think that’s what it means. Here’s what the Bible says:

[Jesus], though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name…

New Testament, Philippians 2:6-9

Doc: Jesus endured death as the wages of sin and his death was “accepted” by God. And then he received the reward for his obedience.

What does it mean that Jesus has “defeated” or “abolished” death?

Iino: When we sin, we die. But if you believe in Jesus, you can live. Death as the wages of sin has been cancelled. That’s why death has been defeated.

Doc: Right! Jesus rose from the dead and not only defeated death for himself, but for others too. So, because of Jesus our sins can be forgiven and we can be welcomed back into uchi fellowship with God the Father. More wonderful still is the promise made to believers that God himself comes to dwell inside (uchi) them, by the Person of his Holy Spirit.

Doc: Do you remember the Holy Spirit? The Spirit, with the Father and the Son, is one of the three Persons who are the one God (the Trinity). Before Jesus died, he promised his disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit. Let’s read about this in the Bible. Gō, would you? Jesus himself is speaking.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. 

New Testament John 14:15-17

Why would anyone “love” Jesus?

Gō: Well, just because he loved you like that, right?

Doc: So do you love Jesus, Gō?

Gō: It’s a bit embarrassing when you put it like that. But yeah, I’m so grateful to him, and moved by what he did for me. Can I put it like that?

Doc: That’s okay. I was just teasing you! But if you stop and think about it, you’ve never actually met Jesus, have you? But you read the Bible and you came to love him.

Doc: Don’t you think that’s amazing? This is another demonstration that Jesus is really alive. Because he lives, even we who live today can have a personal relationship with him. This wouldn’t be the case if what the Bible teaches were just a moral code or philosophy. So it’s true what I said just now, that Gō has never met Jesus, but we could also say that Gō actually did “meet” Jesus, ​​in the Bible.

What can we learn here about the Spirit and what he does? (Note that the Spirit is not “it”: he is always described with masculine pronouns.)

Doc: In other words, the Holy Spirit isn’t some kind of impersonal force, but always “he”. What is the Spirit called in these Bible verses?

Yoshiya: Helper. Like he’s always with you. He’s “in you” (uchi).

Gō: It says he’s “another” Helper. Because Jesus is already our Helper.

Iino: He’s called “the Spirit of truth”.

Doc: Yes. He leads people into truth, and teaches them the truth.

Why can’t the “world” receive the gift of the Spirit?

Doc: First, what do you think is meant by the “world” here?

Yoshiya: The people who rejected Jesus.

Gō: The world has no relationship with Jesus, so it can’t receive the gift of the Spirit.

Doc: It says that the Holy Spirit “will be in you”. The “you” is plural, but who do you think it refers to? 

Iino: Jesus’ disciples. 

Doc: Yes, that’s right. And this includes everyone who believes in Jesus in later times. A Christian is someone who originally rejected Jesus and belonged to the “world”, but was loved by God, believed in Jesus and so belonged to Jesus instead. Now, remember when we read in Genesis that the whole created world is God’s house or God’s temple? God isn’t bound by time or space, but he was pleased to put his dwelling in the world. As the image of God, human creatures are like a microcosm of the whole world, designed for indwelling uchi fellowship with God himself.

Doc: This fellowship was broken and disrupted by sin, leading to soto estrangement. In the gospel, we see how Jesus restores that fellowship by being himself cast out (soto), and now God comes to make his home with and in his people.

Doc: Amazingly, we believers become God’s house/temple (uchi)! Iino, would you read the next Bible verses, please? These words were addressed to Christians in the 1st century A.D.

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

New Testament, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

What is the implication drawn in these verses between the indwelling of God’s Spirit and a person’s entire way of life?

Gō: I used to think that I could live my life however I wanted.

Gō: But my life belongs to God, so now I want to live the way God wants me to live. 

Yoshiya: In the previous passage, it said that the Holy Spirit is the “Helper”, didn’t it? I think the Holy Spirit helps us when we want to live God’s way. So I need to think first about what God actually wants me to do. That’s why I read the Bible. Before I believed, I didn’t really understand it, but after I believed, I could understand what it was saying and I felt that it was speaking to me. Basically it started to make sense. I think that’s because the Holy Spirit is in me. 

Gō: I wasn’t interested in the Bible at all before Yoshiya invited me to church, but now I’m interested in this kind of Bible study. I guess this is also the work of the Holy Spirit. 

Iino: Well, I don’t believe yet, but I also find these Bible studies really interesting.

Doc: The Holy Spirit doesn’t live in your uchi yet, Iino, but I’m sure he’s at work in your life. The Bible says that no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit (New Testament, 1 Corinthians 12:3). So we can say that the Holy Spirit is guiding you even before you believe. 

How does the idea of being a temple of God’s Holy Spirit sound to you?

Iino: It sounds like he would give me strength.

Doc: Perhaps the most wonderful thing about the Holy Spirit dwelling in believers is that he gives us the assurance that we are a beloved child of God and that we are welcome in the house of God, not as a servant or slave, but as a child and an heir.

Doc: Yoshiya, would you read the next Bible verses?

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

New Testament Romans 8:15-17

Doc: Abba is an Aramaic term of endearment for your father. In Jesus’ day, Aramaic was the language commonly spoken by the Jewish people.

In what ways is being a “child of God” better still than “merely” having sins forgiven?

Doc: For example, suppose you commit a crime and end up in court. When you’ve served your sentence, you will be forgiven, but that’s the end. Perhaps you go back home. You may be all alone. But with God, after your sins are forgiven, you are welcomed into God’s family. With God, after you are forgiven your sins, your relationship with God begins. And because of this new relationship we have with God as our heavenly Father, everything that is God’s is ours too as his children.

Iino: The Bible says, “we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him”. I feel like I’m always with Christ, not just in the good times.

Doc: When this letter was written, Christians were suffering persecution. Believing in Jesus came with struggles. But there was also the promise of being glorified with Jesus.

Would you like to receive the Gift of God’s indwelling (uchi) Spirit through Jesus?

Doc: In other words, this is asking “Do you want to become a Christian?” Iino, you don’t have to answer that now, but it’s a question I’d particularly like you to think about.

What is your response to the “gospel” announcement about what Jesus did for you?

Doc: As I said earlier, if Christianity were just a “philosophy”, then it would be fine to study it a bit and be done with it. It doesn’t demand a response.

Doc: But if it is a personal address to you, then it is appropriate to respond. How will you respond to Jesus’ address by which he loves you and dies for you? Each one of us must respond, whether by rejecting it or accepting it.

The ESV Bible. Crossway, 2001, www.esv.org/.