Volume 18, Issue 20 (May 15, 2016)
The Holy Spirit's Role in Inspiration
By Kyle Pope
W
he Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit has played an active role
in the revelation of Scripture throughout the history of God’s dealings with
mankind. Peter wrote, “...No prophecy of Scripture is of any private
interpretation [most footnotes say or origin] for prophecy never
came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the
Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:20-21, NKJV). This fact is reflected in Paul’s
words to Timothy that, “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2
Timothy 3:16). In the original Greek the phrase “given by inspiration of
God” is one word—theopneustos meaning literally “God-breathed.” That
means that while the books of Matthew, John, or First Peter may have been
written by those apostles who bear their name, these men were directed to write
the things they wrote by the Holy Spirit. Jesus said the same of the psalmist,
King David, referring to a text he had written, declaring “David in the
Spirit” said, such and such (Matthew 22:43).
The Bible reveals a very special role the Holy Spirit would have in connection with the gospel of Jesus Christ. This role was prophetically foreshadowed even before Jesus came to earth. Joel proclaimed:
And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh, your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. (Joel 2:28-29).
On the day of Pentecost after Jesus’ ascension when the Holy Spirit came upon the twelve apostles and they spoke in tongues, Peter referred to Joel’s words explaining that what was happening on that day was, “what was spoken by the prophet Joel” (Acts 2:16) going on to quote from the prophet. This was a marvelous thing. The Old Testament had recorded many times in which there had been a prophet or a small group of prophets, but never before had there been such a widespread outpouring of the Spirit. The only other time had been when the Spirit “rested upon” the seventy elders in the wilderness through whom God instructed the Israelites. They prophesied as a demonstration that God was working through them (Num. 11:25). The outpouring of the Spirit on Pentecost demonstrated in much the same way that God was working through the apostles. This was a new age. It was a new time and a new revelation. This was just as Jesus had promised the apostles. As they taught it was not simply they who spoke, “but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you” (Matt. 10:20).
This outpouring on the twelve was a unique thing. It did not happen to all believers. Jesus promised the apostles, “you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). This miraculous power was not in all believers. Instead, “through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given” (Acts 8:18). There is no evidence in Scripture that the miraculous measure of the Holy Spirit went beyond those who received the “laying on of the apostles’ hands.”
This brings us to the issue of the Holy Spirit’s work in believers in general. If we are not careful we may confuse promises that were made to the apostles specifically with promises made to Christians generally. For example, on the night before His death Jesus’ promised the twelve:
I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him, but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you (John 14:16-17).
What a wonderful promise! But was it made to believers generally or to the apostles specifically? There may be some ways that the effect of the Holy Spirit’s work would act in this way, but not everything that was true of the Spirit’s work in the twelve was true of all believers. For example, we should note a number of other things Jesus told them at this same time:
1. He told them that the Holy Spirit “will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” (John 14:16). Who could have “remembrance” of what Jesus said? —Only those who had been with Him in the flesh. All believers have not enjoyed that privilege. The apostles were taught, “do not worry beforehand, or premeditate what you will speak. But whatever is given you in that hour, speak that; for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit” (Mark 13:11). Yet, we notice that even Christians in the first century, such as Timothy, an evangelist (2 Tim. 4:5), who had received some miraculous spiritual gift through the laying on of hands (2 Tim. 1:6) did not have the same promise of direct teaching by the Holy Spirit. He was told to “give attention to reading, exhortation, to doctrine” (1 Tim. 4:13) and to “study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15, KJV).
2. Jesus told His apostles on the same occasion, “The Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me” (John 15:26). He did so, as Paul described with words “which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual” (1 Cor. 2:13). This was not a strong feeling in the heart, but understandable words revealed directly to the apostles and prophets of New Testament times. This testimony about Jesus does not come directly to all believers, as it did to the apostles. Finally...
3. He told them, “when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13). How much truth is “all truth”? Is there more gospel truth that has yet to be revealed to Christians? Near the end of the first century, Peter wrote, “His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:3). Paul, in speaking of miraculous gifts such as tongues and prophecy, described them as things which were “in part” contrasting them with the time when revelation was finalized declaring, “when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part will be done away” (1 Cor. 13:10). The Law of Christ contained in the New Testament revealed by the Holy Spirit is, “the perfect law of liberty” (James 1:25) —it is “that which is perfect.”
Is there then any sense that the Holy Spirit dwells in and works in believers in general? Yes. Paul speaks of “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph. 6:17). It is impossible to separate the influence of someone from the word that he or she speaks. If I tell my children to do something, my words are the vehicle through which I work in them to accomplish that thing. If I write down my instructions, and they heed those instructions, the same is true. The degree to which they internalize my instructions is the degree to which they allow my spirit to dwell in them. The same is true of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “the words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). The Hebrew writer said, “the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword” (Heb. 4:12). It is this word, when heard that produces faith (Rom. 10:17). It is through this word, revealed by the Holy Spirit, in the message of the gospel by which God’s Spirit has been poured out on “all flesh” (Joel 2:28). Not all flesh receives the miraculous measure of the Holy Spirit, but in offering the message of salvation to “all flesh” it is in this way that Jesus promised that the Spirit would “convict the world of sin” (John 16:8).
God has made us spiritual beings. We are children of the “Father of spirits” (Heb. 12:9). God knows our hearts and searches our spirits. Proverbs tells us, “the spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD, searching all the inner depths of his heart” (Prov. 20:27). When we allow the revelation of the Holy Spirit to dwell in us it is the Spirit dwelling in us. Paul prayed for the Ephesians that, “Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (Eph. 3:17). This is not a possession, but a choice. We are led by the Spirit when we “set our minds on” the things of the Spirit (Rom. 8:5). The Christian, has the promise that God will always hear his or her prayers (1 John 5:15). Even, when it is difficult to know how to express the thought of the heart, as spiritual beings in contact with God’s Spirit, “the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groaning which cannot be uttered” (Rom. 8:26). What a wonderful blessing. What a glorious God! What a wonderful thought that God has revealed Himself to man and we can allow that Spirit to live in us by accepting the Spirit’s revelation in the word of God—the Bible. When the Christian does that it is allowing the Spirit to work in his or her heart.
