Did Christ Redeem Us From Our Diseases?-- Part 5

A Scriptural assessment of the charismatic revival is long overdue. Charismatic revivalists believe that the New Testament is not a record of what happened in one generation, but it is a blueprint of what should happen in every generation until Jesus Christ comes the second time. Charismatic pneumatology—the doctrine of the Holy Spirit—emphasizes experiencing the Holy Spirit and neglects the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Admitting there is a lack of spiritual power in the contemporary church today, they fail to admit that Satan is turning people to “experience,” while neglecting the doctrinal teaching of the Holy Spirit.

The background of neo-Pentecostalism may be traced to eighteenth century Methodism. John Wesley taught that the remission of sins and the new heart are two distinct moments in the life of a Christian. Following Wesley, Charles Finney’s revival of methodology was the shaping influence on Methodist theology in Pentecostal churches. Finney’s theology included an experience subsequent to salvation, which he called baptism in the Holy Spirit. He rejected the Biblical doctrine of forensic (pertaining to or connected with—suited to argumentation) justification and accented what he called real sanctification.

According to neo-Pentecostal teaching, the new birth is insufficient. They believe baptism in the Spirit is conditional. Their threefold division would be repentance, baptism in the Spirit, and reception. Consequently, it would consist of an essential precondition and two subsequent conditions. The precondition is repentance or to be placed in the body of Christ. The first condition is total obedience, and the second is baptism in the Spirit. Thus, they teach two kinds of faith—faith in Christ for salvation, and faith in the Holy Spirit for baptism in the Spirit.

Theologically, it is impossible for a person since Pentecost to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. How can a person since Pentecost be baptized in the Spirit since he is introduced into the already baptized body, the assembly? The answer is the same as our falling in Adam and our being crucified with Christ. As Christ is not crucified again with the regeneration of each individual, the Spirit does not re-baptize each person when he is regenerated.

Let us investigate the work of the Holy Spirit before Pentecost, at the time of Pentecost, and subsequent to the day of Pentecost. We shall begin by looking at Christ’s lawful entry to Judaism (John 10). Christ called His sheep by name. They heard His voice, and He led them out of Judaism. Those who did not hear were deaf to spiritual things. Christ instructed His disciples by the use of the well-chosen prepositions “with” and “in.” Christ said to the disciples, “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with [meth, in the genitive case makes meta the resultant of Jesus Christ being on the same side or party with those who were chosen in Him] you forever” (John 14:16 NASB). Christ also said, “In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (John 14:20 NASB). Please notice that the preposition en is used four times in this verse. “In that day” points to the new dispensation of the Holy Spirit beginning at Pentecost. “You shall know” is a future tense middle voice and indicative mood of the verb ginosko, meaning “you will come to know by the events of Pentecost.”

“In that day” (John 14:20)—beginning with Pentecost—will be the day of revealing. “That day” includes the whole age of the Spirit’s revealing. The Acts of the Apostles is the only unfinished book in the Bible. Note how abruptly the book closes. “And when they did not agree with one another, they began leaving after Paul had spoken one parting word, The Holy Spirit rightly spoke through Isaiah the prophet to your fathers, saying, GO TO THIS PEOPLE AND SAY, YOU WILL KEEP ON HEARING, BUT WILL NOT UNDERSTAND; AND YOU WILL KEEP ON SEEING, BUT WILL NOT PERCEIVE; FOR THE HEART OF THIS PEOPLE HAS BECOME DULL, AND WITH THEIR EARS THEY SCARCELY HEAR, AND THEY HAVE CLOSED THEIR EYES; LEST THEY SHOULD SEE WITH THEIR EYES, AND HEAR WITH THEIR EARS, AND UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEART AND RETURN, AND I SHOULD HEAL THEM. Let it be known to you therefore, that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will also listen. [And when he had spoken these words, the Jews departed, having a great dispute among themselves.] And he stayed two full years in his own rented quarters, and was welcoming all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness, unhindered” (Acts 28:25-31 NASB).

Before Pentecost, even during the time of Christ’s ministry before His death, the spiritual condition of Israel is described in John 9:39-41—“And Jesus said, For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see; and that those who see may become blind. Those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things, and said to Him, We are not blind too, are we? Jesus said to them, If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, We see, your sin remains” (NASB).

There is a connection between what Christ had spoken in John 9 and what He said in chapter 10. “I have other sheep [Gentiles], which are not of this fold” (John 10:16a NASB). (Study John 10.) Christ went from the Pharisees who were blind guides (false shepherds) to the true Shepherd. False shepherds are exposed; but at the same time, the true Shepherd and His sheep are revealed. We are thankful that the weakest sheep are capable of distinguishing the difference between false and true shepherds. Christ’s sheep (those elected by God) recognize the voice of the true Shepherd (John 10:4). The same writer said in his first Epistle, “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know” (I John 2:20 NASB). This Epistle not only gives assurance, but it counteracts the tendency to magnify knowledge at the expense of practice. In order to magnify the assurance of the chosen of God, John used 69 perfect tense verbs, participles, and infinitives to give assurance to the assured in Christ in the five chapters of I John. The perfect tense in the Greek expresses perfective action, because it looks at the action as having been completed with a resulting state of being. In other words, the punctiliar (point action) and linear are combined in the perfect tense.

The Lord told the disciples that the Spirit dwelt with them and would be in them. The preposition “with” is probably the nearest word in meaning to “in.” It carries the idea of a close relationship. For example, Christ said, “…He [the Father] will give you another Helper, that He may be with [meta, genitive of association] you forever” (John 14:16 NASB), and “…the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you” (John 14:17 NASB).

The Lord Jesus breathed on the disciples, and they received the Holy Spirit before Pentecost. “And when He [Christ] had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained” (John 20:22, 23 NASB). Thomas and Judas were absent. Christ gave the disciples who were present a foretaste of what they would experience at Pentecost. As Pentecost was a foretaste of what will be experienced when Joel 2:28 and 29 is fulfilled, Christ’s breathing on the disciples and their receiving the Holy Spirit prior to Pentecost, was a foretaste of Pentecost. This was not the grace of regeneration by the Spirit, because the disciples were already born of the Spirit.

John 20:23, like Matthew 16:19, has become a controversial text. Therefore, a few comments must be made before continuing with the foretaste of Pentecost by the disciples. This text is fulfilled each time the man of God ministers the word, giving forth “the word of reconciliation” (II Cor. 5:18-21). Ministers cannot remit sin authoritatively. The disciples were already reconciled to God, because they had been born of God. God alone can remit sin authoritatively. The minister can only remit sin declaratively by the pronouncement of the person who has been made clean by the grace of God. Here is where every Christian should apply the order of I Thessalonians 1:1-10.

Something that had never occurred before took place at Pentecost. The family of God must be distinguished from the assembly Christ was already building. In the Old Testament, regenerated individuals were members of the family of Jehovah. At Pentecost, the church (the assembly of Christ) must be baptized in the Spirit in order to become members of the body of Christ. According to Matthew 16:18 and 19 and Matthew 18:15-20, the assembly had already been formed, and the foundation was secure. Paul could say, “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit” (Eph. 2:19-22 NASB). (Study I Cor. 3:9-23.)

Baptism in the Spirit is not synonymous with regeneration. Those baptized on the day of Pentecost were already regenerated; therefore, they cannot be synonymous. At the time each person is regenerated since Pentecost, he is introduced into the already baptized body of Christ. “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit” (I Cor. 12:13 NASB).

There are seven references to the baptism of regenerated persons in the Spirit. Five of the references are prophetical, and they were fulfilled at Pentecost. The first is Matthew 3:11—“As for me [John the Baptist], I baptize you with water for [eis, accusative of cause—because of] repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He Himself will baptize you with [en, can be translated in, with, or by (NASB) for both prepositions] the Holy Spirit and fire” (NASB). The other three references in the four Gospels are Mark 1:8, Luke 3:16, and John 1:33. The final prophetical reference is Acts 1:5—“for John baptized with water [there is no preposition but the word for water—hudati is in the locative case and could be either “with” or “in”], but you shall be baptized in [en, can be either “in” or “with”] the Spirit not many days from now.” That refers to Pentecost. All five references are prophetical. The last two references, Acts 11:16 and I Corinthians 12:13, point back to Pentecost, to an event which was historical.

Subsequent to the baptism of the assembly in the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, there is no record of a single person being baptized in the Spirit. Therefore, each person as he is regenerated by the Spirit is baptized in the Spirit. That takes place in the same way that Paul was crucified with Christ when he was regenerated. Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faithfulness [instrumental of agency] of the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me” (Gal. 2:20—translation). Here again is the beauty of the Greek perfect tense. “I have been crucified with Christ” is the perfect passive indicative of the verb sustauroo. There are three paradoxes: (1) Judicial—“I have been crucified with Christ.” (2) Spiritual—“I am no longer living, but Christ is living in me.” (3) Practical—“The life that I am now living in the flesh, I am living by the faithfulness of Christ.”