December 21th, 2014. THE DYNAMIC OF THE TWO SPIRITS The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Romans 8:16 In this verse we see the dynamic that takes place in the mingled spirit. In verse 15 when we cry with our spirit of sonship, Abba, Father, then in verse 16, The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. What did our spirit do that causes the Spirit Himself to witness with our spirit? In other words, what is the factor that causes the Spirit of God to respond? The answer is in verse 15 it is our crying Abba, Father that causes the Spirit of God to respond and testify in us. In our religious mentality, we usually read these verses the opposite way. Our thought is that the Holy Spirit takes the initiative and does the crying, and then our spirit bears witness with His Spirit. But it is just the reverse the Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit. To cry Abba, Father is to take the initiative to exercise Christ in our spirit. Based upon this principle of the mingling of the two spirits, the church becomes the fullness of Christ. For example, when we come to the meetings of the church, we come exercising our spirit with Christ. When we do this, the meetings are brought into the realm of the reality of Christ. We do not wait for an inspiration or for someone to make the meeting happen. The meeting is not a spectator event like entertainment or sports. Nor is the meeting an impersonal program being carried out. No. The meeting is the mingling of the two spirits crying Abba, Father. This mingling, through the exercise of our spirit, causes the meeting to release Christ. When we pray, fellowship, speak, sing, and open up to each other as members of the Body of Christ, the dynamic of the two spirits is felt His Spirit witnesses with our cooperating spirit. The Spirit himself, etc. He does not simply say, that Gods Spirit is a witness to our spirit, but he adopts a compound verb, which might be rendered contest, (contestatur,) were it not that contestation (contestatio) has a different meaning in Latin. But Paul means, that the Spirit of God gives us such a testimony, that when he is our guide and teacher, our spirit is made assured of the adoption of God:for our mind of its own self, without the preceding testimony of the Spirit, could not convey to us this assurance. There is also here an explanation of the former verse; for when the Spirit testifies to us, that we are the children of God, he at the same time pours into our hearts such confidence, that we venture to call God our Father. And doubtless, since the confidence of the heart alone opens our mouth, except the Spirit testifies to our heart respecting the paternal love of God, our tongues would be dumb, so that they could utter no prayers. For we must ever hold fast this principle, — that we do not rightly pray to God, unless we are surely persuaded in our hearts, that he is our Father, when we so call him with our lips. To this there is a corresponding part, — that our faith has no true evidence, except we call upon God. It is not then without reason that Paul, bringing us to this test, shows that it then only appears how truly any one believes, when they who have embraced the promise of grace, exercise themselves in prayers. But there is here a striking refutation of the vain notions of the Sophists respecting moral conjecture, which is nothing else but uncertainty and anxiety of mind; nay, rather vacillation and delusion. There is also an answer given here to their objection, for they ask, How can a man fully know the will of God? This certainly is not within the reach of man, but it is the testimony of Gods Spirit; and this subject he treats more at large in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, from which we may derive a fuller explanation of a passage. Let this truth then stand sure, — that no one can be called a son of God, who does not know himself to be such; and this is called knowledge by John, in order to set forth its certainty. (1 John 5:19, 20.)
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 11:54:21 +0000
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