Father, Son, & Holy Bible?
At Coram Deo Bible Church, we’re in the middle of a study of the work of the Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12-14 lays out much regarding how the Spirit works. Of course, when reading or studying these three chapters, you have to keep in mind that this is all corrective. The Corinthian church was radically off the mark when it came to their behavior, both in their personal lives, and in the corporate life of the church. They had imported many things from their old pagan lives into their new Christian lives. They were genuine believers (most of them), but were woefully immature spiritually. Reading any section of 1 Corinthians, you have to dig below the surface a little to see the underlying spiritual truth that Paul wants them to engage in.
The work of the Spirit, specifically spiritual gifts, is at the center of much controversy today. I grew up as what I would now call an experiential cessationist. Growing up in a very typical SBC church, with only a piano and organ for instruments, and a gold-robed choir singing every Sunday and a worship pastor who led music from a hymnal, I never even saw anyone’s hand go up during worship. The idea of tongues speaking or any of the “sign gifts” was so out of context that, experientially, I was a cessationist. Over the years, as I’ve studied the issue, I’ve become an “exegetical cessationist.” My study of Scripture has led me to see that the sign gifts are no longer in operation. This doesn’t mean that God doesn’t still do miracles (He does).
One of the accusations that is made about cessationists is that we’re those “Father, Son, and Holy BIBLE” people. This is a silly accusation because it pits the Holy Spirit against the very Scriptures He inspired men to write. It’s a ridiculously false dichotomy. One of the things the Spirit does is to point us TO the Scriptures. There’s no struggle between following Scripture and following the Spirit.
As I’ve been studying 1 Corinthians 12-14, I’ve become even more convinced of the cessationist position. There’s certainly more to the issue than is found in these three chapters, but rightly understanding that these chapters are correction, not instruction is absolutely necessary to understand the truth taught in this section of the Bible.
Often, I hear, “the Bible never says that the sign gifts will end, so they must be for the whole church age.” This Sunday, we’ll be looking at 1 Corinthians 13:8-14:1, where it says (not my interpretation, but what the Word of God simply says) “If there are tongues, they will cease.” The question, then, isn’t IF they will cease, but WHEN they will cease.
At the end of the day, the real question is this: what is the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer, and in the life of Christ’s Church? I’m someone who strives to be on the positive side of things, rather than the negative, so my first instinct, isn’t to talk about what the Holy Spirit doesn’t do, but what He DOES. We can get there pretty easily from these three chapters that Paul wrote. And keep in mind, that this is an earlier writing of Paul’s.
What does Paul teach that the Holy Spirit does?
1. He leads us to exalt and glorify Christ. (1 Corinthians 12:3)
2. He gives us gifts, supernatural empowerments that are intended to profit the church and help us serve the Body (1 Corinthians 12:7)
3. He makes us interdependent on one another (1 Corinthians 12:14)
4. He commands us to pursue agape love for one another (1 Corinthians 14:1)
As we continue our study of 1 Corinthians 12-14 this Sunday (join us in person at 10:00 am or watch the livestream on our YouTube channel), we’ll be looking at the end of the gifts, look at what “the perfect” means, and find out what it means to pursue and earnestly desire.
Ultimately, however, this study should lead us to do what Paul extolled in the opening verses of chapter 12 - exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. To do this, we must accurately handle the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15). Rather than being led astray as the Corinthians were, we must keep the glory of Christ and the edification of His Body, the church at the forefront. Any time something else has our attention, we’re very likely to veer off course.
This quote from A.W. Tozer is very helpful in framing our study as we continue to dig into the true work of the Holy Spirit:
“Spiritual truth (by which I mean the disclosures of the Holy Spirit to the human spirit) is always the same. The Spirit always says the same thing to whomsoever He speaks and altogether without regard to passing doctrinal emphases or theological vogues. He flashes the beauty of Christ upon the wondering heart, and the awed spirit receives it with a minimum of interference…
Each age has interpreted Christianity after its own fashion. The religion of the barnstorming American revivalists of the nineteenth century was certainly something different from that of Luther or the medieval mystics or the apostolic fathers. The bishops who met at Nicea in the fourth century to defend the faith of Christ from the attack of the Arians surely differed radically from the scholars and saints who stood to defend that same faith from the attack of the higher critics in the early twentieth century…
Whatever direction the theological wind may set, there are two things of which we may be certain: One is that God will not leave Himself without a witness… The other is that the Holy Spirit is the true conservator of orthodoxy and will invariably say the same thing to meek and trusting souls.”
Let’s keep that in mind as we follow the command of 1 Corinthians 14:1 and pursue agape love for one another.
Grace & Peace
Pastor Rob