Theology of Spirit Gifts

While some deny Jesus as God in the flesh, others, in an attempt to protect His God-nature, end up unwittingly denying His humanity and miss the power of the Holy Spirit in His life. Jesus was full of the Spirit, led by the Spirit, and did works in the power of the Spirit (Luke 4:1-14). This enabled him to live the perfect human life without sin as our substitute and as our example (Matt. 4:1-10; Heb. 4:14-16). Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise of a new spirit for His people (Ezek. 36:26-27). Not only was Jesus our substitute in life, but also being full of the Spirit (Is. 61:1-2), He laid down His life as our substitute so that we could receive the Holy Spirit (John 16:7, Acts 1:8, 2:1-4). After the resurrection and before His ascension back to the heavens, Jesus promised that the Church would continue the new Spirit-filled lifestyle (Acts 1:8). Because of Jesus, God’s Spirit brings the reality of God’s presence to God’s people (Ezek. 39:29, Joel 2:28, Acts 2:1-22).

This becomes the theme of the Scriptures at the book of Acts. The NT era is uniquely the age of the Spirit. We are called to be a people “filled” with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18). What this looks like has been the source of much dissention in the church, in particular over the last several decades. At least three camps have surfaced in explaining the relationship and the evidence of the Spirit-filled life.

The first is the “charismatic” camp. These Christians have an earnest desire to practice the supernatural gifts (predominantly speaking in tongues and healing) as proof of God’s presence among His people. Their practice stems from a movement of independent churches known as “Pentecostals,” whose history can be traced back to about 1901. The movement was a reaction to the sterility and dead orthodoxy that was plaguing many American churches at the time. They placed emphasis on an emotionally charged, personal, and mystical experience with God, evidenced by supernatural gifts. By the 1960s, the term “charismatic” was used to describe those who exercised a Pentecostal understanding of the gifts, but were among other denominations. The term comes from the Greek word “charismata,” which literally means, “Grace gift.”

Recognizing the dangers of appealing to the subjective experience of people engaged in charismatic practice, the more orthodox in the Church responded with a teaching called “cessationism.” This is the belief that the supernatural gifts mentioned in the Bible were for the apostles and prophets as they were used of God to lay the foundation of the Church. However, with the completion of the New Testament, those miraculous gifts are no longer necessary or available, in other words, the miracle gifts have ceased.

There is a third camp that recognizes the dangers and unbiblical practices prevalent in many charismatic groups, but is unwilling to make the claim that the miracle gifts have ceased. These are known as “continuationists.” This group has an earnest desire for the higher gifts (I Cor. 12:28-31), with an understanding that the gifts are not the point, but are to work toward a proclamation of the Gospel that demonstrates a people lovingly united under Jesus’ rule of all things. This is the most Scriptural of the three views since one doesn’t have to do interpretive gymnastics to make the Spirit gifts disappear, but keeps the right perspective on how they are to be exercised (I Cor. 14:33).

This view points out that a spiritual gift is a God-given ability for service (I Cor. 12-14, Eph. 4:7-16), that all believers are gifted by the spirit in some way (I Cor. 7:7; Eph. 4:7; I Peter 4:10), and that no believer has all of the gifts (I Cor. 12:12-26). The gifts are something that every believer should long and pray for (I Cor. 12:31; 14:1), not for an emotionally charged, mystical experience, but in order to build up others (I Cor. 12:7; 13:1-3; 14:26; Eph. 4:12).

The purpose of the gifts is to unite the people of God for the praise of God. The Spirit’s work in the book of Acts was often marked by miraculous gifts…but it is clear in the Bible that gifts were not the goal, spiritual transformation was and should still be. Filling with the Spirit produces fruit (Gal. 5:22-26), which is played out in the way that we live our lives.

Theology of Prayer

The Bible is flooded with stories about people who in many and various circumstances (both beautiful and tragic) pour their hearts out to God in prayer. For many of us, however, our prayers are often few and far between. When we pray we are often moved to do so out of guilt instead of joy, praying not for the connection with God, but because it’s something we’re “supposed” to do. Perhaps we pray because we believe it will manipulate him into giving us more toys to distract us from the vanity of our lives. Perhaps we don’t pray because so often it feels as though we are simply talking into the air.

If we’re honest, many of us are completely confused about why we should pray and how to do it. While explaining how we should pray, Jesus tells us, “do not heap up empty phrases,” because, “your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matt. 6:6-7). So then, why pray? Why does God, knowing what we need instruct us to ask for it?

Asking this question gives us tremendous insight into the purpose of prayer. It teaches that prayer is not a magic formula for the acquisition of health and wealth, but is something higher and deeper. It teaches that prayer is among the most tangible ways to express faith in God. It teaches that what we need, more than things is communion with God. We pray so that we don’t draw our joy primarily out of circumstances or possessions, but out of talking with a God who listens. Prideful, independent people who, in their own estimation, have no need of instruction or guidance do not pray.

But those who realize the realities of life continually pointed out in Scripture, “ought always to pray and not lose heart” because God “will give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night” (Luke 18:1-8). It’s interesting that Jesus compares prayer to crying. One author put it like this, “The cry is the force with which the stream of prayer rushes on. It is possible to have correct words, and deep thinking, and yet no real intensity of heart, no agony of soul” (Smith, James. Handfuls on Purpose, series VII, p. 86-87). Why are we not a people who cry out to God in faithful prayers day and night? Because our joy is drawn far more from our goods and situations than in God. So prayer is, as the Westminster Divines described it, “an offering up of our desires to God” (WLC Q178). It’s not so much a change of our state of affairs as it is a movement of God’s Spirit to transform our perspective.

Jesus gave his disciples a helpful pattern in Matt. 6 where he says, “Pray like this” (v. 5-13). We don’t have to abide by formulas, but they are helpful in structuring times of prayer. The pattern he offers has four basic elements, which can be remembered by the acrostic ACTS. First, prayers can be opened in a time of Adoration where God’s name and work is honored (i.e. “Father…Hallowed by your name…Your kingdom come…”). Second, we can move into Confession yielding an opportunity to be forgiven and cleansed (i.e. “Forgive us our debts”). Next, we can offer up Thanksgiving recognizing that God is the give of all things (i.e. “For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever). Finally, we can close with Supplications asking God to move on our behalf (i.e. “Give us this day our daily bread…and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”).

If we do not have disciplined times of prayer, there will probably not be fullness in spontaneous times of prayer. What matters is not the amount of time we spend in prayer (15 minutes, 3 times/day), but the intensity of the focus of prayer. Our focus should be a desire for Christ. It should aim toward asking God to satisfy your heart and free you from sinful desires so that you exalt Christ and employ sacrificial love toward others.

Theology of Justification

One of the fascinating features of Christian thought is the idea that God is involved in rescuing people and creation from sin and restoring all things into a right relationship with Him. The Scriptures refer to this activity of God using the broad term “salvation,” but being “saved” has various aspects.

The theology of justification is one of those aspects. It is defined as a legal declaration from God that a sinner is not counted as guilty, but as truly righteous because he receives by faith the righteousness of Jesus (Rom. 3:21-26, 5:6-10, 18-19, Gal. 2:20-21, I Pet. 3:18). Justification is a one-time objective event, not a process. The process of being saved from sins is known in the Bible as sanctification, another aspect of salvation (Rom. 6:22, I Thess. 4:3).

The doctrine of justification is what makes the Christian faith truly unique. It is the one faith tradition granting assurance that those who have failed at perfect morality can be forgiven and restored to life. Justification declares that a sinner has right standing before God because of Jesus, the one who didn’t fail morally, but paid the ultimate price of death as if He had.

Since the basis of being declared righteous is not the ability of people to live a certain way, the apostle John assures believers that we can “know that you have eternal life” (I John 5:13), because they are counted as righteous (Rom. 4:1-8, Phil. 3:7-9) or have Jesus’ righteousness credited (the theological term is “imputed”) to them. Paul explains it this way, “For our sake he (God) made him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (II Cor. 5:21).

This doctrine was the central issue of the Protestant Reformation. While the clarity was elaborated because the Roman Church was abusing its members with a false understanding of salvation, the implications of a correct understanding were too great to be ignored. The Reformers wanted a return to the biblical teaching that believers work from a position of justification with glad hearts, sincere joy, and bold confidence instead of for it, allowing our works to prove our faith rather than earn our justification (Heb. 10:19-24, James 1:22-25).

In many ways we need this reminder today since people profess justification by grace through faith, but do not live as if they have been justified. Churches are filled with people who think that they have to perform to earn God’s approval and are motivated by guilt and fear of condemnation. If any do not live as men and women who have “escaped the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire,” then he is “so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins” (II Pet. 1:4, 9). Jesus’ life and work were sufficient and our hearts can rest believing “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1).