How has the Spirit moved in your life?
(2 Cor. 3:18).
It is interesting that the Holy Spirit is the only member of the Trinity whose name includes the adjective “holy.” We know that the Father and the Son are holy as well, but we do not refer to the three as the Holy Father, the Holy Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Bible gives no definitive reason for this, but we can surmise that a major factor is the fact that holiness is at the heart of the Spirit’s ministry.
Not only does He deliver us from spiritual death, He saves us unto holiness. The Spirit not only gives us new life in Christ, He works in us to make us like Christ. The goal of His work in believers, from start to finish, is righteousness, and the process by which He gets us there is sanctification.
God created human beings to mirror and reflect His holy nature, but that image was corrupted when Adam sinned. Through sanctification, however, we are being restored to greater and greater possession of it. When God called to Himself a special people, He said, “You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy” (Lev. 11:45). Further, the Bible says, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thess. 4:3a). God clearly wants His people to be holy, and it is the Spirit who nurtures righteousness in us.
Sanctification begins with our regeneration by the Spirit. The process isn’t instantaneous, however. When He gives us the new birth, the Spirit also indwells us, taking up residence in what had been a spiritual corpse. He then begins to nurse His patient to full health.
To accomplish His goal, the Spirit makes a number of changes. He gives us the desire to be holy, convicts us of sins, and strengthens us to resist temptation. But He will not carry out the process alone; we also have a role. Whereas regeneration is monergistic, or done by God alone, sanctification is synergistic, or accomplished by the Spirit and the believer in concert. The New Testament writers again and again command us to “Work out your own salvation” (Phil. 2:12).
The activity of the Spirit in our lives makes growth in holiness possible, but we must strive for personal righteousness (2 Cor. 7:1).
That striving will continue from the point of our spiritual regeneration until the end of our biological lives, when we arrive in heaven and undergo glorification. This process also is of the Spirit.
Thus, the Spirit initiates our renewal, nurtures it, and completes the process. Think back over your life since your conversion. Can you see growth in holiness? How has the Spirit moved in your life? If you have difficulty seeing progress in righteousness, ask yourself whether you have a desire to be like Christ. If you do not, you should take a hard look at the state of your soul; it is possible you may not yet be saved.
Author: (2000). Tabletalk Magazine, January 2000: “Am I Really Free?”, 38.
