Who is the the supreme Pneumatiker?
We view Jesus as the supreme Pneumatiker (Spirit-inspired person). Jesus became the Pneumatiker par excellence at his baptism. Jesus was not yet driven by the Spirit, not yet filled with the Spirit, until his baptism.
Only after he received the Spirit at his baptism did Jesus embark on his ministry of preaching and performing wonders. What was the significance of Jesus' reception of the Spirit? What did it mean to become a Pneumatiker?
For Jesus, possession of the Spirit is divine Sonship. There was a difference between Jesus' self-understanding as Messiah and the Son of God. However, both were mediated to Jesus by the Spirit at his baptism. To be a Pneumatiker is to address God as Father.
Jesus modelled what it meant to be a Pneumatiker, to experience the power of the Spirit. Although Jesus' disciples had not received the Spirit during his earthly ministry, Jesus promised they would receive the pneumatic gift.
The early church's subsequent reception of the Spirit shaped its existence as a community of Pneumatiker. Like no other New Testament writer, Paul expressed what it meant to be a Pneumatiker from the perspective of personal experience. Secondly, by rejecting the necessity of obedience to the law, Paul emphasized the significance of the Spirit in a new way. Paul placed the Spirit, as never before, at the centre of the Christian life.
In 1 Cor 2:15–16, Paul is speaking of himself as a Pneumatiker, a “spiritual person” who needed no earthly validation, only a heavenly authorization by the Spirit.
Are you a Pneumatiker?