Why is the Holy Spirit so important?
Why not just focus on just God the Father and God the Son? Are not the Father’s love and the salvation we have in Jesus Christ the really important parts of the Gospel? Yes, that is right.
The importance of the Holy Spirit is found when we ask another question, “How does the love of God the Father expressed in Jesus Christ become experienced and real in our own life?”
That’s where we come to the role of the Holy Spirit.
This is revealed to us in what Jesus says the Holy Spirit will do:
But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. (John 16:13-15 NIV)
John Calvin puts it like this:
“First we must understand that as long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from him, all that he has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value for us.”
The way that we enter in and are connected to Jesus Christ is through the agency of the Holy Spirit.
Calvin calls the Holy Spirit:
“The bond by which Christ effectually unites us to Himself.”
(John Calvin Institutes ,Book 3, Chapter I, sec. 1 pp. 537- 538)
The Holy Spirit then is our link to the Father and the Son!
The Holy Spirit’s job is to make real in our lives all that Jesus has won for us on the Cross.
Through the Holy Spirit, Jesus becomes for us the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE and the only way to God the Father.
While the Holy Spirit does this linking to Jesus’ work whether we acknowledge His role or not, I have found that the Holy Spirit is calling us to be partners with Him in this work.
This is especially true as we move beyond ourselves and into the great task of making disciples of Jesus. When the Church does not acknowledge or appreciate the work of the Holy Spirit we will be left out of all the blessing and adventure of being His co workers. When this happens, the Holy Spirit will have to work around us, or in spite of us, instead of His ideal of working with us.
And when we work with the Holy Spirit. Now that is when things really get exciting! We will find ourselves sharing in Jesus’ ministry of healing, bringing people to salvation, overcoming Satan’s kingdom, and advancing the Kingdom of God. In short, really making a difference in the world for the glory of God.
