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COMMUNITY GROUP STUDY: THE SPIRIT’S WORK IN SALVATION
Only the Spirit can
give life to the dead!
Becoming
a Christian involves believing certain facts about God and Christ – in short
one must repent and believe the gospel (Acts 2:38). However, becoming a
Christian is principally a supernatural event where the Holy Spirit imparts new
spiritual life in order to receive the gospel in the first place! This act of
God is termed regeneration.
THE PROMISE OF A NEW
COVENANT IN THE SPIRIT
A
covenant is the terms set by God on how one comes into relationship with Him. In
the Old Covenant (B.C) God promised to bless the people if they will obey His
Law (See Deuteronomy 28:1). In the New Covenant (A.D) We are ‘saved’ by faith
in Christ – this faith leads to obedience made possible by ‘new birth’ by the
Holy Spirit.
·
What
is promised in Hebrews 10:15-16? (Fulfilling of what was prophesied by Jeremiah
31:31-34; Deuteronomy 30:6; Ezekiel 36:26-27)
·
Read
John 3:6-8. What does Jesus say about the work of the Spirit and our
conversion?
·
What
does 2 Corinthians 3:6 teach about the New Covenant?
·
Read
1 Cor. 6:9-11. How has the work of the Spirit changed their lives?
THE SPIRIT WORKS AS WE SPEAK
THE GOSPEL
God
can save using an angel, dream, vision ... but principally, He imparts new life
(regeneration) as people share the gospel. (Acts 16:13-14)
·
What
does Romans 8:16 say about how the power of God to save is made effective in
our lives?
·
Read
1 Thessalonians 4:4-6. What does Paul point to as evidence that they were loved
and chosen by God?
·
The
Spirit empowers believers to be witnesses and He imparts life to those who
respond. Do you
think of salvation as the work of the Spirit through the gospel and how does
this understanding help and shape our evangelism?
Salvation
is a work of the Spirit. He has raised us from death to life. This new life is
evidenced by a new desire to love God and others. By the Spirit He fulfils the promises
to write His law on our hearts.
LET’S PRAY IN LIGHT OF WHAT WE HAVE BEEN STUDYING.
DAILY PERSONAL BIBLE DEVOTIONAL – THE
SPIRIT’S WORK IN SALVATION
MONDAY: ONLY THE SPIRIT CAN BREAK THROUGH OUR
REBELLION
After the ‘Fall’ of mankind we see them hiding from
God (Gen. 3:8). Rebellion and ‘hiding from God’ has become the natural disposition
of the human race. This is why it is naïve to speak of salvation as a choice we
can make for ourselves. Sin has so corrupted the heart that only the power of
the Spirit can change our ‘heart of stone’ toward God.
Ephesians 2:1-5 As
for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to
live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the
kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are
disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the
cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like
the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But
because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive
with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have
been saved.
ONLY
GOD CAN CHANGE OUR INCLINATION TO REBEL
Jesus says of everyone who becomes a Christian,
John 6:44 “No
one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will
raise them up at the last day.
Jesus says of us
by nature that “No one can come”! Salvation
is by the grace of God on sinners.
Read Hebrews
8:7-13 also. Pay particular attention to what the Spirit will do within us. Here
are a few highlights:
· V.9.
‘They (the Jews) did not remain faithful to my covenant’. (They had the law of God but their unfaithful
behaviour revealed to all mankind that we need more than rules if we are going
to change the heart)
· V.10. ‘I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I
will be their God, and they will be my people’. (By the Spirit God will
work in our hearts to love Him)
RESPONSE: SPEND SOME TIME THANKING GOD FOR
HOW HE HAS HAD MERCY ON YOU; THAT, IN THE MYSTERY OF GRACE, HE CHOSE TO CALL
YOU TO HIMSELF.
DAILY PERSONAL BIBLE DEVOTIONAL WEEK 2 – THE
SPIRIT’S WORK IN SALVATION
TUESDAY: WHAT IS REGENERATION?
Christianity
is not principally a decision to believe that we make; it is a supernatural
impartation of life by the Holy Spirit. As Greg Haslem has written, ‘we
believe in regeneration and not ‘decisionism’! Salvation is not just
responding to the information of the gospel; rather, it is being acted upon by
God to enable one to believe the gospel.
A COUPLE OF GOOD QUOTES ON
REGENERATION
‘Regeneration is a secret act of God in which
he imparts new spiritual life to us’ (Wayne Grudem)
‘In
the new birth, the Holy Spirit unites us to Christ in a living union. Christ is
life. Christ is the vine where life flows. We are the branches (Jn.15:1–17).
What happens in the new birth is the supernatural creation of new spiritual
life, and it is created through Union with Jesus Christ. The Spirit brings us
into vital connection with Christ who is the way, the truth, and the life. That
is the objective reality of what happens in the new birth’. (Piper)
REGENERATION
IS NEW SPIRITUAL LIFE
John
3:3
Jesus replied, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless
they are born again.’
Ephesians 2:4-5 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,
made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by
grace you have been saved.
RESPONSE: PRAY FOR DRY BONES
TO BE MADE ALIVE
This
prophetic word, among other things, points to the New covenant era when the
Spirit is raising up the spiritually dead as God’s army. Read this and be
inspired to pray that God would do such in our lives and nation.
Ezekiel 37:7-10 As I
was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came
together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them
and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me,
“Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is
what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four
winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” So I
prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life
and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
WEDNESDAY: THE SPIRIT WORKS THROUGH THE GOSPEL TO SAVE
It is always the Holy Spirit who saves, but He usually does it through
people and, specifically, through the message of the gospel by which He opens
our eyes to our sin and the need of Jesus to save us.
PAUL SUMMARISES HOW ONE BECOMES A CHRISTIAN
Romans 10:9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is
Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the
dead, you will be saved.
But he goes on to
add,
Romans 10:14-15 How, then, can they call on the one they have not
believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?
And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And
how can anyone preach unless they are sent?
The Holy Spirit can and does save through dreams and visions, but His
usual operations are to work through His church as they tell the gospel.
2 Thessalonians
2:13-14 But we ought always to thank God for you,
brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as first fruits
to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in
the truth. He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share
in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This text speaks of a
number of things:
· The Trinity is involved in our salvation – The Father loved and chose;
The Spirit ‘sanctified’ – transformed them; the Son gave His life which is
implicit in ‘our gospel’
· Our salvation is through God’s choice because He loves us
· By calling them ‘first fruits’ God is promising that He wants to bring
many others to Himself
· The Spirits works in us is evidenced by ‘belief in the truth’ – Any
talk of God’s working in people without sanctification and belief in the truth
of the gospel is suspect or even demonic (1 John 4:1-3).
· He works salvation through the gospel
RESPONSE: YOU HAVE BEEN COMMISSIONED TO HELP
OTHERS COME TO CHRIST. PRAY THAT THE SPIRIT WOULD LEAD AND EMPOWER YOU TO BE
LOVING AND COURAGEOUS IN YOUR RELATIONSHIPS.
THURSDAY: A CHANGED LIFE IS THE EVIDENCE OF HIS WORK
New birth (regeneration) will always show itself in
radical new desires and ways living. ‘Fruit of the Spirit’ (sanctification) is
evidence that one has actually become a Christian. You don’t have new life if
you don’t have a new life! As Alan Redpath wrote, ‘One who believes with the head only, without evidencing grace, love,
gentleness, humility, or other token of the indwelling Christ, has no right to say
he is a Christian.’
SALVATION IS ALWAYS ACCMPANIED BY SANCTIFICATION
1 Thessalonians
1:4-6 For we know, brothers and sisters loved by
God, that he has chosen you, because our
gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with
the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for
your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed
the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by
the Holy Spirit.
What does Paul
point as evidence that they are loved and chosen?
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not
inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral
nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the
greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of
God. And that is what some of you were.
But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
It is clear that those - who may even call
themselves Christians - that continue in rebellion to God are not saved. What
does Paul say that the Spirit has done for the Corinthian church?
RESPONSE: THE SPIRIT IS CHANGING (SANCTIFYING) US THROUGHOUT OUR LIVES.
PRAYERFULLY MEDITATE ON THE FOLLOWING TEXT.
Titus 2:11-14
For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all
people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and
worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly
lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope – the
appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who
gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify
for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
FRIDAY: THE HOLY SPIRIT ASSURES US OF SALVATION
Carrying on from yesterday, just imagine that you
are the notorious ‘sinner’ Zacchaeus whose story is told in Luke 19. Jesus, to
the chagrin of the self-righteous, came to his house.
Zacchaeus responds to Jesus saying, “Look,
Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have
cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” As we saw yesterday, Jesus points to this
transformation as evidence of his salvation and says, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a
son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to
save the lost.”
ZACCHAEUS IS ASSURED OF HIS SALVATION IN
TWO WAYS:
He has the
evidence of new desires and lifestyle; secondly, He also has Jesus’ voice
telling him that he’s a ‘son of Abraham’ – the friend of God. We also, by the
Spirit, have the evidence of a changed life and the internal assurance given by
the Spirit. As Paul says,
Rom 8:14-16 Those who are led by the Spirit of God are the
children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that
you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your
adoption to sonship. And by
him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The
Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
Galatians 4:6-7 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of
his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no
longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you
also an heir.
THESE TEXTS TEACH A NUMBER OF THINGS:
· Christians have an overflowing love toward God as
Father. As Douglas Moo wrote, ‘We not
only have the status, but the heart of sons.’
· Christians don’t have a slavish heart of fear, whose
obedience is driven by something other than love; We have the Spirit of a son
and have overflowing love toward God.
· Paul
speaks of the Spirit of God testifying to our spirit of our adoption – We call
God ‘Abba’, aware of His love and our love for Him.
RESPONSE: THANK HIM FOR HOW
HE HAS CHANGED YOU AND FOR THE PRESENCE OF THE SPIRIT WHO FILLS YOU WITH
ASSURANCE OF HIS UNBREAKABLE LOVE.
SATURDAY: THE HOLY SPIRIT IS A GUARANTEE OF THE FUTURE
The Spirit is sometimes spoken of as being a
‘deposit’ or ‘down payment’.
Ephesians 1:13-14 And you also were included in Christ when you
heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed,
you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit
guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s
possession – to the praise of his glory.
‘Guarantee' (ἀρραβών) is a Greek
word that means to receive the first installment, or to receive the
deposit of something greater. What does the Holy Spirit guarantee?
·
Eternal life - We
have salvation now but He guarantees our ‘inheritance’ - eternal life with God.
·
Holiness - We have
been transform now but we will be perfected at Christ’ return
·
Restoration – God has begun His restoration
process in us that will result in our complete restoration including a new
‘resurrection’ body.
·
Vision of God - We
know God and ‘see’ Him by the Spirit but this is ‘as in a glass
darkly’ compared to the glory of God that He guarantees for us.
This inheritance, guaranteed by the Spirit, is well
summed up,
Revelation 21:3-4 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”
for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no
longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out
of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling
place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his
people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe
every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying
or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
RESPONSE: REFLECT AND PRAY OUT OF TODAY’S STUDY. THAT THE SPIRIT WOULD
HELP YOU TO LIVE WITH A VISION OF THE FUTURE THAT FREES YOU FROM GIVING OUR
LIVES FOR THINGS THAT ARE NOT IMPORTANT.
