Partaking of the Spirit: The Threshold of Belonging

While Christian identity in the NT almost certainly was formulated in a collectivist sense, the fact that it was not ethnically linked surely begged for rites like baptism to make it clear who was a member of this new group, the assembly.

Nevertheless, the book of Acts indicates that being baptized did not automatically imply that one had the Spirit. The Samaritans of Acts 8 are baptized before they receive the Spirit. Similarly, the Gentiles of Acts 10 receive the Spirit before they are baptized. While baptism is the rite most associated in Acts with receiving the Holy Spirit, the laying on of hands seems even more closely related.

Acts treats receiving the Spirit as a natural consequence of true repentance and baptism: "Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, every one of you for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:36).

Again, we Western individualists probably need to be reminded that this is probably not simply an isolated individual experience. "You are the temple of God and God's Spirit lives in you" (1 Cor. 3:16)--the "you's" in this verse are plural. We are the temple, and the Spirit dwells in us. Perhaps the wording of Hebrews helps us conceptualize the relationship between the Spirit in the individual and the Spirit in the church: we have become partakers of Holy Spirit (Heb. 6:4).

To be sure, Hebrews is not here making the distinction between the Spirit in the individual and the Spirit in the church. Hebrews' point is that we are now partakers in part now of what is only fully to come in the coming age. But perhaps the language is helpful. No individual has "all" of the Holy Spirit in him or her. We all partake of Holy Spirit when our hearts are sprinkled clean of an evil conscience (Heb. 10:22; cf. Acts 15:9) and our bodies are washed with pure water (i.e., in baptism, Heb. 10:22). But there is in a sense "more" of the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ than in me as an individual believer, and there is more of the Spirit in the age to come than is available to us corporately now in this age.

What we have been suggesting throughout our discussion thus far is that the Holy Spirit, more than anything else, defines the church, the assembly of the firstborn. This is true both of us collectively and individually. Crossing from death to life means being "designated and made holy by the Spirit" (Rom. 15:16; 2 Thess. 2:13).

Thus in Romans 8:9, Paul says, "If someone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this one is not of him." This verse indicates that all true Christians and thus all true parts of the church have the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 1:21 implies the same: God "has sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." Very similar is 2 Corinthians 5:5: "God is the one who has made us into this very thing, who has given us the earnest of the Spirit."

The NIV translates 2 Corinthians 1:21 with the idea of God putting his "seal of ownership" on us. This is an appropriate dynamic rendition of the idea of sealing here. It is not sealing as in sealing up a jar but sealing as in placing one's seal on something. It is like branding, thus indicating that we are in fact God's.

The notion of an "earnest" will be familiar to any who have bought a house. Earnest money does two things. It first guarantees that you will receive the house (rather than someone else) if the agreed conditions are kept by both parties. But it also is a downpayment toward the purchase.

Accordingly, the Holy Spirit in us is a "foretaste of glory divine," as we saw in Hebrews. Yet the Spirit is also a guarantee of our inheritance. It is not an absolute guarantee, for one can grieve the Holy Spirit of God.

So we see that more than anything else, the Spirit defines the assembly of God. It does so individually to be sure, but it does so individually in relation to its corporate definition of the church as well.