GOD WITHIN US
Imagine you have a famous relative. You’ve heard of him, and perhaps have also interacted with him. But nothing can be as integrative to your relationship with him as a decision by this relative to one day come home to you and stay with you as part of your home. Likewise, you can know about a God who is distant, and hope to experience God when you somehow merge into the collective consciousness of God, losing your identity in the infinite; but God becomes infinitely real when He comes to dwell within us. Jesus promises this final act in the process of salvation, when he promises the Holy Spirit:
If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you……. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. (John 14:15-20)
The Holy Spirit is sent because of Jesus: While the Holy Spirit works in this world and influences people, his indwelling residence is consequent to a faith in Christ. It is obedience to Christ that makes it possible for the Holy Spirit to come to us. This obedience is primarily reflected by acknowledging oneself as a sinner before God and recognizing the saving work of Christ as one’s own. This is the core of life and salvation for man.
The Holy Spirit advocates and counsels: The Holy Spirit is referred to as having a function as an advocate. This is also translated as counselor or comforter. This is making one’s standing before God certain, because we are condemned as guilty sinners before God, and the Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf on the basis of Jesus’ blood to make us pure and justified before God. If you don’t stand before God, you won’t stand at all.
The Holy Spirit within is truth embodied: All truth resides in God and when the Holy Spirit comes to his people and makes his residence within, truth becomes a reality for man. Without truth, man is like the shifting sand, being carried by the winds of societal norms and current thought, that often defies rational thinking and common sense. It is the Spirit of God that enables one to have the light to traverse the darkness that engulfs a society enamored by the ‘isms’ that blind and bind.
The Holy Spirit is alien to the world: Unlike pantheistic philosophy that encourages one to find union with the eternal, Jesus reminds us that the distinct nature of the Holy Spirit is anathema to the world, that rejects the truth. You choose to be either in the light or in the darkness. Consequently, you either live being nourished by the indwelling Spirit or waste away, having rejected the Spirit of truth.
To one who ends up receiving the Spirit, perfect union between the triune God and man becomes a reality.
