The Sign of the Covenant

The gift of the Spirit is essential to the identity, mission, and life of the Church. It is foundational to the New Covenant.

Jesus commanded his disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they received “the promise of the Father.” The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost inaugurated the Church and the last days and equipped the followers of Christ to take his Good News to the nations – (Luk 24:46-49, Acts 1:7-8, 2:1-21).

The gift of the Spirit is the vital component of the New Covenant promised by the prophets to the nation of Israel. From the beginning, this gift has been the defining characteristic of the Church. The presence of the Spirit sets us apart for service and identifies us as the covenant community. Christianity without the Spirit is lifeless, a contradiction in terms.

At the end of his sermon on the Day of Pentecost, Peter exhorts his audience to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus. If they do so, God will give them the gift of the Spirit. The penitent man repents and believes, the Church baptizes him, and God fills him with the Spirit – (Acts 2:38, 10:44-48, 11:15-18).

Peter began his sermon by applying the passage from Joel 2:28-32 to the events of Pentecost. God poured out His Spirit on all flesh, “in the last days,” just as He promised, and this means that the New Covenant is now in effect.

[Photo by Abigail Keenan on Unsplash]

In his Letter to the Galatians, Paul argues that Gentiles do not need to undergo circumcision to become members of the Church. The Apostle’s first and strongest argument is the fact that uncircumcised Gentiles already have the gift of the Spirit.

If God has granted the Spirit to uncircumcised Gentiles, then circumcision is no longer a requirement. The possession of the Spirit is irrefutable proof that God accepts the Gentiles into His covenant community without the rites and regulations required by the Law of Moses. Moreover, like Peter, Paul connects the gift of the Spirit to the last days – (Galatians 3:1-14):

• “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ, put on Christ. There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither slave nor free, there can be no male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are of Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, heirs according to promise” – (Galatians 3:26-29).

• “When the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father” – (Galatians 4:4-6).

When Peter preached the Gospel to the Gentiles for the first time, God confirmed His acceptance of Gentiles as Gentiles by baptizing them in the Spirit. This was an act of God that could not be denied. It was not the faith or repentance of the Gentiles that removed all doubt, but the gift of the Spirit.

• “While Peter yet was speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all those who heard the word. And they of the circumcision that believed were amazed, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Spirit. For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Then answered Peter, Can any man forbid the water, that these should not be baptized, who have received the Holy Spirit as well as we?” – (Acts 10:44-47).

• “If then God gave them the same gift as he did also to us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I, that I could resist God?  And when they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance unto life” – (Acts 11:17-18).

The preceding passages are just a few of the examples from the New Testament that demonstrate that the gift of the Spirit, more than anything else, is what makes men and women Christian and identifies them as disciples of Jesus Christ. And this is according to the promises from the Hebrew scriptures about the coming New Covenant.

It is the Spirit that gives life, and the gift of the Spirit confirms that God has acquitted us of the penalty of sin and made us members of His Church.

THE NEW COVENANT

In the Book of Ezekiel, God promised to cleanse Israel from her uncleanness and give her children new hearts. He would put His Spirit in them and thereby establish a new and everlasting covenant:

• “And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. And I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes, and keep my ordinances, and do them: and they will be my people, and I will be their God” - (Ezekiel 11:19-20).

• “And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you will be clean from all your filthiness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart also, and I will put a new spirit in you. And I will remove the stony heart from your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you, and cause you to walk in my statutes. And you will keep my ordinances, and do them” - (Ezekiel 36:25-27).

• “Behold, the days come, says the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they broke, although I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my law in their inner parts, in their heart I will write it. And I will be their God, and they will be my people” - (Ezekiel 31:31-33. Compare Deuteronomy 30:6 and Hebrews 8:6-13).

God promised to cleanse the people of Israel and write his laws in their hearts, and this would be accomplished by His Spirit. The Apostle Paul applies the passage from the Book of Ezekiel to the congregation in Corinth, which consisted of Jewish and Gentile believers who had received the gift of the Spirit:

• “But such confidence as this we have through Christ towards God. Not that of our own selves are we sufficient to reckon anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God, who also has made us sufficient to be ministers of A NEW COVENANT, not of letter BUT OF THE SPIRIT, for the letter kills, but the Spirit makes alive” - (2 Corinthians 3:3-6. Compare Luke 22:20, 1 Corinthians 11:25).

• “But their thoughts were turned into stone. For until this very day, the same veil remains upon the reading of the old covenant, not to be removed, because in Christ it is to be done away. But until this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil remains upon their heart. However, whenever he turns to the Lord, he takes off the veil. And the Lord is the Spirit. Now, where the Spirit of one who is Lord is, there is freedom! And we all, with unveiled face, receiving and reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image, from glory into glory, even as from a Spirit that is Lord” – (2 Corinthians 3:14-18).

The New Covenant has been inaugurated by Jesus Christ. He is the Messiah who baptizes his people in the Spirit, and the gift of the Spirit is the irrefutable evidence that we are members of his Church. However, if the Spirit is absent from our lives, then we do not belong to Christ. The New Testament nowhere divides the Church between those who are spirit-filled and those who are not:

• “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” – (Romans 8:9).

• “In whom you also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom, having also believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise” – (Ephesians 1:13).

And so, the gift of the Spirit is the undeniable proof that we are the sons of God, children of Abraham, heirs of the promises, and coheirs with Jesus Christ. It is what identifies us as Christians and disciples of the Nazarene, and the activity of the Spirit among the people of God proves that we now live under the New Covenant - (Galatians 3:26-29, Romans 8:12-17, Colossians 2:9-10).

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[Citations of Old Testament passages in this article are based on the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint (see the links here and here). Text printed in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS represents quotations and verbal allusions from the Old Testament. The Septuagint is represented by the Roman numeral for ‘seventy’ or LXX based on the Latin name of the translation, ‘Interpretatio septuaginta virorum’]

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SEE ALSO:

• The Promise of the Father - (With the outpouring of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, the blessings for all nations promised to Abraham commenced)

• The Evidence of Sonship - (The gift of the Spirit demonstrates beyond question who belongs to the covenant community of Christ, and who does not)

• The Blessing of Abraham - (The Gift of the Spirit is one of God’s covenant promises and his ways of blessing all Nations in Abraham’s Seed)

• Le Signe de l'Alliance - (Le don de l'Esprit est essentiel à l'identité, à la mission et à la vie de l'Église. C'est fondamental pour la Nouvelle Alliance)