"For As Yet The Spirit Had Not Been Given": The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit In Its Trinitarian, Eschatological, and Soteriological Dimensions (original) (raw)

2024, Westminster Seminary California: Soteriology and Eschatology

It was “on the last day of the feast,” John tells us, “the great day,” that Jesus stood before the Jews assembled for the Feast of Tabernacles. There, “Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” This, John adds, was to speak of the Spirit, “whom those who believed in him were to receive.” Though, not yet; “For as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:37–9). The task of Christian interpreters has been to make sense of John’s statement, “for as yet the Spirit had not been given.”In this paper, I argue that the manner of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling of New Covenant believers differs from that experienced by certain Old Covenant believers according to the eschatological realities of Christ’s glorification in history. It is my contention that the Spirit’s indwelling activity in the Old Testament was proleptic, temporary, and extraordinary, whereas in the New Testament he properly, ordinarily, and commonly indwells believers.