Thomas Tarrants, President Emeritus of CS Lewis Institute, wrote a primer on the Holy Spirit.
Main point: …”the power to live as his [Jesus Christ’s] disciple comes from the Holy Spirit.”
More about it:
- “…the Holy Spirit is a divine person. And this divine person is the third person of the Trinity.”
- “…the Spirit is also God.”
- “…Jesus Christ secured our redemption; the Holy Spirit applies that redemption in our lives.”
- “Jesus and the Father sent forth the Holy Spirit to establish the church and to carry on all that Jesus had initiated on earth. The Spirit now carries forward the work of Christ by glorifying him and applying all the benefits of his life, death, resurrection, and ascension in the lives of his people and extending his kingdom throughout the earth.”
- “…the Holy Spirit, as his name implies, works to make people holy.”
- “The Holy Spirit is the key to authentic Christian life—to discipleship—and without his empowerment, teaching, and guidance it is impossible to live faithfully.”
- “…we cannot rest on one experience of the Spirit at conversion but need to be filled with the Spirit again and again.”
- “…the Holy Spirit is holy and therefore easily offended and grieved by sin. Our unholy words and attitudes cause him to withdraw and distance himself from us. And when he does so, we will have not only a diminished sense of his presence but also a reduction of his power.”
- “…we should not despise any communication which might be from God. Rather, we should test and discern whether it actually is from God. It is our responsibility to discern the teaching of that word to ensure it is correct.”
Why it matters: “The life of discipleship is possible only through the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit—the Spirit of Jesus Christ.”