Holy Spirit

One Reason Why Pettiness Is Regarded as Piety

March 9, 2022 by wagraham 1 Comment

Herman Bavinck once wrote, “There is so much narrow-mindedness, so much pettiness among us, and the worst thing is that this is regarded as piety.” Bavinck was referring to two Christian groups the separatist churches of the Grievers and Seceders. Both groups left the state church, but they could not get along.

Why? Not because of matters of orthodox doctrine. Both had it. But because of pettiness and narrow-mindedness. It is the old problem of Donatism, of a drive for purity that that cuts itself off from other people. We often feel holier than the body of Christ.

But Jesus accepts us just as we are by faith. And so the body of Christ should welcome one another just as Christ welcomed us (Rom 15:7). To do anything less is to miss the mark of Christ’s love and formation of his body, the church.

One reason why we often become petty and narrow-minded as Bavinck says is because we do not understand how God’s Spirit gifts the created world and people in it, even of unbelievers or believers whom we disagree with. We think we are at the centre of it all. We are not because any truth or goodness that we find in this world has its origin in God. [Read more…] about One Reason Why Pettiness Is Regarded as Piety

“Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”

July 1, 2021 by wagraham 2 Comments

After Jesus taught the disciples for 40 days about the kingdom of God, the disciples had a question to ask Jesus. They said, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel” (Acts 1:6)? In answer, Jesus Jesus rejected their right to know the Father’s timing “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority” (Acts 1:7).

Yet Jesus does not stop his answer there. He continues: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). In so doing, Jesus evidently explains how he is restoring the kingdom to Israel.

After 40 days of learning about the kingdom of God from Jesus (Acts 1:3), the disciples understood the issue well. What they did not know was how to discern when the restoration would occur. They needed to wait for the Father to act. In other words, they must “wait for the promise of the Father” (Acts 1:4) which means the pouring out of the Holy Spirit at which time “you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:5; cf. Acts 2:33).

As I will argue, the pouring out of the Holy Spirit signals the fulfillment of the father’s promise and the beginnings of the restoration of the kingdom. The Spirit, at one level, evinces the presence of the kingdom since he is the “Spirit of Jesus” (Acts 16:7) and where Jesus is so is the kingdom (e.g., Luke 17:21).

The narratives in Luke and Acts provide more reasons why this is so. [Read more…] about “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”

What does it look like to change by the Spirit?

May 7, 2020 by wagraham 1 Comment

Christians are supposed to be new creations whose lives exhibit the power of God (2 Pet 1:3ff). As new creations, we walk and live by the Spirit. Even knowing this, many of us struggle to understand what it looks like to change by the Spirit. We attend regular churches full of regular people who don’t appear very much like Spirit-indwelled new creations. What are we missing?

The answer to these questions involves understanding how we change, what the power of God means, and why sin still exists even among Christians. [Read more…] about What does it look like to change by the Spirit?

What Is The Glory That Jesus Gives Us in John 17? Answer: The Holy Spirit

June 5, 2019 by wagraham 9 Comments

In John 17, Jesus promises to share the Father’s glory (that he too possesses) with his disciples. He prays, “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one” (John 17:22).

What does this mean? And to complicate things, how does this fit with Isaiah 42:8 which reads, “my glory I give to no other”?

The answer requires paying close attention to the argument of John, the order of redemptive history, and reflecting theologically on the meaning of both. I argue that “glory” in John 17 means “Holy Spirit.”

To make this argument, I will outline, augment, and strengthen Gregory of Nyssa’s (335–395) argument for this position in his letter: “On ‘Then Also the Son Himself Will Be Subjected to the One Who Subjected All things to Him.’”

[Read more…]

Why I Affirm Double Procession (the Spirit Proceeds from the Father and Son)

April 23, 2019 by wagraham 1 Comment

For some time, the single procession of the Spirit made good sense to me. In the monarchy of God, the right order seems to be: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father is the sole principle who begets the Son and from whom the Spirit proceeds.

I found the phrase “the Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son” helpful because it mediated the two positions (single and double procession). Like single procession, the Spirit comes from the Father. And like double procession, the Spirit comes from the Father by coming through the Son.

I was satisfied. Then I read Thomas Aquinas and Gilles Emery. They forced me to reconsider what the Bible said and to re-reflect on my theology.

[Read more…]

What Is the Peace That Jesus Gives Us?

July 12, 2018 by wagraham 1 Comment

“Peace I leave with you,” Jesus said, “my peace I give you” (John 14:27) Jesus’ peace transcends any peace that we might again on earth: “I do not give [peace] to you as the world gives.” His peace takes away troubled hearts and fear. [Read more…] about What Is the Peace That Jesus Gives Us?