IN THINKING
through about the reality and ministry of the Holy Spirit, Christians
sometimes do what they should not. They separate what God has
put together, often leading to distorted versions of Christianity
and Christian discipleship.
One connection that we should hold on to is the relationship between
Jesus and the Spirit. The baptism of Jesus when the Holy
Spirit descended upon Jesus is a reminder to us that the Spirit
does not work without Jesus, and Jesus does not work without the
Spirit (Mk. 1:9-12). Christians who do not understand and appreciate
the reality of the Trinity end up with a fragmented Trinity in
their minds.
Another essential connection that is poorly understood is that
between the Spirit and the Church. Pentecost reminds us
that the Spirit works in and through the Church and that the Church
cannot be without the Spirit (Acts 2). Sometimes Christians talk
as if the Spirit and the Church are mutually exclusive! That cannot
and should not be.
A third connection, and the focus of this article, is that between
the Spirit and the Word of God. Here, we must rediscover
the Reformation understanding of the Word and the Spirit. The
Reformation leaders did not pit one against the other as some
modern Christians do. They hardly thought of the Word without
the Spirit, or the Spirit without the Word. This is important
for us to bear in mind when we speak about the Bible or the Holy
Spirit.
John Wesley held to this Reformation
understanding of the unity between the Word and the Spirit. In
fact, this was something he personally experienced in his life.
On May 24, 1738, Wesley, searching for a deep experience of God,
attended a prayer meeting in London. There he heard someone reading
Martin Luther's Preface to Paul's epistle to the Romans. As the
Word was explained, the Holy Spirit brought Wesley to a profound
experience of God. In Wesley's own words,
About a quarter before nine, while he was describing
the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ,
I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ,
Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that
He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law
of sin and death.
Wesley was the recipient of the combined effect of the Spirit
and the Word on a person's life. He knew the Reformation understanding
of how the Spirit works together with the Word. After all, it
was the Holy Spirit, through whose inspiration on various writers,
that the biblical books were written (1 Pet. 1:20-21). And it
is the Holy Spirit who illuminates the reader's mind to understand
the Word (1 Cor. 2:11-12). Therefore, Wesley, like Luther and
John Calvin, believed that the Holy Spirit speaks through the
Word, which He helps us to understand and apply in our lives.
THIS unity of the Spirit and the Word is important if we are
not to lose the balance. In Wesley's own day, he warned against
losing the balance between the objective reading of the Word and
the subjective experience of the Spirit speaking in our hearts.
He found fault with those he felt had fallen too much on the side
of the subjective (such as the Anabaptists, Quakers, and the "enthusiasts")
so much so that they talked about revelation independent of the
Word. They began to rely heavily on subjective revelatory experiences
such as visions, promptings, dreams, and intuition while losing
a firm hold on the careful study of the Word.
The leaders of the Reformation, such as Luther and Calvin, had
rejected such tendencies. They clearly saw the Spirit and Word
always working together. The Spirit works through the Word, and
the Word cannot be effective without the Spirit. The Spirit and
the Word are a unity and should not be separated or pitted one
against the other.
Luther and Calvin had some differences in how they conceived of
this working together of the Spirit and the Word and we need not
discuss them here. Suffice to say that the Lutherans said that
the Spirit worked through the Word (per verbum), while the Calvinists
talked about the Spirit working together with the Word (cum verbo).
Whatever the differences, the Reformation leaders held to a steady
operational unity of the Spirit and the Word. As Luther said,
"One cannot separate the voice from the breath. Whoever refuses
to hear the voice gets nothing out of the breath either."
In other words, one who does not regularly read his Bible cannot
expect the Spirit to speak to him regularly. The Spirit speaks
regularly and most clearly through the Word. This is why the
personal study of the Bible and the preaching of the Word are
more important and far more profitable than hearing someone's
ecstatic utterances or accounts of dreams or visions, however
captivating they might appear to be.
This unity of operation of the Spirit and the Word is well described
by Lutheran theologian Henrikus Berkhof in his book The Doctrine
of the Holy Spirit. Berkhof writes, "The Spirit moves through
the world in the shape of the Word in its various forms. The Word
is the instrument of the Spirit. But the Spirit is not the prisoner
of the Word, nor does the Word work automatically. The Word
brings the Spirit to the heart, and the Spirit brings the Word
within the heart."
Well said, and I think Wesley would concur, based on his Reformation
understanding and his evangelical experience. We should do no
less. If we try to read our Bibles without the Spirit, we will
remain in our darkness. We may have the vocabulary of faith but
not its reality. On the other hand, if we pursue the Spirit's
promptings without the Word, we would end up in a world of our
own making where we can often mistake our own inner thoughts and
desires for the Spirit's leading.
Wesley had it right. As he heard Luther's exposition on the Word,
his heart was strangely warmed, and his life was clearly and remarkably
changed. He had heard the biblical voice and felt the divine breath.
QUOTE:
OBJECTIVE READING and SUBJECTIVE EXPERIENCE
'In Wesley's own day, he warned against losing the balance between
the objective reading of the Word and the subjective experience
of the Spirit speaking in our hearts. '