We have noted in the prophecy of Joel that God had foreseen the gradual desolation of the people of His inheritance. But, the Father made provision for their ultimate restoration and with the outpouring of His Holy Spirit, "He restored the years that the cankerworm has eaten."
The Holy Spirit has a primary place in Orthodox Renewal
Any renewal activity that does not give the Spirit of the Lord a prominent position cannot be regarded as genuine. The supernatural involvement of the third person of the Trinity is foundational. Familiarity with the Spirit both doctrinally and experientially is required if any renewal endeavor is to be taken seriously and viewed as lasting and truly effective.
The Holy Spirit: the Breath of God
First, I would like to consider some preliminary teaching on the Holy Spirit as a useful introduction to our subject. Many of us can understand how God the Father can be a person. The Son or Logos, the second person of the Divine Trinity, can be understood as a person. But when it comes to relating to the Holy Spirit as a person, many of us have a problem.
Too many think of the Holy Spirit as a kind of abstract spiritual power that comes from God. The scriptures, however, reveal that the Holy Spirit is just as much a divine person in the Godhead as the Son and the Father. The Holy Spirit is a "He" and not an "It." While He glorifies the Son, Jesus Christ, the Son breathes, infuses and sends the Holy Spirit into the world and especially into the body and soul of the believer. The believer enters into a special relationship with the Holy Spirit. God created man in such a way as to be a temple of the Holy Spirit. This third person of the Trinity seeks to make the Christian believer a permanent abode of His immanent presence. God communicates a divine person to manžnot an impersonal force that some call "grace."
The Holy Spirit lives in man from the moment he is created by God "in His image and likeness." It is recorded in the Bible that God formed Adam, the first man, "out of the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul" (Gen. 2:7).
The "breath of life" is the Holy Spirit. We see that the function of the Holy Spirit is to quicken, namely, enliven and give life. This is why the Holy Spirit is called in the Greek "zoopoion Pneuma," the life-giving Spirit.
The Holy Spirit: the Agent of Creation and Renewal
The Holy Spirit is immanent and indwelling in the world because He is the agent of creation. God not only creates the world through His Holy Spirit but He also sustains and preserves it through the same Spirit. We read in Psalm 104, verse 30: "Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created, and thou renewest the face of the earth." He is also the renewing agent in the Godhead. When the Lord says, "Behold I make all things new" (Revelation 21:5), He means that He renews all things by the fresh outpouring of His Holy Spirit. He also desires to continually "renew a right spirit within" the believer (Psalm 51:10).
Life is where the Spirit is present and blowing. Death results when the Spirit is withdrawn by God or banished by man because of sin. The Psalmist says: "Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust" (Psalm 104:29).
To be separated from God's Spirit is the worst calamity that could possibly befall a believer. It is for this reason that the Psalmist cries out to God in repentance: "Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me." What God as Creator is doing in effect is imparting to man that which is intrinsic to His own nature and which comes from out of the very depths of His being, His very Spirit, the deepest reality in the Godhead. This demonstrates the infinite love of God for man.
God does not communicate to man something external to His inner life, but rather shares His very nature, His deepest life with man. "For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God...The things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God" (1 Corinthians 2:10f). Man knows nothing about God except what the "Holy Spirit teacheth" Him (2:13). He is the illuminating Spirit Who imparts intelligence, reason and wisdom to man.
The Holy Spirit: the Ground of Our Being
Our Creator is a self-communicating God. He created man "in His image" by communicating His Holy Spirit to him, and thus man becomes a "partaker of divine nature" by partaking of the Holy Spirit. In partaking of the Spirit man partakes also of the divine Logos, the second person of the Trinity, because where the Holy Spirit is, there, also, is the Logos. They are inseparable as the two immanent persons of the Godhead. The Spirit shows forth and glorifies the Logos, while the role of the Logos is to infuse the Holy Spirit into the created world and especially into man.
If man is to image God's nature, he, too, must have a logos and a spirit. In the divine scheme of creation man was intended by God to be inhabited permanently by the indwelling Logos and the indwelling Spirit. In this way he would truly be "in the image and likeness of God." This makes man unquestionable trisynthetic, consisting of three component parts: body, soul and spirit.
As Orthodox Christians, we believe in a self-communicating God Who has made us to be "partakers of divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4). Man is constitutionally related to God. By his very nature, whether he is conscious of it or not, man is connected into God's life. He is plugged into God's nature and he can't get unplugged even if he wanted to. Man is not a detached product of the creative act of God.
The initial infusion of the Holy Spirit into Adam was not simply a single act of creation. God continually infuses His Spirit into man and man continually breathes in the divine breath of life. The divine infusion establishes an organic relationship between God and man.
The Holy Spirit is the oxygen of our soul. We are always breathing the Holy Spirit. As the Scripture says, "We live in God and move and have our being in Him." We read in Acts chapter 17, verse 25: "He gives to all men life and breath and everything." The Holy Spirit is the very ground of our being. This is how we can account for man's possession, even to a relative degree, of certain divine attributes and characteristics, as, for example, intelligence and free will. We read in Psalm 82, verse 6: "Ye are gods and the sons of the most high." Our destiny is to become godlike to the measure that the limits of our human nature permit. The Church Fathers speak of man's ultimate end in terms of theosis or deification.
Mutual Indwelling
The Holy Spirit is God's gift to man, because creation itself is God's gift, given freely to man. He does not receive it because he merits it, neither does he earn it by his good works and his righteousness. It is given to him by grace and by the good pleasure of the Father. It is a gift bestowed at creation, as well as at redemption.
It is the indwelling of the Spirit that makes the theosis of man possible. The mutual indwelling of man and God is the very presupposition of theosis. We see this in Christ's words: "Dwell in me and I in you." Man's union with God is the basis of his self-fulfillment. It is the guarantee of his joy. The conscious and deliberate act of his will not only to remain in a close relationship with God, but also to increase that relationship insures the blessedness for which he was created.
To the measure that by our obedience the lordship of God becomes perfected in our life, to that measure we become one with God: the Spirit of the Lord becomes our spirit. We can almost say, "I live, yet no longer I; Christ liveth in me" (Galatians. 2:20). Or, as Paul says, "He who cleaves unto the Lord is one Spirit" (1 Corinthians 6:17). Perfect obedience releases the fullness of the Holy Spirit into man's heart. It secures spiritual growth and progress.
On the other hand, disobedience to God's will produces the very opposite result: it separates man from the Holy Spirit. It reduces his relationship to God to the bare minimum. Sinning against God causes man to be separated from God and from the source of His joy and blessedness. Such alienation from God results in death and sorrow, in one word: disaster.
Adam committed the sin of disobedience by rebelling against God and transgressing His commandment. The result was instant separation from God. He was cast out of the Garden of Eden, symbolic of his alienation from God.
Adam lost his full access to the Holy Spirit. He forfeited his right to the Holy Spirit and, by conceding to the will of Satan, he fell under the curse and under condemnation, which the whole of the human race inherited from Adam.
This is why, as Scripture says, "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23), and, "As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Rom. 5:12).
Death: Separation from the Holy Spirit
In the absence of the Holy Spirit there is estrangement from God, spiritual death, sickness, and corruptibility
When the Holy Spirit is banished by sin, there is bondage to Satan. The only thing left is Hell. Satan comes and fills the vacancy that the withdrawing Holy Spirit leaves behind. Death according to the New Testament is the soul's eternal separation from God. Life, on the other hand, is eternal union with God.
The fall of Adam caused man to become the abode of demons. He no longer was the temple of the Holy Spirit. He became incapable of attaining the end for which he was created, that is, the likeness of God, theosis.
By falling into the sin of rebellion man lost the gift of God, the Holy Spirit. That which was given to him freely by the good pleasure of the Father was withdrawn from him. Only a spark of the Spirit remained, enough to enable sinful man to feel guilt, remorse and sorrow, and to be capable of repentance.
God, however, is merciful and compassionate, and, though man was deserving of condemnation and Hell, yet in His infinite mercy and wisdom God conceived a plan to redeem man without violating the demands of divine justice.
Because of the corrupt nature of man, he had nothing perfect enough with which to atone for his guilt. There was no offering or sacrifice adequate enough with which to expiate for his sins.
When Isaac asked his father Abraham on Mt. Moriah, "Where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" he replied: "My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering" (Genesis 22:7f).
God provided Abraham with the lamb that he was to offer unto God. This act of God's love foreshadowed the divine mercy that caused Him to provide His only-begotten Son as the Lamb that atoned for the sins of mankind. Jesus Christ suffered and died in our place on Calvary's Cross.
Reconciliation in Christ
"God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son so that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). Jesus, the New Adam, satisfied the demands of divine justice by paying the sin debt on the Cross and by exhausting the curse of Adam in His vicarious death. God made Him "to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21).
In Jesus Christ man's relationship with God was restored. The gulf of alienation was bridged over. "But now in Christ Jesus we who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us" (Ephesians 2:13f).
The atonement in the blood of Jesus released anew the Holy Spirit to man, but only the man who believed in Him as Savior and Redeemer. It is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and receiving of the sacraments of Baptism and Communion that restores the Holy Spirit and causes Him once again to abide in the heart of man.
Restoration of Holy Spirit Communion
Man's salvation is essentially the restoration of his fellowship with the Holy Spirit. Now he has a right to the Spirit. He has access to the Spirit again. The initial infusion of the Spirit that occurred at the time of creation is now renewed.
St. Cyril of Alexandria says, "It is a renewal (ananeosis) of that ancient gift and of the inbreathing which was given to us" (Against Eunomius V).
St. Cyril of Jerusalem teaches, "This is the second inbreathing, because the first was darkened by voluntary sins" (Catechesis 17:12).
It is significant that the first utterance of Jesus to His disciples in the Upper Room after the resurrection was connected directly to the Holy Spirit. We read in John 21:22: "He breathed on them and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit." By means of this solemn act of inbreathing the Risen Lord was declaring the truth that His death and resurrection looked to restoring the Holy Spirit to fallen man who had forfeited that divine fellowship because of his rebellion.
It was impossible for man to receive the Holy Spirit prior to the vicarious death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. Once He came into His glory as High Priest and Mediator at the right hand of the Father, entering into the holy place not made with hands in Heaven itself, He sent the promise of His Father, that is, the Holy Spirit in power. "For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified" (John 7:39).
Christ died for you, dear reader, and arose from the dead, destroying the dominion of Satan, so that you might regain the Holy Spirit from whom sin had separated you. The Lord gives you the opportunity to reinstate yourself into the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, to become a child of God again and to receive the gift of spiritual rebirth (regeneration).
Without the Holy Spirit you live under the power of darkness and death. But with the Holy Spirit you already possess the glorious life of God. Have you made it yours in actual experience?
Rebirth and the Holy Spirit
The first work of the Holy Spirit is to bring painful conviction upon the sinner, to lead him to repentance and to draw him to Christ and to a personal commitment to Him as Savior and Lord.
The second work of the Holy Spirit is to make a new creature out of the repentant sinner by the second birth (rebirth-regeneration). He renews and regenerates the believer by the operation of His supernatural, transforming power.
Faith that Jesus truly died and arose from the dead for our sins releases the life-changing power that regenerates the believer. He has to appropriate to himself the atoning blood that was shed on the Cross in an act of faith and total surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ. Being "in Christ," he becomes a "new creature." In water baptism he dies with Christ; he is buried and rises together with Him in "the newness of life."
The "newness of life" is the life in the Holy Spirit. It is sharing in the divine life. It is resurrection life. It is the life of spiritual victory. It is the result of being "born again," namely, "born of God" (1 John 3:9).
When you are born again, dear reader, naturally you are "born of God." Since the Holy Spirit is God's gift, rebirth is a gift freely given by God. It is the work of grace. It doesn't come with our own efforts and wisdom. It is not an earthly birth, but a heavenly one, because it comes "from above (anothen)." Rebirth requires faith in the promises of Christ and total surrender to Him in repentance and confession of our sins. Jesus lays down rebirth as a condition that every man and woman has to meet in order to be saved from eternal Hell and to inherit eternal life.
Jesus told Nicodemus: "Verily, verily I say unto you, Unless a man is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3), and subsequently He elaborates this fundamental truth by stating: "Verily, verily I say unto you, Unless one is born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (John 3:5). Rebirth, therefore, involves being born of both water and of the Holy Spirit. Two necessary elements are involved in man's second birth: on the one hand, water; on the other, the Holy Spirit. There is one that is visible (physical), and the other that is spiritual (invisible).
Two baptisms are clearly enunciated here by the Lord. Both must be received by the believer for salvation: baptism of water and baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Until a man is born again (regenerated), he lives his old nature of sin and remains a "child of wrath." He lives the animate life only, destitute of spiritual life. He lives in the flesh. Everything he does is of the flesh and in the natural and destined not to survive. Jesus made it crystal clear to us: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:6).
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