Continuing our study of Ephesians 5:18—Be filled with the Spirit— we see in Scripture four commands concerning the believer’s relationship to the Holy Spirit that without question affect the control the Holy Spirit will have on the believer. The first is we must not grieve the Holy Spirit, and the second is we must not quench the Holy Spirit.
Third, we must yield to the Holy Spirit. Yielding to Holy Spirit control is at the very heart of Spirit-filling. This is what makes it possible. As Paul wrote the Romans, “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God” (Rom. 6:13). There is no middle ground here. The believer either yields to the Spirit or yields to sin. Paul adds a few chapters later, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (12:1-2).
In both Romans 6:13 and 12:1, we find the Greek word paristemi (“yield” in 6:13 and “present” in 12:1). This is a compound word comprised of histemi, “to place or stand,” and para, “near.” It, therefore, means “to cause to stand near or before.” It was used widely in secular Greek, such as, “to place at someone’s disposal,” “to bring [as a sacrifice],” and “bring before (the emperor or the court).” Paul’s point, then, is clear: the Christian is commanded to place himself before the Lord as a living sacrifice for God’s glory and use, to yield to the total control of God’s will, to conform not to the world’s mold but to God’s mold as revealed in His Word.
Theologian Louis Sperry Chafer puts it well in his book, He That Is Spiritual: “A yieldedness to the will of God is not demonstrated by some one particular issue: it is rather a matter of having taken the will of God as the rule of one’s life. To be in the will of God is simply to be willing to do His will without reference to any particular thing He may choose. It is electing His will to be final, even before we know what He may wish us to do. It is, therefore, not a question of being willing to do some one thing: it is a question of being willing to do anything, when, where and how, it may seem best in His heart of love. It is taking the normal and natural position of childlike trust which has already consented to the wish of the Father even before anything of the outworking of His wish is revealed. This distinction cannot be overemphasized. . . . There must be a covenant relationship of trust in which His will is assented to once for all and without reservation.”
The way to know God’s will is to know His Word. To be yielded, then, is to covenant with God to obey His Word before we even know what It says. When we do that, we will never get “hung up” on any issue or get upset when a preacher tells us how we should live based upon Scripture. Once we settle the issue of submission to God’s Word no matter what, we will accept whatever It says. The real problem in all of us is biblical authority. We must settle that issue before we can even address any other.
In his equally good book, The Holy Spirit, theologian John Walvoord writes: “The yielded Christian has an unusual relationship to the Word of God. As its revelation becomes known and its application becomes evident, the issue of being yielded to the truth as made known by the Holy Spirit becomes very real.”
How true! The yielded Christian does, indeed, have “an unusual relationship to the Word of God.” It’s so unusual, in fact, that he or she will seem very odd in today’s world, even among some Christians. To be Spirit-filled is to be Word-filled, no matter what It says and no matter what other people might think.
No comments:
Post a Comment