15; 1 Cor. 8:11) is to be prized accordingly. To act contrary to this principle is not “according to love.” True Christians live according to love, extending the love of God to their neighbors. This means that the ethic of love accomplishes God’s ultimate will for all humanity as Christians “conduct their lives according to love” (Rom. 14:15, my translation). As Paul says, “he that loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law” (Rom. 13:8).
It is because the future of the faithful is accomplished by God’s love that Paul is absolutely certain of the ultimate triumph of God’s justice. No power whatsoever is capable of interfering with the saving activity of love. Trying to imagine possible interfering forces, Paul distinguishes two groups. In the first he considers circumstances of daily life: tribulation, anguish, persecution, famine, nakedness, dangers, swords. He easily dismisses these obstacles to love’s purpose as no actual contenders. In the second group Paul considers challenges that come from powers that operate outside of the earthly realm and are therefore beyond human control or will. With them he assumes an overpowering, defiant attitude. He declares: “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor potentates, nor things present, nor things to come, not height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God” (Rom. 8:35 – 39). The triumph of love is secure.
God’s gift of love should be received with expressions of thanksgiving because, as Paul’s Gospel says, pouring his love to humanity and making a new creation in Christ, God did not absorb humanity but reconciled it to himself (2 Cor. 5; 17, 19). The new creation brought about by love, under whose control Christians live (2 Cor. 5:14), is not an amorphous conglomerate of passive robots who do God’s will en masse. The Christian life of the new creation is not the boring life of an idealized perfection on this earth. It is the exciting life of taking seriously the life that is now lived in the midst of unpredictability and disorder. It is the life lived by the power of God’s love that brings about faith and hope and issues in more love.
When life in bodies of flesh gives way to life in spirit bodies, faith and hope will have been replaced by sight. Now, looking through a glass darkly (1 Cor. 13:12), humans need to exercise faith and hope in God’s love. But when life in the presence of God is achieved, love will continue to be the force behind all life. That is why Paul understood that among faith, hope and love, love is the greatest of the three, and affirmed that “love never ends” (1 Cor. 13:8).
III: The Holy Spirit that Has Been Given to Us
The Gospel of Paul is the Gospel of the power of the Holy Spirit. This power has been in operation since Creation and will continue to be in operation through eternity. On two occasions in human history it acted most powerfully and most significantly, and it is still very active in a third. The first of these occasions was when it moved over the primeval waters setting the stage for God’s first act on creation week. In 2 Corinthians 4:6 Paul makes this the foundation and model for the second occasion: “For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” Here the light shining out of darkness invokes Creation, and the glory of God in the face of Christ refers to the Resurrection. This demonstration of the power of the Spirit established a New Creation in which Christ is the Last Adam, the first of those who live by the power of the Spirit.
Since then, the dispensation of the Spirit has been in place and the Holy Spirit has been shining in the hearts of human beings, thus giving them the light that enables them “to know” about the resurrection. This dispensation is the third great accomplishment of the Holy Spirit. Since the beginning the Spirit has been making the divine light to shine in the darkness both by bringing about new cosmic realities and by enlightening human minds to appreciate those cosmic realities.
For Paul, the crucial thing is that Christians have been given the Spirit. Their life is now taking place on a different ecological system, even while they still live in the Fallen Creation of the first Adam. To live in the realm of Adam’s creation is to live “in the flesh.” In itself the flesh is not sinful. But the flesh is weak and, therefore, universally falls under the power of sin. Christians living in the flesh are not immune to falling under the power of sin; but they have also been given the Spirit (Rom. 5:5; 1 Th. 4:8). Thus, besides living in the flesh, they also live “in the Spirit.” They are the beneficiaries of “the dispensation of the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:8), living in a different ecology. An ecological system is what makes life possible as it is. The dispensation of the Spirit makes possible life in the Spirit. According to Paul, this is the sine qua none of being a Christian. Living in the Spirit, “the spiritual man judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one” (1 Cor. 2:15). Christians, of course, will be judged by God, but they are privileged souls even while living in the flesh because the flesh is no longer the ecological system in which they live.
Paul takes for granted that all his converts have received the Spirit. For example, he does not ask the Galatians whether they have received the Spirit. Rather, he asks them on what basis did they receive the Spirit. That they received it is a given, and Paul expects them to know why they received it (Gal. 3:2). Warning the Thessalonians of the evils of adultery, especially when it is done wronging “a brother,” Paul reminds them that Christians are not called to uncleanness, but to holiness. He justifies his admonition making the point that “whoever disregards this, disregards not man [Paul] but God, who gives the Holy Spirit to you” (1 Th. 4:8). That they have been receiving the Spirit is taken for granted. There is no such thing as a Christian who has not received the Spirit.
Because they have received the Spirit, Christians are expected to live by a higher moral compass. To the Romans Paul says “you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God really dwells in you” (Rom. 8:9). With the Spirit dwelling in the individual, the Spirit is the one leading, and “all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Rom. 8:14). Conversely, Paul says that “Any one who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him” (Rom. 8:9). He makes the same point from the other side: “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3). From these observations it is clear that those who have received the Spirit and dwell in the Spirit do not possess the Spirit. Rather they are possessed by the Spirit, and they are led by it; they belong to God and to Christ. To claim to have possession of the Spirit and to be able to order the Spirit to do this or that is not something Paul would have understood. Christians, as Paul repeatedly says, receive the Spirit and dwell in the Spirit only to be empowered and led by the Spirit. If that is not the case, they are not actually Christians.
Paul is very emphatic about the link that exists between what we earlier described as the second and the third manifestations of the power of the Spirit. He writes, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit which dwells in you” (Rom. 8:11). Here Paul makes an explicit connection between the resurrection of Christ and the life of the believer who experiences the power of the Risen Christ while still living in the flesh, in a mortal body. To be a Christian is to live participating in the death and the resurrection of Christ. Thinking about the role of the Spirit, Paul’s focus is on the power that brought about the resurrection of Christ and now empowers those who, on account of their identification with Christ, are sons of God.
In To the Romans and in To the Galatians Paul says that those who are led by the Spirit are not in bondage (Rom. 8:15); they are no longer “under the law” (Gal. 5:18). Christians, who have received the Spirit and dwell in it, belong to Christ. They live in the dispensation of the Spirit. They are led by the Spirit who is their Lord, and are, therefore, no longer under the Law. While life under the law is a form of bondage, life in Christ is in freedom. The Lord leads those who dwell in Him in freedom (2 Cor. 3:17). Life in the dispensation of the Spirit is characterized by freedom and peace (Rom. 8:6).
Paul does not make technical distinctions among the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ and the Holy Spirit. He use these terms interchangeably (Rom. 8:9; 14:17). What is accomplished in Christians through Christ for the benefit of humanity is done by God (2 Cor. 5:5; Gal . 4:7), who does everything by means of “one and the same Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:8 – 11; Rom. 8:11). For Paul, it is important to emphasize the singleness